Family church

One of the casualties of coronavirus, was weekly church meetings with the ward.  Since March we have been having family church.  Jeremy blesses and passes the sacrament, I teach the lesson, and we all get to participate more with our scripture study.  I have been so impressed by these kids.  Our weekly meetings have gone really smoothly with everyone really doing their best to listen, learn, and help.  I have loved having this time together.  As lockdown restrictions lift, I am really going to miss these weeks we have had together.  I've had the chance to really discuss the gospel with my kids, and they listen!  

So even though this simple board that Jeremy and Cambrie made won't mean much to anyone else, I hope to always save it to remember the time we had to really teach the gospel in our home.  

It's feels like this is the way the church should be.

Bobolink trail

Rachel invited the kids and I to go hiking with them.  These kids need to get outside more, so yes, let's go.  We explored a new trail that we haven't really explored before, Bobolink trail.  I've riding past the trailhead (and parked there for bike rides) countless times, but I've never taken the trail.  I was relieve that there was so much shade as we walked.  It was a flat trail and the kids could just walk without a lot of pressure to "get somewhere."  

London and Daxton were the cutest little hiking buddies.  

When we were ready to turn around we stopped and played in South Boulder creek.  The kids builts cities, dams, and just splashed.  

It was a fabulous little getaway.

Creative Cambrie strikes again

One of Cambrie's favorite stores is Hobby Lobby.  Sometimes she has a plan when we walks through those doors, but sometimes she doesn't.  She always comes out with craft supplies that just blow my mind.  In one afternoon she whipped up these shoes of beauty.  This creative girl is so cool.

Monster hug

The kids love celebrating father's day.  They love choosing gifts, choosing cards, and spending time with Jer.  This year the card they chose warned him to watch out for monsters...monster hugs that is!  He was tackled by all four kids as they delivered that monster hug.  

His gifts this year were fun.  McKenzie made him a Daddy's Stash jar covered in mustaches.  Whatever treats he put in it, can't be touched by anyone other than himself.  The boys gave him a hug bag full of all of his favorite kinds of chips.  

Our family gift to him was a chance to drive a really fast car.  I'll have to post pictures of that later, as there wasn't a slot open until September, but we can't wait!  He's going to drive a Ferrari 688 GT around a race track and see just how fast he can make it go.  It looks like fun, and he deserves to have a little (or a lot of) fun.

Learning how to waterski

We are lucky enough to be friends with families who have big toys, like boats and lakes!  The Jensens own a share in a water skiing lake and invited us to go spend the afternoon with them.  Not only did we get to enjoy the water and sunshine, but Bridger also helped to teach my kids to water ski.  He has a boom that extends from the boat, and while I've never used one before I quickly realized how awesome they are!  My three kids have not spent enough time on the water, and have never tried water skiing before.  Before I could blink, all three of them were up and skiing.  Their smiles were awesome as they cruised across the water.  Now we need to get some more practice in!

McKenzie started on two, but then tried slaloming at the end of the day and did great.

Kelton also went from two skis to one.

And Daxton, I was so proud of him for being brave enough to try!  He did great.

June shenanigans

After three months in quarantine, my kids still manage to surprise me with what kind of things they're coming up with.  For example, we have a new souvenir of our "spring break" and "summer vacation," a hole in the wall.  The kids had made a slide down the stairs and then started somersaulting down the slope.  That is hole is somehow the exact same size as Cambrie's heel.  

After we banned somersaults, the kids instead made an ocean, and fished off of the ledge.  No holes this time!  

Cambrie found a fabulous walking stick on one of our hikes.  She then went to Hobby Lobby and bought all of the supplies she needed to make a magical orb to top her staff.  It is very impressive.  That girl has so much creativity.  

We've been slowly improving the side yard by the driveway.  Jeremy built a fence to hide our garbage cans, and Kelton helped.  

One afternoon Kelton and I played a couple rounds of Battleship.  I love that this was my opponent!  He looks pretty tough!  

Not as tough as this guy though.

These magna tiles have seen a ton of use.  Besides houses, race car tracks, and rocket ships, they are most commonly used to trap people.  

This is what happens when the kids have access to markers after family church. You should have seen what the other kids had on their faces!  

One of our aspen trees in the backyard has died.  We didn't want to remove the whole tree, because it is a great hammock support.  But we did need to chop off the top half so it wouldn't fall and crush the kids in the hammock.  So while Jeremy chopped the tree, we all pulled it towards the yard so it fell where we wanted it to fall.  

Then we used it for firewood!  

And while Daxton may be adorable, he is terrified of the dark and has been ending up in our bed for weeks.  It's amazing that such a little dude can cause so much misery while we're trying to sleep.  Don't worry Dax, we don't need to sleep to keep up with you crazy kids.

St. Vrain river float

Operation: Local fun, has commenced!  Okay, it's not an official operation, but this summer is going to be unlike any summer we've had before, and we are going to discover more of what Colorado has to offer.  Would you like to know where I find my ideas?  Facebook.  I watch my friends' feeds and totally steal their ideas.  This location came from Cathy Anderson.  There is a section of the St. Vrain river that is open to the public to float down, and it is just right for kids.  Longmont has created a series of drops in the river that keep the river moving, and offer just a little bit of thrill for those who are floating down.  Daxton wasn't sure what to think of the first drop, but he realized very quickly that this was awesome.  

Before we went, I stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up four cheap inner tubes.  The boys, McKenzie and I floated in those.  Jeremy and Cambrie pulled out their paddle boards.  The water was chilly, but only for that first dunk.  After that it was just right.  It was so relaxing floating down.  To keep track of everyone, we held on to each other's toes.  If we did get separated though, all it took was for me to jump out of my tube and wade through the shallow water to retrieve the stray tube.  

Unfortunately our beautiful day was complicated by an afternoon thunderstorm.  As we were all walking back up after a float, serious gusts came through and started blowing everything away.  Tubes were rolling, umbrellas and shade tents were flying, the paddle boards became sails and pushed Jeremy and I all over the place as we tried to get them back up to camp.  The storm didn't last long, and even though the sun refused to come back, we stayed out even longer.  

Here are the girls trying to surf on one of the drops.  

Eventually though another round of storms came through, these ones with hail, so we called it a day.  It felt like we spent a day at the lake, it was so much fun.

Lair o' the Bear

Today we simply walked away from our chores and went to the mountains.  I had asked some other moms about good hikes for kids, and they suggested Lair o' the Bear up near Morrison.  So, not knowing what we were doing besides escaping responsibility, we left.  It started out cloudy and overcast, which was honestly a nice change from the 95 degree weather we had this week.  The kids brought their staffs (yup, the same ones from Logan), and we just started walking.  It looked as though there was no real end point for this hike.  It was part of a larger loop and we could turn around whenever we wanted.  

We made it about 2 miles until we found a house that looked like a castle.  It was private property and we couldn't go exploring, but it was as good as place as any to turn around.  

The entire walk followed a stream.  The kids had been eyeing it and wanting to go play.  I hadn't brought any water gear so I made them wait until the end of the hike so they wouldn't be hiking in wet tennis shoes.  As soon as we could see the parking lot, we took off our shoes and jumped in.  The water was the perfect temperature for our hot feet.  While I sat and relaxed, Daxton watched leaves float down the stream, and the other kids made a stick racing route by moving rocks.  Once they were finished with their course, they had stick races down the river.  Even though we didn't walk very far or very fast, we still spent three hours up there just hanging out.  On our way home, Cambrie even said that it was a lot more fun than she had been expecting.  That's high praise.