Passing another torch...

I see lots of fun things in this picture.  Boys brothers readers cuddlers.  Meg's favorite kids book.

And sister.

Favorite Part of Kinder

The papers are starting to come home! I love when we get to try and decipher what our kid is trying to say. This is the first paper I've seen from Ryk like this:

"It was picture day"

Yes! Completely!!!

Love,

Momma

Bon Voyage Grammy

It's that time of the year again.  Summer has drawn to a close, kids are back in school, and cropdusting has decreased back in NE.  It's time for Grammy to migrate back home.  We had a nice send off dinner to commemorate the occasion.

Cheers!

Daily Life: Truck

2 things going on here.

1.  We sometimes save up our Fuel points at King Soopers in order to fuel up both vehicles at one time and capitalize on the $/gal savings.
2.  The boys LOVE to clean the windows and door panels whenever we get gas with any vehicle.  Who am I to say no?

Tenure

Meg and I have reached Tenure.  I mean, that sounds like a plausible explanation for where that word came from, don't you think?

10 years married, all the way from 9/8/7.  Still have the love.  Still working to be ever more perfect (individually and together).  Still like to have fun.  Still like hanging out together.  And we absolutely love our kids and family unit!

Pics from our fun date day.  Shooting guns!  Painting pottery!  Drinking whiskey (and trying to like it)!

      

All dressed up and ready for life...

Oh that Ryke.....

He has a zest for life and is ALWAYS ready to go.

Soccer, in this case.

More Demps

Some fun times with Demps lately.


Giving that Unicorn-Lamb a ride!


 

His Shtick

We may have found AJ's! We got him some chapter books today and he has spent almost 3 hours reading today.  It's so amazing to see him so focused on something, other than legos and harassing his siblings!

Love, 

Momma

Dempsey Waterfall

Were it not for the pic, I would not believe it for myself.  

Demps has been getting a lot better and faster on that Strider recently, but had yet to graduate the confines of the park.  No more.

Today after school, Dempsey and Grammy left on a bike ride.  Then about 30 mins later, we get a text with indisputable picture proof that they rode all the way to the waterfall!  

A giant leap!  Way to go D!

29...

Ryker continues to be awesome.  Here he is explaining to A.J. how to get a chocolate milk from school when you bring your cold lunch.  "Ryker-tell me how to do that because I've never done that before," said A.J.  Might I add that Ryk has been at school for only 13 days.

Then see this text message to Russell that I sent.  OH Ryker.  I love when they say amazing things!


Love,
Momma

Broncos! Broncos! Broncos!

In keeping with our goals of exposing the kids to new events, we attended our first Broncos pregame this past week.  Yes it was on a Thursday, and Yes it was at 7pm.  But at the same time, we rarely do these kinds of things.  If you can't live a little, is life really worth it?   We had a blast, paid for a bit with behavior the next day.  BUT so worth it!  And, we even did our first family of 5 bike taxi!   Your welcome taxi guy for those awesome calves!

Love,
Momma

Total Eclipse of 2017

Russell made it known that he was taking the kids to see the eclipse in totality and that I should come, but regardless he was going.  I struggled to take the day off since it was our second week back at work.  BUT....I couldn't let my whole family witness this awesomeness without me there.  Grammy and I went along, and we both were glad we did.  It was amazing!  The kids got to watch the partial through to the full, at an awesome playground in Scottsbluff.  When totality happened I instantly got bit my mosquitoes!  It stinks because we tried to take pictures, but of course nothing can replicate what we saw.  It was a long car ride home, but I'm glad I was strongly encouraged to go.  

Science rules!  And bonus this was the first time our elementary school actually excused one of our absences!  How about that?  #StemSchool

Love,

Momma

Folkfest 2017

What a wonderful time of year!

Momma

Grammy Project

Grammy and A.J. worked together to make his pillowcase.  He got to pick out the material.  Grammy educated him on the sewing machine, and off he went.  He is quite proud of his project!

Love,
Momma

DeCaLiBron Trail

Russell and I set the goal to hike the DeCaLiBron Trail this summer.  This is an awesome trail that allows you to hike four 14ers on one trip.   My last 14ers nearly kicked my booty, and I did the thing where I swore I wouldn't do it again even though I knew I would-hike those 14ers again.  We ended up bringing the whole family to Fairplay where we met up with my parents and niece and nephew.  My parents recently bought a camper, so this way we could avoid the tent camping that is often necessary when hiking 14ers.

July seemed to bring on the rain and thunderstorms, and we were constantly watching the weather for this hike up until we woke up at 230 the morning the day of the hike.  Luckily we had the best weather we could have....clear skies and the downpour happened after we were back at the camper post hiking shower.  We started our hike going up Bross, which is the opposite way lots of people do this trail.  I preferred to go up the scree on Bross rather than down.  It ended up being tricky and there was a significant elevation gain.  However, once we were up we stayed up for the next two 14ers.  We watched the sunrise and were able to summit the first 3 14ers without anyone on the summit-so amazing.

I wasn't exactly prepared for the last 14er-Mt Democrat.  We hiked down quite a bit before we started our hike up.  Mid way through I was in the mood to quit.  You know the downside of hiking in the daylight is that you can most definitely see where you have to go, and it's up STRAIGHT up.  Russell stepped up his encouragement game with me, and was able to support me as I finished up to the summit.  It was quite the popular mountain, with many people continuing onward to finish the next three mountains.  I was so thankful to be coming down knowing we were finished!  I was able to rock my decent.  This sometimes is the case and I swear it's because I'm so thankful to be coming down.  I know that within hours my feet will be naked, I will be showered, and ingesting something delicious.  

Despite my resistance mid-way through my last mountain, this was my best feeling 14er experience.  I had three practice hikes before these 14ers, coupled with a decent workout plan at home.  I also used my sticks this time around.  I felt like this allowed me to utilize my arms more, which are some of my better assets.  I also could navigate going down better with the sticks.  We finished in 7 hours, not bad for a 7.25 mile hike.

  

One of my favorite    memories from this trip was when we finished and pulled over to put our feet in the mountain stream.  There is no other way to calm the feet down after a hike like that then  mountain water......so gorgeous.   We ended the day with some beers in Fairplay and hanging out with our family!

Til next year 14ers:)

Momma

MoutainLegoFriendOutsideTime

The July the outdoors called and we answered.  Every year we are able to do a little bit more without wanting to pull our hair out.  It's getting pretty darn fun.  Thanks to the amazing grandparents we have-Russell and I were able to get some hiking in.  We also were able to camp with my bestie Kellen and her family.  This was such a great opportunity since we struggle to find time to hang together between nap times, work, and other schedules.  My friend Mandy and I made a commitment to hang every Wednesday with our kids during the summer.  For some reason we have struggled to make this happen, but this year we rocked it!  I also got great time in with my awesome friends in Longmont.  The boys were brave and did a Lego camp together.  They learned all sorts of engineering terms, while playing with their favorite toys=legos!  July was Colorado+fantastic!

-Love-Momma

Bear Peak-the highest peak in the Boulder Flatirons.  Great trial run for our upcoming 14ers.

We pulled over in the National Forest and did a family hike.  Ryker rocked it, as usual!

Camping with Clare!

She loves her smarshmellows

Our local museum had the Dinosaur Exhibit

Parks with our buddy Patrick

Lots of memories with Grammy

The Gem Lake hike with Ryk man!

Cousin time at Fairplay

 

Riding on the Leadville Train

Awesome grandparent + grandkid picture

Our "small" hike

First ever Lego camp for the boys