Chris' Travel

Christopher's international travel schedule lately has been crazy.  In May, he was gone for 11 days to Europe, hitting London, Wales, Germany, and Prague.  In June, he is in Singapore and then Brazil a couple of days later.  He will head to Australia, Singapore (again), and Thailand in August, and just told me his work wants him to go to India as well and probably back to London again.  He is not particularly thrilled to be gone so much.

Crazy though, while Chris was traveling to Singapore, he crossed paths with Kevin at the Narita, Japan airport.  Kevin was headed "home" to Thailand to reunite with his family after a 40-day work trip back to Texas and then to pack them up and head back to Texas as their new permanent home. They were able to spend an hour together.

Chris did get to attend church today in Singapore at a Filipino ward and LOVED it.

I guess you could count Canada as well, though we are traveling there as a family.

Stools

My children have a problem. They are incapable of pushing a stool back under the counter (add to that an inability to pick up pillows that they push off the couch onto the living room floor).  I swear I push those stools in at least 3 or 4 times a day.

Camp Invention

Kristen participated in Camp Invention.  She loved it.  It is a week-long program held at schools throughout the area.  I enrolled her in a program in Erie which meant lots of driving back and forth for the week, but she enjoyed herself immensely.  Throughout the week, kids learn about inventors, inventing, movement, and creating.  They bring "take apart" items from home to take apart during the week to use toward creating something new.

On Friday afternoon, they were able to have a showcase of their creations. 

Her "disc-o" jewelry line.

Arm coolers/warmers

They had races in their box carts, and her team won.  The secret for them was in the two skateboards attached to the bottom instead of just one.

My Dad

My dad is 76 years.  He has been a hardworking all of his life, using his hands to build and shape and beautify this world.  I was chatting with him the other day and he expressed dismay that his hands, now aching with arthritis, don't cooperate the way he would like.  He had hoped in his retirement years to learn to play the guitar but found that he couldn't get his fingers to wrap around the guitar and move as they should. 

I mentioned that learning to play an instrument was a great way to keep his mind sharp.  He agreed and suggested that perhaps a harmonica would be the way to go.  I commented, "Hopefully Mom can stand the noise."

My dad, in all seriousness, "Well, THAT'S not noise."

The Moth

The moths this year have not been as bad as they were in the past two years, but they are still making their presence known.  When it comes to moths, Amy is pretty much a wuss.  If Kristen is home, Amy yells for her to come and kill the moth for her!

Amy was at home by herself and getting ready to go out.  She was dutifully bent over the bathroom sink brushing her teeth, mouth open, when all of a sudden a moth flew out of the faucet.  Amy screamed as the moth barely missed flying into her mouth!  (Would have been a sight to see!)  I'm pretty sure, without even being here, there was more screaming.  As I stopped at the house to pick Amy up for work, she was still shuddering with disgust.  I just had to laugh at the image she conveyed.

Wild Turkeys

I was getting ready to exercise outside early one morning when I happened to look out the window and saw five wild turkeys in my front yard and then did a double take.  Turkeys?  I had to hurry and take a picture--not something you see every day--though I have heard them gobbling in the early morning since then.

They were spooked by a truck stopping to check them out and decided to run away.

Awkward Sleeping

This girl can sleep anywhere, at any time.  This particular position doesn't appear so comfortable, nor will she enjoy the inevitable rug imprints on her face!

Amy's Lifeguard Certification

I searched locally to find an American Red Cross Lifeguard Certification class for Amy to take.  Most classes were further away, more expensive, or off with our calendar.  I finally found a class in Loveland that ran from Friday evening (4 to 10), Saturday (8 to 6) and Sunday (8 to 6).  It was an intense weekend, and to be honest, Amy wasn't really looking forward to it.  But she did it and was excited to finally be done with her certificate in hand. 

Chris and I are proud of her motivation and determination.  She is now legit to wear the tank top.

She Was Bored....

Yes, she was bored.  School had been out for a week when I happened upon this face. 

I don't think she was quite as bored taking the tape off, nor do I think she'll be that kind of bored again.

Kool-aid

The uses for Kool-aid appear to be endless.  The latest for Kristen--a hair dye--and Amy was happy to oblige.  They tried a light blue Kool-aid first.  Kristen had to sit with her hair in the juice/die for twenty minutes.  Sadly, the first attempt didn't show up too well on Kristen's dark brown hair.  So, another twenty minute dunking session with a darker red color.  She was very patient.  The red is subtle, but in the right light, you can definitely see it.

Paper Airplane Contest

While Kevin was visiting, we had a paper airplane folding and throwing contest for Family Home Evening.  Some of our planes were a little more pathetic than others.  Chris and Kevin have an ongoing competition as to who is really #1, and Kevin happened to win this contest two throws out of three.  (Maybe two crazy faces out of three as well!)

Kevin's Visit

Kevin came to visit over the Memorial Day weekend.  He arrived early Saturday morning (May 23).  Chris picked Kevin up at the airport and the two of them enjoyed some catch-up time over breakfast.  By the time the two of them arrived home, it was time for Chris to pick up Amy from a birthday party sleep over and take her to work.  He was then going to take his car to Big O to have the front tire looked at.  It was leaking air.

With all of the rain we have been having, Saturday was no different and clouds and rain rolled in for the afternoon.  We hung out around the house, with Chris and Kevin going over wiring and such for Kevin's new house.

You can see that Amy comes by her ability to sleep soundly anywhere naturally.

We enjoyed another quiet day around the house on Sunday with even more rain.  Fortunately Monday--Memorial Day--dawned bright and dry.  Not dry enough for Chris and Kevin to go mountain biking with all of the wet trails, but dry enough for us to spend the day in Estes and Rocky Mountain National Park.  Misha was coming down with something, had a really sore throat, and stayed home to rest for the day.

We saw lots of wildlife throughout the day with Kevin being the first to spot a small herd of deer.

We stopped at the Alluvial Fan, or what was left of the site.  It had been destroyed in the floods of 2013.  That would have been a tremendous sight to witness.

Even though Trail Ridge Road was still closed due to snow, we drove up as far as we could to check out the road, the view, and the snow.

Chris and Kevin have such a great relationship and truly enjoy any time they get to spend together.  They are both insanely busy and successful, and any time they get to spend together is therapy.  I kind of take a step back and just let them enjoy each other.

Kristen took a few pictures of me.

As we were driving back down the mountain road, we passed a family getting ready to hike up a snow-packed hill and then snowboard down.  They had American flags and shouted "God Bless America" as we slowed to take a picture.

We hiked to Alberta Falls.  It was a pretty wet and muddy hike with snow still covering some of the trails.  Amy wasn't feeling great so she stopped along the way and rested in the sunshine while the rest of us continued.  A word of advice about Amy:  if she gets unnaturally crabby, loses steam, and complains, feed her.  She needs to eat regularly.  Kind of gets that from me.

Tuesday morning was another beautiful morning.  Chris and Kevin kayaked the river.  Getting the kayaks out of the container was challenging though with all of the mud on our beach.

They decided to bring the kayaks up to the house until the ground at the beach dried out a bit.  Kevin got a little hooked on Max (our four-wheeler).  Two boys and some toys!

Kevin took this fabulous picture of our house while we were walking around the lake Sunday afternoon.

He Came Home

My sweetheart has been traveling an awful lot lately.  It makes for some long and lonely weeks for all of us.  This last visit for him took him to London, Wales, Prague, and Germany.  It would be so much fun to travel with him to all of these cool places.

Granted, the thought of visiting all of these places seems very glamorous and wonderful, but the reality beyond being incredibly lonely is that sometimes the food stinks, sometimes he doesn't even get a meal because he goes from one meeting to the next without break, he is often switching from one hotel to another every night, and jet lag is a bear.  In fact, on this trip, in the first six days that he was there, he had one so-so meal.  He pretty much lived off of power bars and other easy-to-carry snacks.  If you do get to go sightseeing, it is either on your own or with co-workers that you'd really just enjoy having a break from.

The girls in his life counted down the days until he came home.  And I was the most excited.

He paused for a moment to ask why Amy was taking so many pictures.  Her answer?  "Mom asked me to."  It was a picture-worthy moment.  He came home.  And the great thing?  He always comes home to me.

And this is the real reality of coming home.  You are so exhausted from travel and work and non-stop everything, that sleeping on the floor is desirable.