Happy 2 Years, Nora!

Our little girl is already two years old. It's so hard to believe. It really does feel like we brought her home just yesterday. Such a cliche thing to say, but so true.

Parenthood really is such a bittersweet thing. Mostly sweet, but I'm always wanting my kids to stop growing up so fast... sort of, not really... there's that bittersweet thing I was talking about. :)

Canon Rebel XSi

Those of you that pay attention to my twitter or facebook will know that I haven't shut up about the DSLR that I ordered roughly a week ago for the last week. I have always wanted to try my hand at digital photography with a piece of equipment that has enough flexibility to capture the vision in my mind. If you know me you'll know that I'm a little bit artist and a lotta bit geek. Photography allows me to enjoy the artistic composition and visualization of a shot while satisfying my geek side with a shiny piece of electronics that has a ton of tweakable settings.

Kristy also really enjoys photography so the Canon Rebel XSi (a very popular DSLR amongst amatures) is our birthday present to each other.

The box came in right before I got home from work today so I quickly set it up before we went to mom and dad's for supper. There is so much subject matter there, I could shoot for hours. For one, the sun was coming in strongly as it set, which always offers the opportunity for "moody" shots like the one at the top of this post. Their house itself is interesting and it just seemed like every time I turned around there were things to shoot.

I recently set up a gallery site to make it easier for us to share photos. I have posted some of my better shots at a gallery I installed on one of my web servers. You can quickly page through thumbnails or medium images. If you click on a medium size image you will get the full version. I resize them down a little for the web but there is still plenty of detail.

Camping and Visit to Children's

Camping Fun!

Over the 4th of July weekend we made plans to go camping with some good friends up in the Snowy's. We had a great time and wished it wasn't such a short trip... well, mostly.

Some of us slept... others didn't sleep so much.

Some of us went on a bear hunt and then ran away from the bears.

Some of us played in the sun... and got left in the rain for a few seconds, but no longer, I swear.
Others hung out in the back of the van... The only spot some of us won't eat rocks and pine needles.

All of us hung around the campfire and ate hot dogs, sweet corn, peas, watermelon, roasted marshmallows, s'mores and sang/listened to campfire songs...

some while sitting in new campchairs 'cause their dad sat in their pink Dora chair and broke it. No names.

The Johnson family clan.

The Mountain Man himself. A great camp fire cook!

Mountain Mama and Miss Braids exchanging flowers and sweet looks.

The Trip to Children's in Denver (Aurora)

This was our waiting room. At first I thought it was just ours until more people walked in. I wondered why they had separate waiting rooms and figured they must use the rooms sometimes for other purposes than waiting.

Nora having her milk... she was just waking up from her nap since she woke up at 5am. I'm so glad she took a nap. She was in a good mood the rest of the day.

Coen in the waiting room. Big, big eyes!

We waited more in the hallway after our initial meeting with 4 or 5 doctors...maybe six?
Coen fell asleep nursing so I put him in the Caddie. It's the name we gave our giant, wonderful stroller.
After all the doctors saw Nora and talked with us we got sent over to the main building for some blood tests and urine sample. Poor girl had, like, 7 vials of blood taken, granted they weren't all filled up, but I sure thought it was a great deal of blood taken from someone so small. Before that we tried to get a urine sample from her by taking off her diaper while she stood up which usually works when we are about to give her a bath. Of course it didn't work this time so poor Nora had to be bagged. The bag stuck out of her diaper so we could see when she went. So, we went to eat while we waited for her to go. In the main lobby it is all wide open (let me just tell you right now that this place is absolutely amazing. The tile, the walls, the art work on the walls, everything amazing). Anyway, this is looking up in the main lobby.
This is on our way over to the main building which is behind Hubby here.
After the whole ordeal we walked around for a few minutes longer. Here was a really cool ball coaster that just keeps going and going. It was pretty cool.
On our way out these bunnies caught my eye (cute). I just loved all the artwork they had everywhere.

Strapped in and ready to go home. You can see Nora's mosquito bites all over her face from camping. I felt kinda dumb explaining that one to the doctors. Perfect timing, right?

So, long story short is that Nora needs to have a bunch of medical tests done now because they couldn't diagnose her with anything yet. So, we begin the journey of figuring Nora out. It may take us/them a while, but it was nice to get the journey started. Now I will try to get some video posted.

Nora is Cool!

Nora is still really good at being cool. Just a little update. In case you didn't know.

Nora Stands!! And Other News

'So what has been happening with the Johnson clan?', you ask. I now present you with the merry month of May:

Nora can multi-task: not only can she stand, but she can look cool while doing it. We're all pretty proud of her. Wahoo, go Miss Badora!

We started off May with a family reunion and had pictures taken... by the end we were all ready to be done (with the pictures not the reunion). I didn't get the whole family on my camera, but I got this one of all the great-grandkids with the great-grandparents. And I think that's Papa claping in the corner.

Papa with Hadders and Coco Puff.
My Mother's day gift I made for Momer-na: A garden apron.


And then it was Hadders' birthday bash on the 16th!!Lots of cool presents....
Yummy cake....(yes that is cake in her ear)
and a nice nap with Papa.

During this party someone else was having a birthday:
Welcome Baby "D"!!!How precious...I'm kinda bumbed that this is the only picture we have.

Then I balanced an egg.

Then Miss Badora ate a snack and watched Mommy plant some Irises and Violets in the new planter that Daddy built.
All the while Coco-Puff just slept away. Those were some beautiful days!
We enjoyed one of those beautiful evenings with a trip to the new-ish park with lots of fun rides, including this spinning plunger thingy. I think J^2 and I had just as much fun as Miss Badora.

And we finished with a stroll around the "lake".

It got a little bit cooler and Coco Puff watched Daddy move some dirt around.Hello cute little froggy. Isn't it cold out here?

Coco Puff got a bath... which happens about once a month these days. Poor guy.

That pretty much sums it up for the month. There are a few things missing, like some weddings and anniversaries and work day at Chugwater and...okay May was a busy month. I just couldn't get it all in here.

And Now...

Yes! You can see it with your own eyes, now. Miss Badora is a stander. Yay! Horay! And, I know, to some of you this is old news, but if you haven't seen it you can see it now.