On October 1st, Charlie and Alanna's grades (plus 4th grade) had a day of outdoor learning at Pathfinder Park. It was a fully unplugged day of writing poetry beside the river, learning Spanish under the shade trees, playing on the playground equipment with their classes, making up cheers (pictured) to encourage classmates, and so much more. They ate packed lunches and came home thoroughly exhausted. It was a really neat idea. I've struggled this year with the kids having Chromebooks and have a lot of opinions about it - both good and bad - so it was nice for them to get outside and learn in a different format for a day. It turns out kids can still learn without devices and WiFi!! ;)
I think it's so fun to hit the road and see what we can find, so one Saturday in October, we did just that. We started for Buffalo Peaks but once we got close, we could see that most of the leaves had already blown off the trees. No problem; we kept driving up and over Hoosier pass, through Breckenridge, Frisco, and headed west on I70. While in Breckenridge, we made a quick stop at the troll again so Matt and Hattie could see it. I asked the kids to help collect pretty fall leaves throughout the day for a fall leaf craft and boy, did they! We brought home lots of beautiful leaves! Then we turned south in Minturn, walked around town for a bit, and then drove to Leadville, again spending some time downtown Leadville. We finished the day driving south through BV and walking on the river walk in Salida. We found some beautiful colors and some Aspen groves that didn't have a single leaf left. We made a stop in Red Cliff, a tiny town we had never been to before. The kids played at a little park for a while. In a time where a lot of things operate and look differently than pre-COVID, it's nice to get out and do a family day-trip around this beautiful state.
Fall craft: leaf prints! The kids laid out fall leaves on wax paper and I covered them with another piece of wax paper. A bit of time under the iron and they had really neat leaf prints!
Janae Versaw is watching Hattie this month, and Hattie has enjoyed her time with Teigan (16 months) and Roman (8 months). Teigan was adopted about four days after they found out they were pregnant with Roman! Janae is pregnant again so come February, they will have three babies under 20 months. Hattie has had so much fun with the babies!
October 7-12: Matt, Hattie, and Jordan drove to ND to duck hunt. Hattie didn't hunt. :) Jean called two nights before the hunters left and asked if we would be willing to send Hattie along with so she could spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. Jean and Judy drove out to my dad's property in ND and met Matt to pick up Hattie. On Monday, Jean brought Hattie back out to ND to drive home. It was an unexpected ask but a great opportunity to spend one-on-one time with Hattie, so we decided that outweighed the fact that she would miss three days of preschool.
This is one of the choirs at CCHS called Encore. We had fall concerts on October 12th and 13th, so while Matt and Hattie were gone hunting in ND, the big kids got to come with me to a lot of rehearsals. :/ This is a group of really great kids - talented and polite and just fun people.
Matt and Jordan on my dad's property in front of my uncle's camper. They had an amazing time duck and goose hunting and came home with a ton of ducks. Matt said that it was maybe his most fun hunting trip ever! I'll have him fill in some details and add some more pictures of their time hunting.
While Matt and Hattie were gone, I arranged some time with friends for the big kids. Alanna and Molly had two friends over, Karoline and Alex. They are sisters and in their same grades at school. Their mom, Jamie, ended up staying while the girls played so we got a chance to chat. I know Jamie from my gym, Fit 101, and she also teaches at CCHS. Her girls transferred into MVCKS at the beginning of the school year so it has been fun for my girls to get to know her girls. Charlie wanted to invite Grayson over to play, but instead, Grayson asked him if he wanted to come to a 'fall party' at his house. It was a bit of a miss, honestly. It turned out to be a "boyfriend/girlfriend" party and Charlie came home with all kinds of feelings. He said that everyone there had a boyfriend/girlfriend and they were playing on their phones some of the time. So Charlie and I had a long talk about some of his feelings after that. I was bummed for him; it's hard to see your kiddo struggle with friends knowing that I can't swoop in and fix anything. I guess the group did walk to the park (with Grayson's mom) to play. They ate pizza and hung out, I guess. Gray's parents were home and when I picked Charlie up, I talked to Jandi for a minute. Charlie walked out in a really grumpy fashion so I knew something was wrong. Anyway, we talked for a while after the party. Fifth grade seems early to have some of these conversations, but I guess it's probably not. I remember some things from my fifth grade year that were along the same lines as to what Charlie was talking about after the party. Sigh.
Pictured left to right: Bentley, Ava, Natalia, Calie, Natalie, Brielle, Charlie with the microphone, Jonathan, Grayson, Luke, Keaton
While Matt and Hattie were gone, the big three and I took a day and went searching for fall colors. Our first stop was Bishop's Castle. Apparently we hadn't been there in a while because the kids were surprisingly nervous walking around the outside of the castle. I am ALWAYS nervous walking around the castle, but I was surprised at the kids' reaction. We went up the really steep staircase and applauded each other at the top for being brave! We drove to Lake Isabel and spent a few hours walking around the lake, looking at the colors, throwing leaves in the air, fishing, and hanging out by the lake. We found some beautifully yellow Aspens under perfectly blue skies. Next, we drove south from Lake Isabel on a road that I hadn't driven before. We ended up making a circle and looped around through Pueblo before making it home.
On Saturday, Matt and Jordan drove over to Fergus in part because Jordan was out of ammo and couldn't find the size shell he needed in Jamestown or Fargo. He ended up borrowing a gun of Mark's to finish out their hunt. They got to check in on Hattie and see how her time in MN was going. She was a busy little girl! I guess Judy asked to have Hattie over for a sleepover, so Hattie spent one night at Judy's. Haylie and Kylie were both home so she was loved on well by the Zenners. Hattie did say that she "watched a movie and stayed up until midnight".... yikes! Ha! She had a great time.
On Sunday, Charlie was invited to go mountain biking with Justin and Ian Ensinger, some friends of ours that are in our small group. Justin picked up Charlie and they spent some time on the South Canon trails. It was a really windy day but that didn't stop the boys from tackling some trails together. After the friend fiasco two nights prior, I was extra grateful for friends who reached out to invite Charlie along. He really needed it! Ian is in the same grade as Alanna but is the same size as Charlie.
First concerts at CCHS! Mr. Walter and I snapped a quick picture before the first concert. Due to COVID, we did four concerts in total; a 6:00 and 7:30 performance each night for two nights. On the first night, Matt wasn't back from hunting yet so I had to get a babysitter for the big three. Olivia Grooters came over and spent from 4:30-9pm at the house with the kids. She came well prepared with sugar cookies and supplies to decorate the cookies. I left her dinner instructions and she did it all; meal, cleanup, play time, projects, sent the kids to the showers, and put them to bed. Charlie, Alanna, and Molly had a blast and I was able to focus on the concerts without worrying about the kids. One of the best things about Olivia is that she drives so when I got home, I didn't have to bring her home! Having a few good high schoolers in your back pocket is soooo nice!
