Colorado Trip Day 2

We went to Helen Hunt Falls and did an easy hike (by Colorado standards).  It was pretty and, after having worked in landscaping all summer, Thomas was impressed by the retaining walls along the trail.

Our afternoon stop was the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  It was a nice zoo!  Thomas just grumbled "I knew you'd ask me that" when I inquired if these elephants were related to Aquinas.  It has been many years since Thomas' imaginary elephant lived with us.  Philip and Nick were excited to do their penguin impressions.  We did refuse to go to the farm section, let alone pay a dollar to feed chickens.  But we enjoyed the rest of the zoo!  A baby hippo was born the day we were there but it was far too new for us to get to see it.

After a fun day we checked into our Airbnb in Colorado Springs.

Colorado Trip Day 1

We took the kids to see the mountains this year.  We headed to Denver the first day.  I rode in the back because I have much shorter legs than Samuel and Thomas (and I cause less trouble back there).

We stopped by this botanical garden to shake off the long car ride grumpies before having dinner with my old room mate Jessica and her family.  It was fun to see her house and watch the kids play with each other.

That's all there was on day one!
 

Bike Ride Bribe

Nick didn't want to do any more bike rides after wiping out two rides in a row.  I convinced him.

 

Happy Wedding and Anniversary All at Once

Jeremy's last cousin got married during the Covic lockd own in 2020.  The three littles, Jeremy and I went to their one-year-later-reception in KC.  (Samuel was at a Stubenville retreat and Thomas was still at Leadership Camp.)  We had a nice time at the party...but have no pictures of the bride and groom!

We pray you have a long and happy marriage Adam and Kaylan.

We stayed over with Bob and Melissa who took us to a fun park to run off some energy and made us a delicious breakfast and lunch before we headed home on Sunday.

Around the House

We got new windows on the ground level.  Siding is next.

We also bought two love seats for down stairs

 And due to Samuel and my desire to drive home from vacation without stopping for the night, Jeremy got this ginormous TV with the money we saved by not staying at a hotel.

Why yes, we have spent A LOT of money this summer...

Camps

 Julia went to the Kateri Games and had a wonderful time.

Philip went to Knights Adventure camp and became Sir Philip.

Thomas was a counselor at Leadership Camp and had a marvelous time as usual.

Father's Day Fun

Julia made Dad a huge Oatmeal Creme Pie.  Very tasty but hard to cut without the filling squooshing out.  Nicholas and Thomas went gift shopping at Bomgaars.  Thomas picked out a broom and Nicholas picked some jerky sticks and they both paid with their own money!

Later that afternoon Julia went to camp.  She had loads of fun but they aren't allowed to bring cameras so this is the lone picture.  The camp was divided into two teams and they competed in various camp games.  Julia was pretty excited to be on the winning team.

The next day Nicholas, Philip and I joined my family at a State Park for a day of fun.  It was so good to play with the first cousins as well as Jackson and Hazel.

Philip of course found a tree to climb.

We climbed the tower too.

They have WAAAY improved this park even since the last time we were there about 4 years ago.  (Trip of meeting Logan the Park Worker fame)

They paved over the boring square pool and put in an amazing spray park.

They also put in a super cool playground that won the "best park ever" award from my nephews.  And they have been to a lot of parks.

There was a LOT of dam building after figuring out that these two structures were not climbers but push button water features.  Samuel wasn't with us because he was at work but man, he would have spend hours there if he had come as a kid.

We had tons of fun!