All in the family

My mom and sister, Beth, made it out to Colorado last weekend and had the pleasure of meeting Grant. We had a great time heading up to the mountains, finding deals, and of course... staring at Grant.

September in Colorado is the time of year when the aspen trees begin to change color, so we took a short trip out of the city to catch a glimpse. We drove to an area that we haven't been to before along Fall River Road past Idaho Springs. There is a hike up to St Mary's Glacier that unfortunately we didn't have time for on this trip, but we would love to do it in the future (any takers? Its a glacier, how cool is that!) We all enjoyed seeing the beautiful scenery and taking in the crisp mountain air even though it turned out to be a little early for the aspens this year. Although they had not yet completely changed color, many of the leaves had started to turn yellow. We still considered it to be a successful trip because at least the leaves were still on the trees by the time we made it up this time around.

The following day the girls did some "power shopping" at the outdoor outlet mall in Castle Rock. Grant and I went along for the ride and took advantage of one of the last days of summer by hanging out outside while they went from store to store. The weather was absolutely perfect during the entire weekend, with temps in the 80s, but when my family left on Monday it was snowing! The snow was brief and there wasn't any accumulation, but it was such a dramatic drop in temperature from the previous day.

In between our outings, Beth and my mom had fun just staring at and holding Grant throughout the weekend. It's amazing that so much time can be spent on that 'activity'.

Grant has been getting much better at attempting to grab things. He keeps reaching for his frog when he is playing under his 'gym' and has successfully caught him several times. He is also clearly trying to focus on keeping his hand steady so that he is able to hit the rattle. It's great to watch his determination. Shannon has also noticed that she has to watch his hands when she is feeding him because he will hold on to her hair or jewelry (with a tight grip!).