MIA and camping

If you are a regular here, sorry that I haven't posted in a while. If you just started reading, welcome! Life has been more than a little busy trying to work out two in school, homework, soccer, karate, etc. etc. etc....

We have just returned from our church camping retreat at John Wesley Ranch in Divide. We headed up Friday evening and just got home! What a weekend. The weather could not have been nicer. The kids stayed busy with the many planned activities including rock hounding, ice-cream making, a scavenger hunt, crafts, and smores. They also had fun just running around with their friends. The big news of the weekend was that Sam caught his first fish, all on his own! We played a friendly (and not so friendly) game of Wiffle Ball that really kept us laughing. This morning, we ended our time together with a short service at the outdoor sanctuary. Enjoy the pictures!

Sunset over our campsite...Beautiful!

Sam caught his first fish!

Hiking to the pond

Alice and Paige making ice-cream!

Sam enjoying his creation! Yum!

Paige loves Smores!

To Our Baby

Tonight Paige found some jammies that Scott bought for her in China. He bought them a few trips ago but they were too big for her so I put them in the back of her drawer. When she came out wearing them, Sam and Alice decided to follow suit and wear theirs as well. They all looked so cute that I had to snap some pictures. This post is dedicated to our baby in China.

We can't wait to someday cuddle and love you!

One week down....almost.

Well, the kids have been back to school for 4 days. They are still pretty excited and they LOVE their teachers. Today was a really warm day so after school we went directly to the pool. We were the only family there until 3 o'clock. It was awesome. We love the pool and will be sad when it closes for the year.

Sipping a drink next to the pool....

Getting ready for a very serious volleyball game....

Hanging out with friends............

Work that Visor

Wordless Wednesday

Jesse in the yard, no leash, no tie-out. Gotta love the magic fence.

Happy Dance

Being silly!

Moms all over Colorado Springs are doing the happy dance today!!! The first day of school!!! We had a very early morning getting back into school mode with baths, lunches, backpacks, etc.

Alice started Kindergarten today and Sam started 1st grade. Sam did great!!! He marched in with his class without any tears. Yeah!!! Alice had a wonderful morning as well. She looked nervous as we were leaving but I am sure that she was fine after we were gone. Luckily, her good friend from the co-op is in her class among many other friends, neighbors and playgroup pals. I can't wait to hear how their day went! Enjoy the pics. I will be enjoying the quiet. For a moment.....MOMMY???!!!???!!!

Jen

Good Clean Fun in the Mud!

Scott and I had a blast competing in the Muddy Buddy race this morning in Boulder. I guess that I should go back and mention that we dropped off the kids at my parents on Saturday afternoon for about 24 hours of freedom. We were really looking forward to some adult time together so we headed to Boulder to meet up with two other couples who miraculously found overnight accommodations for their children as well. We were all excited to get muddy and have lots of fun. Oh, we did!

If you have never traveled to Colorado, you may not know that the weather here rocks most of the time. We love waking to blue skies and warm temps. It has been raining steady since Friday morning. Normally, we get the occasional storm that comes and goes very quickly and then the sun is back out and all is well. We haven't really seen the sun since, well....Friday morning. All this rain made the race course super muddy. I know what you are thinking. Isn't this called the Muddy Buddy? Yes, but it is not called the So Muddy that Your Bike Won't Move and You Lose Your Shoes race. Due to the 4 inches of mud everywhere (ground, bike, feet,etc.), my chain fell off twice and Scott ended up carrying the bike for my first leg. Thanks!!! We laughed a lot and had tons of fun. I especially enjoyed the obstacle courses and mud pit at the end. Believe it our not, this picture was taken after we had been hosed down.

Thanks Doug and Kristin and Drew and Kim. We had a blast and can't wait to go back next year. Maybe the course won't be quite so slippery!

If you are interested, you can go to http://www.muddybuddy.com/ and check out the video under general info. We aren't in it, but it definitely gives you a good view of race fun.

Have a great Monday. Back to school for us! Yeah!!!!

Jennifer

Busy, Busy, Fun and Teacher Day

End of the summer church pool party. I stayed dry and monitored from my deck chair :)


Scott took a break from his ultimate game to play Frisbee with Sam and Alice.....

Since my last post, we have not stopped moving. Our weekend was jam packed with a barbecue, an ultimate Frisbee tournament, pool party, church, etc. After our crazy weekend, I decided to add to the madness with a quick trip to Silverthorne with two of my friends and their kids (9 all together)! We played at the brand new playground in Dillon and got wet in Lake Dillon. We also got very wet at the Silverthorne Rec Center. They have an awesome water slide that I had to drag my kids off. On Tuesday, we drove through Georgetown and stopped at their fabulous play area for more running around and a picnic.

All nine kids in Georgetown. Can you believe that we got them all to stay still for a picture!

Today is Teacher Day. Not really a day that we celebrate teacher's but instead the day my kids find out who their teachers will be this school year. All summer long, they have looked forward to Teacher Day. Actually, Alice asked us ever day about her teacher. ****Check back for updates on teachers.

Scott and I are looking forward to Muddy Buddy this weekend. We are going up to Boulder on Saturday afternoon and staying until after the race on Sunday. My parents are watching the kids overnight so that Scott and I can have a day to ourselves. Thanks Mom and Dad! Muddy Buddy is a running/biking race with obstacle courses thrown in the middle. At the end of the race, buddies have to army crawl through a mud pit together to finish. Yeah!!!

Today, sadly, I am going to be doing laundry and getting my house back in order from all our fun....That doesn't really sound fun.... maybe we will go the pool :)

I hope you have a laundry-free day! Go out and have a little fun!

Jen

Camping at Turquoise Lake

Sam, Alice, Paige and I just got home from our camping trip to Turquoise Lake, outside of Leadville. We went with my friend, Kristin, and her three kids. We arrived at our campsite on Wednesday afternoon to a slight drizzle. The rain continued on and off for the remainder of our trip but seemed to stop and start at the best times. We had a really great time hiking part way around the lake, splashing in the water and trying our hands at fishing with hot dogs (They didn't seem to be into the hot dogs, so no fish were caught this time). Regardless of the weather, we had fun. We all came home very wet, dirty and happy. As you can see from the pics, the kids had no problem getting very messy. The only problem with camping is the cleanup afterwards. I am off to dry out the tent, wash all the clothes (that campfire aroma doesn't smell so good outside of camp) and clean out coolers. For some weird reason, nothing to do with me, of course, Slide will not send over my slide show. I will continue to try and post the show but in the meantime, I think you can click on the link below and see it. I hope....

Ian and Paige enjoying hot chocolate! Alice opted for mint tea. Huh?!

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments. I love comments!!

http://www.slide.com/r/rvWCcndn2j_xMW14Z8aSXkTMLPHUXQbv?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Rollerskating Kinda Day

Sam wanted to try out his rollerblades today and everyone (but me, way too dangerous with the camera) followed along. We ended with a few sore bums and scraped knees but all in all they had fun.

Scott sightings

It is official, he has been sighted.

Scott has been spending quality time at work, lots of quality time. Some people would call him a workaholic, I think it really is a sickness. So, in desperate need of daddy time, we decided to spend a fun evening with the kids, away from the house and all its obligations. They voted for ITZ (imagine Chuckie Cheese on steroids) but we used our veto power and decided on the arcade in Manitou Springs. We started out a Sarvelli's with a yummy pizza (not cheese!) and then we made our way downtown Manitou. We walked around window shopping, sipping water from the springs (not so tasty) and enjoying the warm weather. Once at the arcade, the kids manage to go on every kiddie ride and play a few games for a mere 7$. We left the arcade and got ice-cream at Patsy's. Yum!

While we were at the arcade, we ran into some friends that we haven't seen in a year. Their kids are the same ages as ours and we cannot ever manage to work out a time when we all have a free night to meet up. After promising to do better at getting together (our annual parting mantra) , we headed for home. Sam: Thanks for such a fun night, dad!

Great end to a great evening.
We hope that you enjoyed your Thursday night as much as we did!
Jen