Sunday: Creek Adventure

On Sunday we decided to go with Sheryl and her granddaughters (Maya, Hailey, Carley) on a leisurely stroll to the nearby creek. Except it did not turn out to be leisurely! Barbed wire, tons of fallen trees and brush made it almost impassable. There were multiple times that we should have turned back, but pushed on and made it to the creek. I decided to cross the creek by just wading through with the kids on my back, Big John crossed on a fallen log and the rest stayed by the edge and didn't venture across. It turned out to be very exciting and included plenty of wet clothes and shoes. Once we got back to camp, the girls built quite the fort!

Saturday: Happy Birthday

I woke up on my birthday at the Hampton Inn with 3 of my most favorite people. They even had a surprise for me! Grant had a special necklace that I have been wanting for quite a while and I was so surprised when he pulled it out of his bag on my birthday morning.

Another easy day with the kiddos. They are good roadtrippers! We pulled in Westcliffe within 20 minutes of my Mom and Dad and of DD, Big John and Colton. We met at a local Mexican food restaurant for dinner. Texas has much better Mexican food than Westcliffe CO. The food took awhile so my Mom and I took the kids to a park and they had fun playing in the cool weather while we waited for the food. My mom surprised me with birthday cupcakes! I was glad that my birthday included cake! Thanks Mom!

We had a small issue when we checked into camp because they had all 5 of us in a very small room with only 3 beds. We worked it out eventually though and all was fine in the end.

It was a good birthday.

Friday: Colorado or Bust

How in the world am I going to dig myself out of this blog hole!? It is Aug. 28 and I haven't blogged since July 12 (I am going to back date the blogs, but the reality is that this is Aug. 28). It has been a busy and a bit emotional 6 weeks and I haven't had the energy or spirit to blog. I honestly don't feel all that great even still, but I need to start somewhere. I am going to try to blog every day until I am caught up. Wish me luck!
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On Friday, July 17, Grant and I loaded up the kids and headed to Colorado! Colton stayed with DD and Big John to fly with them to Colorado and then meet up with us at camp. We borrowed my parent's Honda Pilot and packed it all the way up. The kids were so much better than I expected. I had to scramble a bit because I thought we were leaving Friday evening and Grant had planned to leave Friday around lunch so we could get to Amarillo for dinner. I was glad we left earlier because eating at The Big Texan was quite the experience! We were starving and we all cleaned our plates.

Grant booked us a room at the Hampton Inn and it was so nice. By the time we got settled it at the hotel we were all pretty tired so we went to sleep quickly. The next morning we had a huge breakfast and the kids and I swam in the indoor pool for about an hour and a half while Grant went to the doctor because he wasn't feeling great and didn't want to get to camp without meds.

Long Weekend in Branson, MO

Grant, the kids and I drove up to Branson on Thursday and then back to Dallas on Sunday. We packed a lot into our visit including Friday at Silver Dollar City, Friday evening at Steve Wyrick's magic show, Saturday morning swimming at the hotel, Saturday afternoon Jonah show at the Sight and Sounds theater and Saturday evening playing at the hotel with the Riley family.

We stayed on the Chateau On The Lake resort and it was a beautiful setting with a large room, comfy bed, swimming pool, playground for the kids and even some kids activities that we enjoyed such as a water balloon fight and smores. I wasn't good about taking pics during the weekend, but I did get one of our kids and the Riley kids making smores on Saturday evening.

The trip was fun and the kids did much better on the drive than I expected, but it was also a bit of a stressful trip. Grant is partnering with James Riley to manage and produce Steve Wyrick's magic show in Branson and getting a show of that magnitude off the ground is a huge endevour. Grant had to work at the show over the weekend and Grant is very stretched thin right now between Culhane Meadows, the Branson show, managing our rental properties, etc. I was glad we got to see the show and all the hard work that Steve, James and Grant have put into it and the kids loved the show. It features airplanes, motocycles and "blades of death" which are all right up Ranger's alley.

Now, we have just enough time to unpack, do laundry and repack so we can leave for Colorado on Friday!

Happy July 4th

We had a really nice July 4th weekend! Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures, but I am thankful that Grant caught at least one of the kids in DD and Big John's backyard right after the parade. They had created their own July 4th train.

On Friday we did projects around the house including hanging a lot of pictures upstairs and creating an art gallery display for the kids artwork. On Friday night we had a family dinner at Olive Garden (we had a gift certificate) and then we went to Speed Zone for a quick trip for JR and Grant to ride the go-carts to celebrate JR's graduation to Level 3 swim class. On Saturday morning we walked to DD and Big John's for the big parade. As always, it was fun but hot! We walked home around 1pm and after we got the kids cooled down and settled in bed, they slept for about 5 hours! They were so tired.

We finally had to wake the kids up at 7pm and we went to Six Flags to ride a few rides and see the fireworks. We had a good time and especially enjoyed riding the log ride all together two times in a row. The fireworks weren't great at Six Flags, but we did see lots of fireworks all across Dallas in the car on the ride back home.

Happy Birthday America!

Swimming Lessons

The kids just finished two weeks of swimming lessons at the UP pool and they did great! The lessons were Monday-Thursday for two weeks from 9-9:45am. It worked out so well just to walk up to the pool and then often Peyton would stay and swim with the kids for a while since the pool opened at 10am.

Cadie, of course, was nervous on the first day, but by the end of the week she said the lessons were really fun. JR did so well and he even graduated from Level 2 to Level 3! We went out to get hibachi steak on Thursday evening to celebrate.

Austin Children's Museum: Thinkery

Grant, Cadie, Ranger and I were staying at a house in Kyle, Texas with Paul, Deanna, Corina and Carter. Also staying there was Paul's best friend Brendan, Brendan's wife Summer and their 1 year old Charlie. On Sunday Deanna was getting her hair done and doing final wedding prep, Paul needed to finish some materials for the ceremony and so we decided to get the kids out of the way. We headed to the Thinkery which was awesome. It was just the right size for the kids and we stayed for over 3 hours and we could have stayed longer.

Cadie and Carter loved building a raindow with the giant light brite. Colton loved the air tunnel that had scarves and lite objects that you could put in the air tunnel and watch fly up to the ceiling. Ranger loved building airplanes out of foam and then shooting them out of an air gun. Ranger even got picked one time to help collect the airplanes. The whole place was incredibly interactive and fun. I would definitely go back.

DD and Big John were in Austin for work and they met us at the museum which was really fun. Nina and Papa stayed for about 2 hours and then headed back to Dallas with Colton. The kids started getting hungry for lunch around 2 so Grant and I said bye to DD and Big John and took Cadie, JR and Carter to Texas Roadhouse for some steak. Then back to the house to get ready for the wedding!