Hello July!

We have had a busy week!!  We started it off with a trip to the Library on Monday - we went and had fun looking at books and then we got home and Eileen had read both of the books she checked out before the day was over.   I think I may need to let her be the exception to the '2 book' rule!  

Tuesday, we went to the Children's Discovery Museum of Denver - the kids had a great time - they had tons of fun looking around and exploring and trying everything - the only downside was that I forgot to bring the diaper bag in and James made me regret that after we had been there less than 20 minutes... :)  The kids loved it and it was just enough to see and do that by the time we got through most of it, we were ready to go home.  

This is James down in the Fire Station area - he got a kick out of jumping on beds, but wasn't all that interested in the fire truck. 

Wednesday was spent by me in trying to get ready for our trip up to the cabin, but we took a break and had some friends come over and play in the sprinklers for a bit - then back to packing!  Wednesday evening, after Dan got home, we headed up to the cabin for the 4th of July Holiday.  

James didn't sleep so well at night there, but he napped well to make up for it.  Thursday afternoon we went down into Fairplay for the Independence Day parade - the kids LOVED it - everyone in the parade threw candy - so they were happy and it wasn't very long, so Dan and I were happy too.  It was fun though.  We headed back down after dinner to watch the fireworks, only to find that the fireworks had been cancelled due to fire restrictions - the cancellation just hadn't been posted.  :)  It was probably just as well, since it was raining :)  

We spent most of the rest of the weekend hiking and collecting rocks at the old mine and working around the cabin - poor Dan came home tired and a bit sun-burnt.  The kids loved collecting wild flowers for us and finding pyrite and other sparkly rocks.  We went on hikes up to the mine every day we were up there.

Grandpa was there, as were Frank and Tina who came with Frankie and the two boys that they are hoping to adopt.  The older is 11 and the younger is 8.  He and Eileen became fast friends quickly and spent almost all their time together.  We took a ride in the back of Grandpa's old truck up the mountain - we went up past the snow pack and past the tree line - it was beautiful scenery up there and the kids had a lot of fun feeling like they were on the top of the mountain!

We also went to see the neighbors horses - Eileen loves to see the horses and asks to see them whenever we are up at the cabin.

We came back down to town on Saturday afternoon - just in time to get ready for Sunday and go to church today.  Anna bore her testimony in church today - she likes to have me write down what she wants to say before she goes up so that she doesn't forget anything - I love to hear her testimony - she is so smart and faithful and loving!