broken toe = stinky feet

we thought aubren just sprained her toe on vacation, but when we went to our pediatrician yesterday he sent us for a follow up x-ray. the results showed a small linear fracture in her big toe. thankfully, all we have to do is keep her in tennis shoes except for when she is sleeping for the next two weeks. the only problem: her feet sweat so much they stink really bad. even though they stink, she sure looks cute running around naked with her tennis shoes on.

aubren's first family vacation: durango!

aubren's colorado song:

"we're going to colorado this week, we're going to colorado this week
we're gonna ride a pony, or maybe a donkey
we're going to colorado this week!"

day one: roadtrip
our morning began at 3am, and the drive took 18 hours. aubren did incredible - she didn't complain once. it did help that she was sitting between two of her favorite girls, cousins kate and liese. my brother-in-law works for hertz, so he brought each of the girls a nickelodeon video player. since we don't have cable, aubren got her fill of never-before-seen episodes of dora, spongebob, blue clues, etc.


we stopped for brunch at the midpoint cafe in adrian, texas. the cafe is on historic route 66, and is where disney/pixar got the idea for flo's cafe in the movie Cars. the owner, fran, was characterized in the movie as "flo", and our waitress, christina, as "tia". in addition, the hamburgers and pies were great - if you are ever outside of amarillo you should definitely stop in!

we finally arrived at our cabin after 8pm, mountain time. it was beautifully set by itself on top of a mountain, with great views.




day two: durango mountain resort
on our first day in town we went to durango mountain resort and rode the alpine slide, which was fantastic until a badger decided to get in our way. aubren was too little for the slide (well, actually the lift to the top of the slide), but she did get to ride a horse named sandy. we had prepared her by telling her she would either be riding a pony or a donkey; when i exclaimed, "oh, aubren you get to ride a big horse," she suddenly got very apprehensive. once trey encouraged her to sit on it, though, she loved it!!



day three: relaxing
we decided to stay at the cabin on monday and just relax. there was no t.v. or internet access, so we spent the day outside playing on the wrap-around porch. aubren and her cousins had fun playing with play-doh, blocks, bubbles, and the multitude of rocks outside. it was so fun to watch aubren be creative and play along side the girls.





day four: fly fishing/spa/durango urgent care
it has been a dream of my brother-in-law's, robbie, to go fly fishing; so, the guys spent the day together at a remote stream in the mountains. my sister, amy, and i went to a spa and got pampered.




although the day was relaxing, it was also a little stressful. the day started out with aubren jumping and falling on her foot, after which she complained about her big toe hurting. usually she gets distracted easily, but she whined for a few hours and would not even let me touch her leg. when it started swelling and bruising, i called our pediatrician; the nurse recommended that we take her in for an x-ray. i just assumed that there was nothing that could be done, but it turns out that if a child breaks their big toe it can affect their balance and development. so, off we went to durango urgent care. aubren again did incredible - i was the one wincing when the doctor squeezed her toe. he said that she probably just sprained it and we needed to keep her off her feet - yeah, right!




day five: ouray, colorado
we drove 2 1/2 hours to ouray (the switzerland of america) to rent jeeps. unfortunately, when we arrived, the reservation had been mixed up and there were no jeeps available. we decided to go shopping and take a horse-drawn wagon tour through the town, where we learned some interesting stories, including one about the pastry chef who shot a waitress after an argument in a historic hotel. they locked him up in a wooden cell, and when the "vigilante justice" mob couldn't open the lock to hang him, they burned the cell down!

day six: relaxing (reprise)
my parents and sister's family went white water rafting, but we decided to stay at the cabin for our last day. we enjoyed the quiet and took a nap. we should have gone hiking, but i was too paranoid of bears and mountain lions!



day seven: albuquerque/sandia peak
we decided to break up the trip home a little, so we stopped in albuquerque and took the tram up to sandia peak - all 10,378 feet. the scenery was breathtaking, and aubren had fun riding in her backpack carrier. we ended the day with a swim at the hotel, and enjoyed sleeping in a king size bed with aubren. it was sweet because she cuddled up with trey all night; i finally switched sides with him about 4am, but when i came back from using the restroom, she had rolled all the way over to the other side and was again cuddling with her daddy!


day eight: home
it is always sad to drive home from a wonderful vacation, but what makes it worse is when you get in the car at 63 degrees and get out at 102!

the week was a great time of refreshment and relaxation for our family, and it was a fun first vacation experience for aubren. i look forward to making many more memories like this one!

doctor's kit

t: "i'm sick."
a: "okay, i'm doctor aubren."

the doctor's kit has done wonders for aubren's hospital and pediatrician visits. she loves to play doctor and patient: she comes to us with a sad voice and says, "aubren's sick," then lies down on her green pillow and lets us check her out. when it is our turn to be the patient, she checks our heartbeat (she thumps the stethoscope to sound like a beating heart), blood pressure, temperature (she says beep beep when she thinks it's done), and our nose, ears, and throat. when inspecting each, she usually comments, "oh, there's a elephant in there," then makes the animal sound - each opening has a different animal.

summertime treats

the ice cream man drove by today... i didn't know there were musical trucks FULL of my favorite treats! it was super cool. mommy and daddy bought me a spiderman pop-a-sicle. it was yummy, but pretty sticky. when i finished, mommy had to hose me down in the shower.

mockingbird station

aubren and i joined our playgroup this morning and took the train to mockingbird station for lunch and ice cream. aubren loved it and thought every stop was mockingbird. the train would roll up to a station and aubren would clap and say, "yeah, train did it!"

lunch at cafe express was fun - aubren had a "han-gober", fries, and "memo-nade". she took a pretty nasty spill running to cold stone creamery, but she was on a mission for pink ice cream, so she shook it off and kept going!

(aubren is saying "choo choo" in the photo to the right)

waiting for the train

she wishes it was a whistle

aubren came down with yet another virus this week, so off to the doctor we went. our main concern was that she had begun wheezing; after dr. k listened to her chest, he explained that she may be developing asthma. apparently, it doesn't help matters that both mommy and jj also had asthma as little girls.

dr. k gave her an inhaler, which she has to use twice a day for the next 3 weeks. she gets really excited when it is time to take her medicine, and loves to breathe through the spacer. things have come a long way since i had asthma - i had to puff my inhaler into a paper lunch sack! fingers crossed that she doesn't have asthma, but i guess we'll find out soon.

aubren has been taking climbing lessons from her friend, avery.

yesterday aubren developed a nasty cough

T: "Aubren, you feel warm. Come here, let daddy take your temperature."
A: "No, daddy, Aubren not have fever."

the mystery of baby alexa

in an earlier post, we introduced you to aubren's baby dolls. one, in particular, is named alexa; she was originally just "baby", but one day aubren corrected me, saying "no mommy, this is alexa." trey and i had no idea where aubren got the name, since we don't know anyone named alexa, until yesterday. i took aubren to the nursery at the gym; when we arrived, aubren introduced baby alexa to her teachers - who informed me that there was, in fact, a baby girl (around 9 months) named alexa that also came to the nursery. apparently, aubren likes to play with her.

so the mystery has been solved - we now know where aubren discovered her baby doll's name!

reading with mark

this weekend mom and dad took me to a birthday party at the scottish rite playground, and this guy let me read with him. daddy said he's a famous author or something.