Just Another Summery Saturday

This weekend our "Summer of Fun" (so named because I'm not pregnant and puking and we don't have a newborn limiting us) continued as we packed in as many fun things as we could.  Yesterday morning we headed to the Boulder Farmer's Market and met my parents there.  We enjoyed some yummy food and good people watching.

Is it just me or is a farmer's market a beautiful place?

I love all the vegetables and flowers...

We of course visited the balloon man.  Zach requested a green Cat in the Hat.  And a dog for Austin.

I don't think this was quite what he had envisioned, but he was thrilled.  A cat ON a hat.  It was pretty cool.

Yum!

My parents have taken Zach to the market a couple of times and they always have to get popcorn and sit by the creek and eat it.  So we had to continue the tradition.

After Austin got a nap we all headed to our neighborhood pool for a cool down.  The boys love it!  We tried to go Friday evening but as soon as we got there the lifeguard blew the whistle and closed the pool for lightning.  Austin was so sad and screamed and thrashed and threw a mighty fit.  Poor little water baby.  We went home and played in our baby pool.  So we were glad we could make it Saturday.

They both love the slide.  Zach can go down by himself now, and goes over and over.

Ah, summer.  You have been good to us!

Morraine Park

Camping the second time around went much more smoothly.  We camped at Morraine Park up in Rocky Mountian National Park.  I always forget just how extroidinarily beautiful it is up there.  We met our friends the Westers up there that evening.  By the time we got up there we could see that it was going to rain, so we hurried and set up the tent/bouncy castle.  It was good we hurried because as soon as it was done, it started to pour.  The boys had a great time bouncing around to wait out the rain. 

A little testing out of their sleeping bags.

After a good wait of maybe 45 minutes, Cal and I looked at each other and easily decided that we didn't want to cook in the rain and mud with the boys.  So we jumped in the car and drove the short distance to the edge of Estes Park and found a most delicious BBQ place to eat.  Roughing it.

On the drive back to camp we lucked out and saw some good wildlife.  Below, Zach and I are checking out 5 baby coyotes in the rain.  We also saw elk, deer, and two brown bears.  I was just happy the bears were on the side of the road and not in our camp, as they told us they have been having some problems. 

Finally meeting up with the Westers for a little campfire and smore making.  The boys were getting tired.  In fact Zach was begging to go to bed.  Um, okay?

After some wrestling in the tent by Austin not wanting to get to sleep, Cal took Austin on a short drive to get him to sleep, and Zach passed out.  They did well until 5 when Austin decided it was time to get up.  We let him play in the tent awhile, hoping he would go back to sleep, but no luck.

We had the perfect campsites.  There were some great rocks for the kids to explore and they all had a great time together.

While we were packing up the kids decided they were looking for "aminals" and "rescuing" them.  These "aminals" were little pieces of broken knotted branches.  So Cale Wester told the kids there was an "elk aminal" that needed help (or something like that) and the kids went running to see.  When they got there they were very dissappointed.  "That's not an aminal!!  That's just a stump!"  Oh.  We thought any old piece of wood would qualify, but we were wrong.  Here they are looking at the stump.  I love their imaginations!

Zach and Kira trying to pose for a picture.  Neither has a very natural camera smile right now.  Cute, though.  These two are good buddies.

Austin was exhausted and fell asleep within a couple of minutes back in the car.  We had hoped to go on a little hike, but were all pretty tired.  So the Westers headed on home and we stopped to throw rocks and sticks and anything that could be picked up into a very full stream next to the road so Zach could play and Austin could still sleep.

Great fun!

The 4th of July

We had such a busy 4th weekend.  Friday morning our friends, the Westers, asked us to join them at a Colorado Rockies game.  He had been given some great tickets from someone at work.  My parents generously watched the boys (they had hoped to go to that game- thanks Mom and Dad!) and we got to go!  The seats were perfect- way better than I've ever had before.  We were just 4 rows up from the opposing team's dugout.  I'm not a huge baseball fan (I usually think it is too slow and don't have the attention span to watch much), but I really enjoyed the game.  After the show they had fireworks, which were amazing.  What a fun surprise date!

Saturday we spent running errands, exercising, and cleaning the house.  Fun, right?  But necessary...  Sunday we went to church, had a BBQ with my parents, then headed out to Erie with our same friends to watch the fireworks.  It is where we watched them last year, out on a golf course.  We sat next to the club house where they blasted music, and the kids had a great time dancing.  Austin loves music and dancing, and hardly stopped for hours.  I was a little worried how Austin would do with the fireworks (last year he screamed!).  He was SO tired and is not good at staying up past bedtime (7/8pm) so he was really wiggly and whiney towards the end.  He actually liked the fireworks, but was too tired to enjoy them much. 

Zach and Kira watched at least half of the fireworks in our stroller together.

Austin was up bright and early Monday morning at 5am, so he and I went on a nice long walk.  We hadn't really planned on going to Superior's parade, but decided that since we were up we would walk down and see it.  Zach took awhile to wake up, but then enjoyed seeing the parade- it was his first!  He liked the firetrucks and the Captain America float.  After the parade we walked over to the town's pancake breakfast.  It was so hot, but I'm glad we went. 

And, as if that wasn't enough for the weekend, we hosted a BBQ with some friends and had a fun evening and lots of yummy food, including homemade chocolate ice cream.  

It may or may not have taken us a few days to recover...

We are grateful for our wonderful family and friends and for our freedoms!

Melt

These boys sure melt my heart. 

Sigh.

Olive Ridge

 At the end of June we went on our first camping trip with Austin.  We didn't go at all last summer because Austin was still so small, so we were excited and a bit nervous to go this summer.  My mom was able to come with us and it was fun (and helpful) to have her there too!  We went to a fairly close campground called Olive Ridge, where we have been many times before.  This time it was pretty hot (for camping) and there was a ton of pollen in the air from the pine trees.  Anytime there was a breeze, you could see thick clouds of yellow pollen flying through the air.  It covered everything and irritated our eyes.  Being the clean freak I am that made me a bit anxious, but I survived.  :)  The boys did pretty well and had fun exploring.

We went for simple, and played around the campground during the day.  Every boy must have a stick.

Rock scrambling.

Smores!  Zach liked all of the parts of the smores, but not put together.  Personally, I just liked the toasted marshmallows.  Yum.

What we were nervous about was Austin sleeping.  This proved to be a legitimate worry, as we did not get much sleep that night.  After our mistakes with Zach's sleep (he wants us close and likes to snuggle and still finds his way into our bed in the early morning hours), we have worked really hard to not let Austin depend on us to sleep, and he does well at home.  This backfires, however, at times when we are not at home.  The kids who nap in their parents arms at church?  Not our Austin.  He just fusses and wiggles when he is tired.  We call him tornado baby because he just spins in your arms and you can hardly hold onto him.  Anyways, we tried putting the pack and play in the tent, hoping that we could put him down like at home.  After some crying, he finally fell asleep and I was feeling pretty good.  Unfortunatly it didn't last too long, then he was up again for awhile, and finally settled down and slept fitfully in my sleeping bag with me.  And he was up bright and early at about 5:30am.  I guess it's all part of camping with little ones, right?  Zach went right to sleep and slept great all night.

The next morning we packed up camp and went on a little "hike" around Lily Lake.  The boys loved throwing rocks into the lake.

Although we were exhausted when we got home, we had a fun time and were glad we went!