Steamboat 2012

We finally made it to Steamboat last month for one of the last open days on Howelson Hill. It was sunny, nearing 50 degrees, and pretty darn comfy when the wind wasn't blowing. Nice corn. A perfect day for this.



Yeah, I'm going to get all picture indulgent on this one, so click for more...

Patience

All of my brother's family love E and are great with them. However, my niece has a near-infinite reserve of patience and wonder that makes her particularly good entertainment (and me over-inclined to abuse her as a babysitter).

Consider the game of leaf races.



Endless. But pretty from a distance, no?

LJ Thanksgiving 2011

Many Thanksgiving traditions were observed this year.
For example: the cheesy dinnertime photo.

See also: lacking at least one pilot.
[Edited to add: STEVE! I just noticed. Bad Steve. (but funny)]
And then: Baby Nine Ball.

It got a little more cut throat this year.


And a lot less random. I had to put an end to TELLING the baby which balls to move.

Good thing one of the family was willing to let E work out the tension!

Family

As I mentioned, much of the Baumgartner clan got together for Steve and Missy's anniversary (Mike, you were missed!). Getting my family together is always good camera fodder, even beyond my nephew's photobombing skills. Speaking of, Ray has some of his own:

The rest of the family cleans up pretty well...



Some are better behaved than others. No comment on my own.

It was nice to see (almost) everyone in one place! Steve and Missy, I'm working on a book and a CD. Soon.

Many Celebrations

My brother and sister-in-law had a special celebration at the church to celebrate their 20th anniversary. I'll skip the details here, as I feel like those are theirs, but I know several people are waiting for me to get pictures together. So.. guys. I got the pictures edited. Here are a few glimpses of the ceremony.





Congratulations on 20 years and best wishes for many, many more!

Well Done

A bit of a change in topic today, but I've been keeping an eye on my nephew's wrestling successes all season (mainly via his sister's facebook feed). He's done pretty darn well, and finished second in his division after the last tournament. I'm pretty impressed! He made the paper (third from the left on top).

Go Steven!

When did this happen?

Kaya, my niece, just turned 18. She's graduating, she's heading to college, and she's turning into an awesome young woman. And she and her dad took some awesome senior pictures.

In Other News

See the one on the right, holding up his medal and looking off at some other camera? Probably his mom's? That'd be my nephew - third place in the wrestling tournament! Nice job, Steven!

Sledding

Missy and I could not wait to take Eamon sledding. Eamon wasn't sure.

Eamon really wasn't sure. Even with the temptation of Buddy.
This was more his speed. Maybe soon he'll figure out how to hold on...

Friends

I need to get the other pics from last weekend off of my camera, but this one was on my phone, so it's quicker.

We took Steven out for his birthday Friday night, and Eamon found a new friend. She didn't speak any English, but that did not seem to stop them... their major interaction was reinventing headbanging, but they were very amused.

Baumgartner Christmas 09

Despite Ray's schedule, we did get to do one family Christmas- and, fortunately, even overlapped with my brother Steve's family. With this many pilots around, that's decent.

I'll warn you now, there are a lot of photos- most of them hiding behind this link.

A matter of perspective

My niece, Kaya, is getting into photography. The Steamboat clan was visiting this weekend, and while I got no real pics somehow, Kaya got some great ones. I'm stealing a few here. I like her different perspective.
Eyelashes!
 Hi, Dad!
This is the best shot anyone has gotten lately of Eamon's eyes. Does this explain why I can't say what color they are?

All photos thanks to (and copyright by) Kaya Baumgartner.

Americana, Steamboat Style

Apparently, Steamboat is overflowing with Americana.

I knew about the cowboy image. We had to stop by F.M. Light and Sons after I've driven by the highway signs for years. The boys had fun with the cowboy hats...

(Woody, is that you?)

There are a lot of fun statues in Steamboat, and one is right outside F.M. Light- and fits the cowboy image.

Some are bit more... fantastical.

(Crowns are tasty... but sharp!)

Others are of Colorado's standard bronze sculpture category. There are a lot of these around town, but this set is probably the most relaxing.

How you doin', Abe?

In another "classic" category: the Sinclair dinosaur, but with a Steamboat twist.

Finally, there's one that reminded all of the kids of their grandpa.

The boys

My nephews seemed to have a lot of fun with Eamon. Most notably, they invented the sport of baby foosball, of which no good pictures were taken because they all look like fuzzy groups of quick-moving boys.

They also shared their video games with Eamon.

(They couldn't convince him that the controller worked better with fingers, not tongue. I think he crashed a lot.)

They hung out. A lot. These just make me smile.

Eamon thinks his cousins are pretty darn fun. He's been sleeping off all of that excitement for the last two days!

(Kaya had to work, but she did get to go downtown with us.. more on that tomorrow..)

Experience

We got to spend the weekend with my brother and his family. We had a great time, and there are lots of great pics and such to share (so check back all week, hopefully I'll be on it), but one set of pictures made me laugh.

When Ray or I feed Eamon, it tends to look something like this.

(note: his leg, sock, shorts...)

Missy made it look more like this.

Yeah, look closely - the kid is clean. The BIB is even clean.

How? I have much to learn..