PreSchool

Lily was in heaven as she stepped into the wide world of school. Today she only got to stay an hour. She was disappointed it wasn't longer. I was too.

Sick Day

The first sick day of the school year goes to Jack. He woke up with a sore throat and said it hurt to swallow. Well, let's just say he's going to school tomorrow sore throat or not.

The school year has started with a bang so far. We've have good days and bad days. Tears have been shed over homework. The kids have been getting used to waking up early and going to bed earlier.

Tomorrow is "Dress of Choice" day. I can't wait to see what Emma chooses. Jack dresses for comfort not style.

Sunburn

I managed to make it through most of the Summer without a sunburn. I even made it out of Florida without a burn. But today, I got burnt. I feel slightly worse because Lily got a bit of a burn as well. It probably didn't help that we spent a few hours at an outdoor pool. In my defense, it was a balmy 75 degrees with slight cloud cover.

When I got home from the pool, I noticed that we had gotten a "little" pink. Several hours later Jack freaks me out by saying; "Mom, Lily has something on her back!" I'm thinking the worst, but as it turns out, it was the lines from her swimsuit. I had to take the picture because Lily wanted to see what was on her back. She can now identify the letter "X".

Healthy Kids

For a bit of entertainment on the weekend, we went to a "Healthy Kids" fair. It was a series of stations set up so that the kids could try different sports. The kids had a lot of fun trying new things. After the fair we went to the girl's soccer game, but because it was so hot we stayed for about 20 minutes.

Aidan, Lily, Kayla, Jack, Emma making silly faces. It was a hot day and the kids need to cool off in the shade. We had cups for water and found a water jug that had the "good" crushed ice in it. It was like having an icee. I think the kids nursed the ice for as long as they could.

Chip the mascot for Colorado University. Lily was pleased as punch she got to hug him.

Build A Bear

As part of Lily's birthday I invited a few of her friends to surprise her and go to Build-a-bear. This when I'm happy that I can fit four car seats in my car.

"We get to go in there?!"

Say Cheese!

It's the Best Time of the Year

Look at those bright eager smiles.

More is Less

It's the day before school starts and I have five kids at my house. I went with the theory that more kids is better. Jack had a friend and Emma had a friend over. I figured a good way to tire out the kids would be swimming. I think everyone had the same idea because the pool was packed. I lasted a good hour and a half (and hour is usually pushing it) and called it quits. The nice thing about the pool is getting the kids showered after swimming. I handed the friends over to their parents washed and ready for school the next day.

Lily's Birthday

We had a low key family party for Lily. She was a bit disappointed that it was just us for her birthday. I was a tad distracted with vacation and family visiting that I dropped the ball inviting her friends.

Even the day of her birthday was a little crazy. Michael tried to help make her cake. I had the layers cooling and I was trying to talk to a neighbor outside. Well, her kids went running through our house along with Lily and Emma screaming a their top of their lungs. In the midst of all this Michael was on the phone for work while frosting the cake when SUDDENLY...the cake was dropped. He managed to salvage it. The cake did have a "Grand Canyon" on one side. A lot of frosting makes a cake what it ain't.

Check List

We went to the Federal Reserve. Check
Go to the Rec Center. Check

Connor looks like he's surfing off the diving board.
Emma gets a 10.0 for no splash.
The hot tub is always a winner.
Jack wasn't feeling great and he wanted to go home early. That's how I knew he wasn't feeling good. He actually feel asleep on one of the deck chairs. Fortunately it was only a 48 hour bug. Unfortunately it got passed to all the cousins.

Bookstore

We hardly ever go to Denver even though we only live 40 minutes away. I had never walked the mall in downtown and we got a chance to do that after our tour ended. After a quick ice cream break..for the kids, Sherri and I managed to sneak into Anne Taylor and add to our matching wardrobes. Ok, I know it might sound funny that we have some matching clothes, but we're never in the same state when we wear them.

Michael did a little "google finder" and discovered that a used bookstore was blocks away. How can you go wrong with a used bookstore called The Tattered Cover?

A Family Visit

When you think of a visit to Denver, do you think Federal Reserve? The last time that Sherri visited, we went to the Denver Mint. Then she heard that there was a Federal Reserve and we knew that we needed to plan a tour for this visit.

Thankfully Sherri's plane landed early Thursday, because that was the ONLY day that I could get in the reserve. We did have to email a list of everyone so they could do a background check. Surprisingly ,they let us all in. Unfortunately they did not allow cameras or weapon of any kind.

We did get to see the money. First we had to endure a slightly boring but informative video followed by a somewhat dry tour guide. Her job title was an Analyst, I'm thinking that she drew the short straw and had to lead the tour. Pretty much we saw the lobby of the building and a basement room where they processed the money. It was a little shocking to think that we saw a million dollars bundled in a cart. They did not take up to see the vault.

Once the tour was over, they brided us to leave the building by handing us a stash of shredded money. The kids and Sherri were thrilled.

The Reality Of Post Travel Blues

The good thing about traveling early in the day is that you generally arrive home earlier. I think that we were all so exhausted from traveling that we fell in the door and laid down on the couch for several hours.

A surprise bonus to the place that we stayed, there was a washer/dryer in the suite. I only brought one extra outfit per kid. I soon realized that one extra out fit was not going to be enough. Especially when you have days where you get food all over one shirt, get rained on, then go swimming. So, the plus side to this was only having one dirty laundry suitcase to bring home. I think that I had the laundry done before we went to bed.

I did manage to get the rudiments of grocery shopping in as well. It's slightly scary to come home and have no milk. Another bonus to travel is having a clean house to come home to. I just have to keep it clean until Thursday. Sherri and family are coming!

Last Day

And so, all good things come to an end. We had a great time. One of the things that was most memorable was going swimming after spending the day at the parks. When you go swimming at 9:30 at night, you don't have to worry about sunburn. One night they even had a movie (Finding Nemo) on a big screen at the pool to watch while we were swimming.

The morning we left we had to get up early to make it to our bus. We thought we had enough time to grab some breakfast. Just as were we walking back to the bus stop, the bus we were supposed to be on pulls away. Thankfully, we only had to wait another 20 minutes and we had plenty of time before our flight.

Happy Birthday Tricia!

Today happened to be Tricia's birthday. She got to wear a birthday button that informed everyone that it was her birthday. Michael would make a point of saying Happy Birthday to everyone he saw with this button on. On the bus ride home we got the entire bus to sing happy birthday at least four times. As soon as we would finish singing to one person, another person would say, "It's my birthday,too."

Day 5

Jack was so excited to be able to drive. The peddles were a bit tough to push, so I got to work the gas, while Jack steered the way.
We kept running into the characters and how could we pass up a favorite like Buzz Yightyear. (When Jack was yittle, he had a hard time pronouncing his "L" sounds)
Last day at the park and we went shopping. Lily is showing Gab her bracelet.
Quinn and Emma in their hats.
Jack pretty stoked to have a Disney watch.

Day 4

Character lunch with Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, & Roo.
Teacups are meant to spin and I got in the one with divided views on whether spinning should be allowed.
It's a Small World is slightly different from the California version. For starters, the line has shade for most of it, that's a bonus in my book.
Look! Emma can fly!
A view from the dock at the Polynesian Hotel.
This was the melt down day. I got too hot, went too long between food stops, and lost the kids in a store. I had run out of food reserves in the backpack which is a dangerous thing to happen. Thankfully a little food went a long way.