Summer Break Week 5

Doing this week by week has really made blogging much easier for me.  I'm hoping this will help me get back on track.  As I fill in these summer weeks, I am also hoping to go back and pick up where I left off....at Easter.  So, stay tuned!

Week 5 started with Father's Day.  For Father's Day this year we made a video for Reid.  It was fun to ask the kids questions about their dad and to hear their responses.  I used iMovie to put it together and was pleasantly surprised with all of the features that iMovie had.  I need to make some more videos before I feel completely confident using it, but it was a start.  We also had a great sacrament meeting for Father's Day, which included the Primary children singing "My Daddy" and "When Grandpa Comes".  I have really enjoyed teaching the kids the primary songs.  I get excited to share the music with them and wish I could teach them the whole Children's Songbook.  After church we came home to a quick lunch and then to load up the car for our family vacation.  We enjoyed Estes Park so much last August that we wanted to go back.  We had reservations for 4 nights at the YMCA and were anxious to get there.  We gave Reid his other Father's day gift of beef jerky from the Beef Jerky Outlet just for the trip. We arrived around 5pm at the YMCA only to find that our cabin wasn't ready.  At about 6:30pm I gave up on the idea of cooking dinner in the cabin and accepted vouchers from the concierge to have dinner in the cafeteria.  The dinner was awful.  I couldn't even find anything that looked good, and the kids didn't either.  Even the rolls and dessert were awful.  Bree spit both of them out.  It was really that bad.  We went for a walk to look around the grounds a bit more and even went to the playground to pass some time.  Around 8pm we finally settled down with the boys playing iPad at the Administration building.  Finally at 9pm our cabin was ready and we got the key.  It was really late for the kids and after talking to the manager she decided to comp us the night.  Thank goodness!  The kids didn't end up in bed until 10:30pm and we were all tired.

Exploring the YMCA grounds

I wanted her to look at the camera so I asked, "Where's Mommy?"  Yep, she knew where I was.

The boys loved this spinning thing

Monday we slept in and I realized just how much a late night threw off our plans.  While Reid got some rest at the cabin the kids and I went to the playground.  After playing there we decided to go the activities building and found a foosball table with a ball still in it and so I played with the boys.  We had another gentleman join us who had played a lot of foosball when he was stationed in Germany in the '60s.  For the first game it was me and him versus the boys.  After we won, the boys took on me and Bree.  It was a tight game (who knew I was a decent foosball player?!) but the boys (all 3 of them!) beat us.  From there we wandered up to the deck of the building to find bubbles and the kids had a blast playing around with those for a bit.  After that we were back to the cabin for lunch, a game of Ticket to Ride while Bree took a nap,  and then we all headed into Rocky Mountain National Park for a hike.  We headed to the Alluvian Fan Trail and loaded up for a hike.  It wasn't nearly as long of a hike as we had anticipated, but it was fun to get there and take off our shoes and dip our toes in the frigid water.  Bree in particular loved "flying" in her backpack and playing in the water.

Our cabin was right across from a "gathering" area with a tire swing and, well, not much else.

Bubbles

I asked the boys to sit on the rock at the start of our hike so I could take a picture.  Finn said he wanted to meditate??!!!

What an incredible hiking view!

She's flying!

COLD water!

Reid's really good with the panoramic shots

Kai made some friends.  This other girl liked rocks, too, and apparently she "saved his life".  He says he was falling off the rock and she saved him.  It must not have been a dramatic rescue because we didn't hear or see anything.

Me and my little boys

Being goofy!

After our hike we headed into town for dinner at Penelope's (pretty good burgers) and some time walking the downtown area.  We got some "Grandma's Cookies" and discovered we don't like them at all, and some taffy as well.  We love the taffy from Estes Park.  Then it was back to the cabin for treatments and bedtime.

At the water wheel in downtown Estes

The deer came so close to our deck.  We even saw one prancing.  It was really neat.

The view from the deck of our cabin

On Tuesday we managed to get going much earlier and decided to head to the Wild Basin trailhead to hike to Calypso Cascade Falls.  We got there to discover the parking lot full at 10am.  The rangers said it's normally full by 9am or earlier, so the kids and I hopped out and Reid headed to park the car down the road.  Once we got started hiking we learned that 1.8 miles seems a lot longer when you are going up the side of a mountain.  But it was a great trail that followed the river and so were had a cool mist most of the hike which was nice.  Bree once again loved to "fly" and the boys did pretty well.  Due to recent rains one of the bridges further up the trail had been washed out and so we were passed on the trail several times by park rangers on horses leading pack mules with lumber up to the area where they were repairing the bridge.  It was pretty neat and all of the kids expressed interest in riding a horse.  It took much longer to get to the falls than we had anticipated and I was glad that we had plenty of snacks that filled in as lunch when we got there.  After half an hour of snacking or so, we headed back down.  Poor Finn and Bree were exhausted and both fell asleep in the car as we headed back into town.  We decided to head to Cheesy Lee's for a late lunch/early dinner.  When we walked in sometime after 3pm, we were the only ones there.  There was a large (but disorganized/messy/and dirty) play area for the kids and many board games for people to play at their tables.  Reid and Kai decided on a game of battleship while Finn and Bree (and me by default) played with some of the toys while we waited for our pizza.  The pizza was actually quite good and it was nice to have some downtime and not feel any pressure to leave.  We ate and played until Reid and Kai finished their game and then headed back to the car.  From there we decided to head to the aerial tramway for a ride up the mountain and to catch the views.  We spent about 45 minutes walking around up top before heading down on the tramway and back to town for some ice cream before heading back to the cabin and calling it a day.

Notice the flower that she is clinging to?

Seriously this kid is going through a major posing phase.  It's awesome!

I love my little princess.

Snack break

Kai's really been wanting pictures of just him by himself.  He got a lot of them on our vacation.

Why would he not want to stand next to this for a picture??  I just don't understand.  :)

Poser

Calypso Cascade Falls

Hiking back to the car.  It's much easier going down the mountain.

His first game of battleship

Panoramic of the view from the top of the aerial tramway

On Wednesday the kids and I decided to hit the playground again in the morning.  From there we went into the craft building and I let each kid pick out something to paint.  The boys settled on wood toy planes and Bree got a star coat hangar.  It was fun to watch them paint and I was pleasantly surprised that all three of them took it pretty seriously and did excellent jobs.  Finn needs work on his fine motor skills and things of this nature are normally hard for him, but he pushed through and did a fantastic job.  From there we went back to the cabin for an early lunch before heading to the stables for some horseback riding. Reid and Kai got to go on a 1-hour trail ride and Finn and Bree got turns on a pony.  Poor Bree was doing great until the pony had to blow his nose and then she got so scared she wouldn't get back on him.  I never managed to get a picture of her on the pony because she only lasted about 3 minutes before getting scared off.  Poor thing!  Finn loved his pony ride and really wanted to do the trail ride with his dad and brother, but he wasn't old enough.  I was surprised that my kid who is generally afraid of animals really seemed to enjoy the pony.  Finn is one of those kids who likes anything his brother likes, but still hasn't found his own interests.  I hope this summer we are getting closer to finding things that he truly enjoys for himself.

Kai's first time on a horse and a trail ride (His horse's name was Doc.  Reid was on Joey.)

Finn got to ride a really old pony named Shortcake.  He's been giving pony rides at the YMCA for over a decade apparently.  (The ranch hand that got him out for us told us that she rode him when she was a kid, so I'm guessing it's closer to twenty years that he has been giving rides.)

They told us not to let him eat.  Finn wanted to let him eat.  Finn wins!

Welcoming them back from the trail

I think the wrangler was trying to stay out of the picture.  The other wrangler took the picture and she should have just told her it was no use!

After pony rides it was back to the cabin for naptime.  While Bree napped the boys headed out to play mini-golf with their dad.  It began to storm and so they came back and I started cooking dinner in the cabin.  It was nice to have a family-style meal at the large dinner table there and to enjoy time together.  That night Reid and Kai went to an astronomy class while I put the other two to bed.  They got back about 10pm and were in bed pretty quickly as we had to be up early the next day to back up and check out.

We checked out by 10am on Thursday and began the drive home.  We went home via Golden, Colorado to make a stop at Heritage Square.  I had bought a Groupon for passes at Miner's Maze Adventureland and so we stopped to check it out.  The boys had fun and took quite a while to get through the maze.  Then they decided to use the rest of the activities on their pass by doing the water walkers, the train, and the web crawl.  We also all went up to the alpine slide and each got to go down.  Finn rode with Reid, Bree rode with me, and Kai was old enough to drive his own.  I've never done an alpine slide before but it was a lot of fun!  Bree said "Weeee!" several times on the way down and I agreed with her!

Saying goodbye to the YMCA!

Bree playing with a bobble head moose while the boys were lost in the maze at Miner's Maze Adverntureland

Kai rode the ski lift for the first time and he had to go all by himself.  I was clinging to Bree the whole time and was really really glad when we reached to the top.  No seatbelts and a two year old 30 feet up in the air makes me very anxious.

The web crawl

After our stop we finally arrived home about 5pm.  We unloaded and then I ordered some chinese food for dinner.  It had been a long week and we were all tired.  It was nice to be home.

Friday we played catch-up with loads and loads of laundry, cleaning, and just some good play time.  Saturday was more of the same, as well as some outdoor chores of bush trimming, etc.  It was a good, busy week!

Summer Break Week 4

We spent week 4 doing an interesting mix of things.  Kai had day camp for two days during the week and so it was just me, Finn, and Bree for those two days.  The first day I did quite a bit of errands around the house.  I finally got Bree down for a nap and started to play a game with Finn when I got a phone call that Kai was back from camp early.  So I had to wake Bree up and go to get Kai from the church.  The second day of camp I got Kai dropped off and then once the others were ready we ran several errands down in town.  First we checked out some parks for possible playgroup days.  It was a hot day so after playing for a bit we headed to Target to get some Icees and do some window shopping.  From there we went to Costa Vida, a new Mexican style restaurant (like Chipotle) in our area.  It was a fun morning and we enjoyed our time together.

We borrowed a Kelty from a friend for our trip.  I tried it out when we got it and Bree LOVED it.  She said she was flying and kept demanding "Fly me!"  I had to hide the backpack until we went on vacation.

We have some great friends we were volunteering at day camp and they were texting me pictures throughout the days that Kai was there.  This is him doing a stick pull.

On  day two they did rock climbing.  I didn't really think he was going to try so I was proud of him when I saw this picture.

They built rockets and if you look closely you can see Kai's rocket in the air in this picture.

Trying out a horsey at a park.

 Once Kai was done with day camp, we did a lot of errands to get ready for our family vacation.  There were trips for groceries, Father's day gifts, mowing the lawn, and just general cleaning, laundry, laundry, and more laundry.  We also went to playgroup on Thursday.  So, while there was nothing super exciting it was a busy week.  Oh yeah, and there was also another baseball game.  Kai and Finn had back-to-back games and picture day so I went to Kai's game and Reid took Finn to his.  Busy week!

Finn's First T-ball game

So, Finn's disorganized team, The Padres, had their first game this weekend.  His "coach" is just one of the YMCA employees and so she had other things to do on Saturday and couldn't be at the game.  So, Finn was nervous and upset his "coach" wasn't there and spent the first 10 minutes crying.  Finally, I got one of the dads who was helping out come over and talk to him and encourage him to come play.  That worked like a charm and Finn was off to "Play Ball!".  Unfortunately, both teams were very disorganized and everyone only got one at-bat and one time in the field.  But it was good for a couple of reasons.  First, the dads were just as frustrated with the disorganization as the moms and so by the end of the game 3 dads had committed to be the team coach--Wahoo!  Second, the kids got some experience and we now know that things can't get worse.  At least I hope not.  Anyway, practice this week was SOOO much better with a dad coming in with a practice plan and the kids all engaged and playing.  Shew!

Finn at bat.  He can really hit it off the tee.  He's still working on coach pitches--but I'll be honest in that I think he's coaches are still working on how to throw the ball to the kids.

Kai also had his first game on Saturday.  His team is the Twins.  I didn't take any pictures because they all would have had a fence in them as we were behind an actual baseball field and they actually played real ball.  The kids all got 7 pitches, they were allowed to throw "outs" and run doubles or more (at Finn's age everything is just a single), but they weren't keeping score or track of things.  Just playing by the "rules".   If you actually counted things, Kai's team would have one.  The first inning all of the kids hit the ball and got on base.  Kai got tagged out at 3rd, but there was really nothing he could have done--the bases were loaded and he had to go somewhere.  The second inning Kai's first hit resulted in a foul ball and then he unfortunately didn't get another hit.  He was upset and spent 10 minutes crying, but we finally got him out on the field again and he got to play "pitcher" and that seemed to cheer him up.  At one point I considered showing my kids the scene in "A League of Their Own" where Tom Hanks says, "There's no crying.  THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!"  But I guess it's not necessary any more.  I hope we're done with the crying.  Two baseball games, two boys crying.  It has to get better!

Summer Break weeks 2-3

Of course, right after my last post, things all fell apart.  It seemed that kids were getting cranky and tired of each other.  I guess the start of summer was the "honeymoon" period and then everyone started getting sick of each other.

Both boys started YMCA baseball on Monday June 1st.  Kai's team is filled with kids from our ward.  His coach is from our ward and all but about 4 kids are from the ward (there are 12 kids total).  And of those 4, two he knew from his team last year.  It's a great group of kids and Kai is having a great time doing baseball.  In fact, he has even improved from last year despite not ever practicing.  Finn's team on the other hand has been very disorganized.  He didn't have a coach and so a Y staff member coached for the first two practices.  But I'll save that story for another blog post.  Anyway, despite the disorganization Finn is enjoying baseball and says he is good at it.  Yay!

On Tuesday June 2nd we spent the morning at the library.  The boys signed up for the summer reading program and we watched the program that was titled "Jim Jackson and Busker the Circus Dog".  We were expecting an actual circus dog.  What we found left me disappointed at first, as it was just a guy doing a one-man act.  But he turned out to be a lot of fun.  He was a great story-teller and did some magic tricks and some slap stick comedy.  It was a lot of fun.  Even Finn was sad he missed part of it (he stayed out in the kids' section because he is afraid of dogs and didn't want to see it, or so he thought).

The rest of our week was relatively low key--chores at home, summer workbooks, etc., until Thursday the 4th.  That morning we had a lot going on.  We left the house in time to make it to the 10:15 toddler time at the library.  From there we ran to Wal-Mart to grab some Lunchables to take to the park.  Then we went to our playgroup at Black Forest Regional Park.  We played there for nearly 2 hours before having to leave and drive directly to Denver International Airport to pick up my mom.  We got there at just the right time.  We were able to park, go in and use the bathroom, and then find my mom at baggage claim.  From there we headed to Deseret Book in Denver (I had no idea we had one until playgroup and we needed to get scriptures for Kai!) and then finally home.  We got home closer to 5:30pm.  The poor kids had been out of the house all day!  But it had all been fun, despite us all being tired.

On Friday the 5th it was forecasted to be cooler and rain was on it's way.  It was the perfect day for the zoo!!  I actually like going to the zoo on days like that because it's not as hot, not as crowded, and the animals seem to be a bit more active.  We were not disappointed by the zoo at all.  It was a lot of fun and we didn't even know that we happened to be there for opening day of the new Australia exhibit.  It was neat to have the wallabies bouncing right up to our feet.  We've renewed our zoo membership for the year and we are looking to go back again soon.  We could have stayed several hours longer, but I hadn't planned on spending more than two or three hours and so I didn't have enzymes for Finn or snacks for the kids.  The rain was also rolling in, so we headed back to the car.  On the way home we stopped at Costco to get muffins and fruit for refreshments for Kai's baptism, and then we ate lunch there, too.  Finally we made it home!  It was another long day out of the house!

Trying to get Finn to stand still or Bree to look at the camera is a real tough task!

On Saturday June 6th, Kai was baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He has been looking forward to this event for a long time and I'm glad it turned out to be such a nice day for him.  We had a smallish-group there, but not too small.  It really was just about perfect.  One of Kai's friends from the baseball team also came, which was a great surprise.  I have become good friends with this kid's mom and she knows many members of our church so it was neat to have her come and see our building and support Kai in his baptism.  They are a great family!

Kai had asked his Primary teacher, Sister Tuft, to give the talk on baptism, and then several of his friends sang his favorite song with him.  It was a great musical number called "When I am baptized".  After that he was baptized by his dad and our home teacher, Levi Hilton, and good family friend, Bruce Horton, served as the witnesses.  Bree did not understand what was going on at all and kept saying relatively loudly "Daddy take a bath?!"  "Daddy take a bath with Kai?!"  It was cute and embarrassing all at the same time!

After his baptism, I gave the talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost and then he was confirmed a member by his father.  We had the same men standing in the circle as well as some of the other men there--the Bishop, Bart Atkinson, and a friend, Reid Bolander.  It was a nice blessing.  After all of that was done, he was welcomed to the ward by the bishop and the primary president. We closed with a prayer from Kai's grandma and then we went to the gym for refreshments.  It was a really nice morning and the refreshments worked out perfectly.  We are very proud of Kai!

Bree rips bows out of her hair.  Her holding it is my way of saying I tried!

Sunday the 7th, Kai was sustained in the ward and he had the biggest grin on his face.  He was so thrilled about the whole weekend.

On Monday the 8th, I took advantage of having extra hands and we headed to the outlets to do some clothes shopping for just about everyone, but especially me.  I got new shoes for Finn and picture outfits for the boys, but I also got some new clothes for me (a new church dress, skirt, some shirts, etc.)  It was nice to be able to browse a bit more than I normally can.  We even had lunch at the outlets.  It was a fun and busy day.  And of course, the boys had baseball practice that evening.

On Tuesday the 9th we took Grandma to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  It's one of our favorite spots in Denver and our membership is ending this month and we still had one guest ticket, so it was a great time to use it.  We actually had great timing all day.  We seemed to be ahead of most of the crowds and were able to enjoy the exhibits and get through them in decent time.  I was impressed.  We took up a lot of food as there are certain areas they allow you to sit down and eat and so it was nice to find a corner to ourselves and have a quick picnic.  After we were done inside the museum we went outside to find the outdoor fountain turned on.  We had never seen it before somehow, but it was a lot of fun.  We still haven't had the time to explore City Park, and it looks so nice.  We're going to have make a special trip just to see more of what is out there!

The boys were nervous to get wet at first and so they raced to the middle and made a game out of trying to get through the fountain without getting wet.

Dodging the sprays

Bree thought the fountain looked fun but then decided the water was too cold and the cement too hot for her.

I can't believe how big he is getting.

Still dodging the sprays

This kid was eventually SOAKED!

Finn later told me that he had no fun because he was all wet.  I submit this pictures as evidence that his statement is fabricated.

This kid had fun--and wasn't as wet!

We took a quick picture at the Mastadon on our way back to the car.  The statue was quite hot, but they had cold wet clothes.  It worked out.

Finally, grandma's last day was the 10th of June.  We spent the morning cleaning and at home since we had been out so much.  Grandma went to lunch with a friend, and then for dinner we had Papa Johns.  After that we headed south to Rock Ledge Ranch where we were meeting our friend for family pictures.  Once again our timing was fantastic (right after a BAD rainstorm) and we were able to take our time and get some great pictures.  We still haven't gotten them back, but we have seen a couple and I'm excited to see the rest.  It was one of the most fun photo sessions we have had!

Bree has really liked rocks lately.  These little ones fit perfectly in her ears.  I dare you to ask me how I know!  Her dress got quite dirty in between picture takes.

Sneak peek of our family pictures

Another sneak peek

Thursday the 11th we took grandma back to the airport and then headed back to playgroup.  The kids had spent so much time in the car we needed to just get out and play.  Unfortunately, it started to thunder and lightning so we decided to move indoors--to our house!!  Our house got pretty messy from having about 15 kids run through it.  We've been trying to clean up and get back into a routine ever since.

The last several days we have laid low and just tried to regroup/recover.  Kai has Cub Scout day camp today and tomorrow and then we have a couple of fun things we do later this week.  But we are trying to get organized and ready because next week is our official summer vacation!  Estes Park--here we come.  I just have 5 more days to get everything ready.  The kids are excited and I'm hoping we will have everything we need to have a great time.  Wish us luck!