Update complete!

7-28-13

Reading a sewing book together. Captivating.

7-29-13

Corn on the cob!

Reading a book with Daddy before bed. Alanna has just started to join in on the stories.

What a funny sleep position!

7-30-13

"Hey, kids. Let's take a few pictures for Grandma!" Sometimes those quick casual photos are the ones that turn out the best. Oh, I'm so biased, but these two just melt my heart!!!

Everyday Life

7-23-13

"Hey, Ananna. Wanna play computers in my room with me?" I can't tell you how sweet it is to hear Charlie and Alanna playing together. They have the cutest conversations!

7-25-13

July has been a wet month for Canon; monsoon season came early and lasted a long time. Actually, it's still hanging on. Not that it has rained inches and inches of rain, but probably 2/3 of the month has ended in cloudy days with showers. It has been wonderful for a state in a state of drought. This particular day produced a bright rainbow!

7-26-13

Isn't this the FUNNIEST picture I snapped of Charlie? He was just standing there like this and I quickly looked his way to take the picture before he moved. SOOOO FUNNY! Rugby undies, Uncle Sam shirt, silly expression on his face with his leg kicked funny. :)

Apparently, our children were in a silly mood! They were dancing around the room in a crazy fashion while I was taking these pictures, so maybe that explains it. I, personally, think Alanna looks a bit like Tanna in this picture - probably because her arms are behind her back and she has a silly toothy grin. Tanna has some serious facial expression skills!!

Here's a sweet one! Charlie's face is a little blurry, but it's pretty good!

7-27-13

She would not take this hat off to eat lunch. Would not do it. Who doesn't need extra sun protection to eat cantaloupe indoors?!

Gorge Train with Grandma and Grandpa

7-18-13

Mark and Jean came for a visit in the middle of July specifically to help watch Charlie and Alanna while I was at YoungLives camp in Arizona. I was (and still am) so thankful that they were able to make the trip out to hang with Matt and the kids for the week! I never once worried about the kids and knew that they were having some special Grandma and Grandpa time together. Matt has been so busy at work, especially without any seasonal technicians this year, so Mark and Jean played a really crucial role in me being able to go to camp with the girls. One of the fun things they did together was take a trip on the Gorge train. I heard that they even got in on a few free tickets! Looked like a bluebird day!

 

Mark and Jean arrived on the 13th and stayed at the Quality Inn that night so we could hang out and swim at the pool. 2 years in a row of celebrating my birthday at the Quality Inn with Mark and Jean - how funny! We had lots of fun swimming on Saturday and Sunday, but it worked out well for them to stay with us the rest of the time they were here.

Happy Birthday, Matt!!

6-30-13

Grapes and juice after church.

Happy 4th of July! Grabbing a quick snuggle session with the kids. :)

7-9-13

I almost typed 7-9-81! Happy Birthday, Matt! The big 32!! The next few pictures don't have anything to do with Matt's birthday, but Alanna woke up from her nap and thought it would be a good idea to take her capris and diaper off. I know she didn't do it before she fell asleep because I had just changed her diaper and her diaper had been used. :) That could have (and probably will eventually) ended poorly.

Happy Birthday! Matt's cake of choice: oatmeal cake with coconut frosting. Actually, Matt made his own cake the night before so all I had to do was make the frosting and frost it. Nice choice, Matt, and great baking! It was delish! 32 years... we have officially been together longer than we've been apart!

Breckenridge

6-23-13

We took a day trip to Breckenridge to escape the heat and smoke, and it worked! It was cool enough for a jacket, except this awesome mother forgot to pack jackets for the kids. Matt scored some cheap Columbia fleece shirts for the kids to ward off the chill. We took in the farmer's market and walked downtown before hanging out by the river. Always a great time in Breckenridge!

Seriously. This is ridiculous.

Ok. For real. I have pictures from the last few months uploaded and ready to post, so get ready!

 

Let's recap June. June 1-14, Julie and kids to MN. June 15 and 16th were spent in Denver watching Matt finish a 100-mile bike ride to raise money for Young Life. While we were gone, Matt was at YL camp for a week (the second week of June). While we were ALL gone, half the state of Colorado decided to burn. That's where we'll pick this up.

 

During the second week of June, 2 big fires broke out near Canon; one in and around the Royal Gorge, nearly destroying the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. The only thing left standing was the bridge and 4 small buildings. 35 of the bridge's planks burned, but the bridge held on. Also, the Black Forest fire started east of Colorado Springs, destroying over 500 homes. Sad, sad time for many people. The Gorge fire was out by the time we all got back to Canon, but the Black Forest fire raged on for a while. Also, there was a huge fire complex burning in the south central/west part of the state that blew in a ton of smoke. From about the 16-26th of June, it was so disgustingly smoky outside. These first few pictures are of the smoky haze. It was hard to be outside, and honestly, hard to be inside at times, too. The swamp cooler only made things worse inside. Instead of smelling smoke, we smelled wet smoke. Imagine hanging out at a campfire for an evening, not taking a shower, then going to bed in your clothes, and waking up in the same smoke clothes for the next 10 days. Times 100. Then you're close.

Normally, this is a great view of the Wet Mountains, but all you could see was smoke. It literally rained ash from the sky.

6-22-13

Sonic slushies in the wagon! Can you tell that it's still smoky and hazy at this point? No sun!

Attacking a plum!

What Happened to June?!

Wow - I missed a whole month on the blog! Oops... I'm obviously a bit behind. I'll try to work on it in the next few days.

I took the kids to Minnesota June 1-14 and had a really great time. We did a lot of fun things and just enjoyed being together for an extended period of time. I ordered a whole Shutterfly book on our trip, so I'll probably keep it short on the blog. We took a trip out to North Dakota, took in a Redhawks game, experienced Summerfest and rode in Grandpa's fire truck in the parade, spent a night in West Fargo with Swensons, saw Grandma and Grandpa's new house (WOW!), spent a beautiful evening at Auntie Angie and Uncle JP's, played with cousins, went to Dairyland, and spent some great time with grandparents. It was well worth the 2760 miles on the road. :) Thanks, Mom, for your hospitality and for flying to Denver and helping drive us to MN!

 

On the way home, we stayed one night in North Platte, NE just to break up the drive. On the 15th, we finished the last few hours in the car and ended in Denver to meet up with Matt who participated in a 100-mile (century) bike ride as a fundraiser for Young Life. He started at 6:30 and finished around 2:15. He participated with a team of 12 people from Canon and they rode together all day (except for one guy who came in 10 minutes later). It was fun to see him cross the finish line! The kids were very excited to see Daddy again; Alanna would not let Matt put her down for a few hours after the ride. :) We spent the night in Denver at a hotel with four other families that had members that also did the ride. Sunday, Father's Day, we ate a huge breakfast, swam one more time in the hotel, and then headed for home. It was so nice to get home!

 

So what was Matt doing while we were in Minnesota? Well, he worked probably 55 hours the first week we were gone and was at YL camp the second week. He went straight from camp to the bike ride in Denver and managed to do the whole 100 miles on little to no sleep (7 hours over the 2 nights prior to the ride - yikes!). Matt also managed to get in several bike rides both on his road bike and his mountain bike. He hiked to the top of Twin Sisters peak one day and did all the things that are hard to find time to do when our family is all together.

 

The latter half of the month has been spent doing nothing at all. :) I've been taking the kids to free lunch at the high school as often as possible, and we've had a few playdates here and there, but mostly we have just been hanging around. Since I'm not teaching piano/voice this summer, we have nothing on our daily schedule. Last Sunday we took a day trip to Breckenridge and enjoyed the higher altitude and cooler temperatures. This weekend we had some later afternoon clouds roll in which also provided some relief from the heat. One thing about summer in Canon City is that it's bound to be hot, hot, hot for a long, long time. :S Right after our MN trip, we came back to hazy, smoke-filled skies for several days in a row. It got old very quickly. It's like hanging your head over a campfire for hours upon hours and not being able to get away from that smell. Our sheets smelled like smoke. Our whole house smelled like smoke. The air filter on the van sucked up a bunch of ash so it smelled like smoke in the van every time we drove anywhere. It was awful for a while! It's better now, even though there are still several fires throughout the state.

 

In other news, Alanna now says fish, tent, hat, book, hold you, more, oh bummer, and a whole bunch of other words. She's getting really brave and will try to say just about anything, even if it comes out nothing like it should. Charlie has taken a new interest in basketball and will ask you several times a day to play cars with him. His favorite phrase these days is "No, I'm not!" Ugh.

 

July will be a whole new month of activities and fun; birthdays, YoungLives camp for me in Arizona, Grandma and Grandpa R come for a visit (to watch the kids while I'm at camp!), playtime and pool time with friends, etc. Bring it on! Happy 4th!