Well, we are nearing the end of summer vacation. There are 8 days left.  I am trying to be positive and enjoy that last few days with my kids before we go back to the routine of school and fall activities.  The truth is I am really sad about the whole thing.  I am sad that Paige is going to Kindergarten and won’t be home with me any longer.  I am sad that Sam is going to 3rd grade and moving up with the big kids.  I am sad that my sweet Alice is growing up and seems more like a 7th grader than a 2nd grader.  I am also really excited for all of them and the places that they are going.  I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry.  Who am I kidding, I am going to ball like a baby. If you happen to have been there when Sam went to kindergarten, well, let’s just say, it wasn’t pretty.   He was screaming, I was doing the ugly cry.  Sooo, I am getting all the crying out this week.  If I see one more commercial for school supplies….Okay, now I am better and ready to blog about all the positive things we are doing before the fist day of school.
In sticking with our summer schedule we finished our mural as our art project yesterday.  Sam added an anemone, Alice painting a school of blue fish and Paige completed the bottom of our mural with seaweed.  They were very proud of their creation and have already decided that we will paint a beach scene next summer.  They informed Scott last night at the dinner table that they would like to put it on the gym wall.  He didn’t seem quite as excited as them.  Huh?! I wonder why?!?!?

Today we headed out for a field trip to the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park.  Kids (my kids anyway) are always enthralled with dinosaur bones and fossils.  This museum focuses most on dinosaurs found in North America and Colorado. 
My favorite line from today came from Sam.
Sam:  Hey Mom, that Megalodon makes a Tiger Shark look like  goldfish. 
Me: What’s a Megalodon?
Sam: Mom, really.

After my enlightenment at the Dinosaur Museum we headed to the park for a picnic and a bit of running around.  A great field trip day.  Not sure where we will end up next week but I am trying to think of something really fun for our last day before the start of school. 
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The past weekend our kids finished up swimming at the state competition. Our team hosted the event this year so everybody had to chip in and help out in some way.  Alice swam two events on Friday and Sam swam three events, one Friday, one Saturday and one Sunday morning.  I was so proud of both of them.  Way to go, Sam and Alice! You guys rock!!! 

Have a great Tuesday! Tonight Sam will be competing in his final duathlon of the summer. 
Jennifer

The majority of our time in MI was spent at Uncle Tom’s cabin on Houghton Lake.  The kids jet skied and tubed from sun up to sun down.  Our time on the lake was spent relaxing and hanging out. 

We spent the first couple days of our visit in Flushing, with Scott’s parents.  Flushing is where Scott and I grew up.  We went to a year of elementary school, junior high and high school together.  Good times.  The kids enjoyed getting reacquainted with their cousins and checking out some Flushing landmarks.  They got to see where we went to school and the house that I grew up in.  My parents were not there so we just walked around and checked out grandpa’s paths. I have also included some pics from the pool party at Uncle Glenn and Aunt Jeanne’s house. A big thank you to them for hosting this party!!! It was so wonderful to get to see so many Kolinski relatives!

The Wescott Clan.

 Checking out the backyard at my parent’s house.  The kids were amazed at the size of their yard.  And a creek to boot.  Super cool status 🙂

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Sam and Alice swam in the state competition this morning.  They both swam well and I was very proud of them.  I am feeling a bit brain dead after our busy morning at the pool.  Tonight we are off to the state meet pasta dinner.  Scott and I will be spending most of the weekend volunteering at the meet.  Sam swims in a medley relay tomorrow morning and then our kids are done for the summer.  Hopefully I can post a few pictures of the meet before the end of the weekend. 

Jennifer

Another day trip that we took was to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.  We made the trip to the northwest side of the state in the minivan caravan.  Scott’s parents, his sister, Amy, and her kids and Scott’s brother and our sister-in-law, Tracy, and their kids all made the trek.  We had a fun, hot day on the dunes.  We ended up hiking 3.5 miles through the dunes to Lake Michigan.  It was gorgeous and the water felt really good after the long, hot hike.  Even though our kids have been to the Sand Dunes here in Colorado, they were really excited to get to the water and swim in the big lake. Sleeping Bear Dunes was a favorite spot of Scott and I when we were in college and it was fun to see the kids enjoy it as much as we did. 

One of our favorite places in Michigan is Mackinac Island.  This small island is located in Lake Huron between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas.  The only way to access the island is by ferry. There are no cars allowed on Mackinac and the only ways to get around is by foot, bike or horse.  We spent most of last Wednesday exploring the island.  We hiked up to the highest point on the island, Fort Holmes and to Arch Rock.   After lunch we rented bikes and spent the afternoon riding the 8 mile path that goes around the island.   We stopped at the halfway point to get an ice-cream and play in the water.  The kids thought the lake was awesome and kept calling it the ocean.  We ended the trip with some fudge, taffy and tourist sweatshirts. 

Mackinac Bridge connecting the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan.  This bridge is 5 miles long.

Sam riding the ferry over to the island.  The ferry ride takes 16 minutes.

This past week we have been spending time with family in northern MI.  We stayed a couple days in Flushing (where Scott and I grew up) and then we headed “up north” for the remainder of our MI adventure.  We had a really nice time and a huge thank you to Scott’s Uncle Tom who put up 20 extra people for the week.  Most of the week was spent hanging out by the lake, tubing, jet skiing and just plain relaxing.  We did take a couple day trips, one to Mackinac Island and another to Sleeping Bear Dunes Natl. Park.  I took A LOT of pictures…ahemmm….let’s just say it’s over 200.  I am hoping to post a few each day this week.  As you can see, the kids didn’t enjoy themselves at all 🙂 

Capturing a Moment.  Catching Fireflies.  Our kids have never seen fireflies or lightning bugs.  One evening as we were getting ready to put the kids to bed we noticed that the yard was full of lightning bugs.  They were twinkling everywhere.  It was such a fun moment for our kids and for Scott and I. 

  

Today we took our weekly field trip to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Props to our awesome zoo on the side of the mountain.  It rocks.  Really rocks.  Anyhow, we went.  We saw.  And yes, they are naked. The mole rats, that is. 
Every summer the zoo has a temporary exhibit of some rare animal.  One summer it was giant fruit bats.  We skipped that one.   I can’t imagine why.  Another summer there was a butterfly house set up.  Now that was cool.  I can hang with butterflies.  Giant fruit bats, no thanks. 
We spent a nice afternoon hanging out together, checking out the animals and having a blast along the way.

Have a great Tuesday evening,
Jennifer

We spent the last weekend camping in the Brainard Lake Recreation Area. This gorgeous area is located at 10,300 feet and is just north of Nederland (and about 2 1/2 hours from our house). We camped with our good friends and had a blast!!!! We did two awesome hikes, played in the lake, had a snowball fight, ate well and enjoyed time just hanging out with friends. I took 120 pictures so I put some of them into a slideshow. Off to shower and get some sleep.

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Have a great week!

Jennifer

No this post isn’t about my children’s bathroom habits or their fingers conveniently placed up their noses. Nope. We are talking about how this week is whizzing past and taking a very interesting trip to the Mining Museum.
Monday we decorated shoe boxes that we had stacking up to the ceiling laying around. The kids love to keep stuff. Read: my kids are hoarders. Seriously. Hoarders. Someone in this house might even have a price-tag collection. I will never say who. Never. Anyway, they had fun and stayed busy for a long time decorating their very own box. Who doesn’t love a box?

Today after swimming and tennis the kids and I headed out for our weekly field trip. This time we landed at the Mining Museum. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It wasn’t nearly as boring as it sounds. Plus we had coupons. Come on, there is no way I would pass up two free child admissions 🙂 We ended up spending 2 hours at the museum and had an awesome time.

Off to bed. Good night. Happy mining. Hopefully the second half of the week slows waaaaay down. Summer really is whizzing by.

Jennifer