Summer happenings

My goal this summer was to keep busy so that the kids don't drive me too crazy. I think I have succeeded so far because I haven't even had time to blog or even do much around the house or for myself! Here's how we have been keeping busy.

Hiking
We have done our fair share of hiking, including Castle Rock, so far this summer. We really enjoy it, even though Alex is SO slow! Dan's unit had a group hike and we left Alex with a friend because we ended up hiking 6.2 miles! Cade struggled on the way up, but was much better heading back home. Carson joins us on all our hikes and does a great job.

Camping
My goal was to camp 5 times this summer, but I quickly realized how impossible that would be. It looks like we will be able to camp 3 times before school starts. Our first one was at Lake Pueblo State Park. You can see that the campground is rather rocky, and there were no trees, which means no shade. We hiked, swam, ate and hung out with some friends from Dan's work. Our next outing will be in the mountains of Colorado Springs and should be a much more aesthetic experience!

We made pancakes in the cast iron skillet! We also cooked in Dan's new dutch oven. It was so good!

Playing with Carson

Seeing a Zombie Crawl in Manitou Springs
Random, right? We were walking around all the little shops and along came 200 zombies!

Catching some hail

Getting owies

Celebrating Birthdays
Alex's birthday was on the 19th. Since it was a Wednesday, we opened family presents that day, and then celebrated on Saturday with Grandma Kathy and Uncle Kevin with some cookie cake, presents and ITZ. Alex is 5 years old now! I would say that time has flown, but it does feel like 5 years since he's been born. We've been in Virginia, Korea and Colorado since his birth!

Experience Colorado Wildfires
A few weeks ago the temperatures really started rising and the winds were high, so we started to smell smoke and see these gigantic plumes of smoke in the distance. The Black Forest fire was about 20 miles from our house, burned about 15,000 acres and destroyed 511 homes. It turns out that it was not started by nature, but by some sort of accident in a house. Arson has been ruled out thankfully. Since then there have been a dozen or so more wildfires, one burning still in South Fork that has burned 80,000+ acres. Because of these we get a lot of smoky days and nights, making it hard to breathe sometimes and filling the house with haze. Not sure I'll ever feel the same when I smell that campfire smell.

Church

Going to the Denver Science Museum

Swimming lessons

The one thing I really wanted to do this summer was get the boys in swim lessons. They were way to afraid of the water and incapable of swimming than 5 and 7 year old boys should be. It has been worth every penny! They can go to the local pool now, without life vests, and dive under the water, get things, swim and have a blast! 

So that's what we've been up to. July brings a lot of the same, plus a McBride family reunion. I'l share more with you later!

Hiking Castle Rock

This is mostly a picture post. We met Grandma Kathy and Uncle Kevin half way between our homes and had a fun day of hiking and then shopping at the outlet malls in Castle Rock!