4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July up in Greeley again this year. Thankfully we were all together  (last year Gabe was in KS farming). It was wonderful to spend time at my Mom's, see friends, take the girls to the parade, and continue hanging out with my bro and his family.

Love these girls, Meagan and Dani

Avery, Jane and Kyle

Sweet cousins holding hands!

All of the kids loved the parade. Sophie insisted she was down on the curb just like all the other kiddos! She loved sitting on Yaya's lap!

 

 Avery and my Dad, Grandpa

These girls are such sweet friends! Wish Jane still lived 10 minutes away!

Grandma Eileen and Aunt Cathy loving on Sophie

Family Visiting- Day 2

Since my brother and his family live in San Francisco, they wanted to be outside as much as possible while they were visiting. We were a bit limited because of the fire, but thankfully Garden of the Gods opened up just in time for us to take them there.

 Before heading to Garden of the Gods, Kyle and Avery had a full morning of playing "Mommy" and "Daddy"! 

 Sophie playing with Kyle's baseball tee.

 Snuggle time!

We hiked for about an hour, the kids did amazingly well for how far we walked. Kyle was so interested in everything he saw since he had never been to Garden of the Gods.

 

Avery had fun hiking with Kyle at her favorite place! She was devastated when Garden of the Gods was closed during the fire.

 Sophie got a good mouthful of dirt while we were eating our picnic. Wish I would've gotten a photo! 

 These two cousins are so cute together!

Family Visiting- Day 1

We had the joy of having my brother and his family spend a couple of days with us at our house. The cousins had so much fun playing until their hearts content! They were so fun to watch together. The last time we saw them Avery and Kyle were just babies!

 Sophie meeting her Uncle Dave and Aunt Cathy for the first time!

 Uncle Dave making her laugh!

The first afternoon they were in town we decided to take them to Palmer Lake. Sadly, the lake was practically empty. We don't know if they were taking water from the lake to fight the Waldo Canyon Fire or if it's dried up from lack of rain, but it was a sad sight!  So instead of having fun throwing rocks into the lake, we had fun on the playground. 

 Such a great Daddy!

 Kyle learning about a "sick" lake.

Waving to "Thomas" the train!

  Uncle Dave swinging them way high! 

Catching up...

Hello! I'm going to spend some time catching up. 

At the beginning of June we had a garage sale which was mostly successful. It always feels so wonderful selling things we no longer use. I can't stand stuff just sitting around. Our garage sale fell on a cold and windy weekend so we ended up cutting it short the second day. Of course we had to treat ourselves to donuts! You definitely can't have a garage sale without yummy donuts! Avery loved setting up, tearing down and eating donuts; she was a great help! Sophie was a trooper too!

During the Waldo Canyon fire, we decided to head up to Denver to stay at my Dad's for a couple of days. It was nice to get away from the smoke, but our hearts were in Colorado Springs while we were gone. It was surreal to watch our city be so devastated by the fire on the news. Our good friend Laura lives in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood, but thankfully her house is still standing  The three directly behind her were gone, so they are very blessed to still have their home. Just the other day we went to see first hand the sad devastation of this fire. It was heartbreaking to see the many homes that are gone. We also saw many people going through the ashes of what used to be their home. Just heartbreaking!

After playing outside all morning at my Dad's, we visited a couple of our favorite spots in Denver.  First we took the girls to Washington Park. I used to live right up the street from this park and we also spent a lot of time here as kids, so I have a lot of great memories at Wash Park.

After Wash Park we went to the downtown REI. We browsed the store, but mostly hung out by the river and watched people tube and swim down the rapids.We hung out there until it started raining on us.

A big thanks to Dad and Eileen for letting us come stay with them for a couple of days!  It was so nice to spend some time at your house!  We love you!