CO Trip and the Creek!

What a week of creek! While Brooke, Winry and I were out in Colorado, Monica took Grayson to a creek out here in Texas.  They had a superb time, and so when we got back we headed over all together on Saturday!  It was a lot of fun, and it's nice to know where there's a good creek here in Texas!  But more on that later.

Back in Colorado I went for a run Monday morning, and guess who I saw?  The creek!  This was a very creek heavy week...  I threw a stick in for Grayson, I'm sure he appreciated it.  I also made sure to come down here where the bridges were flooded as I think it's the place he still remembers the best.  I also tried to go on the "new" bridge that finished shortly after we moved, but the gates were still chained shut... so maybe you can ever use that.

In Texas, Monica took Grayson to the new creek.  The fallen down tree is a new addition.  The creek is pretty extra awesome because there are tons of fossils all over in the rocks.  I found a really cool full shell, but didn't take a picture.  It's sitting here on my desk in front of me right now.  Pretty awesome!

The creek trip was actually play group, so there were lots of friends to play and have a good time with.

While I was out, the cucumber trellis fell away from the fence, and Monica had to go staple it back up.  It looks sturdy enough for now, so hopefully it stays.

Back in Colorado we were all having a good time with Alice.  Winry really liked to play with her and would find and bring her toys.

Joy came over to play with Grayson, and they had a tea party with gummy bear tea.  I don't use gifs much and instead try to pick a favorite picture, but in this case the set of pictures tells a much better story than any one of them.  See the gummy bears coming out of the tea pot?

I mentioned putting on plays last week, and that became a popular game for the rest of the week.  Everyone was happy the whole time they played it, so it was a pretty good game.

Monica got this big pillow to see if it would help with her back.  Grayson just sees a constant hug and snuggle pit, so he's all in and we'll be lucky if he leaves our bed.  Grayson and Monica had a lot of fun together, and Grayson definitely loved having constant 1 on 1 time with Monica.  They played all sorts of games together, and one Grayson really loved was when they built a marble run track with a "secret" start path.

On Tuesday after work I took the girls to the creek out here in Colorado.  They were excited to come back and play.  We didn't have too much time before we had to head back for dinner, but if was fun in the sun while it lasted.

Monica and Grayson went to this park that had a horse for Grayson to sit on.

Winry and Alice continued to be best friends!  For real, Winry had so much fun playing with Alice, and Alice loved spending time with Winry.

Eek!  Our sunflower split and fell down!  Guess it's time to pull it out.  It was pretty cool while it lasted.

Winry found her roly poly enclosure and decided she'd been pet-less for toooo long.  So she went out and found some roly polies!  She's very excited to have them back, and has been taking great care of them. The names of her roly polies were particularly incredible: wind-up mouse, teeny beany, waffle, and destroying somersault!

The garden continues to produce, and the cucumbers in specific are everywhere!  Maybe we should have left them tipped over...

Brooke glammed out for her call with Gram.. who... happened to be a pirate!  Good ol' video filters.  I really liked how Brooke looked in this picture!

Winry came down to sleep in our room one night because there was a bug in her curtains.  I was out doing some church stuff, but when I got home Monica asked me to go get the bug out.  I knocked it out of the curtain, and it looked like it was dead, but it was pretty big, so fair enough for Winry to want to be out.  With the bug out I took Winry back up to her bed for the rest of the night.

Remember that sunflower?  Well, I was out trying to dig up the stump of it on Saturday when Monica noticed a toad hopping through the garden!  I offered to catch it, and eventually got it to hop into my hand.  Success!  Oh, I got out the stump too.

In the afternoon we headed over to the creek.  We had a lot of fun there.  By the path, things were shallow and good for everyone to play in.  Walking down the creek a little, things got a lot deeper though.  Not too deep that Brooke couldn't stand in it, but my understanding is that it was more swimmable.  I didn't want to go all the way in, so I didn't check personally.  The path was also sloped, which was great fun for Grayson's truck that we brought, and we were also throwing things in the creek on one side and catching them when they came out from under the path.  A pretty stellar afternoon.

Rightly so, we went to Jeramiah's for ice cream after.  It's been a bit since we've been there, and it was tasty as ever.

The kids were pretty tired after all that playing, as you can notice on Grayson's face here.  He was actually in a good mood after his ice cream, but looks kinda grumpy right here before we cleaned his face off.

And that's our week.  It was fun to go to Colorado, but it's also nice to be back home as well.  Joe and I stayed up most nights playing board games, so while I had a lot of fun, it's also nice to be getting sleep again.  And with that, have a good week ahead.

Heading to Colorado

Hello from the beautiful mountains of Colorado!  Technically, not much of this week was actually in Colorado as we flew out Saturday afternoon, but we did work our way there.  The week was pretty calm leading up.  Unfortunately, Monica's back has been hurting so she couldn't come with us, and Grayson stayed home with her.  The girls were really excited to get to ride the train in the Denver airport, and travel was pretty easy having two older kids who could manage themselves for the most part.

Monday night was the monthly puzzle night at the library, and we all headed over together.  We were able to get a more basic puzzle for Grayson, and he had a good time initially.  About half way through, Grayson and Winry were done with puzzles, and we went over to the kids section in the library and played with toys until Monica and Brooke finished the puzzle we started.  We were even done in time to grab several books before the library closed.

Back to a pretty quick recap of the week.  Winry still loves her new baby dolls, and decided she wanted to make them some new clothes.  She had a paper to make a pattern on, and a ruler.  I never saw a final product, so I'm not sure how far this project made it.

A lizard came to say hello to me at work.  Jelly greeted him first, and made sure I knew I had a guest.  We called the kids in to have a look too.

Winry was... pregnant? with twins.  Bad news, it looks like they're both breech...  Alternatively, she could be nursing, not exactly sure.

And now we're back to the airport.  This time we're in the Austin airport.  After security and a trip to the bathroom, the girls asked if we could get ice cream, and I'm a sucker for ice cream!

Once we arrived in Colorado we were picked up by the Cammacks.  Saturday night we had dinner and just hung out a little before bed.  Joe set up a game night, and Andrew Green and Jordan Nichols came up and we played games until far too late!

On Sunday it was fun to go to church and see all the familiar faces.  Thanks everyone who came and said hi!  The girls spent all afternoon working on a play for us.  They put on a stirring rendition of Tangled.

And that's a wrap.  I've been in communication with Monica, and she and Grayson are doing well.  Church was a bit of a struggle today, but I think otherwise they were happy.  Things are going well, and we're ready for some fun times in CO, and Monica and Grayson have big plans for next week as well!
 

Jedi Vibes

Why hello lovely people.  It's a bit of a slower week, but sometimes that's good.  It's nice to have some time to relax and recover, and also it's nice from a writing stand point to not always see tons of pictures and stories and know it's gonna take a bit.  The last visit from Oriah she brought us this "the child" hoodie thing.  It's short, I tried it on, and it's definitely meant for kids and to be large like this.  Grayson loves wearing this, and I'll randomly catch him wearing it while playing, or getting ready for bed.  Any time really.

I caught Jelly gazing out the window.  I never saw anything she might be watching, just gazing into the backyard.

One of the local churches here had a summer Bible camp.  I'm not sure where the details originally came from, I believe the Ellers because I think that's who they went with.  Brooke and Winry went (and Grayson as long as he'd want to stay) and they had a lot of fun. 

There was a magic show at the library this last week, and Monica took the kids!  Everyone loved it and I heard all kinds of great things about it.  It sounds like he was pretty funny, and I got to hear the highlights of the tricks.

The garden is still booming.  I don't remember if I talked about this, but I put a drip line watering system in there before we went to Boston to keep it alive, and it seems like it's thriving.  We've been getting lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, watermelon, and even a few peppers.  There's a few other things I've left out I believe, but it's doing well.

On Saturday Monica and the kids went to the church to practice a musical number.  While they were there it looks like they also practiced conducting in the chapel, and I'm sure Grayson was all help there on the organ bench.

Saturday night there was a ward luau, and after dinner there was a fruit sculpture contest.  Winry made this house, and she won an award, but I don't remember what it was called.

The moment you were waiting for has arrived!  That musical number which was practiced was also performed, and was WONDERFUL!  I loved sitting and listening to it, and everyone else appreciated me sitting and listening to it, as opposed to participating.

Brooke wanted to help Monica with dinner, and essentially made it herself.  She made these tostada bowls, and they were super delicious.  She even got them out of the oven on her own, which I think was a first.

We had a lesson about the Lamanites burying their weapons of war, and so we all picked something and buried a stick by the tree.  Well, that was the idea, Winry came back to the house with a stick and had buried her shovel!

I came walking in carrying Jelly.  I feel like there was a reason... maybe just that I like Jelly, that I came in carrying her, and I was photo worthy!  Yay!

Any who, that finishes up things for now.  Hope everyone is doing well.

Happy 4th of July!

Merry Independence Day!  Leander did a firework show on the 3rd of July, and a friend in the ward has a house that looks out over the park they do fireworks at.  Conveniently, they also live on the opposite side from where the park and high traffic is.  A few people from the ward met up on their driveway to watch the firework show, and we joined them!  It was a lot of fun, and the fireworks did not disappoint.

I found a video of the kids cleaning the house.  Nice to see them helping, but I don't know that Brooke needs 3 dusting mitts.  That said, they're all on a surface, so maybe she's just 3x more effective than I am at this.

Jelly has been really pushing to get outside recently.  She'll just stare out the back door and meow all the time.  I guess it's working for her though, and usually when she gets out there she just chews on some grass for a bit before coming back inside.

Grayson's been past naps for quite a while, however, that doesn't mean he doesn't need them from time to time.  His room is typically an unacceptable location though, so here he is on our bed.

Brooke and I went to run some errands and buy fireworks on the 3rd, and while we were out we saw a Lamborghini!  Oh yes, lovely to drive by!

Here is a picture and a video from the fireworks on the 3rd.

On the 4th of July Monica kept food themed around red, white and blue.  Lunch was a particularly pleasing spread to see!  Nice job Monica!

Jelly found my water shoes this past week and I guess she's got a love hate relationship with them.  It was pretty fun to watch her rubbing and attacking my shoe.  I don't feel like she does stuff like this too much, so it's pretty entertaining.

Here are the kids outside for fireworks on the 4th.  They had been playing in our splash pad in the backyard after dinner while waiting.  We bought mostly fountains because I thought the kids would like those most, but they really liked the ground flowers, and I did get an aerial for the finale.

Monica and I went to a fancy restaurant for date night Friday night.  It was a Brazilian place, so a lot of different meats, and a really nice salad bar.  It was good eating, and fun to try something new.

Afterwards we attempted to walk some of the food off at the mall.  We mostly just wandered the main hall to see what was there, but did go in a few places that caught our interest.  Mostly clothing places, but there was a nice souvenir shop that was mostly geared towards Asian items, but there was also this beauty there.

We had a big rain storm on Saturday.  I think it's the heaviest rain we've had, at least that we've been awake for.  Our front yard has never flooded more than this, and we had quite the waterfall off our roof too!

Monica's worked to finish up Grayson's room.  He's getting dinosaurs on the wall!  They're looking pretty awesome, and Grayson even helped paint the brachiosaurus for a bit.

And that's all she wrote for now.  Have a wonderful week.