Cars 2

When Alyssa told me she wanted to take Luke to the movies, I was highly skeptical. Luke? In a movie theater? That did not sound like a good mix to me. I figured he would want to get up, or down, as it may be, after 5 minutes, and did not see this ending well {or past the opening credits} but I was wrong.
He was so good the lady behind them commented that she didn't even realize he had been sitting in front of her, and said how well behaved he was, go Luke! As you can tell, he seems to be enjoying himself and the movie in 3D, quite different from the crummy paper things they used to hand us! And yes, he is still wearing his pool band from the 4th of July, he doesn't want to take it off... it's all about picking your battles right?

Thanksgiving Program

Friday was Luke's very first program! The Thanksgiving day program at his school. He had so much fun, until he saw us... thank goodness that was at the end. He was so darn cute, and made his mama and dada very proud. We love you so much Luke!

Here is Luke with his classmate Olivia.

Singing and very happy is his teacher Miss Tina's lap.

the turkey's got to sing and dance!

And the big finale! This is when we stood up to take pictures, and someone saw us... can you spot him with Miss Tina? They had me come up to the front and hold him for the rest of the show, which is why the pictures stopped here. Dad was running the video camera the whole time. Will have to post that soon! Happy almost Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for!

Aspen, Colorado, DAY FOUR

And yes, we might have been tired, some of us might have been cranky, ahem, boys... but we made it home, safe and sound! And as for the Matthews first family vacation? Well, I can't wait to do it again! We had the best time ever! Thanks queenie and boompa for letting us tag along with you guys! Here is a re-cap of our last day and some good times in Aspen. Here are Troy and Luke, getting off the plane and heading in for the last {and definitely longest} leg of the trip. Hello Denver!

Sorry we had to wake you two up. And Luke, I'm really talking to you bud.

Our plane left at 1:30, and we literally took up until the last minute soaking it all in! Here we are at Wagner Park. We had a great time, and met a lot of nice people and dogs. Aspen is very dog friendly, which we enjoyed, and they have a sense of humor. Troy couldn't help but laugh at a sign posted in the local Boggie's diner stating, "Please don't feed the Blondes" They were, what Troy deemed, the only problem in Aspen... We ran into {literally} quite a few that, um they were, um... not very nice? They couldn't ruin our good time, and I'm pretty sure Luke still enjoyed looking at them. Here he is doing what he loves to do, climb. He also learned a few new words in Aspen: Cold. Brrr. Cheese. He had been saying Boompa, but Boompa and OUTSIDE, are by far his two favorite words right now.

This is Ajax, where we ate lunch the first day. It's at our hotel. Which is why people would come up to us and say, hey, weren't you guys here yesterday climbing these stairs? Why yes, yes we were. Because it's one of the things that kept Luke quite. Didn't I see you climbing the stairs at Brunelleschi's? Why yes, yes you did.

The beautiful mountain directly behind Ajax {and our hotel}.

Giving up on a good picture with my little moving maniac.

Attempt 1 million 1 hundred thirty-seven...

See why we wouldn't have minded missing our plane home?

T-roy and Luke!

oh yeah, and those stairs I was talking about...

I do NOT need your help! I don't even use my hands.

See?

Told ya so. Yeah. He has SO perfected that look already.

That's the one.

Matthews first family vacation, A+

Aspen, Colorado, DAY THREE

Pizza was a favorite of ours on the trip, but this pizza our last night was by far my favorite meal! It was at Brunelleschi's, and it was scrumptious! I was splitting* {I got 2 out of 8 pieces}. I gave one to Troy and this little one... he was the pizza monster!!! He decided to forgo little pieces, which are clearly for babies, and just go for the whole piece.

Or four...

Here is a picture to prove to Luke I will go to no end to embarrass him if he doesn't listen to me. Point Proven.

Troy with the hipstamatic. He's good.

We ate at this tasty restaurant called Little Annie's, and walked around the local outdoor market. Ahhh... did I mention I like this place. Hey Troy, if you ever want to surprise me with a vacation... back here okay???

Aspen, Colorado DAY TWO

After the haircuts {see below} we headed to the park behind the condo my parents were staying in. It was so pretty! It was so nice to be somewhere that it really felt like Fall, my favorite time of year. Luke met a boy named Felix who instantly took a liking to my dad {also see below...} Here is the one and only family photo, snapped by my dad. Thanks Dad! We ended the day with my parents offering to babysit. Troy and I gladly accepted and went out for dinner and drinks to local spot Jimmy's. We had a great time, but forgot to take any pictures to document our night, or the fact that we ran into Uncle Bill not once, but twice in one day, in Aspen! Yes, you heard me correctly. Troy says I always run into someone, no matter where I am. But I must be rubbing off on him after 10 years together, as he ran into an entire wedding party of old friends and family {some of which I knew as well naturally}!

The Park

Luke sporting the new do.

I love this place...

I mean, seriously...

here is dad, or boompa, as Luke said over, and over, and over, and over. It was too cute.

And this was the little boy Felix. He showed my dad all around the Park. Too cute.

The Haircuts

On Thursday we discovered this cute little place called Sammy's, a traditional {and perhaps only} barber shop in Aspen. I decided my shaggy boys could use a haircut, and they both agreed, so Friday we started our day with a vacation haircut. Here is the before picture...

Luke was so excited to get a vacation haircut.

Okay, maybe not that excited. But he was good. You can see Sammy working on him in the background. Hmmm... A girl named Sammy gave Luke his 1st haircut, now his second haircut is also by Sammy... I bet I am not the only person who see's the pattern...

The boys sporting their new do's! Troy is proudly sporting his Rangers shirt hoping for a Rangers win against the Yankees...

So the Rangers didn't win game one, even though they should have. But we did have a great second day in Aspen. Rangers, 0-1. Matthews Family, 2-0.

Aspen, Colorado, DAY ONE

I didn't take very many pictures today... I guess because I was so tired. We woke up about 3:00 a.m. to start getting ready for the 10:00 a.m flight. You might say I have had a bad track record in the past for making flights, but I was not about to miss this trip. And you might say I've become slightly* more organized since becoming a mom. Here is a picture of Luke and my parents at Little Nell's {the hotel where we stayed} restaurant, Montagna. It was pretty darn tasty. We mainly stuck around the hotel and condo today. We ate lunch at AJAX, and climbed the stairs about one million times, walked around town, and then Luke took a long nap {and perhaps mommy did too} then we got up and got all ready for dinner. It was a great first day!

The Matthews First Family Vacation

We went on first plane ride on the way to our first full-fledged family vacation! Schew, try saying that five times fast. This fall we decided it was gosh darn time to take a family vacation. We had been a few places with Luke, Arkansas and Oklahoma to see both great grandparents turn 90, and Galveston for the propane convention I call disaster August 2009, but nothing I would qualify as a vacation, until now! Here are Luke and I on his very first plane ride on our way to the very beautiful Aspen, Colorado. Boy did we have fun!

Zoo Time Fun!

lions and tigers and bears oh my! Actually, it was more like monkeys, turtles, and gorillas oh my! Today Luke and I met our good friends Emily and McKenzie, and their good friends {and our new friends} Paige and Parish at the zoo. Before we got to the zoo, we met and had a picnic breakfast at the park. We had so much fun! Then it was off to the zoo! We spent so much time looking at monkeys, turtles, fish, snakes, cheetahs, birds, gorillas, and rhinoceros that we wore the little ones out. Well, most of the little ones. You'll see what I mean... We decided we would have to go back and see everything else very soon. And so... It all began with the monkeys... Luke loves monkeys and could have stayed here all day.

here are Emily, McKenzie, Paige and Parish

Luke and myself. Hi y'all!

Luke couldn't take his eyes off the real live monkeys...

or the "big monkey"

I love this picture. They all loved watching the turtles. Luke started saying turtle today!

what's this thing?

a rhinoceros!

flamingos! I would ask Luke what a "bird says" and he would point and say "wheat wheat" {his version of tweet tweet}

picture out of sequence! mom and Luke with mr. Gorilla in the background.

Then we came upon this bench. And I said, hey y'all, you think they'd sit here so we could take a picture? So I plopped Luke down...

Added McKenzie...

Luke and McKenzie go to school together. Not to mention Emily and I have known each other since the 3rd grade... these babies were eating with their mommies at Mi Cocina before they were even born together.... and Luke has a slight crush on McKenzie. The teachers at school have informed me of this. And apparently he doesn't like to share, but that is another story... I'll do a separate post of luke chasing McKenzie around at the zoo before catching and kissing her... ay yi yi... these two. Here is Luke trying to show off for his girlfriend {don't tell Luke McKenzie has several boyfriends, he thinks he is the only one...}

Telling her a joke...

then we added Parish to the mix.

They were being so cute... {aka tired}

I couldn't stop taking pictures... then we decided we better get going, we got to the elephants, and everyone was passed out, except one little trooper...

Did you think it was Luke? Not a chance! McKenzie was our big trooper!!! Way to hang girl! It's this kind of stamina that girls must acquire early. It's needed for endless hours of shopping that will obviously be in Miss McKenzie's future. Call me anytime sweetheart and we'll go! I know you already know how to use a phone.

Sweet baby luke after a long fun morning

That was part one of Sunday Funday. Tonight we are off to see Beth and Taylor and go to Gatti Town. It's basically chucky cheese with movies instead of animals, but still lots of fun games! Next Sunday Funday we are off to the pumpkin patch, Whoo hoo! Cheers to fall y'all!