School's Out For Summer!

To celebrate the beginning of summer break, we decided to hit up Dairy Queen on Daniel's last day of school. 

I think Carter liked it...

After that, we took as many opportunities as we could to enjoy being outside. The park was a favorite haunt...

... and we took advantage of all the beautiful hiking spots in our little part of Colorado.

There are lots of pretty flowers and plants!

This particular hike was at Gateway Mesa Open Space.

Pretty, right? We also hiked Castle Rock, because duh!

This is one of my favorite photos of the kids together...

Carter gets better and better every time we hike. He was such a trooper!

He also found a nice little seat for himself on the way up.

And Aubrey and I got this selfie. We're so cool.

At the top of the hill (mountain?), the kids did some good rock scrambling.

And Daniel made this fun little animation.

The weather did get hot, of course, so we also had to find ways to cool down. We tried water balloons, but the kids couldn't really throw them hard enough to break them on people. Oh well, it was still cute.

We also used our fun sprinkler. That thing has lasted much longer than I expected it would, haha.

On a note completely unrelated to pretty much anything, we also got to watch some adorable twin babies for our friends, and I swooned with the cuteness that was Aubrey and Carter with the babies. So I had to share these photos.

Anyway, moving on. The kids have loved being close to Nana and Papa, and summer allowed us to  visit them more often. 

On one particular visit, Aubrey got a little carried away picking flowers for Nana... It's so cute though!

Aubrey also took swimming lessons, and she really improved! She also got over a lot of her fears.

And finally, for this blog post at least, we enjoyed a fun visit from our friends Vanessa and Kyle, who live in Alabama, which is much too far away. Our kids got along really well! I kind of failed at taking photos while they were here, but I did manage to get a few when we went to Garden of the Gods.

We even got a photo of our whole family!

I also had to take advantage of being there again to recreate one of my favorite photos of Carter. Here's the new one followed by the original.

Awww, why do they have to grow up??

Anyway, our lovely outing ended with Carter having a major, awful, disgusting blowout that required me to change his clothes. Thankfully, Vanessa had extra clothes in her car. Because I didn't. Anyway, I guess the whole ordeal tuckered him out, because he passed out on the way home.

While our friends were here, we also tried a new ice cream place called Little Man. It was delicious!

Again, I wish I'd gotten some photos with our friends. I'm not sure why I never did! But we loved having them visit and were sad when they left. I'm hoping for another reunion soon!

And now, to end the first of our summer blog posts, here are photos of my kids looking too cool for school! (Get it? Because it's summer? Eh?)

Easter and Springtime

After an eventful February, it was back to normal. That is, if you can call these guys normal...

As we waited for Spring, we had lots of back-and-forth days when it came to the weather. On cold days, we stayed inside. We watched movies. Aubrey even fell asleep during one! That has NEVER happened before. I think she was sick maybe? I don't remember.

With colder weather, there was also plenty of time for snuggles. I can't get over how cute Carter used to say it!

There was also lots of cute sibling time.

On days when the weather was warm, we went for walks around the neighborhood. That happened more when Aubrey was at school, so it was often just me and Carter. Aww, our shadows are so cute together!

One of his favorite things to do was (and kind of still is) throw rocks. It's so cute the joy little kids get out of little things!

See what I mean? Look at that smile as he goes down the slide. Loooove.

This was also the time period during which Daniel and I tackled lots of home improvement projects (more on that in another post at another time). When we painted the kitchen cabinets, things were a bit torn up. So, of course, the kids found a way to play among the chaos.

Then there was the super fun time when Carter grabbed a small paint sample (at least it was small) that was definitely NOT out of his reach, apparently, and chucked it down the basement stairs. More than a year later, the door still looks that way. *sigh*

Come April, it was Easter time! And now that we're living near Nana and Papa, we got to spend the holiday with them. The kids loved their baskets...

... and we did a little egg hunt in the backyard. Carter, in particular, was pretty entertaining. He didn't quite understand it all, I think.

April also brought Aubrey's birthday! At preschool, they have a little celebration and "birthday buckets" tradition. Carter and I went to preschool that day to honor Aubrey, and Carter was Aubrey's "helper" for the buckets. Not sure how helpful he actually was... haha.

Then Grandma and Grandpa came back to visit for Aubrey's birthday party. I wrote about all of that on her individual blog, so I won't do it here. But I will talk about the fun day of kite flying we had! 

First, I have to draw attention to the awesome outfit Aubrey chose.

Girl's got style. Anyway, back to the kite flying. Grandma and Grandpa bought a kite for Aubrey, and on a fortuitously windy day, we took it out in the neighborhood.

Unfortunately, the houses were blocking the good wind, so we headed to Founders Park. It made a huge difference to be out in the open!

Aubrey was so excited to have a chance to fly the kite herself.

She also helped Grandpa launch it in the air a few times!

It was so fun to see her pure joy at such a simple, classic activity. Ah, to be a child again!

Before Grandma and Grandpa left, we took advantage of their presence and asked Grandpa to take a family photo for us while we were dressed in our nice church clothes. The kids never looked great in the same photo, but this one was pretty good.

After Grandma and Grandpa left, we bought Carter his first pair of sunglasses. He was so happy to have his own pair, just like Mommy and Aubrey! It's the little things.

Aubrey also got her second-ever haircut. I thought she just looked so sweet and grown-up here!

The weather got warmer and warmer, and we started having backyard picnics...

... and going on hikes.

There was also that one time Carter showed off his amazing basketball skills at the park. This is Daniel's favorite video of him...

Aubrey and Carter also invented some fun games, like this business/customer one. I'm not sure Carter has a future in customer service...

And finally, we celebrated the end of the school year. Aubrey's class had an ice cream social. Here she is with her Little Bears yellow team and teachers! It was a great year for her (though it started a bit rocky), and we were (and still are) so grateful we stumbled upon this preschool when we moved here. It was absolute divine intervention.

And then it was summer! Yay! Stay tuned for more on that...

We Love February!

One of my favorite things about Colorado weather is that even in the middle of winter, the sun will come out and allow us to get outside for a bit. And after months of cold days being stuck inside (Oh the cabin fever!), the park seems like a necessity.

And, of course, when the park is right by a Wendy's, you have to stop in for frosties!

But, sadly, the warm weather can't last forever in February, so a lot of time was spent indoors. For the kids, this often leads to jumping on the couches. It's the favorite pastime.

Aubrey also took the time to teach Carter to somersault.

And Carter made Mommy feel really special (though I was getting him a gummy vitamin, which he loves, so it's hard to tell if he was really excited about me or not... we'll say he was).

I also played a fun prank on Aubrey. We were playing a game in which she would go off and count while I hid a stuffed animal. Then she'd try to find it. The last place I hid it was in the back of Carter's shirt. I was so amused watching her search for it; I had to film her. Here's the whole thing in two installments.

And finally, we get to our favorite thing about February--a visit from Grandma and Grandpa! This has started to become a tradition for my dad's birthday (so he can go skiing). Of course, we also visit all the restaurants.

And this year Grandma and Grandpa were here for Aubrey's Valentine's party at preschool. They played musical chairs, and Aubrey almost won! 

They also played with balloons and stuff.

While Grandma and Grandpa were here, we took the kids bowling for the first time. Carter didn't really do much, but Aubrey had a blast!

Aubrey and Grandma also played other fun games together.

And apparently we baked something... Haha.

When the weekend came, we hit the slopes at Copper Mountain. I hadn't been snowboarding in almost a decade, and OH MAN did it show. Here we all are at the beginning of the day, before all the crashes and burns. This was when I was still having fun.

But then I completely ate it about halfway through the day. I caught an edge and landed hard on my butt and then flung back and hit my head. It knocked all the air out of me and killed my neck and upper back. My dad also took a big fall and got a bit hurt, so we both ended up at the chiropractor. I ended up getting x-rays, so Daniel finally got to see why my back always hurts. I'm deformed!

After Grandma and Grandpa left, Aubrey took it upon herself to help me do some cleaning. She's my cute, little helper!