a weekend in Ouray and a special day!!

Lilja and I visited my Dutch friend Ingrid, who owns a B&B in Ouray and her little daughter Charlotte. Charlotte is 4 and a great little play mate for Lilja. She initiats play and Lilja really likes following her lead. We did a little hike up to this huge waterfall. These girls, in dresses and hiking boots.. that's my girl!!



Balancing her body!!




closer to the waterfall, right there behind her!!




Hugs from Charlotte!!



Such pretty girls!! and oh so smart!!

Today Holland got a new King and Queen. The old Queen was on the throne for 33 years. So this was a very special day in Holland. Apparently everyone, and then I mean everyone was in orange in Holland.. So ofcourse Lilja too!!

the recital is coming up.

Lilja will have her first recital for dance at the end of May. the teacher thought that the kids did so good that she added them in the recital. She has never had this young of kids starting the recital.. Oh my... she has no idea!!! So here is take number one. I will make a video every week, until the day so you can see the improvements.. we hope.. Lilja in this video is being told by Ms Annette that she can say " I love you Momma' at the end of the song..    

walking doggies

Eventhough I was not feeling good, we had to get out!! just some fresh air feels so good.

Lilja is starting to go fishing again. the bigger she gets, the bigger the stick.

The only thing is that some of the dogs think she wants them to get the stick ,  much to her dismay.

The river is flowing again and the rocks are ready to be thrown for Chief.

This year she has been walking all the way to the river and back. No more holding her or in the stroller. Wow, how time flies!!

and then she runs to the play structure as a treat for walking the dogs with me with Lucios in tow. Win/win for both of us.

last weekend

Wow, this weekend was a whirlwind and on top of it all I got sick ;( But the weekend went something like this. We arrived Friday afternoon to stay at my friends barb house in Louisville near Boulder. Sushi night was the best!! Lilja, mine and barb's favorite!! Then we met jasmin, Lilja's tummy mommy,  for a fun jumping time and some pizza for lunch, then... we met my friend Shawndell to meet little Spirit and then... we ended up at IKEA to buy Lilja's dresser and bed..needless to say I lost my voice and am still sick today .. But still fun!!!  

Arriving at Barbsand trying out her favorite blow-up bed , borrowed from JT.

Miso soup!!! look at that face.. expensive favorite food, girlie!!

Edemame beans.. Lilja will try and POP them out of the shell, with lots of giggles and some lost to our neighbors.. oops :)

Babr and Lilja having awesome icecream... Lilja was so excited and it was already pretty late.. but it was a special night

Lilja could not look up because it was sooo yummy!!

Next morning we met Jasmin (Lilja's tummy mommy) at Monkey Busness. Lilja was so excited to go as we had been there to meet James a month ago. This time she kept doing the circle slide over and over again.

Suddenly we were looking around and could not find Lilja.. yes, she got on top all by herself, daredevil!!

It was such a nice visit. Lilja could play, we could talk , we did some art and then had some lunch.. the biggest and baddest Pizza ever!! never seen a bigger one. Thanks Jasmin for "Goldie" she is a new lovey now.. and LOVE the socks!! Lilja has them in dress up and puts them on all the time. Jasmin, we love seeing you and are so grateful that you are in our lives.  

Ok, then a short visit to meet Shawndell's new baby.. a 5 month old colt named Spirti.. and spirited he was!! so cute!!

Lilja also got to ride Cash again. She just isn't afraid. this time Shawndell was giving her some tips.. She will be moving back to Durango soon, so Lilja will have her own personal trainer!! and shawndell will have a personal cleaner upper. :)e,

B

I love this photo. She petted him and then just walked away with this huge confidence. wow, she is just growing up so fast. 

The next morning Lilja was helping be deflate my blow-up bed.

So we also went to IKEA this weekend. We got her a reading light..and a new dresser, and another light and, and, and...... The new bed did not fit in my car, (I was very dissapointed to say the least). But a new platform bed with drawers on the bottom is being delivered soon.

The light in the corner is orange but it is hard to see in this picture. It also shows my moms blanket. She made it from all of Lilja's newborn shirts. Lilja calls it her special blanket. and every heart is a person.. so cute and so special!! Thanks mom!

This is her new dresser, it looks smaller than it is. This corner still needs some love.

and her other toys in this corner. She loves to put all her loveys in "the barn" the cube, and plays with her kitchen every day. she is starting to play dress-up and is wearing the Dora dress my sister gave to her almost every day, and... sparkily shoes!! We'll get this room in tip top shape. I love that she now is back in her big room. She actuall asked to sleep in her big room.. she cried one night and said; Momma, I want to sleep in the big room, because i am a big girl now.. and this little room is too dark" . I looked at Lilja and said.. you are right.. let's change it. and Lilja was oh so excited and still is. This was a good move.

cupcakes for daddy

Lilja and I are going to denver this weekend to see Jasmin. Aran unfortunately can't take off this weekend so it's just us two. Lilja thought daddy would be sad and wanted to make him some cupcakes. Was it for daddy or for Lilja herself?? hmmmm   and yes, she was jumping up and down after all that frosting!!!

circleman slide

Most of you know that lilja has always been pretty afraid of slides. She is such a dare devil, but slides... nope... but the tides have changed.

Lots of lambys

forgot these!!

Oh my goodness, forgot some of the most important photos!!

Aran climbing the Kemmelberg.. look at those cobble stones!!

It was freezing, we stood out there for two hours before Aran came along.. but he was so sweet to stop at the top of the hill . Lilja was so excited to see him! but oh so cold!!

the Easter bunny came all the way to Belgium. and Lilja did some great decorating.

Hope everyone's easter was as special as ours!!

Aran's birthday present

So this big trip started when Aran said last year he would love to ride the citizen ride for his 40th birthday.. well, if you know me just a little I took that idea and ran with it. Making it into a family event with grandparents from both sides, my sister and even his brother joining us. Here is Aran getting ready , look at that face!! it was so worth it!! Aran's dad even rode it with him, unfortunately his brother broke his collarbone a week before the trip, but he is an amazing photographer, so more picture will come. Sorry for the not so many photos vacation. I realize I do not even have photos of the whole family.. so so sad.. but Lilja still talks about the trip and plugs in dutch words all over the place. So cute!! so memories will always stay in our mind. CLICK! 

Pull Oma, pull

Feeding the goats again

Holland here we come!!

Lilja and I left for Holland on Tuesday.. Lilja was so excited and counted the days till this day came. She had her little bag packed with all her lovies and some fun toys and I had collected fun new toys for the trip. ,

Milly is so excited momma!!!

 We only had three days in Holland before we were going to belgium and have Aran meet us there, so our first day at my parents house we did Lilja's favortie thing in the whole world. Feeding the little baby goats.
This time lilja  was not as timid as last time and even teased the goats a little . But the goats got back at her and had a little snuggling match in the hay when Lilja fell down.. laughing luckily!!

But the sad part was that lilja got really sick the next day.. throwing up and lathargic. we ended up at a dutch doctor and she had a double ear infection and a fever.. it took two days for her to feel a little better, but we sayed in Holland till Monday, just incase. We did buy antibiotics, but luckily did not have to use them, as on Sunday she was her happy go lucky self again. Night times did not go so well and I resorted to sleep overs in my room. Easier than going back and forth in a three story house. plus a little snuggling with my little one was not so bad, just a little no sleep for the momma.  

best buddies

It is so fun to see Lilja  making such great relationships with my family.. eventhough they are so far away. One of the relationships that blossomed  was Lilja and my sister Brigitte. They truely became buddies and Lilja searched her out to play all the time.   



cheese



we had to get out!! so in the windy outside we went and found a play area for Lilja and....... Brigitte

yep, brigitte again :)

Lot of fun play with Lilja. Some that only Tante brigitte can do right.. or let's just say, Lilja can do only with her Tante brigitte.. one of them being the blowing in your face game ..

Brigitte! Breath hard, and then blow out!!

castles, and trenshes oh my...

Belgium, castles , WW1 and WW2 and dug-outs go hand in hand. I realize how bad i have been in picure making as most of them are from Lilja and the beautiful castle pictures are resorted to pictures of spook(ghosts) sorry

I realized a three year old and a museum of WW 1 was not a match when lilja held on to me looking into this impressive huge, dark museum of the WW1 and said.. Momma, why are there all dead people here.. Mind you Lilja seems to be an extra sentitive girl with sound (the dark eirie sounds in the background) the lighting(very dark and gloomy) but all the photos of the soldiers that died made a huge impression. so we cut that one short and went with the grandmas for coffee. so the photos you will now see are from the Castle Wynendalen.. i had read about it and it was supposed to be very kid friendly as there was a little hunt for a spook set up for the kids..well, it was very cute. Each room had a little spook and you had to follow his directions.. a matching game on a computer and the listening to different animal sounds was Lilja's favorite.  

This little blue spook was Lilja's flavorite  (Lilja's words) she had to find him outside on the grounds.



these dug outs were impressive, and Lilja liked walking through them . Can't believe soldiers made them, lived in them and there are still preserved so many years later.



 



Grandpa's going through the dug-outs and gofcourse we had to have mussles in Belgium and we found a wonderful place for all of us to eat in Brugge. This picture was taken by Lilja..





Yep another one  by Lilja.. sorry honey had to do it :)





our last couple of days in Belgium

Today we are on our own. Aran's parents left yesterday and my parents and Brigitte left this morning.. What to do with a whle day to our selves.. we ended up taking the train back to Brugge.. just a 5 minute ride and probably the most impressionable time for Lilja. She was so excited . Notice her clasped hands.. there are two little red rocks in there that she found ans she wanted to keep them safe..  

 

we ended up having some bitterballs ( can's even explain the yummynes of them ) belgium fries and bought lots of chocolates for the last time.. and Lilja got to go in a merry go round.. first time by herself! however the plane was supposed to go up and down as she watched it .. but the man did not do it for her.. imagine the tears ;(

 The day when Aran's parents left we went to Ghent for the day.. Funny story: the spring before Lilja came into our lives, Aran and I went to Ghent with my sister Brigitte and went to this beautiful church called Sint Nicholas  church (fitting) Aran and I lit a candle and made a wish for a little one to come into our lives.. Today we wanted to go back to that church, but unfortunately the church was closed, so we went to another church and lit a candle again with Lilja and said thank you for making us a family. ,