Bargaining Misha

Misha asked if I would order her some stuff on Amazon for Halloween.  I said sure, but that she would have to reimburse me.  She went upstairs to her room to count her $$, and pretty soon I heard her coming back down the stairs, "Mom, will you take a Menchies gift card for part of it?"  (Menchies is a frozen yogurt place.)  We checked the balance, and since I like frozen yogurt, I agreed.

Bad Bus Driver

Stupid bus driver missed Amy's stop and the next few. He slowed down as he came up to her stop, asked if "Christine Kline" was on the bus, and didn't wait to give her a chance to respond.  He did the same thing at the next couple of stops with other kids as well.  He was a "sub" I believe, and maybe he was just in a hurry to be done.  Amy got off the bus the first chance she got a couple of miles away. 

These are the moments when I am grateful that she has a phone.  She started texting me the moment the bus driver passed her stop and called me when she got off in Mountain Shadows.  It would have been a long walk home along a road without much of a shoulder.

Apropos

I was driving home the other night and notice that the "W" on the Waffle House restaurant wasn't lit up.  I chuckled.  It just seemed rather apropos to have "Affle" House shining in the darkness declaring to the world it's true nature.

Kristen Mowing

I'm not sure if this was a rite of passage that Kristen was really looking forward to, simply because her sisters don't enjoy having to mow the lawn and make a big deal out of it.  She won't be sent out on her own for awhile yet though because the mower is likely to take off with her running crazily behind trying to hang on.  Chris helped her and maybe it wasn't quite as bad as she thought it would be.

Student Council

There was no question in Kristen's mind that she wanted to run for student council this year.  It was kind of a shoe-in for her though since she was the only girl to run.  Each class picked one girl and one boy to represent their class.  There were three boys who ran for student council for her class.  She did write a little speech to tell why she would be a good class representative, unfortunately it was saved as a blank page!

Midnight's Funeral

Midnight is a fish.  Midnight died.  While his "mother" keeper was none too sad at the loss of Midnight, the "daughter" fish lover was pretty sad.  In fact, she planned out a funeral with her friends at school.  In fact even more, I got a call from said friend who happens to be Kristen while I was waiting to pick up Amy from work.  She was crying.  Not because she was sad to lose Midnight, but because she had been in on the funeral planning all day long and both her father and I told her that she couldn't miss piano lessons for the funeral.  Much crying.  Apparently she was somewhat happy when I told her she could go after piano lessons were over.

I arrived home with Amy after she finished work as Chris was receiving photos of the funeral.  It was a rather solemn affair.  Jonah officiated at the funeral, Kristen created the coffin, and Sophie had the love and support of her family and friends.  Some goodbyes are difficult.

Date of Hire

One of the perks to Chris' job is that he is given his date of hire day off every year.  Last year was kind of boring as I suggested we look at granite for our now-completed house.  Two years before that we had a wonderful day together driving in the mountains to see the fall colors.  We stopped for lunch at a quaint Mexican restaurant in Estes Park.  It was just a great day together.

Yesterday, we decided to go on a hike, though the weather was doing its best not too cooperate.  We had some errands to run at the library and tire store before heading up past Lyons to Hall Ranch.  Chris has been to Hall Ranch plenty of times to bike, but never to hike.  The fall colors weren't too apparent, but the hike was a rather great workout.  I am still feeling it today!

Round trip, we hiked just over five miles in two hours.  And, luckily, we beat the rain as I felt the first rain drop while walking up to the parking lot.  By the time we arrived home, it was pouring.  We waited at the mailbox to pick up Amy from her bus.

Oil Well Removal

We've had this unsightly oil well in our line of sight that also sits on our portion of beach down by the lake.  We figured we would just have to work around it when it came time to landscape.  Though we had heard that if we planted a tree to close, the oil company had the prerogative to have the tree removed, so we weren't terribly excited.

We received an email a couple of weeks ago stating that the oil drilling company no longer needed the well and would cap it off.  I'm hoping that their idea of capping it off and our idea of capping it off actually prove to be somewhat the same.  I figure if they are going to cap it off, it will have the fence removed, the metal walls removed, with a round plate of some kind to mark the spot.

After a week of working on the well, with a huge drill brought in to fill the well and trucks coming in and out of the neighborhood, the version we see right now is not a whole lot better than what we started with and looks a lot like the first picture.  We'll give them some time to finish things up and hope that it is more of an improvement.

Kristen's List

Kristen had some friends over to play.  I'm not sure what the planned game was for them to play, but this was the list I found in the loft the next morning:

1. Sillyest
2. Stupidest
3. Romantic
4. Dancy
5. Smartest
6. Seriousist
7. Craziest
8. Sporty
9. Carpentry

I'll admit, "carpentry" kind of stumps me.

Animation

I checked out "Lois and Clark:  The New Adventures of Superman" from the library for my girls to watch.  Amy lasted about ten minutes and had enough, but Misha was hooked.  Except for the animation.  Animation has come a long way in the last twenty years, but she just looks at me in amazement and says, "That is so fake."

Alpine Slide

Misha actually opted out of joining us for an afternoon-o-fun at the Alpine slide in Golden.  She said she needed a little down time.  The rest of us had an enjoyable afternoon though.  We took a couple trips up the lift and enjoyed our speedy trips back down the hill side.  Chris and I each had two runs while the other two were happy to ride up together for their final run.  The weather was delightful and perfect.  Probably not too many more in our forecasted future. 

Yep, I took pictures on the way down.

Sliding in style.

Kristen was visibly disappointed on her last run of the day.  She got behind a slow poke and had to pull the brakes most of the way down the slide. She pulled up at the base a foot behind the young girl in front of her with another lady two feet behind Kristen.

Volunteering at School

Volunteering in the classroom is an activity I have been able to participate in throughout my girls' school days.  It wasn't quite so easy with Amy and Misha, but I remember taking Kristen along with me in her stroller.

I have started volunteering again this school year in Kristen's class.  Her teacher, Mr. King, is a pretty cool guy, and all of the kids seem to really like him.  He had me work with a group of kids on their math so that he could work with some other groups that needed a little more attention from him.  When I returned to the classroom with my group, I found him sitting on the floor at the front of the room with young kids working around him.  I think Kristen is fortunate to be in his class this year.  The only drawback is that her class is in one of the portables.

I stayed and had lunch with Kristen, picking up some Subway before I headed over to the school.  I think she enjoyed my time there but was a little disappointed that I opted out of staying for recess as well.  Hmm... "Why not mom?"

Victoria's Secret...Smell

Chris and I had the good fortune to walk in to Victoria's Secret with Amy and Kristen.  Amy veered off toward the Pink section while Kristen walked with Chris and I to the sports bra section.  Kristen was feeling sorry for Chris that he had to hang out in a "girl" store.  I commented, "Oh, don't you worry.  Dad doesn't mind this store."  To which Kristen promptly inquired, "Why?"  Chris only hemmed and hawed for a second until he replied, "The smell.  I like the smell."  Kristen responded, "Then why didn't you go to Bath and Body Works?"

New Addition

We have a new addition in our family, and my children think "it" is the bomb.  Chris too!  The main reason we got the four-wheeler was to help with snow removal in the winter, but my children will surely ask to drive it any season of the year!  I've already heard, "Can you come and pick me up on the four-wheeler?" or "Will you drop me off at the bus stop?"  It is a popular new feature of living at Pelican Shores.

Misha's Long Legs

I have started walking with Misha to meet her bus in the morning.  It is often a pretty fast walk.  One morning I looked down at her legs and noted the length of her stride and thought, "Man, I need to walk faster to keep up with her."  I mentioned my thought to her, and she looked over at me, "I'm trying to keep up with you!"

Youth Temple Trip

Chris and I had the good fortune to accompany our daughters on their youth temple trip to the Denver temple to participate in baptism for the dead.  I went since I am the 1st Counselor in the YW Presidency and it was part of my calling, but it was nice that Chris was also able to join us.  Amy and Misha were both able to attend the baptism session; I believe it was the first time that all four of us had been in the temple together.

Clouds

I love the beautiful scenery that surrounds me, whether it is the sky, the trees, the river, the lake, the sunset, or the sunrise, it is all magnificent.

Bus Rides and Carpools

So Amy takes the bus home from school in the afternoon.  When I was talking with the transportation people to let them know they would need to create a stop at the entrance, they didn't want her bus dropping her off so that she would have to cross the street to get in to the neighborhood.  I could see transportation's point of view that even though she was in high school, there were a lot of big trucks on the road.  When the trucks come up over the bridge which is on a bit of a rise, they would have a difficult time slamming on the brakes to stop.  However, the bus route was originally set up to drop off so that Amy would have to cross the road.  It took some persistence on my part, because they were busy at the beginning of the school year, but her bus ride was changed from her being the last person off the bus to the being the first person off.  The drawback was that when the bus driver stopped, everyone on the bus was wondering who lived in this neighborhood.  Amy liked it better when it wasn't a big deal and no one knew.

Misha also rides the bus.  I am not thrilled that she has to get on so early in the morning--6:30 am, however, she says she doesn't mind the time it gives her to read for an hour before school.  She commented the other morning as she and I walked down to the entrance that she also likes to watch the sun rise every morning.  She used to ride her bike to the entrance in the morning and then back up in the afternoon.  However, her bus driver asked her the other day if there was a place at the top of the street where he could turn around.  There is a cul-de-sac.  So, in making life a little easier for the bus driver and for turning around, he now drops Misha off at the house in the afternoon.  The drawback is that she has to walk to the entrance in the morning, and it takes a little longer than her two-minute bike ride.

Kristen is still attending her same elementary school.  She carpools with the two other families on the street that have girls in her class.  I drive five kids to school every three weeks.  I am usually overloaded on the chatter by the time I drop the kids off, but it is wonderful to have two weeks off where I don't have to drive thecarpool at all!

Rockies Game

We purchased tickets to the Rockies "Mormon" night at Coors field for Saturday evening.  Turned out that we had a bunch of extra tickets since our friends had purchased tickets to come with us and then decided they didn't want to go.  Kristen and Amy had fun with the friends they took. 

My crazy daughter, Amy, and her equally crazy friend, Audrey, were surreptitiously taking pictures of a cute boy sitting behind Chris and I.  They pretended to take selfies, but were in fact, snapping pictures of this boy.

Kristen and Brynlee were thrilled that their enthusiastic dancing earned them a moment of fame on the big screen.

Hot Air Balloon

This balloon drifted by our house Sunday morning and landed in the field next to us.  Kristen was pretty happy that the occupants of the balloon basket waved and offered a cheery, "Good morning."  They were probably amused to see us out taking pictures.

Swimming with the MiaMaids

Just to be clear, that was not a typo!  We had a church group activity at the neighborhood pool with my Mia Maids.  I think next time we will have to plan this activity earlier in the summer when the evenings stay light longer, are warmer, and lack so many mosquitoes.

The girls tried to swim while others chatted on the deck, but the mosquitoes were becoming more ferocious by the minute.  We called it quits after a bit and headed up to my house to play "Apples to Apples" until parents came to pick up girls.

Sickies

There's just something about the beginning of a new school year that inspires...germs.  So Kristen brought her germs home on Friday before Labor Day.  She was down for a couple of days, but kindly shared her germs with Amy, Misha, and Julie.  Somehow Chris and I lucked out, but I was taking all kind of remedies to scare away any germs.

So Kristen didn't have to miss any school, but Amy and Misha both started feeling sick on Tuesday after school.  Amy tried to go to school on Wednesday, but by lunch she was asking to come home.  Both girls stayed home on Thursday.  Amy tried to tough it out on Friday and again I picked her up at lunch time.

It takes them time to get caught up on homework, but there is so much online now that they can do a lot of homework while they are convalescing.  But, I also tried to get Kristen to understand that her choices to spread germs and not take stuff like Airborne has more of an effect on her sisters who have lots to catch up on when they miss school.

Labor Day Bash

Our second annual Labor Day Bash at the pool.  Yeah, we are the crazy people who live on a lake and only have kayaks.  Someday.  Someday.

However, we made good use of the pool with our friends.  We celebrated Labor Day with the Wasdens, Siders, Simmons, Julie, Vavlas, Morgans, and Bousheles.  Everyone brought a lunch for their family as well as snacks or dessert to share.  The weather was perfect.

Following our party, we headed over to Morgan's house on the South lake and spent time boating and wake boarding.  Chris and Amy both tried wake boarding.  Amy figured it out on her second try.   Chris and his long legs took a little longer to get the hang of it.  Morgan's grandkids also wanted a turn on the tube.  After their turn, Misha, Amy, and I took a turn.  Misha was not thrilled about it at all, but I did my best to hang on to her and me as we zipped across the water.  Amy was not so lucky as she flew off the tube on one of our turns.  She blames us for making her fall off but I think it was just sheer Mom-muscle power, love.

It was fabulous and makes us want to get a boat all the more.  It'll come.

Julie's Visit

Our good friend Julie was so kind to come and watch our girls last February when Chris and I went on a cruise.  She was especially blessed to stay with our girls in our rental, which we ALL loved.  Not.  She and the girls made a few trips to our house-in-progress to check it out during her stay, but we thought it would be fun to have her back to see the house in its completed state.

She flew in on Friday night before Labor Day to spend the long weekend with us.  It didn't work out for Chris just to pick her up at the airport on his return to the state since his flight from California was delayed five hours!  Julie took the shuttle to the park 'n ride off of exit 240 and Misha, Kristen, and I picked her up.

We had fun driving up to Estes and Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday, though the weather did not cooperate for us to hike.  Boo (My children were pretty happy).  Kristen brought home germs from school and suffered with a head cold most of the day on Saturday.  Since it rained for awhile and Kristen fell asleep in the back seat, we just drove around.  There were still some areas affected by the flood.  In fact, as we were driving home via Loveland, we were amazed at the houses and cabins just hanging together off the edge of the river.

We saw this amazing elk? just munching away along the side of the road as people slowed or stopped to take pictures.
 

We stopped at the Fort Collins temple site with our girls since Misha and Kristen had never been.

Amy stayed home from church with Kristen on Sunday.  Chris gave a fabulous presentation to the adults in the third hour on internet/computer safety.

River Fog

It is pretty cool to see the fog or steam rising off the river or lake most mornings, especially as the sun is just coming up over the horizon.