First Day of Second Grade

Jenna and her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Thelen on meet the teacher night.

Excited and ready to go! 

A close up of the cuteness.

What we all look like this year: First day of 2nd grade, 3-and-8/12 years old, and day before starting the 6th year at LP. Here we go!

Summer Wrap Up

We packed a lot of fun into this summer! In addition to our trips, here's what we were up to: We made several trips to the North Pole. We are so thankful to Papa and Mima for getting our season passes! One week, we went 3 times!

I think this was Kellen's first time to ride these rockets. They go so much faster than you would think! The next time we came, he didn't want to ride them. And the next time we went, they changed the rules and I had to ride with him!

He wore his Ironman costume one time & was glad to get to ride Rudolph. 

These three are quite the trio!

Jenna can drive these all by herself, now.

Kellen is a good driver, too!

So glad they are such loving buddies!

They had lots of fun playing together!

Jenna had a garage sale or two.

"Grage sale. One penny for each thing you buy." Our nice neighbors came by and bought a tennis ball and some purple mardi gras beads. This is the only sale I know of where people wanted to pay more than the asking price - she made $1.36!

Friday, June 6th, this deer and her two fawns came wandering into Papa and Mima's yard. They stayed for quite a while and let us watch. It was really fascinating! 

We had some fun with the cousins' dog Roxy while they were out of town. It was fun to pretend that she was pulling this carriage!

We had fun picking rhubarb with some friends! And even more fun eating it! Yummy!

We went to VBS! (See video 0213 in "Summer '14" folder.)

And to a princess/pirate party at church - Argh Matey!

To paraphrase a favorite line from his favorite book - "I'll eat him up, I love him so!"

We watched some movies at the theater: Maleficient, Rio 2, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Despicable Me, Mr. Peabody & Sherman.

And we watched some movies at home: Tinkerbell and the Pirate Fairy (really good with background about the beginnings of Captain Hook), Dolphin Tale, and others I don't recall.

And we watched some outdoor movies: Despicable Me 2, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, & The Lego Movie.

We read lots and lots of books. Both kids finished the library's summer reading program. I read (or we listened to the CD) "Little House in the Big Woods," "Little House on the Prairie," "Farmer Boy," & "On the Banks of Plum Creek" of the Little House series with Jenna and Kellen. Books on CD are really great for trips! I don't think Jenna spent one night in her own bed all summer. Instead, she slept on the trundle in Kellen's room or they took a turn in the big bed with Kevin or me.

I made homemade laundry detergent. Not so sure about it.

We watched some baby bunnies.

We took some hikes

Did some swimming

We put Kellen inside a tuba.

Kellen pretended he was a horse using Daddy's socks

We did some gold panning.

We were honored to witness our nephew's baptism - June 28th.

Great to have them as family

Legacy - both sets of Grandparents

They splashed in some puddles - yay for rain!

We enjoyed our hummingbird friends. I wish I had kept track of how many times we refilled the feeder - it was at least once a week.

Jenna made a fairy house - "Welcome Fairies!" I love her so!

And, she wanted to sleep all night in sponge rollers. Voila! Lots of curls!

Kellen got a new hair do, too! Love his short hair - rubbing his head is irresistible!

And, he started doing this silly pose whenever he realizes I'm trying to get his picture.

He learned to pump his legs to keep himself swinging! He needs a push to get started, but can keep going for a while.

Her right front tooth, that she lost on January 1st, finally started growing in at the end of July. This picture was taken August 10th. So glad to finally see that tooth!

She finally got brave enough to try the 3-story slide at Focus. She loved it so much, she rode it 8 times in a row!

I learned that if you dead-head your petunias and just toss them in the yard, they will start growing there. We can't grow grass back there, but we can grow petunias!

We got a "new to us" car just in time for Kevin to go back to work.

We took a tour of Patsy's Candies. It was really interesting and yummy! We all got samples of taffy, chocolate, bon bons, and their version of a truffle. If you're local you should check it out at their store on 21st Street - Monday - Friday at 11 am or 2 pm. If you go at 11 am like we did, you will surely spoil your lunch!

We grew tomatoes for the first time. There's nothing like the taste of a home grown tomato - delicious!

Somebody cut a chunk out of Kellen's hair. Guess we can check that one off the rite of passage list. : ) Glad it was his hair and not Jenna's.

We had lots of silly fun! 

And shared lots of meals together outside.

And tomorrow we begin the adventure of 2nd grade! There's sure to be a lonely boy without his playmate here tomorrow.

Winter Park

Saturday, July 19th, Dad, Mom, & Matt came to spend the night with us on the way to Winter Park. Matt got this cute picture of the kids eating breakfast Sunday morning. Dad, Mom, & Matt drove up to Winter Park on Sunday afternoon.

Tuesday, July 22nd, we drove up to join them. We didn't do much that day except enjoy the hummingbirds.

Wednesday morning, July 23rd, we didn't do much. There was watermelon for lunch and then, they planted watermelon seeds.

 Jenna tried on Grandpa's fishing hat

Wednesday afternoon, Kevin, Matt, Jenna and I went fishing on the Vasquez.

Thursday, July 24th, Kevin, Matt, & I went fishing again. This time on St. Louis Creek. Kevin got a pretty good sized one. We caught 24 in all that day.

Thursday evening, Kevin and I went biking on this pretty path. Then, Friday morning, July 25th, I walked the path. Meanwhile, Kevin started out here and rode 22 miles round trip.

After my walk, I took the kids on a nature hike while we waited for Kevin to get back.

 "Let's hold hands!"

Friday afternoon, Kevin and I took the kids to the local recreation center pool. They have a little kids' slide, a lazy river and a big slide. We went back after dinner - it was so fun!

Saturday, July 26th, David, Katie, and Leslie came. After they got some lunch, Kevin, Matt, & I took them out to St. Louis Creek for a fishing trip.

 David and Leslie each caught a couple and Kevin caught several.

Kevin tried out his Life Straw 

After a yummy chili dinner, we took the kids out for ice cream and a little shopping. Jenna had been wanting to buy a bag of little rocks for a long time. Today was the day that she got to pick some out. Both kids had a great time choosing the best ones.

There was a little fountain with some bear statues. We asked the kids how they would pose if they were a statue. Here's Kellen's pose - silly boy!

While we were gone, eating ice cream and picking out rocks, Katie got a better rock. David proposed to Katie! He made a video for her of pictures of places they had dates and special memories. Congratulations to David and Katie!

Sunday morning, July 27th, we went to church outside overlooking Grand Lake.

 We got a nice family picture

The place where they have church is also the place where they have weddings - Nuptial Knoll. We thought it would be a great place to get a better picture of the newly engaged couple.

And we got a fun one with just the girls, too!

After church, we had brunch at the Grand Lake Lodge. Kellen put Kevin's hat on and it looked so funny/cute. But, when he realized that I was trying to get his picture, he put his finger up to his eye. And, a new quirk was born. Now he does this every time!

Uncle Matt was able to catch him off guard. 

 These little rocking chairs . . .

were just the right size. 

After brunch, we hiked to Adams Falls

It looked about the same as it did a couple weeks ago - July 7th . . .

vs July 27

 Then, we took the kids to swim at "the beach" again.

Jenna got the courage to jump off the deck. (See video 0556 in "Winter Park '14" folder.)

I tried to capture a cute sister/brother moment, but the boy was too cold.

We cut the kids off after about 30 minutes at the beach - the sun is so intense there. Matt, Leslie, David, & Katie had ice cream while we were in the water. So, after our swim, we had to get some, too. We walked around the town a little, then headed back to Winter Park for the best pizza dinner at Hernando's Pizza.

Monday morning, July 28th, at 5:30 am, Kevin & Matt took David on the infamous railroad track hike out to fish the Fraser River. David caught a big cut throat trout. Kevin & Matt got some really nice sized brown trout. Katie, Leslie, the kids, and I watched Frozen while they were gone. Katie & Leslie had never seen it, so we had to fix that!

Monday afternoon, we all went to the Winter Park resort. (Kellen is pretending to drink the giant coke.)

Katie played mini golf with Kellen. 

Hole - in - too many to count. 

Jenna did the bungee jumping. Hopefully, next year Kellen will weigh enough so he can do it, too. 

Kevin and Kellen on the Alpine slide 

Katie . . . 

and David rode too. While they did that, I went with Jenna for mini golf, bounce house, & rock climbing.

Then, we needed some more ice cream. For dinner that night, we had a delicious trout meal then had to say our goodbyes.

Tuesday morning, July 29th, Matt and Leslie left at 5 am. David & Katie left around 9 am. Grandma took the kids on a nature walk while we packed up and we left around 10 am.

Since we had just gone to Casa Bonita (our traditional after-mountain-house lunch stop) a few weeks ago, we decided to try lunch at the Denver Aquarium. Much better food, but not quite as entertaining as Casa Bonita.

It was a fun way to end a fun week. And, I'll leave you with another weird pose from Kellen.