Camping at Eleven-mile Reservoir, day at Lakeside, and Dairy Tour

Wow, we've been busy this past week! Rob, Ashleigh, Ethan, my sister, my brother-in-law and I went camping at Eleven-mile Reservoir last weekend. Overall, we had really good weather considering it was a torrential downpour here in Aurora on Friday and we just had sprinkles Friday night with steady rain from dinner until we went to bed on Saturday night. The days were great and we got a hike in with the kids on Saturday morning with a nice afternoon around the campsite playing games and reading during the afternoon. I think the camping trip was a little rough on Rob though as he had just gotten home from one business trip late Thursday night, thankfully had Friday off, but then flew out again for Michigan on Sunday afternoon for the week and gets back this evening. I sure miss him when he's gone, but am able to keep myself busy hanging out with friends while he is gone, so definitely not lonely! Ashleigh loved climbing the rocks around the campsite and now I know how my mom felt when I took risks climbing trees and going to high places. As a mom, you want to keep them under your wing and not let them do anything dangerous, but they also need to learn about the world through exploring on their own and as my dad advised, it's good to let them make mistakes sometimes, even when you know what the outcome will be, so they can learn from them.

Ashleigh climbing up high on the rocks

Ethan trying hard to keep up with his sister

Hummingbird stuck inside of our tent

The Fam in front of Eleven-mile on our hike

Beautiful purple butterfly on our hike

Hiking by the lake and Ethan catching a snooze

Our last morning at camp - a very cold morning!

Ethan bundled up waiting for breakfast

I also went to Lakeside on Tuesday with my friend, Amy, and our free passes from the summer reading program at the library, which was like a trip down memory lane for me since my mom took us to Lakeside when we were kids once a year with the summer reading coupons too. I have to say though that almost all the rides were identical to when I was a kid... I'll just leave it at that!






Yesterday, we went to a dairy for a tour with my moms' group from church and the kids and moms got to take a tour, see a movie, taste samples, witness the cows being milked, pet and feed the calves and goats, and learn how a dairy is run. You sure look at a cow being milked much differently after you've nursed and pumped for your own children! We also brought sack lunches and ate together after the tour and bought some homemade ice cream cones for dessert. It was a great day and fun getting to know some of the moms and their kids better. We definitely had great weather compared to today which is foggy, drizzly, and about 50F outside!






Can't wait to see Rob in just a few hours and to celebrate his birthday together after we pick him up. I know his trip has been long with 12-hour work days, plus dinner with his co-workers after they finish up work. I have probably talked with him a total of an hour this week (minus the camping trip), so it'll be nice having him home again for a long stretch!

Guess I should also mention that I'm pregnant now and almost half-way through my pregnancy. We will find out what we're having in just two short weeks and can't wait! It seems by your third pregnancy, you manage to tell most people the news, but I'm sure there are some readers out there who don't know yet and are noticing I'm putting on some weight in the pictures so I'll come right out and clear up that rumor! We are excited and also a little nervous about the age difference of Ethan and the new baby, but God's plans are perfect and we know what a gift children are from the Lord.

Our Evil HOA

Normally I keep these pretty positive, but I have to vent about our evil homeowner's association. As I mentioned in the last post, we've had record-breaking consecutive days of 90+ degree heat. We're up to 24 days now with hardly any rain, but it is cooling off, thankfully. Reason I talk about the weather is our evil HOA just sent a second hate letter regarding our browning lawn giving us 10 days to fix it. I should also mention that our water company, ECCV, restricts our watering to three days/week and only 15 minutes/day, which we are doing. So we have a dilemma here to either be fined by ECCV for over-watering, or be fined by our lovely HOA for a brown lawn. I called ECCV this morning, hoping to get a little wisdom on who has the legal authority here, but they said they're working on it and that if I water more than the allocated time, I could be fined. ECCV also said I couldn't seed or re-sod until after Sept 15th as the letter from the HOA said we had to do within 10 days.

Well, I sent an email off to our HOA with the prior information and asked for an extension through fall, but am not very hopeful to hear a response as they failed to respond to my email two years ago regarding the siding direction on our shed not matching the direction of the siding on the house (which we also had 10 days to fix at the end of December, so Rob spent his Christmas vacation residing the shed in the cold). I seriously doubt our slightly brown lawn is hurting housing prices in the neighborhood and think it's probably more the nationwide falling housing market that's bringing down the home prices. I'll keep you posted on this one! It's frustrating, to say the least.

The Last Month

I have to admit, it's been nearly a month since my last post, so it's time for the catch-up blog. I have good intentions, but never the time! Plus, it's been extremely hot in the office lately (23 days in a row of 90+ degree days will do that!) So unless I blog very late at night or early morning (which is what time it is now) it just doesn't happen. We put A/C in our house two summers ago, when I started staying home, but the A/C just isn't as effective upstairs as it is downstairs, so it's still 80+ degrees in the office, even though it's 75 downstairs.

We've been going to the reservoirs quite a bit with friends and had a family day there too. We also went hiking at Golden Gate Canyon State Park with the kids and am proud to say Ashleigh hiked 1.8 miles on her own while we carried Ethan. It's special going back there as Rob and I got married up Golden Gate Canyon near a friend's parents' house in the mountains. Ashleigh had two weeks in a row of swim lessons (Mon-Thurs) at the outdoor pool up the street, then last week, she had Vacation Bible School at a friends' church. We've also been swimming some at my mom's neighborhood pool and have been keeping cool by going to the spray parks near our house.

Rob and I got in a great date day at the Mile High Music Festival a few weeks ago and got to see various bands who were playing on five different stages at the same time, so it was fun walking around there getting a taste for different artists. My favorites were One Republic, Rodrigo y Gabriella, and of course, Dave Matthews Band who played for three hours up until about midnight. We didn't get much sleep that night as Rob worked Monday and I needed to pick up the kids before Rob's mom left for work, but definitely worth the lack of sleep and we had a great day and lunch of Chinese food at PF Changs after church before the concert. You really miss the uninterrupted conversations once you have kids and it was nice having time again to reconnect. We also had a date night Friday at Chili's while Ashleigh was in VBS, but Ethan was with us, so it wasn't quite the same even if he doesn't talk our ears off during dinner like Ashleigh does!

Here are some picts from the last month. Enjoy!

Ashleigh and Hanna playing in the kiddie pool on our deck

Janice, Ethan, and Ashleigh at Aurora Reservoir

Ethan playing in the sand at Aurora Reservoir

Jill, Stephanie, and Janice at the reservoir (with Ashleigh behind us)

Ashleigh at her swim lesson

Ethan playing in the baby pool during Ashleigh's lesson

Ashleigh on top of a rock at Panorama Point in Golden Gate Canyon State Park

Ethan having lunch before our hike

Hiking with Ethan in the backpack and Ashleigh with her walking stick

Ethan and Ashleigh in their pjs

Ashleigh and Hanna at the spray park

Ashleigh and Hanna keeping cool

Our Fourth of July weekend

Ethan driving the new car we gave him for his birthday

What a great weekend we had over the Fourth of July! It was busy, but good. Rob even got a full three-day weekend, which I believe will be a thing of the past once their production plant comes on-line in a few months. On Friday, the fourth, our family went swimming with my mom at her neighborhood pool where they had lunch and activities for the kids. After a busy day with short naps, the kids were both asleep by 8, so we didn't go anywhere to watch fireworks, but were pleasantly surprised by the professional show going on a few blocks from our house at Southlands mall that we could watch from our backyard.

On Saturday, we went to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival and met my friend Amy and her family there at a performance of these flexible and acrobatic people from New Mexico. I can't really put into words what I saw, but it was artistic and fluid movement from the performers on stilts, from swings, and a two-story tower they turned into their own jungle gym. Ashleigh and Ethan also got to paint on a large wall in the kids' section and we walked around to most of the individual artist booths. Although it wasn't that hot (cloudy and 85-90F), both of our kids threw up that night from heat exhaustion (we're assuming, since it was the one and only time), so we made good use yet again of our new steam cleaner on the car's upholstery, car seat, and floor mats.

Flexion performance at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival

More of the swinging on stilts performance

Hanging from the top

Ashleigh, our little painter

We didn't give hime the paints, but Ethan did get to use the marker for a bit

Our exhausted kids at the art festival

Sunday, we took Ashleigh to her first Rockies game with our old small group (and left Ethan at home with a friend, as we didn't want him to get hot, bored and/or tired without a nap). It was a perfect day, including a free parking space a block and a half away from Coors Field. Great weather with just a little rain and wind. We had a huge thunderstorm at our house during the game, but nice weather where we were. The Rockies lost 10-5 and Tulo and Helton were out on injuries, but we enjoyed the company of our old friends and the other kids kept each other entertained as well, so Ashleigh wasn't bored until they left in the 8th inning.

Ashleigh's First baseball game at Coors Field

Janice, Ashleigh and Rob watching the game

Our old small group at the game

Happy 1st Birthday, Ethan!

Ethan's Birthday Cake

We had a party last weekend for our little guy's first birthday. First birthdays are so fun and everything is brand new, so it's a blast to watch and sit back and enjoy your child during their party. We had a sun-catcher craft for the older kids (and adults) to paint and also a Finding Nemo pinata from our neighbors next door. We had several people over, both friends and family, and got to use our new, bigger, table too. The day was perfect weather, a little hot, but we put up our new shade awning on the back porch over the table, so that was great.

Just a little blogging tidbit, one of my first posts was Ashleigh's first birthday (the second, actually), and I didn't imagine I'd be still blogging three years later, but here I am! Enjoy the pictures and video of Ethan's first piece of cake! Although he was hesitant starting, you can see from the picture that he got into his cake and loved it once he realized what it was.