Rainy days

What to do during the days when the rain came? Jack's school was cancelled, all stores were closed, most roads were closed...even our clubhouse was closed. We decided to put on our rain gear and go spend some time outside.

Splashing in puddles

Looking for worms

Rescuing slugs by moving them off the sidewalks

More puddles

Floating leaves in the gutters

Watching leaves float under walkways

Building dams

Surprisingly our little adventure turned into a half day outing. I couldn't believe how much fun the kids had floating leaves and building dams. Turned out that our rainy day wasn't so boring after all.

Last camping trip cancelled

We had plans to go camping this weekend with some friends in Rocky Mountain National Park. It would have been our last camping trip of the season. But then the rain came and the roads up the mountain are closed. Oh well, I feel like I've had enough camping for this summer. I will stay nice and warm and dry in my own bed this weekend :)

Road we take to go up the mountain

9 years part 2

As an anniversary gift to ourselves, Luke and I signed up to do our first triathlon together. Of course, the week before the race I got really sick and contemplated dropping out...but I started feeling better just in time and we finished the triathlon together. We didn't even try to "race" but we ended up both placing in the top 3 for our age groups which was amazing. Overall it was a fun experience and we'd love to do another one next summer.

After the race

Trying to show off our numbers that
they wrote on our arms with a sharpie.

Kindergarten

Jack has started the new adventure of school. He went from being home with me all day/every day for the last five years, to 8 hours a day at kindergarten. Quite an adjustment for both of us. But I'm very happy to say that he is doing great! I'm sure it helps that Lily and I are at his school volunteering at least twice a week so we still get to eat lunch with him and play with him during the week. And his kindergarten class only has 8 kids in it, so he gets plenty of attention from his teacher. But so far, this has been a great introduction to school for him. 

Jack on his first day of school

At lunch with Jack and his tiny class

While I was volunteering to move chairs after school, the kids
were having fun with Lily's markers

She thought she was pretty funny
drawing all over her face

Just Lily and mommy at the park
for a change

The best part of school is the day Jack gets to ride the bus
home. It is over an hour bus ride so I only have him ride it
once per week. But he always looks forward to the day
he gets to ride the bus home. 

Since we volunteer so much at the school, Lily has gotten to know all the teachers and they sometimes will let her in on the kindergarten crafts. One day she got to play in shaving creme with all the kinders

More pictures of Jack's class

Jack in his classroom

P.E. time

Art class

I love the school that Jack is going to. He is lucky to have an amazing teacher and principle and staff that work at the school. I am looking forward to the rest of the year...and many more to come. 

Videos

Here are some recent videos:

This is our favorite book to read before bedtime. Both kids have it memorized now and I caught a sweet sibling moment with Jack reading the book to Lily:

I love the way Lily dances: 

These kids are seriously crazy! After a nice warm bath, they thought it would be fun to turn the water to freezing and pour freezing water on themselves. They did this for at least 20 minutes and they were as cold as ice cubes when I finally made them get out. I don't know who in their right mind could think this is fun... it would be considered torture in my opinion.

Colorado Springs Dirty Dash

Several months back Luke and I signed up for a mud run in Colorado Springs.  Jack has been looking forward to it all summer since he was old enough for the kids mud run. It worked out perfectly that this was the last weekend before Jack started school so it was kind of like his last hoorah. 

Here are the kids all clean before the race

Some of the runners who had finished waiting to wash off

Our friends who were crazy enough to do this with us

The cleanest part of the day

At the beginning of the race they make you jump right into a mud pit ... guess its good to get your shoes muddy right off the bat

The boys had to wait all afternoon for the kids race

Our friends after their race

The boys running through a mud puddle while Luke and I were on our race

Can you recognize us?

Kids race time!

We were even able to take Lily on the race. The kids race was a mile long and included several mud pits to jump in, a mud tunnel to climb through and a huge slide which ended in another mud pit. Needless to say we were all covered in mud:

The kids loved being muddy

It was an awesome way to end our summer vacation!