Tuesday, June 28, 2016

More summertime fun

The summer days are flying by. I can hardly keep up with everything happening. Here are just some of the pictures I have remembered to take: 

The kids and their friends visited a fish hatchery. They loved seeing and feeding the fish

Here is a group shot of everyone who went with us


We have been going to lots of different parks



Our birdhouse became home to a wasp and the kids had fun watching the wasp slowly build his nest. 

But then the nest got too big for our comfort. We finally had to get some spray and kill the nest

The kids are making up lots of fun games to do at home. But at the same time our house is a constant disaster. Here is a picture right after I picked up the downstairs area and went upstairs to do laundry. While I was upstairs the kids had pulled out the tent and the tunnel and all the blankets and several boxes and made themselves a fort. 

To avoid the constant cleaning and messes, we try to stay out of the house as much as possible. Kid have had all sorts of fun experiences. Here they are at a fun water day hosted by Lily's preschool. Unfortunately it was a cold day and the kids were freezing. But they still had fun.

Luke's work had their company party. If you remember my post about the company party last year, then you would remember that Jack waited in line for over an hour for this bungee jumping ride and right when he got to the front of the line, they closed down the ride. So this year, the first thing they did was to get in line for this line.





After the ride they were excited to learn that they got chick-fil-a for dinner.


But then we spotted the chick-fil-a cow and Josie lost it. She was absolutely terrified and would not stop screaming. Even when the cow was gone she wouldn't calm down. Not even the bounce houses could help bring her out of her terror


The other kids enjoyed the bounce houses though:



Lily was so excited to see her friend Cassie again.


As soon as Jack learned that they were giving away prizes at the Bingo table he made himself comfortable. He sat and played bingo for a long time and even one twice. He won some balls and he also won Luke a preferred parking spot for the month of July.


Before the party was over, we were able to take one ride on the train and Josie finally seemed to come out of her terror and enjoy the ride


Speaking of Josie's fear of people in animal costumes...she is also afraid of most men with facial hair. There is one guy in particular that works at Sprouts bagging groceries. We were there shopping last week and we just so happened to go through the checkout where he was the bagger. By the time Josie noticed him, we had already emptied our cart and the cashier was already scanning our items. So I couldn't change lanes. But Josie started screaming. And screaming. She was inconsolable. And I had a lot of groceries so she was screaming for a long time. I couldn't get her to stop. The poor guy didn't know what to do. He even tried to draw her a picture to show he was nice, but Josie ripped in half and kept screaming. Now I have to drive 20 minutes out of my way to go to the other Sprouts. I hope Josie grows out of this soon!


And here is a picture of the little spitfire painting her nails. She is as cute as she is messy.







Monday, June 20, 2016

Elitch Gardens

For Jack's birthday we took him to Elitch Gardens. For breakfast he wanted donuts AND breakfast burritos. He is a growing boy!

Jack was thrilled that he was finally tall enough to go on the fun rides. Luke stayed behind with the girls and Jack and I spent all morning going on the fun roller coasters
 It was so much fun!!!

 Then we met up with Jack's buddy for some rides. He didn't look too impressed
Lily on the other hand was a little terrified by the kids roller coaster
 Mostly Lily and Josie stuck to the kiddie rides
I taught Josie how to hold her hands up for the rides. At first she was a little cautious, but by the end of the day she was smiling 




Around 2pm a storm rolled in and they had to close the park due to lightning. Jack was so upset

 We tried to console him, but there was no hope. He was devastated.
 We left Elitch's and went to a nearby Brewery for dinner. The kids had fun playing the games
 And we got an ice cream dessert and sang to the birthday boy

We were able to get raincheck tickets to go back to Elitch Gardens another day so finally Jack agreed that going to Elitch's two times is worth having it close down early on your birthday. 

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Fathers Day hike to Jewel Lake

We drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park for Father's Day to do the Jewel Lake hike. Even though we were up there by 9am, the parking was completely full. We had to park at a park and ride and take a shuttle bus to the trailhead. It was a bit of a hassle but we were quickly distracted by the beauty of the park. 


At the shuttle stop. Jewel Lake is on the
same path as the Mills Lake hike
 We let Josie walk for the first part of the hike

The kids were excited to lead the way. I even caught them holding hands.

We followed the signs to Mills Lake
 It was a beautiful hike!






We reached Alberta falls quickly but we didn't stay long because there were several steep drop offs and dangerous areas

We met up with Nani and Papi here


Finally it was time to put Josie in the carrier where she quickly fell asleep

Now we really had to start hiking



Finally we reached Mills lake and it was beautiful. We stopped and ate lunch and Luke and Jack tried fishing
 They didn't catch anything




 So we hiked up past Mills Lake to try fishing in Jewel Lake. Luke and Jack took off through some muddy ground to a secret fishing spot. There they found a place with lots of fish and they spent a good 1-2 hours catching fish after fish.

Meanwhile I stayed on the trail with the girls. Josie loved walking on these wooden planks
 We took lots of selfies




 And the girls splashed around in the freezing water



 Finally the boys came back and we headed back home
 The hike back was much hotter so the kids kept stopping to get their hats wet
 We also saw several chipmunks. Here are Jack and his chipmunk friend having a stare-off
 Finally back at the trailhead waiting for the shuttle to take us home!
 The total hike was over 6.5 miles! The kids did amazingly good. It was a great day!