July 16, 2025

Colorado, part 2

After a day at Sun Outdoors, we drove down to Vail.  We all stayed in a beautiful condo, just a mile away from Vail Village.  First stop, the pool.  I love how the kids still absolutely love swimming.


We went to Vail Village for dinner.  Some of us walked, some of us drove.  Honestly, this walk was a highlight of the trip for me.  It was so beautiful and peaceful walking along the river.



The waiter led Colin astray in his dinner order and said that it had "just a hint of spice".  It ended up being so spicy even grandpa couldn't eat it.  Colin's mouth hurt so bad he needed ice cream.




Our last morning in Colorado, I woke up to pick up sticks being played at the table.  There is always a game being played :)


Then all the cousins joined in on a game.


This was dad's anniversary trip meeting before we all headed out to the village again.



We all went to the river.  Mom and dad went to this exact spot on their honeymoon.  Dad put his feet in the water and fell in and he wanted to go back to that spot.  Thankfully he didn't fall this time.












It was short and sweet trip, but we are so thankful to be able to see family and celebrate 50 years!
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Trip to Colorado

The boys and I went to Colorado to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.
Our trip started off with a huge adventure...what was supposed to be an easy 2 hour flight, turned into 36 hours of traveling that involved a diverted flight, an ironic hotel stay (we stayed in the same hotel Eli and I stayed in during our cross country move), an Uber driver that saved the whole trip, my drivers license being scrutinized for 10 minutes before I was allowed to rent a car, a long drive to get our luggage and road closures on every.single.road.  The boys were amazing through it all, offering me encouragement and helping me navigate impossible situations.  

Somehow they had enough energy to swim with cousins when we finally arrived.
1st stop: Granby, Co
Sun Outdoors



Rose presented the boys with cookies as a treat for all our adventures.


The next morning, we went for a hike near Granby lake.






Then we played pickle ball.  I was surprised how much the kids all loved it.



There was more swimming that day and then we had a bbq and made s'mores.


I know I'm with family when peanut butter is brought out to put on s'mores :)


Beth brought Quirks, a Kansas City local drink, and we enjoyed sitting on the porch in the evening and catching up.


July 7, 2025

More Graduation Pictures


We've had on our to-do list for months to take these pictures.  We had a hard time finding balloons and then the balloons proved to just be a nuisance.  But we tried...




She wanted to pose like my senior picture :)









 

July 6, 2025

It's about time


It took us way to long to get a picture of us all together.
Today we all became members of Harvest OPC, which is an exciting day.  Alison and I were still members at Hope and the boys were members of Trinity, so it's nice to finally have us all in one place.

 

July 5, 2025

4th of July!


We joined some friends for a BBQ and watched a firework show! 

 

July 2, 2025

Just in case

 You need to hear the sound of the ocean and watch two boys play in the water.  It's a glorious thing.

June 27, 2025

This week

It was an exciting one!

Alison bought a car!!!
{Alison's in there...it's just hard to see with the reflection}


We celebrated with tacos ;). 
We are so proud of Alison's hard work to save up for the last few years to make this day happen.


We've made a summer bucket list and one of the items is to try a new coffee shop every week and rate them.  Downtown is full of different cafes and it's been fun trying them out.  This week we went to Camp Coffee and it has ranked supreme so far.  My coffee had roasted marshmallows on top!



Colin went to surf camp this week.  It's a good thing he already knows how to surf because there wasn't a lot of instructions going on, but he had a week of fun on the beach.


The Grant's drove through Oceanside and we were able to meet up with them at a park for a little bit.  Timmy quickly took to Colin and did not want to stop swinging with him.


Ben was hiking Mount Shasta and we worked on a Lego puzzle.
I love this sight:


Ultimately, Eli conquered the puzzle and I would say this was one of the most fun puzzles we've done.