Hiking

We did a family hike our last morning at the cabin.  Our days of day-long hiking are temporarily set aside, but that's ok.  The short ones are fun, too!

Abbey's zip-off Columbia pants are pretty adorable:

 She insisted on carrying a backpack and there had to be multiple items in it.  She ended up with the sunscreen and a flashlight.

 My brother and his family:

 Amelia loved the hike:

 So much that...

 We didn't make it to the top... probably a bit over halfway.  I guess with an (almost) 8 year old, a 5 year old, a 3 year old, a 22 month old and a 10 month old we did pretty well, though!  It was fun, no matter the result.  Turns out we headed back at the right time, as it started pouring rain shortly after we made it to the car!

Yay for hiking!

Family Time Fun at the Cabin

After our fun weekend at the lake celebrating my grandmother's 90th birthday, we went up to the mountains to celebrate the 4th of July.  We made it home on Monday with enough time for me to do laundry and re-pack the bags.  Uncle Ty didn't make the trip this time (hmmmm... do you think there was a reason?), but we were able to spend 3 fun days with my mom, dad (part of the trip), brother, sis-in-law and their kids.  It was so great seeing the kids play together... I think they had a great time!

 I see similar features in these two...

 It was fun watching the two youngest interact.  Little S is exactly 1 year and 2 days older than Amelia.

 Bubbles... little S was squealing with delight.

 Getting ready for bed.  Abbey's first sleepover (sharing the air mattress with cousin A).

 I like that these two have a similar look on their faces:

 Abs makes me smile in this one:

 Stu did a great job capturing this one:

 I cropped and edited this one, but of course blogger rotated it sideways.  So use your imagination (or your computer) to crop and adjust the color.  Or ask me to email it to you.  :)

 She loves the water...

 Grammy keeping Amelia from crawling into the water:

 Unfortunately with all of the wildfires around here, there are severe fire bans throughout the state.  Consequently there were no fireworks pretty much everywhere outside of Denver proper.  There were a lot of activities for the kids, however.  Who needs fireworks when you have funnel cake and slushies?

 Amelia wanted to get out and bowl (or crawl)

 For some reason, after waiting 5-10 minutes to roll the ball down the alley, Abs freaked out.  Fortunately Stu talked her off the ledge (by telling her she wouldn't get the prize - a lollipop - if she didn't try), and she did it.  And even had fun.

Happy Independence Day!

90th Birthday Party at the Lake

My grandmother turned 90 at the beginning of June, and we had a reunion to celebrate last weekend.  Family from across the US showed up... New York, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado.  It was quite a celebration!  Unfortunately the weekend fell over quarter-close for Stu, so he was unable to make the trip with us.  Thus began my first "solo" trip with the girls.  I say that very much tongue-in-cheek, because it was by no means solo.  My wonderful brother (whom I am forever indebted to, and who will never go on a trip with me again) accompanied us on the car ride to Missouri.  What is meant to be a 9 hour drive of course turned into an 11 hour drive with potty breaks and a baby that eats her body weight at every meal.  Wonderful Uncle Ty was so patient throughout it all, and was SUCH a help with the girls, especially Abbey.   The last 45 minutes of the trip involved Amelia crying heartily and Abbey whining and crying heartily.  Their uncle did an audio recording... love it.  Not only was Ty a help... all of my family was (both brothers, sis-in-law, mom and dad, aunts, uncles, cousins... wow!).  Really the only part I had to do by myself was the part in the hotel room.  Which was by no means easy in a non-babyproofed hotel room with a very adventurous baby that seems so show no comprehension of the word "no."  On to the weekend...

The guest of honor with my mom.

 A small portion of the cousins...

 Uncle Ty with Abbey on her first trip in the tube (which was also her favorite thing that we have done over the past week)...

 The island... this thing was so much fun!

 I loved this... we just got off the boat and Abbey saw Uncle Kyle in the kayak at the dock.  She walked over to him and basically said, "I'm getting in" as she climbed in, ready for a ride.

 Tube trip #2...

 Yes, Amelia was there, too!

 Tube trip #3... with Grammy!

 She LOVES her big cousin...

The main event... there was a big celebration at Grammy's church after the service.

Greeting guests...

Amelia loved my cousin... he was so good with her, too!

Grammy with her girls!

It was a great weekend.  We broke the trip into 2 segments on the way home.  Our last morning of the trip started with me waking Abbey up and asking her if she wanted to get dressed and go get breakfast... she said "yes" and the next hour went drastically downhill, but by the time we got to the car she was good again.  Unfortunately she did not get her special treat of Fruit Loops.  You probably can't expect too much with long days in the sun, lots of playing and about 5 hours less sleep a day than you are used to.  It was a long and tiring weekend, but it was worth it (hopefully Uncle Ty would say the same).  I even arrived home to Chick-fil-A and a spotless home (thank you, wonderful Stu).  Which we promptly disheveled with lots of toys and lake clothes.

Oh, and thanks again to Uncle Ty for the pictures.  I guess he not only managed to take care of Abbey... he took pictures.  More than I did!