Chubby Bunnies!

McKenzie found a bag of marshmallows in the pantry and Cambrie suggested with all play chubby bunnies.  The boys have never played before and they thought stuffing their faces with marshmallows sounded like a fabulous idea!  What silly bunnies we all were!

OFY

After having such an incredible experience last year, Cambrie was anxious to go to OFY again.  She coordinated with her old OFY friend, Cambrie and her sister so they could go together.  

She reported that the vibe was a little different and her group wasn't quite as unified as last year, but the whole experience was still great.  

They conquered the ropes course.  She dominated on the crate tower.  

River rafting was a blast. 

And the slip 'n slide was just good old fashioned fun.  

Coming off of a wildflower high at Grand Tetons she was in the mood to craft and spent a lot of time making wildflower crowns.  She said she got pretty good at it too.  

It was hard having a week of OFY straight off the back of a week of camping with the family and she was pretty wiped out when she came home.  We're glad she made it home as the shuttle ride back to the airport was slow, she almost missed her flight, she didn't land in Colorado until after 1:00am, and then she had to hunt for her bags in the baggage claim.  It was quite the experience but I'm glad that she loves having adventures like this.

Play Ball!

This year both boys got to play ball!  Kelton played baseball with his friend Bentley, and Daxton was introduced to T-ball.  It was so much fun watching both boys.  Kelton had a goal to hit a home run in a game.  This year the boys got to pitch and it made hitting that ball a little difficult.  In practice with his coach pitching he did really well though.  He did a great job each game reading the field and knowing where to make the play.  He even got to play catcher his final game and he said that we fun but really tiring. 

Daxton loved T-ball. Their team name was the Exploding Monkeys which I think is the most creative team name we've had so far. He was the only lefty on his team which meant that he had to learn things a little differently than his teammates, but he did great.  He had solid hits, great throws, and was fabulous at running the bases.  He always had a smile on his face which is exactly what I like to see. 

 Hooray for summer ball! 

Summer day on the river

For I feel the first time this summer, we had a day with absolutely nothing on the calendar.  So instead of sitting around twiddling our thumbs, I took McKenzie, Kelton and Daxton to the St. Vrain river.  We floated down that river over and over again.  When I told the kids it was time to go, they complained that they had only been there one hour and weren't down yet.  We had been there five hours!  I really was the perfect day to spend in the water and I'm glad we were able to truly relax while we were there.

Lizard Creek with the fam

Last time we camped at the perfect campsite in Lizard Creek. That particular site was reserved so my mom found a different group of sites that was a little isolated from the rest of the campers. And what do you know, but this site was perfect too. We didn't have any neighbors so we could let the kids run around without worry. Kelton brought his new ninja line and we found some great trees to support it. All of the kids played for hours on that line in ninja land. 

I think all of us brought hammocks, so once we set them all up we also had a fabulous hammock land. 

For those who didn't want to climb or swing we set up chairs for chair land.  

In years past this camp site is normally right on the lake. We had counted on being able to play on the water, but it wasn't to be. The lake has been drained in the last year or two so instead of being next to the water, we were next to a new meadow. The sunsets from this meadow were just as pretty as the sunsets from the beach.  

Most of the time spent at camp was simple: playing games, doing crafts, making flower crowns. 

But we were lucky to also celebrate a birthday!  It was Faye's birthday and Hannah made it special. We decorated the campsite with streamers, put on our party hats, and had our noise makers ready to party. She also brought a pinata and each kid had a turn taking a whack at it. 

We had a few memorable moments. There were some spiders by the bathroom and to help Daxton's fear, he and Jeremy would feed the spider every time they came by. 

A bear was spotted in the meadow so we had to make sure things were buttoned up tight. Luckily our kids were really good at making noise anyway so we didn't have to get out our pots and pans. On one of our date night walks Jeremy and I found fresh bear prints and I wondered if it was the same bear out visiting.

 Grandma Stratford came with us and it was wonderful spending time with her.

  Really I just loved spending the week up there and I was so sad to go home!