Fiery Excitement

The summer...heat, drought, wind, dust, pools, and air conditioning...is upon us.

Just outside of Ft. Collins, a devastating fire began this weekend. We saw its beginnings with the small plume of smoke rising above the mountains. What started with a lightning strike has now burned over 46,000 acres. The eastern most portion of the burn area is only five miles from our home. While we are so grateful to not be one of the evacuated homes (or have had lost our home), we have been covered in smoke and ash for the last several days. Jude and I have had some pretty nasty allergies from the whole thing...Ross remains untouched as usual. Here are a few images that I took on Sunday of the smoky skies.

Driving home

The intersection nearest our house

The sun setting

again driving home

Our baby and our home continue to grow! Tomorrow I will be 30 weeks. Someone asked me today if I feel like I've been pregnant for 30 weeks. I was taken aback a bit by the question only because I haven't stopped to think of it that way. It really doesn't. When I think about the fact that it was just before Christmas that we found out we were having another baby, then it seems like it's definitely been 30 weeks. Christmas was like years ago! Ha! But in the grand scheme of things, I feel like this pregnancy is just flying by! I'm excited to meet this little boy, but I'm also not ready just yet. (Which is a good thing, because I don't think he is either). There are so many things to get done and to get ready for his arrival and I would prefer to have as much time as possible to get those things done. Also, I know now that babies are much easier to take care of when they are inside the womb than on the outside. I wish I could've given myself that inherent knowledge when I was pregnant with Jude. This baby will come when he is ready and I sure hope that I am too when that time comes.

The builders began framing our house yesterday morning. When we stopped by in the evening, we had a first floor! I drove by this afternoon just after lunch and we had most of a second floor! Wow they work fast! Here are some photos ... we've doubled up and done house and belly shots together. So here we are at framing day 1 and pregnancy 29 weeks, 5 days.

Last bit of stuff for today is of course Jude and his antics. Jude LOVES trains, particularly anything Thomas. On Sunday night he was given a train set (one of those with wooden train track pieces that fit together and train cars with magnets). We made the mistake of letting him play with it for just a short while before bed. Bedtime was a night mare! Even worse was the fact that between 8 pm and 11:30 pm, he was up 3 times in hysterics asking for Thomas, Rhineas and Stepney (friends of Thomas). He woke up at 6:30 the following morning and the first words out of his mouth were "I did it!" I think he was referring to the fact that he made it to the morning! Haha! The initial excitement has dwindled but only slightly. These trains go with us everywhere and they are all he wants to play with. 

And finally one of him just being adorable!