First camping trip of 2014!

And it almost didn't happen. The morning of our camping trip Cade threw up. He never gets sick! We weren't sure whether to go ahead with the trip or play it safe. He seemed to feeling back to normal after puking, so we took a chance and went anyways!

We planned a trip to Farish Recreation Area with our friends the Bennetts. They live just down the street and the kids have a great time playing together (and the adults too), so we thought it'd be fun to have a camp out.

This campground is beautiful! North of Woodland park, at about 9,000 ft. Clear mountain air, great scenery, and military owned and operated, making it economical and nice friendly neighbors for your campgrounds.

It was a little chilly at night, stormy at times, raining at times, and terribly hot at times, but that's camping in Colorado for you!

We cooked, we hiked, we chatted while the kids played, Joe fished and even the dogs had a good time!

We had matching tents!

We called this a water dog. It was some sort of salamander, gills AND legs!

Carson got cold in the tent so he snuggled with Dan. So cute!

It's not camping without some dutch oven cooking!

Cade and Caleb

Our campsites were right off the lake and just behind us were the woods. The kids explored behind our sites and found these awesome boulder formations that created some cave-like areas to play in and climb around on. This is a kid's dream come true!

 

We joked about using this as their engagement picture, lol! Cade and Shelby

There were a few unpleasant moments, like when Dan burned his thumb on the dutch oven, when Alex burned is pinky on the fire ring, and then when Alex lost a battle with one of the boulders and got scratched up his back. He was still a good sport!

Alex and Conner never left each other's side, often holding hands

On our last night before bed we did a little glow in the dark tic tac toe. I think that's why the pictures are a little blurry. But they had fun and got to bring home some glow souvenirs! 

What a way to kick off summer! We had a blast :)

Dan's Promotion Ceremony

We have been in the Army for 7 years now. In that time Dan has gone from Specialist, to Corporal, to Sergeant, and now he is a Staff Sergeant! He worked SO hard for this promotion. Everything is points based, and soon after he was promoted to Sergeant they changed the point system and he almost had to start over from scratch. He took as many courses as he could getting 10 points here, 15 points there. He also earns points for awards. But what really took him over the edge was attending ALC and taking the common course that accompanies it. Those 90 points put him in the top 3 of the band members. Each month they release a point number, and if you have enough points you get promoted. Usually it stays at 798, which basically means they're not promoting anyone. Last month The points were low enough for Dan to get promoted, but his new 90 points hadn't been in the system long enough to count. (frustrating!) You never know when the next time they'll drop the points, so we were planning on it being quite a few more months before he would be promoted. So to our surprise the points were at 550 for June and Dan had 560! Woo hoo! This was a process 3 years in the making.

So today was his promotion ceremony. First Chief Clickner talked about him a little bit and how deserving of the promotion he was. Then they announce that he is being promoted from Sergeant to Staff Sergeant, at which point I stripped him of his Sergeant rank and the boys put on his new Staff Sergeant rank and gave him a good punch in the chest to make sure it stayed on. :)  Then Dan got to say a few words of thanks to those who have been a support to him. He works for wonderful people and we're lucky to have them in our lives.

Never a dull moment when Dan is around!

It was hard to get off! It's been on there too long... :)

Alex gave a few too many punches!

Oh Cade....

I'm so proud of Dan. He really has worked so hard for this and is very deserving of the promotion. Our adventures in the Army are far from over and the military life has treated us well so far. 

As a promotion present I promised Dan that he could get a motorcycle. This has been a life long dream of his. To our benefit, a good friend was selling his bike and it was everything Dan had dreamed of and more, and a great price. We jumped at the chance and he is LOVING his motorcycle, and so am I. It's a symbol of new adventures and journeys in our life and I can't wait to see what comes our way.

First and Last!

I just love looking at how kids grow throughout a school year!

Here's Alex's first and last day:

Sorry so blurry, he would NOT stand still! But he's about 1 1/2" taller!

And here's Cade's first and last day:

You can't see the numbers, but look how much taller he is, just look at the words on the side of the ruler. I think he's grown almost 3"!

It is officially Summer 2014! Wish me luck ;)

End of the school year programs- VIDEOS!

The end of the school year is here! Just 3 days left of school for us. It was a great year at school for Cade and Alex. The best part was being able to attend Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy. I can't tell you how much it has changed our lives. The kids are thriving under their educational philosophy and I'll do what it takes to stay at that school as long as possible. Both kids had excellent grades and had glowing reviews from their teachers. 

Part of the end of the end of the year festivities included a Poetry and Tea for the 2nd graders, and a Spring Program for the Kindergartners. It's a great way of showing some of the things they have learned, and how they've learned it. They have little songs for everything! This is definitely grand parent worthy material, and something the kids will love looking back at. I love blogging!

Alex's Spring Program

I am really looking forward to next year when both are in school all day! It'll be good for everyone involved. Hope you enjoyed the videos!

Piano Recital

I have been teaching piano lessons for 7 years now! I follow a lot of the things that my mom did as a piano teacher, including having a piano recital at the end of the school year. This year I actually remembered to take pictures :)

The recital is a great time for the kids to step out of the lesson books and push themselves to learn new things. Performing in front of people is a beast all in its own. You have to know how to practice well enough to perform a hard piece, know how to fight what's happening in your brain, and enjoy the art of performing! It's such a great learning experience and a great time for their family to see how much they've improved.

Here's a picture of each student performing and receiving a special gift and roast from me!

Rio

Alexa

Tia

Rebeca

Aztin

Taft

Kamdyn

Shelby

They all did a wonderful job and I'm so proud of them!