Family Reunion and Mesa Verde

Right at the end of summer we attended the semi-semi annual McBride family reunion. :)  Past reunions have been held in Mesa Verde, Virginia Beach, a cruise, and this year it was in Monticello Utah. There isn't  much to do in Monticello, but it is near the canyonlands in Moab, Utah. I was excited as this is somewhere I've seen lots of pictures of, but never been.



We rented out an entire Bed and Breakfast (Old Grist Mill Inn), and hung out for about 4 days. There was hardly any drama, lots of cousin playing time, adults chatting time, and even a temple session with the new video! It was a blast.

On our 'excursion' day, we went to Dead Horse State Park up in canyonlands with a bunch of family members. I wasn't terribly awe struck by it, though it had a lot to see. Maybe it was because it was like 90 degrees and we hiked both rims. I was hot and tired! :)  After Dead Horse we drove through Arches National park since we were right there. I'd love to make it back there and hike to the arches!

Dead Horse State Park

Colorado River

He's such a trooper!

These cairns marked the trail. Dan added the top rock to this one.

This is a view of the cliff where the horses got stuck and died. I understood their pain on this HOT hike!

Arches National Park

On our way home we decided to camp at Mesa Verde for a few nights and take in the sights. The campsite was beautiful and the tours are awesome, but the boys had apparently had enough of our trip. Their behavior was bad enough for us to pack up camp one day early and head home. *sigh* All pictures at Mesa Verde were taken by Dan since I was wrangling kids.

 Mesa Verde National Park (don't be fooled by the smiles, i was seriously seething in anger...)

These are Kevas, big pits in the ground, Alex truly almost fell in two of these because he ran away from us

Like my death look? :)

Nice face Cade!

So not everything in life is glorious or glamorous, but we get through it. We were glad to get home and get settled into life before school started again. :)

I say we do a cruise again for our next reunion! 

Back to School!!

I can't believe I'm already writing this! I am SO glad that we had a very busy and memorable summer. But I am equally as glad to send my kids off to school. It's just the honest truth.

See, Alex spent the last year at home with me all day. No Pre-K, no mommy taught preschool group, nothing. He started out as my sweet little Alex, but by the end of the school year and throughout the summer he transformed into some strange little creature with a hot head and a loud scream. So as if the sibling rivalry wasn't contentious enough, now Alex was ready to give it his all too. I like my silence...

School will be great for both of my children and their very active minds. In fact, last year we applied to Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy, and I got a call about 2 weeks ago that Alex had moved up enough on the list to get a spot! This bumped Cade up on the 2nd grade list considerably, but still not enough to get a spot this year. However Cade will start out much higher on the list for next school year and will almost definitely make it in. This school is great and Alex has come home so happy everyday!

So here's some pictures of their first days of school!

Dan and I made this growth chart just before school started so I could measure just how much they grow this year. 

Wish us luck for the coming school year!

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!