July flew by

In my opinion July went by a lot faster than June. It was a pretty busy month for our family. First up was the 4th of July. Since there was a fire ban in Colorado Springs, most of the fireworks shows had been cancelled, including the one Dan was going to play for, so we headed up to Thornton to visit Grandma Kathy and Uncle Kevin. Their fireworks show was awesome!

They had skydivers come in right before the fireworks started. You can see they had sparks flying behind them, and then they landed in a field really close to us. It was pretty cool.

Then on July 9th my brother went in for brain surgery. The doctors stumbled upon a meningioma when he had an inner ear infection that was causing some dizziness. He handled the surgery like a pro and is recovering well, though he will undergo further radiation treatments to keep the tumor from growing. The hardest part is how much it affects his work, so prayers are still needed to get it all worked out smoothly, and quickly!

After visiting Kevin in the hospital we took our second family camping trip to Farish Campgrounds up in Woodland Park. It was SO up in the mountains that we had zero cell service. We were able to really get away and enjoy the beauty of Colorado. True, there were still moments that we wondered why we went to the trouble of camping when the boys were fighting and having meltdowns, but there were fun memories in the making.

Dan makes some seriously yummy dutch oven meals!

Pikes Peak is SO beautiful

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!

Last day of school!

Today is the last day of school and I thought it would be fun to compare pictures of the first day and last day! Both of my boys have grown SO much this year.

First Day

Last Day!

Now summer can begin, and we hope to keep busy enough to not drive each other crazy!

Days 10, 11 and 12

I shouldn't commit to a daily posting. I just can't keep up!

Day 10- Stars

The stars weren't out that night, but I knew I was headed to Castle Rock the next day so I snapped a picture of the famous star on top of Castle Rock.


Day 11- Smile

Who couldn't smile when you're having ice cream?


Day 12- Mother

Here is my lovely mother who we got to spend the day with yesterday to celebrate Mother's Day. Happy Mother's day everyone! More pictures from our day at Castle Rock to come later :)

Day 9

Day 9- Snack!

You guys, this stuff is SO addictive! I've never been one to say 'Oh, I could eat the whole bag!', but not anymore. It doesn't help that it comes in a kinda small bag to begin with, so I really could eat the whole thing. My kids even like it, and that's saying something. But that also means I have to share it....