Colorado

We headed to Colorado for a long weekend to visit our dear friends, Matt and Kiley Stottle.  They have two adorable little boys, so our kids had a great time playing together!  Mike and I always have so much fun with them.  The adults stayed up late playing games, talking, laughing so hard I cried, and watching funny videos on the internet.  Good times!

We went to the most beautiful zoo in Colorado Springs.  It honestly had the coolest exhibits, it was up against a mountain (talk about a view!), and the kids were able to dress up and trick or treat.  That night we found a Zio’s and HAD to eat there of course!  That was me and Mike’s favorite date spot in high school; and Kiley grew up in The Woodlands so even she knew about Zio’s!  We had to introduce Matt to it :)  One of the days we were there we went to Hotel Transylvania.  It was actually really really funny!  We had SUCH a great time there!  We miss the Stottle’s so it was fun to hang out for several days in a row.  We’ll have to make it tradition!

Jackson and Max are like two weeks apart in age.  They are great friends.  Elijah was not a fan of being in the picture.  Haha

This picture makes me laugh so hard.  It’s Max struggling to find a pose.  The other guys squatted down and so Max didn’t know what to do.  Hahaha

Indiana Jones!!  Max even got to hold his treasure.

This guy was a cool batman.  Kiley and I kept joking that it had to be Christian Bale in there.  The guy looked so much like him and was so serious!

Our last night there we rode the train into Denver.  We were gonna walk around and see some fun shops and stuff. Little did we know there was a Zombie Convention going on downtown.  Like for real, it was terrifying.  The kids were so scared and a random mob started marching down the street.  I’m sure it was all just people being silly, but lets just say, I think we all felt very vulnerable!!  I mean, it was wall to wall zombies.  Moaning, blood everywhere, dragging a leg.  Ah!  Not exactly where we want our kids to be (or have them see!).  Anyway, looking back on it now, it just cracks me up!!  We felt like parents of the year!  Haha

Max’s Birthday

He turned 5!  And he has a cracker in his mouth in this first picture :).  We’ve made it a tradition to take the kids to The Brick Oven for their birthdays.  They get free meals with a lollipop sundae, so they’re always excited to go!

Max had his first friend party!  We did it at Boondocks, and had a great time.  We have GREAT neighbors and have made such good friends here. 

This was cute, they have the birthday kid spin around in tickets and they have to try and finish by the end of the birthday song.

Some more pictures from Labor Day weekend

I’m so glad Ashley had her camera when we went to the Provo Beach Resort, ours was dead and she got some cool pictures!  The ropes course there was awesome, and I was so excited to do it.  I’ll admit though, once I got up there I was terrified.  Usually I like doing stuff like that (bungee jumping, sky coaster…).  But for some reason, this made me super nervous!  Madi was doing it too (she’s my little dare devil) and I think she could tell I was scared, which made her scared.  So she almost started crying at the beginning.  But then she was fine and even did the course twice!  She was having a ball.  I, on the other hand, had to get off.  I was a wimp! 

Cool picture of Ashley way up there!  Her and Brian were really brave!

Me basically freaking out. Haha

Madi doing awesome :).  Keep in mind, lots of the course is like 4 stories up!!

My handsome hubby; he did great on it too.  He kept showing off to me, “c’mon it’s easy Em, follow me…”.  Easy for you to say Mike!

Mini-Croquet.  Mike’s dad even got the middle hole (kinda like skee-ball) at the end and won a free game! 

Basketball Tournament

BLUE BELL ice cream!  If you’re from the south, you know what a gem Blue Bell is.  We haven’t had it in years!

Andrew was so adorable on the carousel.  He smiled like this basically the whole time :).  Love that boy!

First day of School

Today was Madi’s first day of school!  Max start this Thursday.  I can’t believe I have a first grader!  I’m so proud of Madi and how brave she is.  She’s always so good at making new friends and trying new things. 

My kids and posing.  Haha, it’s hard to get them to take a regular picture :)

Max had to join in too!

Saying goodbye to daddy before work. 

Making new friends and comparing wounds from fun summer activities!

Her teacher, Miss Hulet, is wonderful!  I’m so glad Madi got her.  It’ll be a good year.

Oh my sweet Max.  He had a hard time saying goodbye to his big sis.  They’re best buds and it can get lonely at home without her.  Thankfully there’s still lots of little kids around the neighborhood!  They were SO SWEET saying goodbye to each other.  Melts my heart.

Madi doing a flip!

We hung out in Pleasant Grove this last weekend with Mike’s family.  We always have a great time when his parents are in town.  One of the things we did was go to Jump on It.  Madi has been practicing her flip all summer, but hadn’t been able to land it yet.  She landed it for the first time that night!!  I got a video of her doing it…it takes a few tries but she gets it.  And watch the flip Max does at the end.  Cracks me up!!  P.S. please ignore my annoying cackle.  It's like a witch laughing.  

Last days of summer

This year school didn’t start until after Labor Day.  Which was so fun (and kind of exhausting…haha).  So the kids had lots of days to soak up the rest of summer.  We fit in Lagoon with the Carlsen’s, 7 peaks, and lots of pool days. 

We didn’t get very many pictures from Lagoon, but it was a great day.  We played there with the kids for a few hours, and then got a babysitter and brought them home.  Then the adults were able to go to dinner and head back to Lagoon for some of the bigger rides that we hadn’t done.  Such a fun day!!

I can’t believe this is the only picture we got from Seven Peaks!

One of my very favorite things about Madi is the sweet little notes she leaves us.  She suprises us all the time.  One morning I went down to get the kids breakfast and this was taped on the closet door:

We are so lucky to have such a little sweetheart and peace-maker in our family!