hiking and biking

One of the last Fridays in July we drove up to Lily Lake, just outside of Estes Park. It was the perfect place to beat the heat. The elevation gain is 20 feet around the whole lake - not that we made it that far around. There were just too many rocks, ducks and chipmunks to check out. Definitely on the list of hikes to try again.

I stole one of the YW to come along and help me out, and boy was that the best idea of the day! Her extra hands saved my bacon. The day was perfect, except for not having actual CASH to pay for the ice cream cones in Lyons.

The fun continued that night. Katie earned her bike! We headed down to Westminster for pizza from Cici's and to pick up the princess bike. I'm curious to see how long those training wheels stay on.

aunt mag came to town - a month ago

Aunt Mag and Summer came out for a wedding, and we played and played and played.
Alex and Max can't stay away from that cute little cousin - but who can?

We hit the bubble exhibit at the Denver Childrens Museum. The exhibit was not as great as I had hoped, but the little twinner girls were sure cute.

Oma got a little worn out.

We had some fun with water balloons - Summer opted for a nap.

We went back up to the Aluvial Fan in Rocky Mountain National Park. It's a little more fun to climb without the Artic wind blowing.

alex the excavator

The obsession continues. Almost every day, Alex asks to check out trucks on the computer. When we queued this baby up, he ran out and said 'Let me get Mommy Excavator. She'll really like this one.' What a considerate little man.

If you'd like to know what we sing A LOT around here, check this out:



I don't know how this guys sings the song without cracking up, but we certainly have some fans of his work around here.

Alex has also given everyone around here a truck alter-ego. Katie has been campaigning to become a front loader instead of a dump truck, but Alex isn't budging.

front loader - mom
bobcat - dad
dump truck - katie
excavator - alex
cement mixer - max
backhoe loader - seven
bulldozer - aunt mag
forklift - oma
crane - opa
steamroller - uncle tom
paver - aunt lizard

girls' camp

These pictures are a good representation of girls' camp this year. When I went to girls' camp as a YW, it stank. I remember lame crafts - pom poms glued to a stick - and endless hours of free time. A highlight was my friends ditching me to go and try to score with the scouts running the camp.

The girls from our ward are so impressive. The three Youth Camp Leaders did such a great job of including all the younger girls and making sure that everyone was having a good time. I thought I could best Katie and Nikki and throw them in the lake, but I way underestimated them.
(We did a re-enactment since the water off the side of the dock was only ankle deep.)

I thought camp would be a nice little break from my regular routine of having to watch my little friends like a hawk. After a little 1st year from my group wandered off one afternoon, however, I was returned to my regular duties of having my own personal shadow. I was in charge of making fires at our ward campsite, so I guess that made up for it!

Our first years were the nuttiest - the last night their tent stayed up the latest having a 'dance party.' The next morning I asked one of them who had actually trying to go to sleep if I should have poked my head in there and yelled at them. She got the cutest smile and said 'No. I was having fun.' It's going to be great having these new little Beehives added to our class in the next coming weeks.

quadro revisited

Quadro still proves to be one of MY favorite toys. In June I revamped the design a little to make it more fun for monkeys who like to climb. I got rid of the small slide and the stairs, which gave me enough pieces to expand the base, make the longer slide steeper, and add some hanging bars. The kids totally got into the construction, AND I used all my cross pieces. I NEED MORE PIECES!

kiddos

In between our maiden voyage and girls' camp, I finally managed to get some pictures taken of the kiddies before they're teenagers. A friend of a friend agreed to try and catch all three of them looking at the camera at the same time. We met at the cutest little park in Longmont that you've never heard of: Old Mill Park. It's basically someone's backyard turned into an historical park. Just lovely. Suzanne is about the nicest person I've met, and she did a great job capturing the kids' different personalities.

new mexico

photo by Diana Miles

We met up with the Young clan for the Fourth of July. We had such a great time hanging out with the Youngs - lots of adventures and lots of digging in that lush New Mexico dirt. With the house on wheels we might make it down south more often!

Rog planned a great trip for our first run in the RV - which was originally going to be a camping trip, so reservations were already made. Along the way we stopped by the Great Sand Dunes. HOT HOT HOT! Thank goodness there's water close by. We walked down to the dunes from our campsite the night we got there - just in time for a flash rain storm! The next morning we dug in the dunes and played in the water - and no one even got sunburned!


We visited a bird refuge - I thought of Betsy while we were there. We didn't find too many bird - it's possible we are a little too noisy for birding - but we had a good time walking around there.

We headed east over to Carlsbad Caverns. We skipped White Sands to score a little pool time. Luckily the weather was unseasonably cool - only 90 degrees - and we were underground much of the day. The kids did an amazing job with all the walking.

While we were in Silver City we hit a few of Rog's old haunts. The city pool was even better than he and Diana remembered.

The kids all had fun digging in Grandmother's compost pile. This would be disgusting, except that Silver City is so dry that any organic material is dried to a crisp minutes after it hit the pile.

One morning we met the Goates bunch over at the Catwalk. What a great hike. It was so nice to be near water.

The Fourth of July parade was excellent. Lots of floats, with plenty of CANDY CANDY CANDY. It didn't take the kids long to figure out that you had to move fast if you wanted to get some. (Like the tie-dye, Lizard?)



All afternoon and well into the evening the girls had their own parade in the driveway.

The RV was great to travel in. Afternoon naps were not a problem.

Nothing quite beats a 'camping' dinner of hot pizza and chocolate chip cookies. Our kids have a totally whacked impression of what 'roughing it' means.