Holiday Dance Recital

Riley had a lot of fun in a dance class with her friend Rylee this fall. There were only four girls in their class, so I'm sure it was a little confusing that half of them had the same name.

The whole group, probably about 80 girls, performed in a holiday recital. It was complete chaos, but also really cute.

Run Baby, Run

Riley participated in the Running Club at school this fall. For nine weeks they met every Tuesday and Thursday before school. After a warm up they would run around the school and the park next door. The goal was for each child to run the length of a marathon over the course of the two months. And with the encouragement of some great coaches, Riley did it! 

One of the coaches made the comment to me that all the little kids that participated had one of two demeanors while they ran: they were playful and goofy, making up games as they ran; or they were martyrs about the whole thing, acting like every step they took might be their last. She told me that Riley was the only exception: she was serious and focused every time.

Field Day

After several years of having to cancel Field Day (or move it inside) due to unpredictably inclement spring weather, the powers that be at our elementary school decided to reschedule Field Day for the fall. And guess what? Since they made the change, Colorado has not had cold, rainy weather in September!

Mt. Evans

Scot's parents visited us over Labor Day, and it seemed like a good time to get another 14er under our belts. This time it was Mt. Evans that we hiked.

It was cold, and the path was rocky, but the kids were troopers, and all of them made it to the top without complaint.

After posing for these group pictures, Tyson informed me that he needed to pee. Now! Asher was also with me, but everyone else had wandered a little higher up. So, not wanting to waste any time, I took both boys with me and booked it down the mountain. The group of college kids that was hiking down just ahead of us accidentally veered off the path at one point, and we mistakenly followed them. Things got a little dicey when we had to scramble down a steep part to get back onto a lower section of the trail. I explained the them why we were hustling, and they were extremely helpful in helping/packing the boys down the rocks when necessary.

In the ruins of Crest House, a ranger did a presentation on how to identify mountain goats and bighorn sheep. He had a lot of visual aids, and the kids were quite entertained, especially when Riley was invited to sport a bighorn sheep hide.

On our drive back down the mountain we were able to put our new knowledge to use when we saw this mountain goat right off the road.

Coming Home

After playing at the park, the day was too warm and the ride home was just too much for Tyson.

Garden of the Gods

Colorado is not lacking in beautiful scenery, but I think Garden of the Gods, in Colorado Springs, is one of the most amazing places I've ever been. The rock formations are incredible! It was our last stop on our three day camping adventure.

The kids had a lot of fun climbing on the rocks. Even Asher, who has been more timid in the past that his big sister, got into the fun.

A rattlesnake crossing the path as we headed back to our car was an unexpected surprise.

Last Track Meet of the Summer

The season's final track meet was much less casual than the other three. Each kid was only allowed to compete in three events. Like the previous meets, the winners of each heat were given ribbons, but they also timed these races, and announced the top six in each event/age group. Riley took home a first place ribbon for her heat in the 50 meter dash, but didn't do so well in the 100 and 200.

Riley's track meets were a lot of fun for the whole family. As I hoped, after all those practices and meets, she still enjoys running. In fact, she chose to participate in her elementary school's running club this fall. Over the course of the next couple of months, they'll meet together two mornings a week to accumulate 26.2 miles, the length of a marathon.

Third Track Meet

Riley performed her best yet at her third track meet. Her first event was the baseball throw, where she got her first blue ribbon ever! As they're participating, these little kids really have no idea how they're doing compared to the others in their heat. They just wait until everyone has taking their turns and they're handed a ribbon. Since Riley had never received a blue ribbon before, she wasn't sure what place it was. Her expression was priceless as she read "1st Place" on the ribbon just as she turned to walk back to us.

 She also competed in the standing long jump, the shuttle relay, and the 50m, 100m, and 200m dashes. 

She placed second or third in each of those events, so we called it her red, white, and blue meet.

Fun & Games

There were a few planned activities for the kids to fill some of the downtime. My mom did a "treasure hunt" for the kids that we happened to do on Asher's half-birthday. Jess pointed it out while the kids were eating their last treasure: pudding cups. We all sang "Happy Half-Birthday" to him, and he thought it was the greatest thing ever. In fact, he just asked me today, "Mom, remember when Grandma brought pudding on my half-birthday? That was fun."

Jess did a music time for the little ones. At eight-and-a-half, Cole is the oldest grandkid in the group. He was definitely too old for the songs, but he was a good sport and helped some of the little ones. The kids had a great time rolling down the grassy hill, playing ring-around-the-rosies, and pretending they were airplanes. But it's no surprise that the best photos were taken during Tootie-Ta.

I brought supplies for a cheese-ball toss. I paired all the kids up, bigs with littles, then gave one person on each team a shower cap to wear, topped it with shaving cream, and then gave their teammate a pile of cheese-ball snacks. Technically it was supposed to be timed, and the team with the most cheese-ball on the cap won. We, however, had teams with "tossers" who were more interested in eating the snacks than throwing them, and a fairly hefty disparity in ages and abilities. So we just let them play until they were bored, or until they wanted to stop to eat cheese-balls.

On Bear Lake

It wouldn't be a trip to a lake for me if it didn't include waterskiing. We got on the water fairly early, but unfortunately it was not a good morning, weather-wise. When you only ski once every three years, you take what you get.

After a couple of hours on the boat our kids played on the rocky beach and ate lunch while other cousins took their turn out on the water. This day definitely qualified as Adventure Day #5.

Tree Rock

We were home for our Albuquerque trip for two days before loading up the car again and heading to a family reunion in Bear Lake. We had time to spare, so we stopped somewhere in Wyoming to check out a tree that is growing out of a rock. It wasn't the most exciting stop we've made on a road trip, but it was nice to stretch our legs, and the kids always have fun climbing rocks.