Live Oak 2011

We had another great year at Live Oak. Bix enjoyed every minute...even all the minutes between 8 p.m. (bed time) and 10 p.m. (his self-created Live Oak bed time). We listened to great music, danced with the kiddo, ate (yes...even Bix...chow mien noodles and egg rolls), and relaxed.


Apparently Bix was a staff member this year....he was in charge of driving the "tractors" around on Thursday night before the gates officially opened.


Fianlly in the see the music and eat some Chinese food??!!?? Who knew?

Playing with Nana and Grandad's hat
Nana, Mama, and Bix - rock on!


Bix really got into the spirit and borrowed someone's chair to move a row closer to the music.

A little play time with dada and someone's toys...good thing Live Oak is all about sharing!

This is Jesslyn, our camp neighbor. Now as some of you may know, Nana says "Hey baby" to Bix when she sees him...and he says her special catch phrase whenever we talk about Nana....but little did we know he would be smart enough to use it as a pick up line....guess it worked!
Anyone for tea?

Bix wants some!

We also spent time in the kids area playing in bird seed and the little plastic house they had set up.
Bix watching the jugglers and scarf dancers

Off to Colorado Springs!

Brian had a conference to go to early in the week so we decided to join him for a few days and check out the sites. Let me just say that an airport adventure with just one adult and a 18 month old is not the most fun....especially since I insisted on bringing our car seat to avoid renting one from the car company (did I mention our car seat weighs 60 pounds!)...and especially since we all had a cold. Needless to say we made it (Bix slept on plane ride #1) and we arrived in time to get some food at Whole Foods before heading to the hotel for dinner and some much needed relaxation.


The next day we were off to the zoo to pet some giraffes...yes you heard right....pet some giraffes. They were all right there at the fence and we bought some food (lettuce pieces) to give them. They have very long black tongues that are good for licking little boys as well as eating. Bix thought it was so much fun.


Bix feeding the giraffes lettuce!


Trying to climb into the habitat

He now will only go up stairs if he gets to walk up himself!
Bixby enjoyed looking at all the animals and we even got to go on the aerial tram for a view of the whole zoo from above. luckily Bix stayed awake long enough for us to see it all. We also discovered a new favorite attraction: the carousel! Of course Bix gets his serious studious face on when the ride starts up....but then asks for more once it stops. We can never tell if he is having fun until the ride stops and he asks for more.



On the aerial skyway seeing the zoo from above...including the tiger

The carousel ride...is he enjoying himself??

This is the way to travel!

My two tigers
After nap we headed over to Valley of the Gods and walked around. The rocks were red and beautiful and we lucked out that we hit it at sunset, which made the rocks glow. And one of Bixbys favorite things are rocks....so he had fun throwing rocks along the trail. It did start to rain in us so we headed back to the hotel to warm up and get some dinner.


The next day we were off to a tourist trap...but we knew that going into it so that makes it less painful, right? Not for Brian....thank goodness Bix was free 'cause at $25 each, we had definitely spent enough. It is called Royal Gorge and it consists of a carousal, a little train that puts around a 1/4 mile track with not much to see, an aerial cable car, and a bridge that spans the river gorge. It was cold and drizzly so that didn't add much too the attraction but we stayed and rode on everything to get our moneys worth!


On the little train


These were the kinds of sites...very punny!

OK...this time we know he likes it!

There's that serious face again.

The vertical train ride down to the bottom of the gorge

The cable tram that spans the gorge...this is the new favorite face that he makes
Since the afternoon saw more and more rain, we headed to the Cave of the Winds for the afternoon. We went on a 30 minute tour of the caves and Bix loved looking at the stalagmites and stalactites and ducking under the low rocks. This one was worth the money. There was one point in the tour when the guide turned out all the lights so we could experience total cave darkness...I'm not sure if Bix was freaked out or not...but he definitely wanted the lights back on....I think he thought it was a game like we play with the lights back home.




The next day we drove to Denver (where our flight left from) and hung out at the museum of nature and science for the morning. Bix loved seeing the dinosaur bones and pushing all the exhibit buttons. We even stopped into the planetarium to see a show thinking that Bix would be enthralled by the big screen...but mostly he just wanted to nurse in the darkened room.

Learning about dinosaurs


Hummmm....what's over here

Riding the escalator all by himself...his most favorite "ride" of the trip.

Exploring magnet filings
Our flight back was delayed by about an hour so we spend a lot of time roaming the airport and learning how to navigate the moving sidewalks. There was definitely no sleep to be had on the plane but we lucked out and sat next to and near some lovely people who thought Bix was the greatest and gave him lots of attention.

Camping at El Capitan

We were off for a weekend of camping at El Capitan State Beach before heading out to Colorado for the week. We had a great time right up against the railroad track and every time a train came, Bix would watch it go by and then ask for more. So we would reply "maybe later" which seemed to satisfy him. It was brisk at the coast but we got to play on the rocks and Bix got to see a crab a man had caught in his hat. "More" followed the crab watching as well so we spent a lot of time searching for little creatures amongst the tide pools. Nana Gwen and Grandad Oscar also came to visit on Saturday. Bix had fun showing Grandad Oscar all around the campground...espeically the campsites that were under construction....Bix didn't seem to notice the caution tape roping off the site.

Playing drums on the metal cover

And jumping on it to make a loud bang

Come look here with me....don't mind the yellow tape

Bix and Nana by the fire

Meeting a lady bug

Amongst the flowers

Where did the dolphins go? They were here a second ago!

Looking for hidden critters

Bix and Nana in a tree