Caleb is 13 and a half months old and what an adventure it is to be with him all the time, let alone all the adventures that his crazy parents drag him along on. At his year old appointment he weighed in at a whopping 20 lbs 4 oz, so we have ourselves a skinny, active boy. He is really walking around well now, and can get up anywhere and take off for the nearest wheels of his choice. We have been camping or away from home 20 of the last 30 days, so our lives have been busy, and Caleb has been a real trooper with all this disruption of the norm. More on where we have been with the photos below, although I am finding it difficult to take many pictures when we are on the go since Caleb has arrived, I guess I need two hands for each one of them.
Caleb walking in the "lake surf" for his first time with Doug at Jackson Lake the last full weekend of June. We went alone on this trip, so we weren't able to wakeboard, and Caleb wasn't that pleased with wearing a lifejacket so we spent more time on shore. Amber, DJ, Ray, Loren and Quint came out for a couple hours on Saturday and we had a pretty good time.
The following weekend up on Laramie River in the mountains, Caleb and Doug are off to slay the big ones. We joined Amber, DJ and couple other friends for our only non-boating camping trip of the year so far. We had fun, saw several moose and way too many bugs!!!
The first walking episode caught on camera, it looks like Caleb is a little surprised too! This was 4th of July morning and we were trying to get him to walk with a sign that said "Happy 4th of July", but the sign was a no go.
My parents going for a tube ride at the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, on what might be the most perfect water you can find anywhere, I think they are having fun. This was our big trip of the year, we have been planning for almost a year, spent 9 days and had 14 people there. My whole family made the trip east...way east as it turns out when you have a camper and a boat. Unfortunately, I did not get the camera out until this day, which was after everyone else had left. We had glassy water almost all the time that was so clear and the perfect temperature for cooling off the whole week. We had some good parties, great horseshoe throwing and overall a really good time.
Caleb and I in the boat while my parents were tubing, the lifejacket is not all bad when the boat is going fast! My sister is up in the bow. There isn't much shade in Wyoming hence the red tint of everyone's skin
After my parents Caleb and Doug took a turn at the non-moving pace, he thought it was fun to stomp and splash in the water at his feet.
The beginning of the gorge part of the Flaming Gorge, unfortunately it wasn't all that sunny at the time of these photos so the color doesn't really come out, but sections of the rock are very red and very steep. A couple days before we tried to venture down to the dam of this 91 mile long reservoir but after a couple hours and probably 25-30 miles realized we were still 10 miles from the end and didn't have the gas or time to make it there and back.
Another shot of the canyon walls, on our mini tour around horseshoe canyon. In places we had the boat only a couple feet from the wall and the water was still 200 feet deep, with a couple hundred feet towering above us. It appeared as though all the illusive lunkers (big fish) were in the canyon area where we didn't fish.
A view of the gorge to the West from the visitor's center, we did make it past this point on our tour in the boat.
The Gorge to the East from the Visitor's Center.
This is Old Bent's Fort near La Junta, CO. 3 days after returning from the Flaming Gorge, the three of us went to La Junta for Doug's work. He finished a little early one day so we went out to the Historic Site. The Fort is on the Arkansas River, which was the US/Mexico border in this fort's time. The building is pretty much a reconstruction with a few archives from the original, but was filled with period furniture, goods etc.
The inside of the fort from the second level, near the doctor's quarters
Pretty much straight from La Junta to Vail for Doug's Men's soccer tournament. We made a short overnight stop before heading to the mountains to leave Caleb with Grandpa Jim and Diane for the weekend. Sorry no soccer pictures, but this creek was very interesting, there had been a couple major mudslides the week before from so much rain, and this creek was pure red, like usual the picture doesn't do it justice, but we followed this creek for many miles and every inch of it was this color. As for the tournament Doug's team were the defending champions, but the lost in the semi-finals this year.
