September 14th, 2007: Time With Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter

Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter spent 9 days with us in September and we had a great visit. Kelly and Mom created a new curtain for our dining room door-wall and below are the before and after pictures of their project. It looks great!

Before

After

Grandma and Travis having a conversation.

Grandpa had a good time playing some back yard soccer.

September 6th, 2007: The boys

September 2nd, 2007: Snowy Range

We decided to head west into the Snowy Range on this Sunday afternoon following church.

Travis playing in his barn mat.

This is Medicine Bow Peak (a little over 12k ft) in the Snowy Range of the Medicine Bow Mountains. We had our first good batch of cold air heading south a few days after this, so I wanted to get a better feel for how these mountains looked west of Laramie.

At the summit, we stopped at this little observation area to enjoy the view.

Here is Barrett up on the observation tower.

Barrett and Nolan looking back to the north at the higher peaks north of the observation tower.

Just another shot looking up above tree-line.

Barrett and Nolan at the outlet of Brooklyn Lake.

Brooklyn Lake in the Medicine Bow National Forest.

August 31st, 2007: We have ice!

Taco Johns Events Center here in Cheyenne opened up at the end of August and we made it over there on Friday night for the first open skate of the year. We had a great time, and Kelly even got to try her new skates out!

Barrett thought the "flag ribbon" in the ice was pretty neat.

Just another shot of "B."

Playing tag with Nolan and one of his new friends.

Nolan enjoying skating in the Events Center for the first time!

August 29th, 2007: More 1st Day of School Pics

Barrett and Travis waiting for big brother Nolan to leave school on his first day.

Nolan leaving school after his first day.

Nolan and Mrs. Schaefer.

Travis hanging out on Nolan's bed with the bears.

UPDATED!!!! Should Work Now! Video From Travis' First Day

Finally figured out how to upload a larger video via youtube.com to show everyone (thanks to Cheryl for passing this on to us). Check out this 10 minute video from Travis' first day!

August 29th, 2007: Nolan's 1st Day of School

The big day has arrived and we all went along to drop Nolan off for his 1st day of Kindergarten this morning. He is really, really excited to get started and the Trailblazer program is going to be really great for him. Since I had to work last night and missed the open house, this was my first time in the school and it is very nice and appears to have been updated a lot on the inside.






The last picture above is of Nolan getting ready to go into his classroom. You can see part of the banner for his class hanging down, with the TB representing that this is the Kindergarten classroom for the Trailblazer program. Nolan likes the banner since it has mountains on it (above the letters).

Barrett is doing well so far, after asking Nolan's teacher at the open house yesterday if Nolan would ever get to come home. He apparently thought Nolan would be leaving for good, so we are very happy he now understands better what is going on.

August 24th, 2007: Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park

With the prospect that I might be needed to work for part of the weekend, we decided to go up to Estes Park on Friday. This was also our last time I was off of work on a weekday before Nolan starts school, so we took advantage of that.

We called some friends from the church up there and they decided to come with us on a picnic at Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. We cruised up the "hill" and visited awhile at their condo before heading into the park. After a nice picnic lunch, Kelly, Nolan, Barrett and I took the short hike around the lake.

After dropping Clint and Fran off at their condo and enjoying some ice cream, we headed down to Loveland to get our "fix" of On The Border food before heading back north to the house.

August 21st, 2007: Travis is 1 Month Old

With fantasy football draft season in full swing, and near record heat continuing in the Western Great Plains, we celebrated Travis being one month old today and I thought it time to finally post a few pictures after a few blog-less weeks being back to work and traveling to central Nebraska for a conference.

August 6th we went down to Ft Collins and Loveland for the evening and Travis made his first visit to B-dubs.

Tummy-time with the big brothers.

Bath time with lots of spectators.

Putt-putt with Dad at the Events Center (in the background--the bigger building...we hope!) where our ice will be at the end of August!

More tummy-time with bro Barrett.

Big brother Nolan is holding Travis a lot since he will miss him a lot when he starts Kindergarten this month.

And here is the close-up by Mom for Travis' 1 Month Birthday.

More to come. Hope all are enjoying the last few weeks of summer and getting ready for a great school year!

August 2nd and 3rd, 2007: Go Fly A Kite

We had a decent afternoon without thunderstorms around on the 2nd. I decided to get out one of the kites which Todd Gansel (our friend through HAM Radio and NWS Outreach in Billings) so graciously gave the boys at our going away party. This is one occasion when we were glad to have underground utilities and no old trees in the yard!


Here also is a picture of Travis and his build-a-bear, Thunder. Nolan and Barrett have build-a-bears' from Mackinac City, Michigan named Mack and Nack, respectively. Travis' bear was made in Loveland, Colorado and is named for the fact that the Thunderbirds were in town when he was born.


And finally, biggest brother Nolan helping to feed Travis on Friday.



I am back to work starting this afternoon, but it has been a great break helping out Kelly and getting to do some bonding with Travis.

July 28th, 2007: CFD Parade and Travis Bath

We took in the last Cheyenne Frontier Days parade for this year on Saturday. We managed to find a nice spot for the boys to sit on the curb near our church, and we really enjoyed the 1 hr and 15 minute parade. The weather was great. We have had an incredible experience with our first summer monsoon season here in Cheyenne. Our gauges in the back yard have had more than 4 inches of rainfall during the past week!

Here are Barrett and Nolan getting ready for the parade. They became very good at pulling off their hats and standing as the American Flag passed by probably 40 times during the parade!

I really like the lighting in this shot of Barrett watching the parade approach.

For our family and church friends in Billings, this is our new church here in downtown Cheyenne.


A shot of Travis in his favorite sleeping position. Whatever makes him happy, we think!

This was Travis' first bath at home. He didn't seem to mind too much.

July 30th, 2007: Skating and School Shopping In Colorado

On Monday, we took a quick trip down to Loveland, CO for some school shopping and ice skating. Travis is already an awesome little car-rider, so he was a delight to have with us.

I also saw on-line that Jos. A. Bank had a good sale going on, and seeing as how I no longer even owned a suit I thought I should go shop a little for myself too. I did find a deal, and bummer *sarcasm*, we'll have to go back down to Loveland to pick it up next week.

Kelly did get this shot of me carrying Travis on the ice Monday afternoon.

Our ice at Taco Johns Events Center here in Cheyenne is supposed to be down and open by the end of August, so that will be nice!