Busy Bees

It has been a hectic two weeks since my last post. I get a little stressed when I get behind in my blog posts because I usually only have a short amount of time to get them up and when I get behind it takes me a few hours to decide on and crop the pics, write them up and post so while the boys are napping right now I'll try to get a little bit caught up. The alternative is cleaning my bathtub. Yah, I think I'll relax in front of the computer! Here goes:

Guests

We've been super lucky to have been able to host some family in the last few weeks. My sister, Danette, and her hubby and two boys visited for an extended weekend in August. When our boys were babies Danette and I used to imagine when the boys would become partners in crime at family gatherings. Well, our days of imagining are officially over! Evan is 4, Carter 3, Colin 2, Anderson almost 1. (By the way, she's also having another boy in October and we couldn't be more excited to have another stair step added!) We mostly just visited and let the boys play. Carter's big highlight was riding in Evan and Colin's other grandpa's big white diesel truck. Yippee! I bet Ryan had a great drive with the three boys. We also hit up Chic Fil A for lunch one day and let the boys play around in the play yard there. Carter adores his cousins as you can tell by the look he's giving Colin in this picture. I love it and I love Evan's smile in both of these pictures. Sending kisses to my nephews that I miss so much. And if you click on Danette's blog link you can read about the mischief Colin got into the other day. You have to love two year old boys!! Just this last weekend we also enjoyed a visit from Tracy, my sis-in-law (Marc's brother Matt's wife) and her two kiddos. (Matt is deployed right now so Tracy spent the summer with family instead of alone in Germany where they are stationed) Delia is a few months older than Carter and Bennie is just a month younger than Anderson. Now Tracy and I are the ones with images of partners in crime in our heads--Anderson and Bennie already get along so well and they look very much like cousins, too. There is just something about them that looks so similar. I think it's their big blue eyes that they got from Grandpa! When they got here, Marc was nice enough to take the three year olds to the fountains in front of the movie theater just a few blocks away. They had so so so much fun as you can tell by the looks on their faces in these pictures. It took Carter all summer long to warm up to the idea of spash parks but now that summer is just about over he love love loves them, especially when he has a friend to go with. We had only a short visit with Tracy and the kids but we miss them already and wish them a quick two months in passing before their husband and daddy get home to them.

Back To School

This of course sounds like a strange sub title, right? It is the first year in ummm-too many to count--that I haven't been involved in back to school either for myself or for Marc. But just because no one in the family is actually attending school doesn't mean that it doesn't still feel like class has started in our family! Just when I thought all was hopeless, Carter started going potty on the potty and of course his first time had to be when my parents and I were out and Marc was home with the boys. Grrr, after all of the ground work I laid, no reward for Mommy. When Marc called me on my cell to have Carter tell me the good news I told him not to dump quite yet, I wanted to see it for myself. I know Carter will kill me someday, but I was so excited I had to take a picture. Anyway, all those potty rewards I stowed away have finally come in handy. He's pretty much mastered #1 (now he just has to start telling me when he has to go, for now I just have him sit every hour or so) but has only gone #2 once. Regardless we are still so proud of him and will probably go broke with all of the rewards he's getting. He's also pretty good at getting himself dressed now though the other day he put his shorts on backwards. When Marc saw it he started singing "Kris Kross will make you jump jump." Yah, that was back in the day! Now take a look at this sweet picture. While Danette was here, she taught Anderson how to give kisses. There is something about sweet, open mouth baby kisses that I just love and that is exactly how he does it. He dives at you with his mouth wide open. It's very tender.

Balloon Glow

Last weekend was the annual Colorado Springs Balloon Festival. It lasts all weekend--in the mornings a bunch of hot air balloons take off and spot the sky and at night you can go to Memorial Park and they have a balloon glow where they set all the balloons up and light them up with their air torches. (not sure the technical term for this) They have tons of food vendors and lots of jump houses for the kids, which at this event is a total rip because it's like $3 to go down the slide twice or through one of the tunnels one time. But, what you won't do for your kid so we paid for Carter to go down the slide twice. We also shared a gigantic funnel cake and enjoyed the company of some friends we happened to run into. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't 100% perfect so they didn't set up the balloons but they did light up the sky with their torches which Carter thought was scary and cool at the same time. We're definitely planning on making this a tradition in our family so maybe next year we'll be lucky enough to see the balloon glow!

13 miles

A few weekends ago my mom organized a bunch of her friends to hike Pikes Peak. Now, for any of you who don't know anything about this, Pikes Peak is the 14, 000 ft. mountain in Colorado Springs and the trail that ascends it is 13 miles long, and it takes you from about 6000 ft above sea level to the top (14, 000 ft). Just like the incline, it's not for the faint of heart. I had to really convince myself to do it because I have done it before--9 years ago--and to put it mildly, it was a horrible experience. It took a lot of positive self talk but I finally decided I could do it about a week before the hike. We had to meet at my parents house at 3:50 so we could be on the trail by 4:30. It took me about 6 1/2 hours to hike the mountain, 7 hours counting the 30 or so minutes I spent at Barr Camp (the 1/2 way point) refueling. By the time I got to the top I was wasted but the experience was redeeming--I no longer think the 13 mile hike is one from you know where! Just 10 days after hiking the Peak, I did another 13 miler--this time on relatively flat terrain. It was the America Discovery Trail 1/2 marathon. My training was hit and miss this summer because of all the other things we had going on which made the run quite challenging and I was disappointed in my finish time-- ~ 2:16. But, I did it which is about the only New Years Resolution I have kept for myself and the feeling of seeing my boys at the finish line cheering me on is really quite priceless. My dad, on the other hand is a dedicated runner/marathoner. He ran the full marathon and finished 3rd in his age group in just 3:50. Way to go Dad!

As promised this has taken me entirely too long and now my boys are awake and need me. So much for cleaning the tub without two boys under my feet!