Olivia is One!

Last weekend we celebrated my niece Olivia's 1st birthday. Her favorite part was climbing into the bag to pull the presents out.
She knew she was supposed to lean toward the candle to do something, but didn't quite get the "blowing it out" thing, so Lynn had to help her do that.

Olivia then decided that she wanted to share Scott's cake and ice cream. So she stood right next to him and made him feed her. It was very cute.

Colorado Springs & Pike's Peak

This past weekend I was in Colorado Springs for USA Volleyball annual meetings. I spent most of the time in meetings or eating lunch at local restaurants. On Sunday afternoon after the meetings were over we took the Cog Railroad up to Pike's Peak. Here's our train:

I took a bunch of pictures out the window of the train, so there is a little reflection. Since I was sitting backward on the way up, it was hard to know exactly when to take the pictures!

This is a Ponderosa Pine (the scraggly one that looks half dead). Scientists have determined that this tree is approximately 2400 years old, so it was around when the Romans were conquering the world. That is pretty cool.
Here we are on the back side of Pike's Peak. You can only get to this area of the mountain on the train or in a helicopter, as there aren't any roads or trails here.
Unfortunately, winds at the top of Pike's Peak were over 70 mph, so they were not able to take the train all the way up to the top. We stopped at Windy Point, which is at 12, 129 feet. We were not able to get out here because of the high winds, but could walk around and take pictures. Apparently at one time, 2 families lived in this little cabin right here.
The train stopped at Four Mile on the way back down the mountain and let us all off to wander around. I saw some sap coming out of this tree, and tried to get a picture of the sun glistening through it. I of course took a couple self portraits.In this one the camera fell off the branch at the very last second, so all I got was sky with a few aspen branches...

A nice couple walking by offered to take the picture for me instead, so I did get the real picture.

Sunday Afternoon Walk

Last weekend, Scott, Jacob Vos, and I went for a walk along the bike path in Osky. We stopped by a big rock to take some cute "couple" pictures. We look like we just climbed a huge mountain, but really it was only about 8 feet high...Another attempt to create an optical illusion--i'm not really standing on Scott's shoulders!
The bike path...
I will squeeze you like a little bug!!When we got back to Scott's house, we got really romantic, and he decided to carry me over the doorstep into the house...oh wait, i'm carrying him! That's not right!

Wedding Hair Experiments

Last night I decided to do a little experimenting on hairstyles for the wedding. I am wearing this veil that I borrowed from Sarah Williams. She also gave me a tiara I can wear, but I don't know if I really feel like a tiara sort of girl...i am thinking about maybe putting some sort of sparkle or shimmer in my hair. I NEED SOME OPINIONS! Please let me know what you think! This first one I pinned back some random chunks, and left a piece going across my forehead.
this next one i just left my hair normal, but pulled it across. It looks a little weird with so much hair on the one side...
...so then i pinned that piece back. It looks ok, but just isn't very exciting.

I would like to be able to take the veil off after the wedding and have my hair look decent for the reception. I suppose I can always take out the bobby pins and brush it and it might look ok. I will be doing more experimenting over the next couple months, I guess.