Mornings at the Property

So, it was my turn to drive the carpool of early-morning seminary this morning.  Last week, I stayed while the kids were in Seminary, and walked/jogged/lunged for 40 minutes while waiting to then take them to school.  I watched the sunrise and wished that I had my camera.  Today, I did a little more picture-taking and a little less exercising.  It was a beautiful morning.  I drove over to our land and got some pictures of the hole in the ground that we now proudly own.  Being at the property helps me to feel peaceful and inspires excitement at the thought of living somewhere so beautiful. 

Mismatched Me

I had to run out of the house to pick up Amy from school the other day and slipped on my flip flops in the pile of Rocket Dog flip flops.  It wasn't until I was shopping with Amy at Walgreens that I looked down and noticed that I had one of my black flip flops on and one of Misha's brown flip flops on.  I thought it felt a little funny.

Laughing, I went to show Amy.  Her response, "Mom, you need to get a hobby."  My comeback, "I have one.  It is to embarrass my children."

Parade of Homes

So after spending the weekend in Utah attending the SLC Parade of Homes, Chris and I and the girls spent some of Saturday attending the Parade of Homes here.  There are some similarities in the design and decor of the homes, but differences as well in both states.

It was great attending with Chris because we are in the process of making final design choices, and seeing some things in person, we could say, "I like that," or "Ew, I don't care for that at all."

We picked out our front door at the first home we visited.  It was a Sopris home, and I love the homes this builder designs and builds.  This is the door style and color we are going to choose.

One of the main differences I have noticed between Colorado and Utah is that their homes had a lot more white cabinetry.  I like the darker cabinets, but will likely have the glazed cream cabinets in the kitchen island.

Chris and I will probably continue attending the Parade of Homes over the next couple of weekends, but we won't likely invite our children along with us.  They poop out after awhile.

16 Years

It is hard to believe that we have been married for 16 years.  When you first get married and look at others who have been married that long, you can't imagine so much time passing.  Looking back, you wonder where the time went so fast.

Chris and I found an interesting Thai restaurant in Dacono.  Checking out the positive Yelp reviews, we decided to give it a shot.  The restaurant itself wasn't anything fancy, but the food was good.  I recommend it.  Anyone want to join us the next time we visit?

We didn't have anything planned after dinner so decided to head home.  As we drove in to the driveway, we noticed our next-door neighbors had a fire pit set up in the street.  We decided to join them.  We talked for an hour or so.  It was good to build those relationships.  We were pleasantly surprised that they didn't want us to move.  I guess they had some doozy of neighbors and were now enjoying our quieter, non-fighting presence.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Misha's Birthday Party

Misha's birthday party was pretty much an instant replay of Kristen's party.  We bought a bunch of Groupons to Loveland Laser Tag.  Having had the experience of Kristen's already, we knew that we would need around five hours.  Chris kindly offered to take the kids up to Loveland and hang with them throughout that time.  Because of a last-minute cancellation, Amy was able to attend and use the final ticket.

I stayed home with Kristen, and we made Misha's birthday cake.  It was a lot of chocolate overload and by the time the kids returned to the house, they had already stoked up on pixie sticks and other treats.  Most of the kids turned down the cake.

The kids were happy to do some Just Dance 4.  It makes me look forward to having a bigger living room and house where my girls' friends can come and hang out and party.  In the rental, the living room was a bit of a squeeze for 7 kids dancing.  They still had a blast.  Misha kept saying over and over how much fun she had for her birthday.  You know it was successful when...

I am kind of glad that the birthday parties are now behind us.  It was just one of those things this summer they kept hanging over us.  Since the girls only get parties every four years, we didn't want to shaft them, but it was still just one more thing.

1st Day of Seminary

Chris and I figured out the other day that we will have kids in early-morning seminary for the next ten years!  Hurray for us.

Amy may not be a morning person, but she is always good about getting out of bed at the necessary time.  In order to get to seminary on time, she will need to be up and out of bed by 5:15 am.  She's not thrilled by any means, but it helps when she is able to get moving right away when her alarm rings (on the weekend when I am trying to get her out of bed?  That's a whole different story.)

She has seminary at the Morgan's home.  Their home is on the south lake of Pelican Shores.  We have a carpool set up where we pick up the kids in the morning (who wish to carpool) and then someone has to pick the kids up from seminary and take them to the school.  Release-time seminary would be a lovely thing.

1st Day of 7th Grade

If you thought Thursday was an odd day to start school, Misha didn't start until Friday.  Seriously?  She wasn't thrilled about starting school.  She had volunteered at the school earlier in the week showing new students around and had fun hanging out with friends for the afternoon.  She is absolutely looking forward to the start of Drama Club.

1st Day of Third Grade

Again, Kristen was pretty excited to start back to school.  She was excited for her new teacher, for returning friends, for learning.  The school had all students sign up for testing times on Tuesday before school started.  The testing tested the kids on topics that they would need to know by the end of the third grade.  It was a challenge for sure, but Kristen said she thought she got most of the answers right.

This year, I will be driving Kristen back and forth to school.  It would be nice if I could find someone to carpool with me, if not, there will be lots of driving back and forth. 

1st Day of High School

First of all, how is that possible?  My oldest is in high school.  Surely I will blink and she will be off to college.  I will say that there was excitement mixed with trepidation on Amy's part.  Since she missed her pre-registration day that was held while she was on Trek, she and I headed to the school to pick up her schedule, locker number, and tour the school.  She met her friends there and was a little overwhelmed with the size of the school.  I know that she'll do fine.

So, you can imagine that she had her first day of school outfit picked out well before last Thursday (yes, it is an odd day to start school).

I love this picture of Amy and her friend, Madi, walking into school together.  Last year, Amy was the only LDS girl in the entire 8th grade.  This picture made my heart happy.

Gratitude

If you haven't got all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don't have, that you don't want. 

Unknown

Death Juice

I came upon this cup of juice in the fridge with this dire note attached.  I figured Kristen didn't want anyone to finish her lemonade.  Turns out, it was lemonade with a very generous dose of lime juice added in.  Kristen's the kind of kid that likes to drink/suck on lemons and limes.

Apparently Amy almost died.  She took a sip and found out the hard way to always obey Kristen's notes.

Just Call me Grace

I was getting out of the car yesterday in the garage, stepped on to the concrete where the combination of smooth concrete, crumbs, and slick flip flops caused me to slip and fall completely to the ground, scraping my back along the running board. Not my most graceful exit for sure.

Coming Home

There is nothing that could have done my heart more good than to walk out of the airport to see my family pull up to the curb.  I wish I had had my camera out to record such a moment, but my heart won't quickly forget.  Chris put the car in park, and out jumped Amy, slamming the car door behind her, then Misha, then Kristen.  And one, two, three girls ran toward me and engulfed me in hugs.  I watched one of the porters, sitting with some luggage, watch these three girls and follow them as they headed toward me.  It was just the neatest thing, and I loved it.  I would go away again just for another moment like that.

Happy Birthday

While I was in Utah, my youngest brother hosted my parents at a family dinner that was also a birthday celebration for them.  My dad will be 75 in September; my mom is turning 72.  It was nice to see nieces and nephews and to meet my niece's fiance (Jenna and Joey are getting married in October).  These are a few of the pics that I took that turned out.

Happy Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, Chris gave me a weekend away to spend with my family in Utah.  I had originally scheduled to go in July, but Amy was asked to speak in church that same weekend, and I wanted to be here for that.

I left the day after Amy returned from Trek on Friday afternoon.  The plan was to return home on Monday evening.  I had an uneventful flight.  After retrieving my luggage in SLC, I followed the signs to Trax where I was going to start on Trax and head toward North Temple Bridge.  From there I transferred to the Frontrunner to head toward the South Jordan stop.  I must admit I was a little nervous about making the right connections, but it was not so scary as London.  At least in SLC, family could come and find me if I did get lost.  I didn't.  My parents, visiting from Southern Alberta for a couple weeks, met me in South Jordan. 

I had mentioned that I wanted to attend the SLC Parade of Homes.  Much to my gratitude, my brothers came along as well as my parents.  It was nice to spend time together.

We grabbed a quick dinner at Zupa's while waiting for my four brothers to arrive.  I got a few ideas as we toured the different homes.  Thanks so much to my family for humoring my desire to attend the Parade of Homes all weekend long.

Trek - After

Chris and I were in Longmont to close on our property and figured it was just as good to stay in town and pick up Amy as she returned from her four-day Trek experience.  The buses were running a little late so Chris ran a few errands and then planned to head to the Stake Center to wait for the buses.  Chris could work there while we waited.  His plans changed as we arrived at the church and found our friend, Nolan, unloading a rather large horse trailer stuffed to the brim with plastic garbage sacs filled with sleeping bags and blankets.  Stuffed to the brim.

It was smart-thinking on someone's part to have each ward's bags color coded.  There were many a bag tossed into piles of bags on the lawn.  As more parents arrived to pick up kids, more hands dug in and helped in the unloading process.

We saw the first bus pull around the corner to the church and hoped that Amy was on it.  As luck would have it, she was.  As bad luck would have it, her bucket of personal items did not arrived until the fourth bus!  It was so good to see her.

Perhaps Chris can add some of the kind words Amy's Ma and Pa shared with him about her conduct while on Trek.

From S Ainsworth "Pa"

House Colors

You would have laughed if you had heard Chris and I while walking along Saddleback Ave. "That house is gray." "No it is taupe." "It is not. THAT'S taupe. This one is gray." Those are the kind of arguments we have.

Trek-Before

Amy had the opportunity of going on four-day Trek with the young men and women of our stake in Wyoming at the site where the Willy and Martin handcart companies suffered so severly.  Normally, youth have to be 14 to go, but since Amy skipped a grade, she would miss out on the opportunity in another four years as she would already be graduated.

All attendees were required to have period clothing and were encouraged to begin a program of exercise to prepare for the 5, 11, and 16-mile walks that were meant to best simulate the experience of the Mormon pioneers.  The youth were also able to have a little fun as they learned square dancing and the Virgina Reel.

Chris and I dropped Amy off at the Stake Center on Monday morning at 5 am where there were six chartered buses to transport the 300 plus youth and Ma's and Pa's to Wyoming.  We hugged Amy goodbye and left her in the care of good people.  Many a prayers were lifted up in behalf of Amy and all of the trekkers.

Isn't she adorable?

Camping

Yes, I went camping.  No, I never go happily.  We left Thursday morning after packing up all of our stuff.  Amy had an ortho appointment in the morning, so she and I drove in to Longmont to take care of business and to pick up some light sticks at the Dollar store on the way home.  Apparently, you just can't go camping without light sticks.  Ok, I will admit they are a pretty handy means of lighting up the night.

We were packed up and ready to go around 2 pm on Thursday afternoon.  Having a mini-van was good for camping; we could fit a lot of things in the back, middle, and front of that thing.  Alas, we are a little crowded in the Pilot, but we make do.  The skies were a little cloudy, so we hoped that it would not rain on us.

We got a little mixed up in detours around Golden but finally found a grocery store, picked up some milk and orange juice that we had forgotten, and arrived at the Golden Gate State Park.  Because we were a little late in selecting our site (along with Burnham's) we were camping in a different location this year.  The site itself was lovely.  The pit toilet?  Not so much.

Before leaving, the girls and I assembled "hobo" dinners with hamburgers, potatoes, onions, carrots and beans.  After putting the tent up and getting bedding situated (we forgot the air pump and had to blow up the air mattress manually!), we got the fire going.  Our children are all willing helpers when it comes to starting fires.  Amy gets a little bossy when it comes to taking charge of the fire, however, our dinners were delightfully tasty.

Burnhams arrived late so we all pitched in to help them get their tent and supplies set up.  After that, we were able to sit around the fire, roast marshmallows, and chat.

With older children, our mornings don't always get started quite so early.  I thought it was funny though, when I ask Amy to get up in the morning on a normal day, it takes awhile for her to finally drag herself out of bed.  This morning, I said to her, "Amy, do you want to start a fire?"  She was up and out of bed in no time.  I'm going to have to use that method another time!

Kristen, Estee, and Bridger spent the morning looking for worms.  For a girl who is afraid of frogs, Kristen has absolutely no fear of worms.  Odd.  They named their worms, gave them lovely places to live, and took care of them most of the day.  Ugggh.  Just please wash your hands.
 

Chris, Amy, Misha and I along with Rafer and Ryker went shooting in the afternoon.  Maria was kind enough to stay with the three younger kids so that I could have a chance to shoot.  I decided that if I am going to get a handgun, it is going to have to be a smaller size to fit my hand and not have so much kickback.  Didn't like that.  I didn't like having that lack of control with a gun.

After dinner the adult's walked over to the "Dude's Fishing Hole" to walk off the yummy dinner I had made in the dutch ovens--tater tot casserole and peach cobbler.

Saturday morning dawned early enough.  We had a quick breakfast and then pack began packing up camp.  Not my favorite part, but we were on the road around 10 am.