Colorado Colors (okay, mostly yellow!)

We returned home Saturday from a camping trip to Kenosha Pass (a little less than two hours away from home) . . . the infamous (though beautiful!) spot where Levi remembers his first encounter with stitches (he came home with 17 stitches after our trip there last year). Once again, we seemed to hit that particular mountain pass at what is probably it's "peak weekend" . . . there was still a good deal of green intermingled with the yellow, but the view was nothing short of spectacular. We discovered that arriving on Thursday gave us lots of options for "campsites" (it's dispersed camping, so that just means we got there first and got to claim a spot of land to park ourselves on!).

The kids had fun running around in the woods, building teeter totters, making up a frisbee golf course, teaching Samuel and Anna to throw a frisbee, hiking part of the Colorado Trail, trying to catch leaves as they floated to the ground, beating me at cards, roasting marshmallows on our stove (since there was a fire ban in place) and, of course, eating ice cream before lunch on "Backwards Day"!

A new school year is underway!

We are settling back into our school year routine, rejoicing in the return of structure and enjoying things so far. The kids are back at their one day a week enrichment program as well. Emily is officially considered a "middle schooler" there, Samuel is a big kindergarten kid and Anna is adjusting to pre-school without Samuel (though she is decidedly NOT happy about that adjustment!). She loves Mrs. Kesha, but she really misses having her brother in her class (fortunately for her, she still has the rest of the week to spend LOTS of time with him at home). Emily and Anna have also returned to their worship dance class and are enjoying making new friends (and seeing old ones) each week.

More Camping Fun . . .

We ended up going on an impromptu camping trip over Labor Day weekend (we had to help some dear friends "break in" their new camper!) . . . another Jellystone ("Yogi") campground ~ but this one has the unique distinction of being about 10 minutes down the highway from our house! It also had an abundance of fairly large grasshoppers - (below) Anna is modeling one that jumped onto her back while we were out for a walk!

Moogie Moos half birthday celebration

We recently enjoyed a special night with Samuel to celebrate his half birthday. We traditionally let the "half-birthday child" set the agenda for their special time with mom and dad . . . Samuel chose to start the evening off with Arby's curly fries (his favorite!). He munched on them with great satisfaction (while he soundly and effortlessly beat us in a game of Sorry!) After Arby's we went to Chuck-E-Cheese and spent a few leisurely hours together. Samuel's favorite parts were the simulated roller coaster ride and the train (and his M&M's!). It was a fun night with a very special 5 1/2 year old!

Emily's birthday party ~ finally!

Our summer can officially come to a close, now that we've enjoyed a late summer 'party weekend' to celebrate Emily's birthday! Our 'getting oh, so grown up' 11 year old was able to have a girly sleep-over and crafting time with her closest "gang of friends" . . . which we wrapped up with a "purple party" (involving several more friends). She topped off the weekend with a sleep-over with her cousin, Hope. The weather was perfectly cooperative, the tie-dye experiment was successful, the ice cream cake was quickly devoured and the entire weekend was lots of fun! We were reminded once again how much we appreciate Emily's great taste in the friends she chooses . . . such a neat collection of girls! (and boys, but mostly girls!)