Colorado: part 2

The short drive to the cabin was nice and full of beautiful scenery. The kids loved going through a couple tunnels. One of which, the Eisenhower tunnel was fairly long, but after looking it up its only about 1.7 miles long. Derek and I saw 3 big horned rams on the side of the interstate. That was very cool. When we pulled up Derek's parents, Marc, and Kari had just pulled up themselves. After getting inside we quickly found which room we'd stay in. This cabin was huge and impressive.

This is a picture of the back of the cabin. Mine and Derek's room is the windows to your bottom left. Our kids shared a room with Parker and Braden which was also down stairs.

 

We went for a little stroll behind the cabin while Derek took pictures from the balcony.

  

 

 

The next morning most of the guys with the kids went and played disc golf while the women, papa, and Zoe went shopping at the Silverthorn Outlets which were about 15 minutes away. Kim and I had been wanting to go and this was the best day for it. For some reason Kim and I find some great clothes/deals when we shop together so we always plan a shopping day. And it was true this time. We actually ended up buying the same dress. The rest of the afternoon was pretty low key at the cabin.

 

Colorado: part 1

We had a family vacation with Derek's family in Copper Mountain, Colorado. Before we got there we did have a couple pit stops along the way. First we stopped by our old neighbors in Rio Rancho, NM. It was great to see them again. It felt like we'd never left. The kids definitely had a great time together.

The next stop was in Colorado Springs to see Derek's long time friend Jason. Unfortunately his wife and kids were out of town and our kids were completely exhausted at this point. We only stayed a couple of hours and made the quick drive to Denver to stay the night.

We checked into the hotel to drop some stuff off before getting some dinner. The kids loved our suite we stayed in. Maeley told me we needed to write a letter to the hotel that said, "Dear Hotel, We love our room! Thank you." She makes me laugh.

Three very happy children.

 

The following morning we had to stop at Target to get something. After realizing that we had time to spare we were just randomly driving around. Then we saw the top of the Denver Temple and decided to stop by and take some pictures.

 

Family pictures didn't turn out too well. Apparently it was way too sunny and after 6 pictures Chase never opened his eyes.

Derek played around with some lenses that he had borrowed from Zach.

 

After that we headed to Park Meadows Mall. Maeley and Zoe were excited about going to the American Girl store while Chase wanted to go to the Lego store.

 

Then it was time to meet up with some of the family at Derek's brothers house before heading to the cabin in Copper Mountain. Since the last time we were in Denver his brother's family had moved. It was fun to see their new place.

 

Then we were off to the cabin with about an hours drive left.

 

 

 

Swim lessons

Last week the kids finished up their first session of swim lessons.

Zoe did very well. She was always wanting to go first. She gets right in and tries her best.

Maeley and Chase were in the same class. Maeley is pretty much a fish while Chase is more reserved in the water. Maeley passed that class while Chase did not. I'm not surprised however there has been a huge improvement in all 3 of them.

Maeley, Chase and Zoe loved swimming lessons, while Derek and I sure enjoyed watching them. We are planning on signing them up for a new session that starts next week. We have a couple community pools and have been good about taking them on Saturday's. The kids enjoy it and its getting easier to take them. 

Chase's kindergarten graduation

It's about time I catch up on blogging.

School got out nearly a month ago and we current;y working on summer goals. But I can't leave out that Chase graduated from kindergarten. It really is a silly tradition but it makes the kids feel special I guess.

Chase receiving his diploma from Principal Lozak. 

Chase with his teacher, Mrs. McCabe

Parker and Chase 

One of Chase's good friends. 

Wow I cannot believe how much he has changed. He is definitely taller but he has matured a lot too. He does really well with math although he says he doesn't like math. He reads well. I'm surprised at how well his penmanship is, he doesn't rush himself. He seemed to make friends pretty easily. He even made some friends with some big kids on the bus. I think it made him feel good when he could make people laugh. He really enjoyed school but is also enjoying summer break spending most of his time playing with Legos. When he grows up he now wants to be a Lego designer. 

"For real"

Right now Zoe's most used phrase is "for real". I'm not even sure where she picked it up from. 

Monday I took her in for a screening with the public school. We were getting concerned with her speech. Just as we suspected she has a "potential delay" as they call it. She will get further evaluated in August. 

A few weeks ago she tried on Maeley's Rapunzel dress and was pleasantly surprised when it fit her so well. For the following two weeks she wore that dress nearly everyday. She is such a girly girl. She loves to wear dresses and skirts and have her hair curled. She cracks us up all the time.   

Father's & Son's campout

A couple weeks ago was our wards Father & Son campout. Derek invited his dad to come. Chase didn't know until the night before that he was getting out of school all day on Friday to help Dad get ready for camping. 

Here Chase had found some fossils. My dad would be so proud.

Going on a walk with Papa.

At night they had some fun with the camera. 

Sounds like they had a great time. Derek said he could tell how young our ward is by the amount of young boys there was at the campout. 

First big project

Before moving into this house Derek was set on epoxying the garage floor before moving in. That didn't happen because it was raining hard the weekend we got the keys and I'm impatient and wanted to move in ASAP! Then the garage became the dumping ground for empty boxes and all the paper they pack with. Plus a washer and dryer that we needed to sell.

Two weeks ago Derek started the prep to do the flooring. By the way he definitely did his homework ahead of time and found a great one that wasn't too expensive but a great quality.

Derek getting the garage floor prepped.

Derek's dad came over to help.

Here's a close up of what it looks like.

What we did not expect was that it would become a great dance room for the girls. They loved dancing around in there with music on. Too bad the garage is now full and this isn't an option. It was great while it lasted though. 

Family fun

The kids loved the Disney Headbands game so Chase got the original one for Easter. 

We all started laughing when Derek put the unicorn card up. 

I thought Zoe looked like a flapper with the headband on the side and her hair curled like that.