Some pictures of our travels!

As you all know, our family has made a BIG move lately. We no longer reside in New Jersey, and are happily settling down in Montrose, CO. Here are a few pictures of our family from July 11 to today, August 12th.

We tearfully said goodbye to our beautiful house, many great friends, and our wonderful neighborhood. We will miss New Jersey, it was good to us.

Oh, and by the way, Levi loved the moving truck. It was BIG!

Believe it or not, the flight from NJ to CO with all four kiddos (by myself) was the easiest flight I've had with kids in-tote. They were so good. Levi passed out in the front pack on my lap for half the flight and the girls kept busy with the goodies each of them had in their backpacks. The stewardesses all commented on how well behaved they were. I was very proud of them.

One of the best things about moving back to CO, is that we are closer to family.

The girls had a blast playing with and having a slumber party with their cousins.

Gross Aaron!

Josalyn took very good care of Levi while we stayed for a week and a half at Grandpa and Grandma Tippets' house.

Levi turned one!!!

Grandpa Cox took us to Water World...

the Denver Zoo (with Aunt Jackie, and her boyfriend, Phillip)...

...and Casa Bonita with Uncle Benny, (Aunt?) Sarah, Grandma Vanessa, Aunt Jackie, and Phillip. We celebrated Levi's first birthday there. He loved having the Mexican band play for him.

Grandma Tippets took us to the Denver Museum of Natural History.

Levi met Great Grandpa and Grandma Cox for the first time over at Grandpa Cox's.



Levi also met Great Grandma and Grandpa Rayback on our visit.


We are loving it here, and are so happy we are closer to family. Still, we miss our NJ friends and would love to hear from you too!

Celebrating the 4th of July

We hope each of you had a wonderful 4th.

Bummer for us, Derren wasn't able to celebrate with us. He was in Colorado looking for for our new house. The good news is he found one, and we should be able to fit in it!!! We're all very grateful this should be the last of Dad's solo trips for a long while.

The kids and I celebrated by going to the Riverside, NJ parade in the morning, and watching the fireworks in Cherry Hill with Aunt Mechelle in the evening.

The parade was fun.

Alyssa's favorite part of the parade was the Mummers.

Josalyn liked the candy that was thrown.

I think Katey's favorite part was the attention she got because of the Wonder Woman cape she was wearing.

Levi loved the drums, trucks, and dogs.

I loved the nap I got to take afterwards.

The fireworks were funny this year, they lasted a total of (about) 15 minutes. Since it was drizzling outside the technicians decided to light them all off at once. I have to admit, those 15 minutes were quite spectacular!

Levi had his first sucker as he watched. First he tasted... and then realized he liked the taste a lot!

On our way to our car, a lady was rushing to beat all of the pedestrians out of the parking lot. In her rush she nearly ran over our stroller with Josalyn and Levi in it. Luckily, I was able to get to the front of the stroller fast enough to slap her back window and get her to stop. The girls were pretty spooked by the event. Josalyn said, "I would have been frustrated if that lady had killed me Mom." It really was scary, but I couldn't help smiling at Jossie's response.

We love you all!!!

I am so proud of myself, I've posted three times this month!

We are trying to do as much as we can in the time we have left here in Jersey. Here are a few of the things we've done this month.

We went to Sesame Place.

We went to the Ocean City beach or, as a true northeasterner would say, the shore. Levi loved it there, NOT!

After a couple days of rest, Katey and Alyssa treated our family to a day at the Six Flags theme park (they earned tickets through a reading program). The kids loved the park, but I think Derren was the one who was most excited. He rode the Kubla Kan roller coaster which goes up 485ft. and speeds from 0-128 mph in a matter of seconds. Alyssa said, "Boy, I'm sure lucky I'm too small to ride on that one." I feel the same way.

I turned 31.

After twenty-some years, Derren finally finished school!!!!

As you can see, he's feeling pretty proud of himself.

Levi tried his first sloppy joe, and loved it.

I finally got to see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty!

Perhaps no one else will think this picture is great, but Derren and I thought it was fun to see an Indian family with baseball caps on in front of Lady Liberty.

We'll be in Colorado soon, and can't wait!!!!!!