Look Mom, no training wheels!

Here is Will riding his bike. As you can see, stopping is still a problem.......

Here's Grace riding her bike. This was filmed after many, many days of trying to ride the little bike, tears, yelling, frustrations, etc. She finally got it and is doing it without complaint!

random pictures

If you can believe it, these are Will's legs. Click on it and see a close up. The kids has so many bruises, people will start to think we abuse him! He just bruises like a peach and is constantly running, jumping, diving and climbing, so he is always getting scratched up and bumped.

 Xander vacuuming. It's a heavy Dyson vacuum, but he's doing a good job!

Grace sweeping the front porch. We discovered an ant nest under the siding right after I took this picture, so that ended her sweeping adventure.

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. We've been so busy. The kids did a week of bible school at our church, then a week of camp with cousin Carter at his preschool. Those occupied every morning of the last 2 weeks. We've been keeping busy in the afternoons with swimming, piano practicing/lessons, trips to the Y and me trying to redecorate my bedroom (I'll post pictures of that later!)

The boys started t-ball and have had 3 games now. They are enjoying it. I'll get some pictures of the next game and post later. Micro t-ball is similar to micro soccer in that they don't keep score and they are really just doing it for the skills. Each kid gets to bat every inning and they don't have assigned field positions, they switch around. They spend the first 20 minutes on batting practice, fielding and throwing then they play a quick game. The first day was pretty funny because they had NO idea what was happening. Some kids wouldn't run to first, others carried the bat with them. Most of them were staring into space when on the field and didn't even field any balls. It helps that they play on grass, so there are no fast rolling balls to field.

On a happy note, all the kids have learned to ride their bikes with no training wheels now. I know I've posted about Xander already, but since vacation Will and Grace have also learned. I have video of them I'll post this week! It took Grace a long time and lots of encouragement (Brian actually went and borrowed Xander's old 12" bike from cousin Carter so they could practice and be closer to the ground, that really helped). Now they all finally have it! If we ever get time, they can take a bike ride now.

Speaking of time, our evenings have seemed rushed and shorter because the kids have gotten an earlier bedtime now that they are not taking naps! This no-nap thing is harder than I thought it would be (especially for Xander, that kid loves his sleep!) However, things are better when they get to bed at 8 or before and can sleep until 7 or 7:30 the next morning. Will doesn't really care that he's not napping and Grace can usually be OK, but Xander just is not getting enough sleep these days. That boy is just like his dad and can sleep forever. I just hope they get more used to it, because kindergarten is right around the corner!!

Birthday party and bike riding pictures coming soon. Stay tuned!

A bucket list adventure!

Am I the best wife or what? For Brian's birthday/Father's Day, I got him a gift certificate to go tandem skydiving with the Lincoln Sport Parachute Club. (My dad had done this a couple months ago and Brian commented that he wanted to do it, too). After a couple of phone calls with a guy at the club to get the scheduling down, we had a date (of course, it had to wait until after vacation!). So, Saturday the kids, Dale and Ellen and I went out to watch him jump. He jumped with a guy named Roberto, who had TONS of personality, and I think Brian really enjoyed himself. He wasn't freaked out at all, and actually thought it was tamer than he expected! Roberto did a couple of fancy parachute moves (corkscrew and such) as they were floating down, that Brian hadn't expected by enjoyed and wasn't at all scared of. 

 Roberto is in the black t-shirt with a bald head.

 Taking off in the plane.

Coming down in the parachute after 30 seconds of free fall. They jumped at 9300 feet and deployed the parachute at 4350 ft. Their average free fall speed was 125 mph! Brian didn't have any problems with sickness or blackouts, but he does have some bruising on his armpits and torso from the harness jamming into him after they pulled the parachute.

 A smooth landing!

The kids running out into the field to Brian after they landed. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience!

Colorado vacation

We're home! Finally, after being gone 8 days! It felt like we were gone much longer than that, but we had a nice time. Sunday of Memorial weekend, we went to Superior for a shower for future sis-in-law Meagan and saw family there. Monday morning, we got up early and left for Colorado. I divide each of the next posts by days in Colorado. I took 180 pictures, so I shared some from each day. It may get long to read each post and look at all the pictures, but I wanted the memories of the vacation for us as much as you readers out there. We did lots, saw lots, and had lots of new first experiences and I wanted to get them all down before I forgot. Enjoy if you make it all the way through!

Tuesday, May 31

Our first full day of vacation! (We don't really count Monday. It was just a long day of driving in extremely boring western Kansas and eastern Colorado. The best thing we can say about Monday is that the kids learned what tumbleweed was).

We had originally planned to do a museum this day, but after we saw the weather forecast and it was the only nice day that week, we changed up our plans and went to the zoo. Denver has a really nice zoo! It's big, but not so spread out (like Kansas City) and there is lot of trees and vegetation. It just is a really good zoo. The kids loved it. We watched a few shows (animal stunts and feeding times) and went through many exhibits. We ate a picnic lunch under a tree, and defended our food from the geese. We left around 2:00. We stopped in the adjacent park to play a little bit. They had a great downtown park with a lake where you can rent boats and tons of green space. Very nice! That evening, we cooled off in a dark theater and saw Kung Fu Panda 2 (not bad, actually!) then ordered a pizza and ate dinner in our hotel room.

 At the entrance of the zoo!

 Pictures from a rock in the rain forest.

 Do not adjust your computer. He is upside down. Playing in the park.

Didn't want to hang upside down, apparently!

Wednesday, June 1st

Wednesday we had a day where the things we did were pretty spread out. We started the day at the Denver Children's Museum, which was OK. The best part was the room of bubbles that you could manipulate. The kids went back in there several different times and really enjoyed it. After a picnic lunch in a little park across from the museum, we drove north to 25 mins. Arvada, CO to an indoor waterpark. It's actually attached to a recreation center/workout facility, but it's huge and gorgeous and waaaaaay cheaper than going to a commercial waterpark. Definitely worth the drive. There was also an indoor playground which they played on afterwards. We were there all afternoon. We ate hamburgers at a diner on the way home, then went back to the hotel for showers and bed!

Bubble experiments.

Making a huge bubble around yourself by pulling a rope.

Swimming at the water park. A fun thing about this waterpark is that kids could ride down the large waterslides with adults. Brian took each of the kids at least 3 times, they LOVED it!

Thursday, June 2nd

Thursday was a good day. We spent most of the morning and afternoon at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature. There was so much to see, we could have spent a second day there! We especially enjoyed the space section, human body section (with interactive displays that were really fun!) and a 3-D Imax movie! We ate lunch there and stayed until probably 3:00. We came back to the hotel to rest a little bit, the kids spent that time coloring in their journals, then we hopped back into the car and met the Hiners (family friends from Superior that live in Denver now) at a Denver favorite, Casa Bonita, for dinner. Casa Bonita is a crazy place. So-so food, but tons of atmosphere. There are shows ever 15 minutes or so, with skits or divers that dive off the waterfall. There's an arcade, puppet shows, strolling mariachi band and much more. It certainly is an experience. We didn't get back to the hotel until late that night, it was sure fun to see everyone and have the kids experience Casa Bonita.

 Examining Mars at the Science museum.

 Will and Xander in front of a model of Mars.

To scale moose antlers at kid-level. Funny!

 The view of downtown Denber and the mountains from the top floor of the science museum.

 Casa Bonita.

Xander and I finishing dinner.

Outside of the restaurant. This is pretty far past their bedtime, I'm surprised they were smiling!

Friday, June 3rd

We left Denver about 10 am this morning and drove into Estes Park. We were there by lunch, and had a picnic on the YMCA grounds when we arrived. If you don't know anything about the YMCA of the Rockies, it is awesome! A great place for a family vacation. It's huge, hundreds of 1, 2, 3, & 4 bedroom cabins, lodges, and tons of activity buildings. All in all, it can accommodate 4900 people!!! Luckily, it wasn't nearly that busy, as we were there early in the season. There's a museum, library, activity building, pool, mini golf course, livery, tennis courts, and it borders Rocky Mountain National Park, so you can hike into it. What a fun place! And believe me, we took full advantage of all these activities in the 3 days we were there!

After lunch, our cabin still wasn't ready, so we got a map from the activities center and took a hike. We went up to what they call Bible Point. It was all on the YMCA grounds and was a nice little hike. It was about 1 1/2 mile round trip, with a 600 ft. elevation gain. The kids LOVED it. They jabbered the whole time and made it to the top with little problems (a couple of spills/slips but nothing bad). Will loved it so much he asked if we could live in a cabin in Colorado and Grace wanted to take the hike again when we were done! I was so proud of them for making it all the way up!

We came back down and our cabin was ready, so we checked in and unloaded. Let me say, what a great cabin! It wasn't fancy, but it was clean and in good repair. It had 2 bedrooms and a fireplace (even though we didn't use it!). The kids' room had a set of bunkbeds and a 3rd bed, so it was a perfect setup for us. It had a fully-stocked kitchen, and living room. We were able to bring food to eat breakfasts and lunches there. It just couldn't have worked out better for us! Plus, we had a gorgeous view (see pictures below). After our hike the kids were a little tired, so we had them take a nap (the one and only of the vacation). Then we went and played a round of mini-golf and had dinner at the cafeteria-style restaurant and went home for a shower and early bedtime.

Our first glimpse of the mountains when we got to the YMCA camp!

Our cabin, the "Aloha" cabin.

A picture of the kids standing on the porch of our cabin.

The view of the mountains from the porch of our cabin. Let me tell you, the sunrises and sunsets were gorgeous!

Ready to go to sleep! The perfect room for them!

From the top of Bible Point. Total elevation about 8700 ft.

Playing mini-golf at the YMCA. You can see it was a little cool this evening, in the high 50's. We did bring warm clothes and glad we did! It wasn't this cool the rest of the time.

Saturday, June 4th

Saturday was a fun-filled, very exhausting day. The YMCA of the Rockies has tons of, for lack of a better word, classes for kids/families that you can sign up for each day, for free. When we checked in on Friday, they gave us a schedule and Brian and I planned our days around the ones we thought the kids would enjoy. So, Saturday morning they went to their first class called "Little Explorers" (by the way, what's neat about these is that the parents don't have to attend. So you can drop them off and go do something else. We mostly did stay, though, because we didn't have anything better to do, but we didn't have to do anything, just watch). The Little Explorers class had them going on a scavenger hunt around the camp. They liked it. There is also a craft building where you can go buy crafts and make them. Brian did that with them in the morning. After lunch at our cabin, I took them to a Bugs class (where they actually caught bugs and did a bug craft) and a parachute class where they played games with a giant parachute and several other kids. All were great classes and they had a great time. I also have to mention that the instructors (college students) were all great. They were very good with the kids, energetic and well prepared. Two thumbs up for the classes at the YMCA!!!

After the afternoon classes, we hopped in the car and drove the two miles to Rocky Mountain National Park and went up the Trail Ridge Road. Unfortunately (and we knew this ahead of time) most of it was still under snowpack, so it was mostly closed. We were able to drive up the first 1/3 of the road, up to about 10,000 ft., still under the treeline. But, we still had spectacular views and the kids were duly impressed. That's where I took all of these pictures.

After that little drive (in which no one got carsick!!) we went back for dinner at one of the Y's restaurants, then for a quick evening swim and then to bed. We were all exhaused by the end of the day!!