A couple of weeks ago, my baby boy had his 9th birthday.  He had a lot of big plans for his day but the weather was not cooperating so we decided to go to the movies instead.  He sure is growing up to be a super sweet boy!  I wish he would stop growing but he insists upon getting bigger each year:)  Happy day to our littlest guy.  We love you buddy!!!

We now have another teenager in the house!  Alice celebrated her birthday at the end of June.  Grandma Peggy and Papa Gary were here for her big day which was so fantastic.  Happy Birthday to our sweet girl.  She is getting too big, too fast!  I wish we could slow it down a bit but I am also enjoying these early teen years.

All four of my kiddos are racing their mountain bikes this summer.  It is pretty excited and nerve-wracking, to be honest. It takes a ton of coordination to get everyone ready to go so Scott decided to forego racing this season and help me out with all the gear and craziness that comes with a bike race.  They are all doing really well and having fun (most of the time:)).  I love watching these tough mountain kids working so hard!  Sam is really doing well this season and seems to be moving up in the rankings every race.  Alice moved up a division this year and is now racing longer distances (7 miles on single track mountain trails)  with bigger, older girls.  She is doing well and holding her own.  Sometimes it is tough to be little:) Paige and Mason raced once or twice last season so they are still getting the hang of it.  I think they really just like hanging out with their friends and having icees after each race!

Here are some shots from the last cross-country race.  Logistically, I couldn’t be at the start to see Alice go off but I did get her coming in to finish.

Goodness, I love our summers.

Jennifer

At the beginning of June, we headed out to camp with some great friends from Colorado Springs.  We met in Buena Vista at a gorgeous campground on the way up to Cottonwood Pass.  It was such an enjoyable 4 days out in nature.  When I got home, I felt so refreshed and relaxed.  We hiked, paddle boarded, fished, ate way too many smores and sat around the fire a ton.  Perfect!

Scott teaching the kids how to start a fire with flint and steel. They all became obsessed and figured it out quickly!

Okay peeps, we are going back a month. Our sweet baby Paige has graduated from 5th grade.  She will join her big sis, Alice, at the middle school next year.  I am not sure who is more excited, me or her:) She is sooo ready to move onward and upward.  I will really miss seeing her everyday but I know she is in good hands.

Just starting today, it really feels like summer. It was warm (without a jacket) and the flowers and trees are in bloom. And…..it’s our first day of summer break! Too bad two of my kids are sick but we are making the best of it for sure. Scott and I got out for a quick 10k this afternoon up North Ten Mile Creek. It was gorgeous and exhausting😜!

Looking forward to a great summer!

Jen

Last night we had the first of our summer mountain bike race series. Due to time constraints, Sam was the only one who raced. He had a great ride and we were super proud of him. Looking forward to watching the rest of my family tear it up on the trail next time! Thanks to our friend who got these great shots of Sam on course.

Let’s take a picture walk of May…it has been crazy times around here, trying to get through the end of the school year.  I have been trying to adjust to working (basically) full-time and juggle all the kid activities.  I would say that I am doing an okay job:) I apologize for the quality of most of the pictures as they came off my phone.

 

Little Mermaid Jr.~ We had so much fun watching Alice perform in her first musical.  She was cast as one of Ursula’s tentacles and a background frog.  She had such a great time and is excited to do it again! She also just finished up voice lessons for the season.

Sam and Alice were both recognized at a school luncheon for their volunteerism.  They were both interviewed by our local TV station. Scott and I were super proud of them! Sam will be off to Kentucky this summer for a week-long mission trip to the Appalachian Service Project.

We have been riding our bikes a ton this month. Despite the daily rain and snow that spring brings to us, we have had a chance to get out and do some riding.

Alice got glasses.  After months of complaining about not seeing the board, she had finally joined the ranks and now sports a cute pair of specs.

We have had a few wildlife encounters in the last couple weeks.  Our neighborhood moose are on the move! Sorry about the poor picture quality…

Sam has been playing his trombone with the Summit Youth Orchestra.  They have been practicing every Sunday afternoon for the last couple months.  They just had their Pops Concert on Friday night and entertained us with Star Wars and David Bowie songs.  It has been a great learning and growing experience for Sam.

Paige continues to take drum lessons and is finishing up 5th grade.  Mason still loves karate and is really stoked to be moving on to 4th grade.  They will both (along with Sam and Alice) start mountain bike racing next week.  One more week of school for all of us.  I might the most excited for summer break this year!

This next week holds some serious fun around here.  Mountain bike races, a sock hop, field day, 5th grade continuation and an 8th grade moving on picnic.  There might even be some momma tears….

Sleep will come after that….

Jennifer

 

 

 

 

 

Paige’s artwork was displayed at the Bike and Art Bash last weekend.

I love her bike art.

I love her. Precious Paige.

 

For our spring break, we decided to pack up the car and drive to the beach….in Mexico.  It was an easy 15 hour drive through Colorado, Utah, Arizona and then a little over an hour into Mexico. We stayed in a timeshare about 30 minutes from the small town of Puerto Penasco.  It is a pretty chill place which was perfect for our beach lovin’ family.  We found tons of shells, made sand castles and relaxed like crazy.  We did get a chance to get out on our paddleboards a few times and splurged on a swim with sea lions.

Because we were on the Sea of Cortez (and not the big ocean) the shells were amazing.  We even found a ton of shells with creatures still in them!  We threw those back in:)  Scott found a clam shell with a baby octopus hiding in it.  I wish I had a picture of all four of the kids on their bellies, watching the octopus move around in the water (he even shot out some ink….).  Don’t worry, we made sure he was back in the water, safe and sound.

We were pretty much the only people on the beach all week.  It was breezy and cooler (80 degrees) which kept most others away from the water.

One of the highlights of our trip was a boat ride out to an island inhabited only by birds and sea lions.

One last picture on the deck of our resort before we headed back to the snowy mountains.

Of course we had to stop at the Four Corners on our way home.  We did have plans to go to the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde but the weather was not cooperating.

The huge estuary behind our timeshare.  We put our paddleboards in here where it was calmer.  We were lucky to see tons of sting rays, jumping bone fish and lots of crab.

Selfie on the beach with my two mini-me’s.  While the other three went back out on the paddleboards, we packed up our dinner and had a picnic on the beach.

30 minutes from home but our minds were still on the beach.  Blizzard at home dropped over a foot of snow.  Re-entry was hard.

Now back to school for the final push to the end of the year.  We can do it! Scott and the kids took a ton of GoPro footage so hopefully we can get that up soon.