Well, I have pretty much missed the whole summer of blogging...so that indicates a busy summer, therefore, a lot to write about! :-) June flew by! The kids started tennis and loved it. A great age appropriate class for each of them. Definitely a must for next summer. Emily of course fell in love with her riding lessons and Evan enjoyed Tball. It is a bit of a commitment but he really liked it. Emily and Evan also took golf lessons and really enjoyed it. Jaelynn was wishing she was taking...but she waited a bit too long. :-) We continued with swim and violin as well...the usual stuff.
The girls did the Longmont Kids Triathlon this year (and I did the adult one) in June. They had a great time and talk about doing it again next year...Evan will likely take part next year too. :-) We had a great Father's Day with hanging around for some Daddy time, then off to the Monster Truck races at the CO Speedway. It was a blast and the kids loved it. Wasn't too hot which was a bonus as well. There are some good pic on the website as well.
Throughout the month of June we did weekly hikes with some friends in the neighborhood. We went to several places throughout Boulder county and saw some new areas. The kids enjoyed and we found a couple great areas.
One hi-light of the summer was our camping trip to Ouray, CO. It is about a 6 hr drive southwest down near Telluride. We took 4 days and went down with another family (kids same age as ours). Even with the fire ban at the time we had a great time. It was warm enough we didn't need fire for warmth...and mid summer so we had light pretty late. We encountered snakes, baby skunks (at a safe distance), lizards, squirrels, deer, and we had a nice little black bear at the campsite. I think between our 6 kids they kept the bear away from the camp sites. I'm sure our neighbor campers were happy. :-) Ehren and friend Todd hiked up a 14-er (main reason for this location of trip). That day Heidi and I took the kids hiking, to the beach, and then for iced cream. :-) On this trip our kids also learned to fish...themselves that is. :-) It was a great time. We took part of a day and drove to Telluride and rode the gondola up the ski hill. A beautiful area that we'd love to go back to sometime!
July brought the 4th of July and then the Johnson family visited us for a weekend on their trip back to San Diego from Canada. As soon as they were gone we had Blair and Dar around for a couple weeks. They were grand kid sitting. Ehren and I went to Vegas for brother Nathan's wedding to Kiran...Mom and Dad watched our kids while we were gone for the 3 1/2 days. We had a great time in Vegas...all Ehren's brothers and Mom were there so we had some good visiting time. The wedding was simple but very well done...all at the Wynn. A great weekend!
We arrived home Sunday evening from Vegas, unpacked and re-packed to head out on a two week road trip! We decided since we'd just seen my parents, and Ehren's family at the wedding we were going to change our summer up and do a road trip south instead of north this year! We have some great pics on the website to check out but here's what we did...
Monday left to Santa Fe, NM for a brief stay. Over the next couple days we visited the Painted Dessert, Petrified Forest (kids earned Junior Ranger badges), Sunset Meteor Crater, Wupatki National Monument, and Walnut Canyon. We took a drive up to the Grand Canyon and did the Watchtower and hiked along the South Rim. We spent nights in Flagstaff (beautiful town) and Tusayan (near grand canyon). We started south to Scottsdale and enjoyed a wonderful Marriott and dinner at Benihana's. The next day we took off to San Diego. Here we stayed with the Johnson family, visited some old friends from Longmont (met at the beach), went to the Midway (aircraft carrier where the kids earned junior wings), and did SeaWorld. That evening we went to Anaheim to spend a day at each Disneyland and California adventure...we spent my birthday at Disneyland...what a treat! Fun thing...our kids now love doing the bigger roller coasters now...so we did all there was to do! :-) On Thurs. we went to Las Vegas and stayed at a wonderful family resort south on the strip...and did the Hoover Dam. Spent some great time in the pools and then took off driving home on Saturday. Our plan was a two day drive home but by dinner time we decided to drive the whole way...so we actually arrived home sat.night...late. What a wonderful trip! There are so many memories and some great places to see!!
So, that is two months in a nutshell (sort of). Kids' blogs will be short since there has been such a time lapse. :-) School starts shortly and they are sooo excited. Emily starting 4th, Jae to 2nd and Evan in Kindergarten. Wow! I will also start working Mondays and Tuesdays until the end of October once the kids start school. It will be to cover a maternity leave.
We hope you are all doing well and will update you again soon!
