Eli brought his parents to Colorado last Friday, July 24th. He was a great traveler and patient while Wallace installed his car seat in the Santa Fe. We all went to lunch at Chili’s, then started our 3 hour drive back home. We hoped he would take a good nap in the car, but it was a short one. The long drive between cities and our home is not one of Eli’s favorite things. We drove straight into town and got to see Grandpa’s store and Uncle Teddy, before heading home. Eli has enjoyed the dogs, fortunately they are older now, and calmer, unless Jay pulls into the driveway, when they go ballistic to get him to play ball with them. Eli got to play ball with dogs the first night and likes trying to throw the ball for them. He has gradually worked his way up to petting them, likes to look for them and know where they are all the time, and doesn’t enjoy getting dog kisses, but doesn’t get upset about it either. Day one was a long day and Eli had a hard time settling down to sleep that night.

Saturday, after a leisurely breakfast, we took a ride into Florence to go to an estate auction. However, the directions were skimpy and there were no signs, so we didn’t find the auction, but ended up in Canon City at their history museum. It was really very nice with a lot of mounted animal heads, a bear rug, a family of 4 full size stuffed mountain buffalo (mom, dad, baby and youth), an antique gun collection and a wonderful antique music box / phonograph / jukebox collection among many other things. It was a docent led tour, just for the 5 of us. It was funny, because there was something in each collection that we could point to and say, “We have/had one of those”, in one of our homes or the store: jukeboxes, Victrola, buffalo and caribou mounts, bear rug, antique gun, but we didn’t want to burst the docent’s bubble or her presentation.  Speaking of Buffalo Bill and Caribou Carl, Eli didn’t notice them on the wall in the living room until this morning. But he can be excused, his line of vision is not that high usually. After lunch, we headed home so everyone could take an afternoon nap before dinner.

Sunday, Wallace and Jay organized all of their fly fishing equipment and took a trip to a nearby creek for a trial run before they headed north for their big fishing retreat. Jen, Eli and I took a trip to town to buy vegetables at the grocery. We found the park with the baby swings and climbing equipment on our way home. Eli had his first experience with beets on Sunday. He liked them, but then he likes most food, especially vegetables. I took some pictures of Eli, hoping to use them in an art quilt project (more about that later), and I will continue to take more so I have a good selection to choose from.

Today was D day for the fishing retreat on the Poudre River. Jay and Wallace left before 7 am to pick up our friend, Steve, our friend Charlie, the fourth fisherman was meeting them there. Jen, Eli and I stayed home all day. We played, ate, napped, worked on a project, ate, played and went in the hot tub. I am getting the feel of Eli’s schedule, so I can be a good babysitter when his parents go to do adult fun things like hike to a gold mine or raft down the river. Eli had a lot of  red foods today, cherries, grapes, watermelon, spaghetti with meat sauce, more beets. He enjoyed dinner in his skivvies, in an effort to protect his clothing! He played peek a boo with Grandma while I was in the kitchen fixing our dinner. Eli enjoyed his first time in the hot tub a lot and learned to blow bubbles in the water for the first time!

Eli is so smart for fifteen months old, we hope to be able to post a video of him naming all of his body parts, making animal noises, and using his baby sign language. It is amazing how well he can communicate with sign language when he doesn’t have the verbal vocabulary, but definitely has the knowledge of what he wants to say.

Tuesday and Wednesday will be visits to town for quilting and bowling. I am looking forward to showing him off to my friends. Daddy and Grandpa get home late on Wednesday and then new adventures will unfold.