Candid moments with Evan

Here are some of the candid moments from Evan's stay:

He came prepared to make us dinner.  This night he made a shepherd's pie that was similar to what we were used to, but had some great additional flavor.

He came to McKenzie's gymnastics meet to cheer her on.  Then afterwards we blew his mind with a trip to Costco.

We had a Star Wars movie marathon while he was here.  The boys didn't complain at all about all of the extra popcorn they got to eat.

Crepes for dinner is apparently the proper way to do it in France.  We will always eat crepes no matter what time it is.

It was nice enough weather that we roasted hotdogs on a campfire and introduced him to s'mores.

Settlers of Catan.  McKenzie's only goal was to have the longest road, but it was swiped from her at the very end of the game.

Evan really wanted to go out to eat at a fast food burger joint.  In-and-out was full of brand new experiences-calling out order numbers over the counter, filling your own fountain drink, and the salty french fries were just right.  It was his last experience before we dropped him off at the airport.  What a memorable three weeks.

 

More gym-tastics and some wins!

The last few meets for McKenzie have been so much fun.  Her vault is really taking off and she's had TWO first place finishes!  It is something special to see her standing on top of that podium.  

I love watching her flip, turn, and fly all over that gym.  

Kelton got to watch her compete last weekend and surprised her with a rose for doing so well.  

I'm so happy to see her loving her life and having such a great season.

The beginning of ropes season

Spring means that Kelton's climbing team shifts gears from bouldering to ropes climbing.  He had his first top rope competition in Longmont this weekend and did so well.  The format is very different than bouldering.  There are three climbs and each climber gets only one chance to top it.  The host gym is new and has really tall walls, 65 feet high.  The gym he practices only has 45 foot walls so those last 20 feet were challenging.  I could see him tiring out near the top but he never gave up and kept pushing towards that final hold.  He was exhausted afterwards, but was really proud of himself.  He's come so far since he started last fall and I love seeing him use his monkey skills for something he loves doing.

Day in Breckenridge

Our last big adventure day was spent up in Breckenridge.  First we went tubing at the Frisco Adventure Park.  When my kids learned that they didn't have to walk to the top of the hill they were shocked.  What kind of madness is this that they got to ride up a magic carpet to the top of the hill?!  The runs were fun.  We were able to go in clusters, and the attendants were so good about giving us the kind of run we wanted; spinning, fast, straight.  The spinning was ridiculously fun, but it made me so dizzy!

After our hour slot was up we continued our drive to Breckenridge.  We stopped first to see the troll.  It was a short walk from the parking lot and I thought he was so charming.

We found a parking spot closer to downtown and started to explore.  We stopped in boutiques, bookstores, and galleries.  I think this is the first time my kids were just as excited as I was to explore the shops on main street.  I had to literally drag the girls out of this bookstore.

Lunch was a feast of burgers and fries.

This candle shop was incredible!  We loved watching the artists dip and carve their creations.  We couldn't resist and came home with a couple of these beauties.

Selfie art.

Just enjoying the charms of a mountain town!

Ski day with Evan

Evan said he wanted to try skiing while he was here.  The last time he went was when he was five years old so he was rather rusty.  We took the whole family on the bunny hill to cheer him on while he was learning, and it gave the kids a chance to practice some of their weaker skills, like skiing backwards for the boys and boarding toe edge for Cambrie.  Jeremy was an amazingly patient teacher and helped Evan understand what he needed to do to get down the hill.  

Once our kids were nice and warmed up I took them over to the bigger runs while Jeremy and Evan hung out for a few more runs on the bunny hill.  I was surprised when Jeremy texted to say that they were going to head over and give Peru a shot.  It was an exhausting process getting Evan down that run.  This is so far beyond what he's done in the past physically that it was really challenging.  We were proud of him for making it down.  Meanwhile I had Cambrie, Kelton and Daxton.  It was a unique day where we toyed around with mixing up our groups.  Normally we do every run as a family, but there were times where it was Cambrie and Kelton, me and Daxton, Jeremy and Kelton, and Cambrie flying solo.  All the kids had a chance to ski how they wanted to ski and we had so much fun.  

At the end of the day we had Evan ride up on the gondola to meet us at the summit for a picture.  He said it was pretty spectacular and I'm just glad it was a beautiful blue bird day so he had great views from up there.  Who knows if he'll ever go skiing again but I hope we opened his eyes a little about what possibilities are out there.

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

After a big adventure day we needed a small adventure day.  We went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  

We started out in the space exhibit.  I think the kids could have spent all day in that section and been perfectly happy.  

But there was so much else to see, so we kept going.  Pretty soon we realized that we were tired and hungry, but unlike those preschool trip days, I didn't pack lunches.  So we pressed on in a daze as we tried to see the rest of the exhibits without passing out from hunger.

The body exhibit was pretty cool.  There were a bunch of tests to see how you were doing physically.  We took all of the tests and it was interesting to compare all of our data.  But we were disappointed that our health print out ultimately only included our heart rate.  

The dinos are always a hit.

The temporary exhibit was all about color.  We liked exploring and playing with the color toys in there.  

I happened to look out the window at one point and was surprised to see a perfect view of the Denver skyline.  So even though the kids were close to rebelling, I made them walk out back before we left to get a picture of the scene.

They felt better when they learned they could slide down the handrails.