Summer's Almost Over

We had a busy week this week- we had our usual library trip on Monday and had fun playing and checking out books.  the kids always enjoy a trip to the library and Eileen usually finishes reading her books and all her siblings books before the day is over - I keep telling her she should pick harder books so she doesn't get done so fast, but she keeps picking easy ones. 

Thursday morning, the kids had piano lessons - after lessons, we got a quick lunch at Firehouse Subs and then headed out to Tiny Town for the afternoon.  The kids had a blast looking at all the little houses with their little decorations and they loved the train ride and the playground too.  It was a nice afternoon and it started raining just as it was time to head home, so it worked out well.  When we got home, Evie told Daddy "We went to EVIE TOWN today!!!!"  She was very excited!  

Here we are on the little train ride that goes around the park.  

Friday, we met up with Tina for a trip to the Museum of Nature and Science - the kids had a blast - but their favorite area is the space area - they spent all morning asking to go there.  They loved dressing up as astronauts and learning about planets and the moon.

Friday night I got to go sing!  A friend from choir who plays Jazz Piano and arranged a Stake Jazz concert and asked me to come sing!  We met Tuesday night to have a quick rehearsal and then had a blast Friday night - we sang and had fun.

Saturday we had a friend invite us to their daughters birthday party at the Zoo - so we had a fun afternoon hanging out at the Denver Zoo.  Now my thoughts are turning to back to school - we really only have one more week of summer.

Saturday night, Dan took me to Rodizio's for an Anniversary dinner and we invited some friends - since a place like that works better with a group - and we had a great time - we had fun getting dressed up and going out.  Dwayne and Nicole baby sat for us - so Sunday night we returned the favor - and their kids came and hung out with us for a bit.

We had some friends over for dinner tonight and had fun playing games and getting to know them better.  They have their first child on the way - I think the insanity of our house plus a few more was a bit crazy for them - but we still had fun!

Summer Fun

We have been keeping busy this summer - Monday was our trip to the library - the kids always enjoy this (well so do I for that matter....)  and the hardest part is limiting the number of books that they can check out so that we don't lose 40 library books around the house.

Tuesday morning we met some friends who took us to Elitches for the day - they had some free passes that they got with their season tickets and so we all got to have a blast at Elitches.

The kids had a blast - and James was mostly happy - even though he got no nap.  The hardest part was that everyone wanted to go in different directions and we only had 2 adults and couldn't accommodate them :) 

Wednesday - mommy rested - LOL - after a day at Elitches, I needed to recover!!  

Piano lessons on Thursday  - Aaron is taking lessons now too - and is so excited - he loves lessons, he loves practicing and he loves performing!  It's so fun to watch his excitement!

Saturday Dan and I did a massive cooking day to restock our deep freezer with meals.  Dwayne and Nicole came over with the kids and helped - which was good - not only was it great to have a little more help, and other kids around to keep our kids out of our hair, we also ran out of room in our deep freezer and needed to send some of the food home with them.

We also went to a baptism on Saturday - the family we had over last Sunday for dinner - the mother was getting baptized by her recently re-activated husband - it was beautiful!  The talks and the spirit were wonderful! 

Only a couple more weeks left of summer - not sure whether to be sad or excited.... :) 

Fun with animals

This week, we went to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge - we drove up there and stopped by the visitors center and looked at the displays and checked out some binoculars.  Then we drove along the car scenic route where we got to look for animals and even got close to some bison - they were ambling across the road way and so we got to stop and watch them!  We had fun watching the deer and the different insects and lots of prarie dogs.  The kids had a lot of fun - we did a little bit of hiking, but it was kinda hot for that - so we headed back to the visitors center and found the discovery room which is a hands-on room for kids to explore, read, do crafts and play games.  It was a great little (free) trip!  

Anna had a little friends slumber party this weekend - the kids all got to decorate their own little cupcakes with candy and had fun making faces and making a mess!!

I can't help but laugh at this picture, every time I see it!  I can't imagine reading like this!!!  And while this is the oddest position I've found her in, it's not the only odd position she reads in....

James is becoming rather adventurous, he's figured out how to look out a window by himself, and spends more time climbing and getting into things than I would like - but despite this, most of his bumps and bruises come from collisions with older siblings whom he chases as fast as his little legs will allow!

We had some friends from church over for dinner tonight - after a great day at church and a fun choir practice, the girls and I had a nice walk home, a yummy dinner and fun with some great people!  My favorite part of the day happened during sacrament meeting though.  Evie was giving me kisses on one cheek and James thought it looked like fun, so he leaned over and gave me kisses on the other cheek - I had 2 cheeks full of sweet slobbery kisses from two adorable kids!  

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!  

Keeping Busy

We've been keeping ourselves busy this summer - Every morning, I've started the kids off with a short list of things that they have to do before we can do the fun stuff.  And they have to get it done before James goes berserk and needs to go down for a nap.  :) This has helped give us some routine and helped keep the house in some sort of order (which would never happen with 5 kids home all day)  Fun stuff has included running around in the sprinklers and having friends over and would have included going to the library, but they didn't manage to get done in time that day.....

Monday-Thursday this week, the girls got to go to an afternoon girls camp put on by my cousin Lucy and 2 of her Girl Scout friends.  They played with them, did crafts with them and gave them snacks from 1-4.  The girls LOVED it - they had a ball with their cousin and the other girls there - they loved going and looked forward to it every day!

Eileen's friend Taylee came over and spent the night - the girls had a blast and Taylee was sweet and easy - hopefully they can do this again some time!

Anna's birthday was on Thursday - Grandpa and Newell and Becky and family came over to help us celebrate.  Anna wanted a Hello Kitty birthday cake - so she got one, and if I say so myself - it came out pretty darn cute!!  She loved it - which was the most important part.  :)

James rather liked it too.  He downed his cake and ice cream in like 30 seconds....  :)

Friday, we took a trip to the Butterfly Pavillion - when Eileen realized where I had brought her - she gave me a HUGE hug and when i finally got her to let go, she jumped up and down for the next 10 minuted.  The kids all had a great time - James did well and the kids had a blast holding Rosie the Tarantula and looking at all the bugs and especially looking at the butterflies - it really was amazing - there were TONS of them everywhere!  We even got to watch some coming out of their chrisalids and got to watch them release some new butterflies into the rainforest environment.

This is Evie holding Rosie - LOL - she enjoyed it, but was rather surprised by the tickly feeling.  :)  

Aaron was the only one who managed to get a butterfly to land on him (he actually got 2, but I think one might have been coaxed on despite my insistence that they NOT try to get one to climb on them....

On Wednesday night, Eileen had Activity Day Girls - i dropped her off and grabbed Anna's cake pan, then went home and helped Dan cut down some dead trees in our yard and load them into a friends truck to take with her.  We had fun working and chatting together, then I picked up both our girls from  Activity Day's.  On Saturday, Dan decided that instead of digging out the stumps, he was going to get a couple 2 x 4's and level the stumps off and make a balance beam for the kids to play on.  The kids have been having fun playing on it ever since.  Eileen was very excited about her ability to balance on one foot up there - Aaron and Evie wanted to hold hands while they walked across.

Home Again... kinda!

Well early Monday morning, we packed up and headed home.  Our first two days were mostly spent packing, doing laundry, running errands and settling back into life.  After that, I started trying to implement my summer plan!  

Here are the kids in the car, ready to head home!  

The kids are putting together "Summer Fun Passports"  It's basically a notebook that is going to have a page for all the things we do this summer - and the page will have a photo and a ticket (if there is one)  and their favorite part of it - so we had fun starting it this week and doing some of our pages from our time in Texas.

Friday, I picked up a friend from my Freshman year at BYU - from the airport.  Then we met up with a bunch more of our Dorm floor friends and headed up to the cabin for a weekend getaway.  We spent a great couple of days hiking, playing games, walking around Breckenridge, and of course lots of chatting - reminiscing, catching up and uplifting.  It was wonderful to be with a set of women who are all trying their best to be good moms, good wives, and good disciples of Christ.  We shared stories, experiences and lessons learned.  It was wonderful!  These ladies are wonderful and I'm so glad we could do this, and soooo looking forward to next time!  I came back spiritually and emotionally refreshed (now if only I hadn't had allergy issues all weekend....)

As much fun as we had, I am glad to be home with my wonderful family!  My sweet boys!  I just love how James is looking up to his big brother here.

We got to watch the incredible Leadership conference tonight - it was just AMAZING!  such a powerful spirit, such incredible messages and such a neat experience!  

Last Week in Texas

We've kept busy this week!  I guess we figured that if we kept busy, we wouldn't miss Daddy quite so much....  only worked a little....  We've spent some of almost every day out in the pool.  Grandpa has been giving them swim lessons again and they are all doing really well!  James didn't much care for the pool at first - but he got used to it pretty quickly and had fun (when he was awake)

We also got together with our friends a couple times - they came down to swim and play once and we went up there to play and crochet once.  We had a great time both times!

Grandpa took us to a base ball game - we went to go see the Frisco Rough Riders.  The kids spent most of the time whining and asking to go get a drink of water - but I enjoyed it!

Friday we went out on the boat - the girls got to waterskii again - both did amazingly well and then they all had fun on the tube.  Grandpa went with Aaron and both wanted to go so slow that I couldn't keep the front of the tube out of the water - and once I turned around to check on them and Aaron had a death grip on the front handles (which were under water) and was getting dunked!  But he wouldn't let go!!

Friday night, I met Lori and Megan for dinner at Chuy's - we had a great time eating and chatting - it's funny how even a year apart and we fall right back into normal.  :)  These ladies are two of the reasons I most miss Texas!

We went to the Zoo on Saturday - it was sweltering!  We found as many chances to get misted or wet as we could and spent our whole time running around to different shows and things they had going on.  We did a lot of walking and a lot of playing and had a great time - but came home exhausted!!

We went to the bird show again and Anna got to be one of the volunteers which she loved!

I went to pick up Dan from the airport today - i got there and he let me know what gate he was at and I got there and found a HUGE gaping hole in front of his gate (and the 3 or 4 gate on either side)  so I had to spend a bit of time trying to figure out where to pick him up at.  :)  But he's worth the trouble!

We had a little birthday/father's day celebration this evening for Anna and Dan and Grandpa.  Cake and all!  Evie kept walking around asking Daddy if it was his birthday today.  And once she saw the cake she was asking every 2 minutes when she could have cake!

I sure am blessed to have such wonderful men in my life!

Texas!

We have had a busy week!!  And lots of pictures to show for it!  Monday, we took off for Texas - it was a nice relaxing trip - James did pretty well and the other kids were content to watch movies and color.  We arrived a bit after midnight - no worse for wear!  

The day after we arrived, my Grandma Penny arrived.  My mom - feeling the need to keep my kids entertained, planned lots of fun.  Wednesday was the beginning - My dad spent some time in the morning in the pool with the kids helping the girls learn to water ski.  Then that afternoon, we went out on the boat.  Eileen and Anna both got to try it out and were able to get up - Eileen was able to stay up for quite awhile.  After (since mommy was exhausted from swimming around after them and helping them) we pulled the tube out and let them each have turns in the tube.  They all had a blast - Eileen and Anna especially LOVED the fast bumpy tube rides.  However, when asked their favorite part of the whole day - their unanimous response was "when daddy fell off the tube!!!"   Dan had taken a turn on the tube and Grandpa had driven him around and got a bit crazy on accident and threw Dan off - skipping him across the water....  

Thursday, we all went to the zoo - in the morning, the weather was wonderful - a bit overcast and cool which made it a really nice day to be there - not too hot!  The kids had fun - Eileen especially loved the bird show and wanted to take pictures of all the birds.  Evie's favorite part was feeding the birds - she wanted to hold one so bad, but got scared when ever we managed to get one on her :)  James just loved looking and pointing at everything.  Anna, of course loved everything.  After lunch, it started pouring!!  We took the kids on the carousel and then headed home!  

Thursday evening - the Tilton's came over to play and swim.  It's always good to see them - It's also fun to watch Eileen and Sonora's friendship pick up right where it left off and before the Tilton's went home to have both girls begging to see each other again before we went home to Colorado. 

Friday morning, we had a girls morning getting pedicures - we all had fun - and Evie even left her nail polish on mostly!    

The kids have spent some of every day in the pool - and Saturday they spent almost the whole afternoon in the pool - from noon to 6 pm - they were in and out of the pool - Eileen and Anna are getting very comfortable in the water - and both are looking really good with their swimming lessons from Grandpa.

Sunday we went to Sandi's ward for Kai's baby blessing - she is such a sweet baby - generally quiet and happy - and totally sweet and beautiful!  The kids love her too!  After, we went to Jon's parents house and had fun with Jon's family.  The kids all had a lot of fun playing together - and playing outside and running amok.  It was a fun afternoon - then we came home and fed the kids and put them to bed.  Dan left for Seattle this morning and we are now looking forward to another week in Texas.

Anna and Taz really are getting along well - they seem to have similar energy levels and Anna has been a really good big friend/babysitter.  She wrote him the cutest note to Taz telling him how much she liked him and how she would miss him.  She has been really good at playing with him and helping take care of him - which has been really good for him too since his life has been a bit crazy lately.  Out of all my kids - Anna is the only one who's name he can remember - all the kids are "na-na"  

Summer Fun

We have started our summer off with a nice easy-ish week - we spent most of the week trying to use up our food and enjoying the sun. The kids mostly played outside and helped me run errands to get everything ready. Wednesday was choir practice as usual and Thursday was piano lessons as usual. 

Wednesday, we went to the library to return some books and go to story time - Eileen also got a great list from the librarian of books to read.  They got to use these little shaker eggs during story time and James LOVED them - and didn't want to return them....

Friday, we had some of the guys over from Dan's work to play Settlers of Catan - It was a lot of fun - they all have a similar sense of humor to Dan and I and so we all had a blast quoting movies at each other.

Saturday was my Colorado Mormon Chorale Concert. It was a lot of fun - fun music, great audience and a really neat thing to be a part of!

Sunday was our normal busy church day - then Dwayne came over in the evening to hang out since Nicole is visiting her family.

Other than that, our week was mostly spent getting everything ready for our trip - doing laundry, packing, getting the kids entertainment sorted out. We spent a day getting the house cleaned up, and the kids had the chance to do some extra chores to earn money to go spend at the dollar store - then we all went and I got some coloring books and stuff for the car and they had fun picking out stuff with their chore money. Daddy and Evie especially worked hard. Dan lay down to take a little nap on Saturday afternoon - when i came in to get ready for Choir - I found them both curled up in our bed - Dan didn't even realize Evie was there until he woke up.