Garden :)

Charlie: "Where's Abigail? Is she at garden?"
Me: "She's at kindergarten."
Charlie: "Yeah, yeah, she's at kindergarten. (Small pause.) Is she looking for potatoes?"

*Abigail is Karen's daughter whom we see frequently.

Apparently kindergarten and garden are synonyms. :)

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!