colorado 9/17-24, 2011

at the zoo

red rocks amphitheater

top of rocky mtn np

at the wild animal sanctuary

amelia got to meet the

"plane drivers"

4:30am, newark hilton after

mommy got out of bed!!

so, we went to colorado for a week to visit some family and friends and it was a blast!!

little miss a was a total rock star through security at the newark airport and on the plane ride out to colorado...it's 4.5 hours!! we spent some time with my cousin and her family and then some time with karl's aunt. we went to a wild animal sanctuary where the rescue mainly large animals, lions, tigers, bears oh my!! they also have some wolves, sheep, goats and a camel!!

we went to rocky mountain np, and boy was it cold at the top!! saw elk and marmots, but not mountain goats (well, we saw them at the zoo!). i went to a rockies game for my birthday with my cousin and her friend and had a blast!

we went to a dinosaur place and saw fossils and footprints and then on to red rocks amphitheater. spend the day at the denver zoo, which is awesome!!! had dinner in downtown denver at bd's mongolian bbq and my friend, bryan (from camp and psec-ucc) met us there.

karl's aunt watched little miss a for 2 days, so that we could go and do some shopping and sightseeing on our own. spend the afternoon in boulder, on pearl st shopping and the next day we went to estes park, did some more shopping and sightseeing and did a little wine tasting on the way back.

it was a jam packed week and by the time we got on the plane to come home, the rock star had left and we had a very cranky 3 year old!! BUT, looking back on the week, she did awesome!!

PS - sorry, but i loaded the pics backwards to my story again!!

the beach 8/21-8/25 2011

so, we went to the beach last week. second year that we took amelia to long beach island, nj. had fun again this year.....until we had to evacuate due to hurricane irene. BUT, it's okay, because we had our week in already :) we arrived home safely at 11:30pm on thursday, 8/25 and it was an exhausting trip home! waited 20 minutes in line for gas, and we were off the island by this time. here are some random shots of our week.....enjoy!

amelia and tiki fred (tiki bob's new friend)

amelia's first game of mini golf


amelia getting ready to climb to the top of the barnegat lighthouse

amelia and karl at the top of the lighthouse


amelia showing off her certificate for climbing to the top

amelia enjoying the beach

her favorite thing to do at the beach!


hanging out on the rocks

brag

okay, up until recently not too many people knew i was doing weight watchers. well, i have been doing it since january and i am down 29.4 pounds. last night i was able to put on my size 16 GAP jeans and other GAP pants that i haven't been able to fit into in about 4-5 years!! i am freakin' excited! i'm not stopping here, i have a long way to go, but this is huge for me!!

r.i.p. jeffrey zackon

once again i find myself writing about another loss in the oley valley. dr. jeffrey zackon, superintendent of the oley valley school district passed away today while on a trip to germany with many of the oley german language students, their teacher and other chaperones, including his wife. he was 62. he was the high school principal until 1995, when he was hired to replace the retiring superinentendent. he was a fixture in the valley.....he knew every students name, came to as many sporting events and other school events as possible, and even remembered you years after graduation. i feel like i lost a friend. his door was always open if you needed something or just someone to talk to. even after he left the building as principal, you could still find him roaming the halls during his "free time". he was passionate about oley, he was passionate about education, he was passionate about the students. he was a great man, and will be greatly missed. my thoughts and prayers go out to his family and to everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him!!

wow!

wow! i can't believe it's been almost a year since i last posted! i'm really good at checking in and catching up with everyone else's blogs, but not so good at posting my own. here are some recent photos, just to get you caught up.....






happy karl

happy me

crazy amelia, with her crazy haircut

yes, that is my husband and his friend sam dressed up as women
it was a drunken idea, but they went through with it sober

my nephew and amelia on the playground

it's our new, nice weekend thing....try new playgrounds

amelia will be 3 in about a month and she is all signed up for pre-school in the fall. 2 days a week and i think she will have fun! now, if we could only get her potty trained!! she honestly wants nothing to do with it....i've tried all the coolest "big girl" underwear, bribing her with m&m's, letting her go on the big potty and not her little potty, she just doesn't want to do it. hopefully this summer we can get it done, because i'm tired of changing diapers!

other than that, not much else is new. karl is still at the greenhouse and i'm still at aaa. hopefully i'll get better at posting on the blog, but if not, i'll try to do it at least once a year!!

pictures from the party

fun was had by all at amelia's 2nd birthday party. it was a tad chilly outside, but i don't think anyone seemed to mind, too much :) she had lots of fun with family and friends, and received lots of great gifts. we're working on the thank you cards, i promise! onkel cory was even there, and that made it extra special (since she only sees him a couple of times a year!) i guess now we'll have to go visit him in baltimore!

two years old

oh my, she was 2 yesterday!! i can't believe it! this past year has been full of great things! walking, running, talking, learning new things each and every day! she has the marks of an active todder.....scabs on both knees, and dirt under the fingernails. she is a daddy's girl all the way and wants nothing more than to be with daddy all the time.she had her 2 year check up, and she is 32 1/2 inches (25%) and 22 3/4lbs (5-10%). that's normal for her, since that's right about where she's always been. my little peanut! party on sunday, i'll post more after that! love you baby!!

robert rentschler

i know that the few of you that read my posts may not know who robert rentschler was, but he was one of the most amazing men i have ever had the pleasure of knowing. he was the high school phys ed and health teacher at oley valley high school for 33 years. he also coached the oley valley high school baseball team to 3 state titles in 5 appearances, in his 26 year coaching career. he was more than a teacher or a coach, he was a friend to his students. he was there if you needed advice, he was there to listen, he was there if you just wanted to shoot the shit. no matter how mean something sounded after it came out of his mouth, there were never any hard feelings. whether you were an athelete or not, he was also there to encourage you. there wasn't a day that went by that you couldn't find him in the gym between classes, just hanging out. i'm not sure if he ever really knew how many lives he touched, but he will be greatly missed by all. this quote is taken from his obituary in the reading eagle
"It can truly be said that Bob was the best son, brother, husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather, teacher/coach, and friend anyone could have." Those words could not be more true. Mr. Robert H. Rentschler, you will be missed!!

oh, the last few months

oh, boy! i haven't updated since labor day. okay, so in october the dance group had their annual campout, and this year we tied in the halloween party. we were the wolter family farmers. the first week of november, karl and i went to disney world for a week for our 5th wedding anniversary. amelia also had a vacation, she spen half the week with omi and opa and the second half of the week with granny, pap, tante aby and cousin b. she didn't seem to mind too much that we were gone! the last weekend in november, karl and i were aboard royal caribbeans new oasis of the seas for a 2 night preview sailing that i won at work!! yay, being a travel agent paid off big!! it is the biggest ship in the world and it was amazing!! so much to do onboard the ship, not sure why anyone would actually get off :) then, the first friday of december, we had the annual dance group christmas party. amelia really wanted nothing to do with santa this year, but she is enjoying the present he got her. tonight we have karl's masonic lodge christmas party, where amelia is sure to entertain. if i don't update again before christmas, i hope everyone has a very merry christmas and a safe and happy new year!!

zerna

okay, so zern is officially zerna according to the vet. so, now we have 1 male cat and 2 females. explains why snowflake is sooooo pissed!!!

zern

so karl and i went to zern's flea/farmer's market on saturday...just to look around. well, we are both suckers for poor, pathetic, sad looking kittens, so here is the newest member of our family, zern. well, we had to name him after where we got him. the boy at the store tried to tell us that he is 8 weeks old, but there is no way, unless he is an absolute runt!! karl and i are thinking probably closer to 5 weeks. he'll have to go to the vet's this week, so maybe they have a better guess. megoo and snowflake are pissed and all they do is hiss at him. thank goodness they don't really try to attack him!! actually, megoo may be pissed and try to act all tough, but if zern makes any sort of motion to go near megoo, he runs away :) amelia loves him!! she wants to love on him all the time, if she could actually catch him!! he's learned real quick to run away from the baby, so she doesn't sit on him or pull his tail :) we are turning into the crazy cat people!!! this is it for a while, 3 is enough!!!

fourth of july

so i know i'm almost a month late in posting these picss, but at least i'm posting them :) we had a great 4th of july! much, much, much different than last year. last year, john and karl just held cora and amelia all day, this year there was no stopping them!! once again we traveled to the davis house in wyomissing for the annual 4th of july party. aunt katie had set up a water table and ball pit for the kids to play in. i think will like the water table the most!! the three of them just looked so darn cute playing in the water together. at one point, it was girls versus will!! after the davis party, we had to go to granny and pap's and got to go in the big pool. amelia is not really a fan of the pool. if she can't stand, she doesn't like it. hopefully we'll get to go to the beach next summer, so she can experience the ocean! i hope everyone had a wonderful month of july and i'll try to post more frequently, i promise :)

r.i.p.

michael jackson is dead. this makes me kinda sad. i grew up listening to mj, and have even downloaded some of my favorite mj songs onto my ipod, and would break them out every once in a while. he's probably finally at peace. i guess i'll be listening to a little "thriller" tomorrow on my way to work, or perhaps "billie jean"

farrah fawcett also died today. not really my era, but sad none the less.

r.i.p.

helping daddy

playing with my bucket!

"are you sure i can't help?"

mmmm, dirt!

yea, i'm cute!

amelia and karl planted our flowers last weekend. she is such a good little helper and a daddy's girl. she loves to play in the dirt and play with mud, sticks and stones. i guess that's what happens when for most of the day she is at a greenhouse! they did such a good job with planting! the outside of our house looks beautiful!!

easter, first birthday and hair!!

so, amelia celebrated her first easter this year. what an exciting day that was. we got up, went to uhromi's house for breakfast (waffles!!), and did the easter egg hunt. dada helped amelia fine her presents and gather some easter eggs!! after that, we went to omi's house to get her easter basket, then off to granny's house to get more easter presents. after such an exhausting day, the three of us came home and took a nap.

amelia turned one year old on april 16th! we had a big party for her on 4/19 at the house. tante marlis (karl's aunt) made the turtle cake for us, for her under the sea/turtle themed party! she loves cake and cupcakes, as dada gave her one the morning of her actual birthday :)

do you like the funky hair? mama wanted to make amelia her little rockstar, so this is the look we created! mama loves it!! not sure how amelia feels about it, but i think she looks great!

now that she is a year old, we're just watching in amazement as she starts to become more of a toddler than our little baby. walking, saying more actual words, becoming more independent, and just becoming such a big girl. who knows what this next year holds, but it's bound to be full of "firsts."