Kasey, Matt and Miles

We got a last minute trip from Jason's sister and her family.  It was DELIGHTFUL.  Kasey has a little boy, Miles, who is 4.  He is so cute and he and Dane got along wonderfully.  Kasey and I went on outings with them and had a great time.

Here we are at Belview Park.

The winner of the trip was Madison.  Miles LOVED her and she was so great with him.  Madison has a wonderful talent for seeing what people need and being that person.  She meets people where they are at.   I hope she can keep this gift her whole life.  

I was so sad to discover I didn't take ANY pictures of Dane and Miles playing at the house.  Probably becasue they were playing so good together that Kasey and I just ended up chatting the whole time.  So on their last day Kasey took these at Brock's baseball game.

Spring Days

This is another old draft that never got published.  The only reason I know it is early spring is because of the way my plants look.  Usually I have a happy little gardening post every spring/summer but not this year.  I have had almost zero time to garden.  I have done the bare minimum to just keep up maintenance let alone DO anything.  It feels like a wasted year.  I had plans to do/change something every year so that in a few years it is just how I want it.  I went to a nursery once but they didn't have what I wanted and then I never made it back.  Now it is too hot.   Even though it isn't BEAUTIFUL and (even though it is probably my only hobby) I haven't spent much time on it - we use the garden everyday.  A hundreed times a day we are in the front playing in the sand box, garden, porch, fairy garden etc.  Now that I am wrting this I realize I don't have many pictures of it, so that will be my goal over the next few weeks.  

So these pictures show us playing in it before it is beautiful.

And Dane loves being a big brother to Evee.
 

Main Street

Our last day was everyone's favorite day (I think).  I didn't know if they would like it or not, or if they were old enough or not.  But we decided to walk/window shop main street in Estes Park.  We started out with dinner.  This was the first time we had been to dinner as a family sine I think even Dane was born.  That might be wrong - but definitely since Eve was born.  Covid had a lot to do with it, plus there is 8 of us, plus that's not our style.  But maybe it could be becasue it was awesome.  Our babies really are the best and every time Jason and I do something afterwards we think, that wasn't that hard, in fact it was fun. 

Then we walked to Main Street and then we kind of just split up and let everyone do their own thing.  Brock and Jason went on the hunt for the perfect ice cream place (there were 5 ice cream shops and we all wanted to get dessert at the end of the night, so they checked out each one and then took us to the best one).  Noah and the girls mostly stayed together, although they spilt up a few times, just window shopping.  This has become a new hobby for them, they kept asking to be taken to main streets in Utah, Noah likes the little hobby/souvenir shops and both Megan and Noah came home with something.  I slowly walked down with the babies enjoying the evening air and watching my kids family bounce in and out of shops.  It was a good night.

And some random pictures of packing up.  Madison was "Dane duty" while we packed and cleaned the cabin.

 

Alluvial Fan

 When we went camping in RMNP a few years ago we went to Alluvial Fan and LOVED it and I have always wanted to go back.  So, of course, we did.  The water was a little higher and faster than it was, I think because we were early June this time and we were late July last time, so it was a little scarier.  This place really tests my "I am not a worrier mom" mentality.  I left knowing that my kids could have died and grateful that they didn't.  Megan made some stupid choices that Jason (once) and Noah (once) had to save her from, I recognize that life could change in an instant.  But I refuse to parent out of fear.  I came home from our trip to a facebook post from a friend who's 10 year old daughter died that weekend on THEIR family vacation to Oregon by getting caught in a rip currant.  Why one family and not another?  I don't know.  I didn't mean to go down this rabbit hole, but I have been thinking about it a lot.  Can I really prevent it by worrying?  Telling them not to climb?  Obviously I don't want to be stupid, and I want to teach them how to take measured risks and be safe.  It is always a hard balance.  Anyways... my point... this place forces you to reconcile your balance for sure!

Brock doesn't love water, and he had a book he wanted to finish, so he took Eve in the pack so Jason and I could be more hands on with the kids climbing.

Noah helped Megan up a rock.  These two fight the most so it warmed my heart to see him helping her and her just trusting and following.

Hiking

 Our big activity was a hike.  We had planned to take 3 hikes.  2 little kid friendly, family hikes and  then 1 big hike when the babies were napping with Jason and the older kids.  We ended up just doing 1 family hike.  haha.  It was a lot more strenuous than we thought and both babies had to be carried the whole time.  It was a beautiful hike and everyone did so great.  It was our first family vacation and Jason and I quickly realized we had set our sights too high and had too many activities planned.  Most of the things we planned to do didn't get done.  But that was ok.  We loved what we DID do and enjoyed our time being together. 

Here was our schedule we started with:

after our first day we reprioritized with everyone's top priorities.  

Back to the hike:

How Dane rode

How Eve rode

I guess we let Dane walk a little - but as you can see almost the whole thing was up hill - so it lasted for a hot minute.

Eve was a trooper and I loved having her as my little hiking buddy.  She made the cutest sounds and loved playing with my hair.

We also stopped along the way and the kids climbed rocks.  This is always their favorite part. 

We had to stop quite a bit.  But Jason and I told ourselves at the beginning that getting to the top wasn't the goal - the goal was a fun family time.  

Half way up we got this beautiful view of Estes Valley.

We decided to stop and take pictures knowing we might not bake it to the top.  I am glad we did because Megan got elevation sickness about 20 minutes from the top, so her and I (and Eve) went back down early.  Since Jason doesn't have a smart phone I don't have pictures of the top.

LOVE Eve's face!  haha

It was nice getting some "alone" time with Megan down the mountain.  She is growing into a young woman so quickly that it often catches me off guard.  

She had a pretty good attitude about not making it to the top, when we got back to the half way point that we took the family pictures at she wanted a picture to show that she did make progress.  Love her attitude!