Everybody Loves a Parade

A few weekends ago we went with our neighbors to our town highschool's homecoming parade. We were in a really good spot to get a lot of candy, we were towards the end and there were no other kids around. The floats were pretty cute, Emma's elementary school had a bunch of kids walking and riding bikes and scooters. Emma (surprisingly) wanted to be in it, but sadly it did not work out. There were tears, but I think the candy made up for the disappointment. I love small town living (although it is nice to have the city 20 minutes away), but sadly we aren't THAT small town, the parade didn't even turn around an come back through,(Creamery Picnic anyone?), but good times were had by all. One of these days we will get out to a game, they are pretty fun to watch!

Mmm Mmm Good

I love LOVE freezer jam, I could eat it like soup. So when my friend Jarrie found this out, and also found out I had no clue how to make it(as I am homemaking challenged), she offered to teach me how (if I had known how easy it was, I would have already had a freezer full!). So King Soopers had a pretty good deal on strawberries last week and we spent the afternoon making freezer jam. Heaven smiled on us, as we had exactly enough strawberry mush for our last batch, and the bread I decided 3/4 of the way through to put in the bread maker (the only way to make it!) finished at the exact same time as we did. So we taste tested our work on hot from the oven (breadmaker) bread. YUM!!! Thanks Jarrie for helping me!



The fruits of our labor!

Cool Dude(just a funny picture)

A Little Culture

We even got to see a crash, one car just hit the side of the track, but it was pretty cool!

A few weekends ago we went with some friends to the speedway (that we didn't know was 10 minutes from our house). It was so much fun, kind of an adrenalin pumping experience:) The kids really liked it, even the incredible noise of the engines! The best part was "intermission" where they had people from the audience race each other. The winner was an old guy w/ a pretty smokin' corvette! But there was a souped up turbo geo that gave him a run for his money:) It reminded me of one summer in high school that my friend Phillip and I went up in the mountains somewhere by Lolo where there was a big family reunion, and everybody had these souped up, trashed cars/trucks and they raced them in a meadow. We dubbed them "The Redneck Races," - Good times:) I think we will definitely be going back there again!

Emma's Brownies

Emma was on treat for family home evening on Monday, and she made these brownies all by herself. Ryan manned the oven and I got out the measuring cups she needed, but other than that she did the brownies and frosting (chocolate/raspberry frosting) herself! Way to go Emma! They were delicious (as you can see, by Wed. they are almost gone!)

Tattoo Girl

Riley is our child who is going to come home one day with a tattoo or strange piercing. When she was a little younger she would sneak pens into the car and write on herself as we drove. When asked what was she doing she would reply "giving myself tattoos". So she went over to her friends house and came home with stamps all over her arms, legs and stomach. She did have them all over her face, but her friend's mom had washed those off. This picture is after I had already washed off several, and then realized I should record it for posterity.

Labor Day

Emma's mad photography skills

I am slowly catching up on our blog, so I am up to Labor Day (yea me)! We went hiking in Boulder in the morning and then to the pool for our last hurrah (which lasted about 1 hour, Max was TIRED!) Emma did enter the hula hoop contest (very big step for her, she's so shy and all) Then we had some friends over for BBQ and games. It was a fun/busy day to end the summer:)

The Hula hoop contest

First days of school

Emma's first day of 2nd grade. She loves school as much as I did (not so much). But so far she has only had a few "I don't want to go to school" days! She really likes her teacher, Mrs. Simms, but there are 32!!! kids in her class. I think Mrs. Simms is probably pretty exhausted by the end of the day!

Riley's first day of preschool. She is loving it, she comes home in such a good mood!!!! When she is gone Max takes a nap and I have a few hours to do nothing at all:)

FATSO Campout

So in July or August our ward had its annual father-son campout. Ryan took Max up just for the evening, b/c he wanted to go waterskiing w/ his family the next day. They had a great time! It was long enough ago that I honestly can't remember what the girls and I did, I think we ended up at the mall:) I love that the girls are getting old enough to want to do things I like to do! (the last picture is at the lake the next day!)

The best sound

Riley and Max tend to fight a lot, so this is a rare moment that I thought I had better preserve!

Who?

Take the Quiz here!

Can you believe she's 7!?!?

For Emma's 7th birthday she had a Build-a-Bear party. I highly recommend this, as all we had to do was show up w/ cupcakes. No clean up, I didn't even have to be in charge, they kept everybody together and helped them find the bears and accessories they wanted.

For dinner we had family over, Emma wanted orange chicken, yellow rice (chicken rice-a-roni) and rainbow jello (which I forgot to make!)

Max abandoned his dinosaur "Dinosaur" for Rileys pink bed and a purple bear

But in the end he kept the more "masculine" choice! (Much to daddy's relief)

The best sound in the world

It's a......

...disappointment -- for Riley and Emma, but for the rest of us, it's a boy! This is almost exactly what Riley's face/posture was when the dr. said it's a boy. Just picture her 2 ys. older and sucking her thumb! The girls had their hearts set on a girl, but Max is very excited Although he gets excited about anything we get excited about! and the girls will come around! It is nice that Max will have a little buddy, and Ryan thinks w/ a brother Max's love of princesses, pink, and having his toenails painted will magically go away. We'll see!!!!!

3rd & 4th of July

Our neighborhood does fireworks on the 3rd of July, so we went to our friend's block party. On the 4th we went to Ryan's co-workers house and bb-qed, but went home before the fireworks, the kids do NOT do well with late nights, especially 2 in a row!!! Waiting for the show to start
Max is telling us how the "pops go pop"!
Enthralled by the show
Riley was ready for bed, the grand finale didn't even catch her interest.

Tennis Lessons

The girls took tennis lessons in June, and they were pretty good! They really liked it too, until it got to 80 degrees by 9am, then there was some complaining! I think we will take it back up in the fall, when the weather is cooler!

Lemonade Stand

So the girls wanted to do a lemonade stand w/ the neighbors the other day. It was soooo hot! I just watched them from inside, but they were going strong after 2 hours and did not want to pack it in. They made about $8.00 total.
An the younger siblings, wanting to be involved, had a "free ice" stand right next to the lemonade stand!!!!! (How cute are they!)

Glenwood Springs

Ryan had to go to Grand Junction for work last week, so we tagged along and spent a few days in Glenwood Springs. We stayed pretty busy, there is a lot to do there. This is the start of our hike to Hanging Lake, the hike is 1.2 miles each way with an elevation change of over 1000 feet.

Max made it almost the entire way to the top. There were HUGE boulders to climb over and very steep parts.

Posing at the top!
The reward for all that hard work? Throwing rocks into the lake!!!
Still smiling -- to the very end. The whining didn't start until we got to the flat sidewalk that led to the parking lot!
Waiting for the Strawberry Festival Parade to begin (they've got nothing on the Creamery Picnic Parade!!!)
Here comes the parade, FINALLY!!!!!

Music Tag

So my cute sister-in-law made up a "tag" game to get some new songs for running. Here are her top 10: 1. How far we've come- Matchbox Twenty2. Let it happen- Jimmy Eat World3. Mr. Brightside- The Killers4. Paralyzer- Finger Eleven5. Please (edited) - Staind6. Well Enough Alone- Chevelle7. Lose Yourself (edited)-Eminem8. Stronger (edited) - Kanye West9. Hung Up- Madonna10. Face Down- The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
So here are mine: (some are not such a fast beat as these days I walk most of my route!)
1. Fake it - Seether
2.Misery business - Paramour
3.This is how I disappear - My chemical romance
4.It's a disaster - O.K. go
5.Thnks Fr th mmrs - Fall out boy
6.Suddenly I see - K. T. Tunstall
7.Papercut - Linkin Park
8.Pain - Jimmy eat world
9.Ride - The vines
10.I will never let you down - The verve pipe
Runner-ups: Shut up and drive - Rihanna Overweight - Blue october Hey there Delilah- Plain white T's Paralyzer- Finger 11
So, feel free to post your top 10 in my comments or on your blog. I am definately always looking for more songs to help me get up and go, I thinks it's a good way to find some new tunes!