1st Vacation pictures.....

Going down the north pole slide

I love Rohan's face "really mom?....really?"

We see you....

Waiting for the typical Colorado afternoon storm to pass

We did this ride twice for a total of 10 times around........And they still yelled and acted crazy when we had to get off

Yeah, that's Grandma's boy!!

Leaning on the north pole

Looking cute on the train at the north pole

Passed out Thursday night

The view from our room

Being cheesy at breakfast Friday

The terrace fire pitThe Lake

Our Pool

Being silly

Water Slide!!

I love this picture!!Making s'mores

Tasting the heavenly goodness that is s'mores

The broadmore hotel

Feeding the Giraffes

Even the monkey's said it was to hot!!

Shrine of the sun. Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun is the tomb which holds the ashes of Spencer Penrose (1865-1939), a philanthropist who contributed many of the most prominent landmarks in Colorado Springs, including the neighboring Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and the Broadmoor Hotel. Completed by Penrose in 1937, it takes the form of an 80-foot observation tower on the side of Cheyenne Mountain. It overlooks the Broadmoor Hotel, and from the tower one can see the entire Colorado Springs metropolitan area and Garden of the Gods.

Persuaded not to name the structure after himself, Penrose instead named it in honor of his friend, Will Rogers, the American humorist who died in a plane crash in Alaska in 1935, during construction of the tomb

The Love i have for my children is the ONLY reason for this picture, i am deathly afraid of heights. This is a view from the gondola at the Zoo.

Pffft mom, we could totally take him

The storm rolling in as we left Sunday morning

1st Vacation.......

We went on our 1st family vacation this past weekend and we had a BLAST. I want to take a moment and thank my mom who was able to help us out to make the trip possible. We started out Thursday and stopped at the north pole before heading to Cheyenne Mountain Resort. The north pole is a year round amusement park for kids. They have Santa and reindeer everything Christmas. The boys got to go on a ton of rides, and LOVED it. Aragorn definitely takes after my mom who could ride rollar coasters with the best of them. We stayed there for about 3 hours, long enough for the boys to see Santa (who the BEGGED and BEGGED to see, and then shied away from) then it was off to our hotel. It was a great place aside from the few issues we had, overall it was a nice hotel. They had a huge pool which Aragorn was very happy to see. We spent Thursday evening in the pool, and the kids passed out from all the activities that day. Friday we stayed at the hotel and enjoyed the 3 pools they had. We ate breakfast on the terrace and then enjoyed the pool until lunch. We took the kids to Chuckee Cheese for lunch as an added surprise. Friday night the boys made s'mores for the 1st time on the terrace fireplace, in the end, they were both more interested in burning the marshmallows than eating the s'mores. Saturday we got up early and headed to the Cheyenne mountain zoo. Although the boys are not really zoo kids, i think they liked it. What they didn't like was the fact that the zoo's elevation is anywhere from 6,800 to 7,000 feet above sea level depending on where you are at the zoo.So, it's a LOT of walking. They did ok though, but were happy to be on the way to the hotel. Saturday night, both Rohan and Eric had had enough pool time, so they opted to stay in the room while i took Aragorn to the "dive-in" which was exactly as it sounds, he was able to watch a movie (Wall-E) and swim in the dark!! He LOVED it. We stayed for the whole movie and he was excited to tell Eric and Rohan all about it. We slept in Sunday morning, and left around 11. It was so nice to get away for a few days, we got to hang out as a family, with no interruptions. We all had a great time, but we were all happy to come home, and get back into the routine of things.

I can't wait for next years vacation...........Hmmmmmm where to go.......

Love,
The Spillmans

A long road.........

Not long after Eric and i married my mother in law Salli went to see her doctor, she had not been sick, but felt like she wasn't loosing weight. After some tests it was determined she had colon cancer, after some more, they also found she had kidney cancer. She was a very strong headed women (so no surprise where Rohan gets it) she worked almost until the day she died. She still took care of Eric, and his brothers Jermey and Jesse, she called us weekly to make sure everything was ok. She was strong until the end. We got the call on a Wednesday morning, i was about 4 months pregnant with Rohan, and Aragorn was almost 2. I have learned in life that a call early in the morning (or late at night) is never good. And when i saw Eric's face, and the tears brim over his eyes, i knew our fears had come true, my mother in law, Eric's mother, had died. She was 49.

I mention this, because, it becomes more and more apparent every day how much she is missed in our life. When we were pregnant with Aragorn, i was so excited we would be able to send him to see his grandmother in the place where his dad had grown up. I was excited he would get a nice slower paced life when he would visit her, and i was excited that she was excited for all of this as well. I love Salli dearly, she was a great women, spunky and crazy, level headed and business savvy, she was funny, and didn't take anything from anyone. She was shopping the Christmas before she passed, and was mugged, well, he attempted to mug her. She called us after it happened and i was amazed, here is this women who is battling Cancer, on chemo treatments 3 times a week, working 2 jobs, and still managed to punch the guy in the face. He did not mug her, he ran..........fast.

I hope she knows we love her, and miss her everyday, that i wish we could escape to visit her sometimes. That Eric misses talking to her on Sunday's and her Thanksgiving feasts (ok....ok so do I......Eric just can't get that gravy right) most of all though, i am sad everyday that she won't see her grand kids see who they have become, and see the adventure to who they will be. I know she's smiling and laughs all the time at our exploits.

We miss and Love you Salli.

Eric, Sam, Aragorn, Rohan and Tabbi

Random pics-2

We went swimming in the pool and played in the hose today, amoung a ton of other things. I got a couple of good shots that i wanted the share.

Homemade puppet's.....

The guys made a homemade puppet show tonight for me. There were lots of bunnies, and a dinosaur, and even a dog.........Hello Tabby!!

Love is the condition......

Connecting and re-connecting.....

It is so cool to sit across from someone you have known since you were kids, as they, and you smile at your kids. My friend Lisa and her husband John and daughter Miranda are here visiting from Texas this week, so i met up with them and another friend Kim and her son Henry. We met at Monkey Business (You know i love that place) and the kids had a great time. It took a minute for them to warm up to each other, but when they did, the games were on. As the kids played, we enjoyed talking and sharing mom tips we had a good laugh a couple times (mainly when Rohan for the 3rd and 4th time looked right at me while he pulled his shorts off and ran around in his diaper)

I had a lot of fun today, and it stinks Lisa lives so far away. But Kim and I have decided we will meet up again, i know I'm excited about that!! One on One mom time is ALWAYS good.