At the Lake

Monument Lake has found a special place near & dear to our hearts this summer. We've spent many hours there canoeing, splashing, fishing, wading, floating, rock-throwing & relaxing. This Friday afternoon, Luke was out of school due to some literacy testing days, so we opted for an afternoon at our favorite local lake. The days of summer may be fading, but our memories at the lake are not!

"I don't know why Mom always insists that

I stay on this blanket. All I really want

to do is climb over and play in these rocks!"

Silly Boys

The only rule ... do NOT let go of your brother

or let him sit in the water! Close call!

Love our Colorado kiddos!

Gone fishin'!

First Tooth

Look who sprouted his first tooth this week! You have to look very closely, but a pearly white on the bottom is peeking through. The second tooth is not far behind. Grant didn't seem too phased by the whole process of 'teething' ... fingers crossed that continues with the rest of his chompers!

Wondering about that background scenery? That's Monument Lake!

Hurray for Pre-K!

2nd Grade

Watch out, 2nd grade. Here I come!

Tube Be ... or Not Tube Be

On the final weekend of the summer ... what to do? Spend the day tubing, biking & kayaking in Denver! Papa scouted out a tubing route down the South Platte River, so we embarked on a water adventure that was a first for the boys! The river current was pretty slow (no class 5 rapids here!) and the guys were first up to float. A bike trail ran parallel to the river, so Mom, Grant & the extra supplies followed alongside the tubing enthusiasts. About 1 mile down the river, we had a switcheroo, and Dad, Reid & Grant hopped on the bike while Mom took a turn tubing with Papa & Luke.

Dad with 2 first-time tubers

Papa & Luke float the day away

Fun day on the river!

Luke & Mom race to the finish!

To refuel after tubing, we hopped over to our family favorite of the Morrison Inn for a late lunch of Mexican food. Then we returned to Papa's camping spot at Bear Creek Lake. Napping, bike riding & kayaking were on the afternoon agenda. In all, a great day and a grand finale for Summer 2011!

The Great Outdoors

With 2 weeks to go, we spent the final days of summer break enjoying the best part of Colorado ... the Great Outdoors!

MISSION 1: PARKS & REC

In the last 2 weeks, we made the rounds visiting some of our favorite parks: Black Forest Park, Charlotte's Web Park, Alice in Wonderland Park, Monument's Limbach Park, and Luke's school playground. Nothing beats kicking back on a blanket with the baby while watching the big boys laugh, run & play!

Grant LOVES to be outside!

Mama & G

Why stay on the blanket when you can crawl

off and get to that awesome green grass?!

Happy Park-Goers

Sharing good times with Dad

MISSION 2: TAKE A HIKE

We worked in one more hike, and Papa joined us for a trek on our favorite trail up Spruce Mountain.

Papa & the Boys

Several times the question arose,

"But Mom, why can't we go past that sign?!"

MISSION 3: WILL PEDAL 4 PIZZA

One evening we biked a few miles over to one of our favorite pizza joints for dinner. With a family of 5, this involves the following: Dad on bike pulling Reid on tagalong bike, Mom on bike pulling Grant in bike trailer, and Luke on his own bike pedaling his little heart out. The ride was fun, and we're sure to do this again!

Pedaling for Pizza!

MISSION 4: BACKYARD TRAMPOLINE CAMPOUT

You don't need a tent or RV for camping ... when you have a trampoline! Mom, Luke & Reid rounded up some pillows, blankets, jackets & sweat pants and made ourselves right at home for a night beneath the stars camping on the trampoline. (Dad & Grant stayed nice & cozy inside for the night.) We used a phone app to find the constellations and talked about our favorite memories of this summer. Within about 15 minutes, the boys drifted off to sleep with Reid snoring and the neighborhood dogs barking as the only sounds to be heard. The temps dipped down to about 58 degrees that night, and we awoke to a foggy morning. We all had a blast, and the boys are requesting another trampoline campout soon! Easy enough ... the amenities are top-notch!

Ready for trampoline camping!

Zzzzzzzzzz...

On the Move

There are many ways to get from Point A to Point B. Some babies roll. Some babies crawl. Grant prefers to do a verrrrry slowwwwww version of the breakdance move "the worm." Look out, world ... he's on the move!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Rainstorms often roll in for our summer afternoons. The result can be some gorgeous skies and even a rainbow on occasion. Our neighbor Brian took this photo of our street. Look for the rainbow on the left; our house is the yellow one on the right.

Yippee Zippy

Reid has a spunky personality. He doesn't like to live on the edge ... but rather with one foot over the edge. Although he's only 4, we've seen him exhibit some feats of bravery equal to his 7-year-old brother. He also has quite the upper body strength, which makes him especially skilled at climbing, hanging & swinging. Or his new favorite ... ziplining!

Tonight we went to a BBQ with some friends, who had installed a zipline between 2 trees in their backyard. Reid rode this zipline for 2 hours straight ... all the while wearing the borrowed pink bike helmet (safety first, of course!)

Can you hear him yell "Look out below!" as he's blasting off? Dad was there to catch him each time ... and share some laughs!

Wildlife Experience

With summer break in its final days, we've got a few more outings in the works before the boys head back to school. Today on the itinerary ... a field trip to Denver to check out the Wildlife Experience museum! One great bonus of our trip was meeting and catching up with a college Theta friend Becky and her 3 girls. We strolled through the museum checking out the many informative exhibits & entertaining activities and wrapped up our visit with lunch in the museum cafe.

Reid, don't look now ... but those shark teeth

are about to gobble you up! Can you spot

funny Luke in the background? What a nut!

Who are those wild animals?

Why it's Luke, Reid & Annie all dressed up!

More crazy costumes ...

and a baby about to attack the elephant!

Now Batting...

"Hey, batter, batter ... SWING!"

Luke is batting. Scott is pitching.

This summer a highlight of every Saturday was heading out to the ballfield to watch Luke play and Scott coach. We'd load up the car with 3 kids, gloves, baseballs, water bottles, a canopy, blanket, lawn chairs (and any other random thing we could find) ... and off to the game! Scott enjoyed coaching Luke and the other 11 kids on the team at a sport that's been a lifelong favorite of his. Luke's favorite part of the game was batting, and he made a few great outs, too. Our team was filled with many friends from school and our neighborhood ... what fun memories for all!

Who's on first? Luke! Scott offers a few tips.

Little Slugger

Geared up and ready to play catcher!

Handsome vs. Awesome

In our house, the boys have essentially 2 "styles" of dressing ... handsome & awesome. They came up with these terms on their own, and that's usually the million dollar question of the morning, "Mom, do I have to look handsome today ... or can I look awesome?" Here's the difference between the two...

• Handsome: Collared shirt, khaki shorts, hair combed (with styling product) and nicer shoes.
• Awesome: T-shirt, sport shorts, flip flops and baseball cap.

For the most part, this summer has been filled with days of "awesome" attire. But today Mom played the "handsome" card and requested that the boys dress nicely for a few photos. We have so many fantastic memories from this summer, and we wanted to capture a few photos of the boys at these ages in one of our favorite seasons here. We grabbed our camera and headed down to this spot not far from Luke's school with a trickling stream and big shady trees.

So here they are ...the Boys of Summer 2011!

Time to Kick Back & Relax...

The trees made a V coming out of the ground here

so this was a fun little nook for photos.

Never fear ... it looks like they are perched up in the tree

but this was actually taken with them sitting

safely on the ground. That's a good thing ...

Grant hasn't quite mastered tree-climbing yet!

The expressions ... priceless!

Sometimes holding hands with a baby

requires both hands, especially when

he likes to jump and jump and jump...

Let's take a walk, little brother...

The Brothers

Staring Contest

Serious Business

The older boys' hair is a little longer than

their usual short crew cuts ... a fun change

to show off those curls!

Brothers & Best Buds

ROCK-n-Roll

My, oh my! Look at the little man's latest trick. It won't be long before he's off and crawling!

Happy Campers

There is a first time for everything. Especially when you are 6 months old and camping for the first time! This weekend Grant enjoyed his first camping excursion at Bear Creek Lake on Denver's west side.

• Papa's vintage Airstream RV ... check.
• One 4-person tent ... check.
• One pack-n-play to go in tent ... check.
• Air mattresses, pillows, sleeping bags ... check.
• Flashlight app on the Droid phone to light the way at night ... check.
• Camper next to us who decided to play a vuvuzela horn (remember that from the South African soccer games a while back?) at 10:30 at night ... check.
• Good camping memories for our family ... check!

We reserved the duties of setting up camp

for our resident Eagle Scout Scott.

No roughing it at this campsite.

Only the finest menu for our campers ...

chicken fajitas with all the fixin's!

Laidback and lounging. Ahhh ... this is the life.

An evening swim at Bear Creek Lake.

Inner tubes encouraged, but not required.

Our Home Sweet Home for the night.

Tent on the left. Airstream on the right.

Official S'more Makers

A s'more and a sleeping baby ...

what could be better!

Just to give you a visual inside our tent.

We started out with all 5 of us in the tent.

Then the two jumping monkeys (Luke and Reid)

had a change in sleeping quarters and got

moved to Papa's RV for the night.

Mom, Dad & Grant spent the night in the tent

beneath the stars!

Rise and Shine!

All smiles after his first campout.

Makeshift High Chair

Playing catch at 8 a.m. in PJs

Guess who loves spending time with Papa!

Off on a morning bike ride...