Our Spring trip to Wyoming 2011

We had a very nice week. Alex has calmed down when we go on vacation. No more asking 100 times "where are we going. Are we going home? "

We visited all our normal stops. We saw many more buffalo, elk and moose. The streams are running fast and furious. Lots of snow still on the mountains.

We had one day in Yellowstone. The snow there is totally unreal. We had a super trip and a great ride home. Things are getting much easier where travel is concerned with Alex.

Happy New Year 2011

Since our last post, many things have happened. We lost Papaw Clyde in September and it was a crazy fall. I was surprised at how difficult the whole process of losing your Dad can be. We spent some time in Indiana and Mom has spent some time with us in Colorado. We enjoyed her with the whole Gratrix family for Thanksgiving. We also had a special 8oth birthday party for Papa.

We had wonderful holidays here and in Indiana. It is always action packed with Adam's birthday as well as Christmas on the 25th!
We came back from Indiana on the 31st,needless to say we didn't have big New Years Eve plans! We were all in bed by 8:30pm....after leaving Indiana at 6:00am........

We then celebrated Alex's birthday on the 3rd! He understood the whole thing this year. Last year he cried because he had to share his birthday cake. This year he could even sing the song!!!

We had a fun night.

Then on the 7th we celebrated my birthday! We celebrated at The Cheesecake Factory and finished the evening with Red velvet Cheesecake....One piece was enough for all of us!!

We are ready for a wonderful 2011! Ready for all that it has to offer. Adam is already 5-4" and Alex is 41" tall. He was only 35" when he came home. He is catching up and wants to be bigger like his big brother and Daddy!!!!!

Wow!It has been awhile!

We Celebrate Homecoming Day!

We have had Alex home for a year! What a year it has been. To see the growth in this guy has been amazing! He is growing physically as well as emotionally. We are so blessed. He is really a little character.

We can go places and return home without it causing major trauma. We are making progress. Alex loves to swim. Adam and Alex have enjoyed many days in the pool swimming. We started Alex in a support vest at the beginning of summer and have removed all the floating pads....so he is swimming all over the pool by himself. He will swim for hours given the opportunity.

It is fun to see Adam and Alex together. Do we have brother moments? We sure do! those moments when they pester and get on each others nerves.....but we also have the most loving moments you can imagine. That is what it is all about! A year of challenges but most of all of blessings!!!!BIG BLESSINGS!

See our you tube video:Russian adoption Alex's First year

July the 4th!!

We had a fun fourth of July. We started the weekend by going to the Rockies game. It was a beautiful night and the game was quick and the Rockies won! We also got to watch fireworks. We then went to lake on Sunday,Adam and Alex loved going out on the boat. Adam loved tubing and Alex and I liked it until we went into the water and it was freezing!!! There were lots of boats on the water, so tubing was a bit crazy. We sat on the boat in a beautiful part of the lake and enjoyed the day. We left around two thinking Adam had too much sun and it ended up that he was getting a virus. He ended up sick the entire next week and ran a really high fever. Luckily the rest of us did not catch it.

Summertime!

We have had a busy and fun summer. The boys have spent lots of time together and they have enjoyed their time together. it is hard to believe that Alex has been here almost a year! He is speaking really well and even his "S" are coming. He asked me very clearly,"Are you and Daddy sharing that ice cream?" Lots of progress in all departments. He is getting the idea that we go places and come home.