True love, frogs, mountains, dinosaurs & hiking

That pretty much sums up our extended Labor Day holiday.

First. A wedding. My darling niece Elise and her handsome beau, Sam. They were the cutest couple to to behold. We also loved being in the same place where we were married almost 10 years ago.






Next we found ourselves at the beautiful home of my in-laws, where the kids hunted frogs, swung on the tree swing and played with cousins to their hearts content while Kyle played rodeo with the mini cows in the pasture.







As if that wasn't beautiful enough, we headed to one of "our" places. You know, one of those places that you go back to again and again and every time it feels like heaven on earth. This time was no different, our kids drank up every last minute. It was fun to make memories with them there.






I told him to make the face he made when he caught the fish.



We can handle a little dirt in our fam bam.

It was sad to see the old Dairy King closed up and for sale. :( We had to get our after-camping ice cream at a boring old Dairy Queen. I think I'd like to buy it.

We headed back to civilization and scrubbed up for our next big adventure. If you know Ryder, you know he's been obsessed with all things cars for about 2 1/2 years. (He's 3). Sometime in the past few months his car obsession switched gears from cars to DINOSAURS! So of course we had to indulge in the best dinosaur museum ever with the biggest robotic T.Rex in the entire world!! It even made my heart beat a little faster, that thing was major.




Our last day we had planned to climb a 14'er with our mountain goat daughter, Breckyn. The weather was lousy though, so we settled for a hike to Independence Rock on the Monument. It was magical as always, even more so than usual with the foggy mist and not a soul around.



Petroglyphs

I think this is called stegosaurus rock, but Breckyn decided it was a shark's nose poking out of the ocean.



Breckyn went and plopped herself on the edge of the cliff. I know that is totally what I would of done as a kid but as a mother it freaked the me out!

Firsts

We had some cool 'firsts' this week! Breckyn started riding her bike without training wheels (finally, she's been ready for quite some time, we just had to make the time...), Kyra started Kindergarten, and Breckyn started 2nd grade, Kyra started her first year of soccer and Breckyn her second- first time with her Dad as coach!! We had our wonderful family visiting until Wednesday, the day Breckyn ditched the training wheels and school started the next day. It's been a whirlwind of back to school nights, car pool schedules, form signing and soccer practices! Here's the evidence of it all....



I love the giggles.


Daddy showed her how it works.


The coach and supporters.


She was very proud.


They made a great team!


First soccer practice she was ready 3 hours before!

2nd Grader

Kindergartener






The girls both have their best friends in their classes this year, they happen to be sisters too, so it works out perfectly!

Oceanside Family Vacation Reunion

We spent a few days in Oceanside with all of my family. It was heaven soaking up the sun and the sand, and being with all the relatives.





The girls were so happy to see cousin Mary, their absolute favorite person ever!


Ryder was on cloud 9 fishing with Daddy.




Many hours were spent on the beach playing in the waves. Breckyn loved to get right in there even though the water was pretty strong!



Kyra finally overcame her fear of the waves and did a total turn around! She loved it as much as anyone by the end of the trip! She went from being "safe on her rock",

to venturing out onto the dry sand,


to gathering water for her sand castles,


to running in the waves!


Very happily.


Ryder and Cooper were pleased as punch as well.



The waves were perfect for boogie boarding,



and surfing!



Aren't we cute in our wetsuits? Hee hee :)