Golden

We met U's siblings for dinner in a park in Golden. It was sure nice to see this again.

We told the kids all about how we climbed up to it while carrying a rock and then people dumped paint on us. Good times!

Anyhow so we met U's family for a picnic. There was lots of time for eating, visiting and playing. 

Megan and Matthew loved having cousins help them at the playground.

And panning for gold:)

1st week in Colorado

Our first week in Colorado went something like this:
-Arrived Monday evening. Megan may have had a low fever (didn't take her temp but I think she felt a little warm).
-Tuesday we went to my mom's Adult Education class. By evening, Megan and Matthew both had fevers.
-Wednesday Megan's temp was normal but Matthew was feeling pretty miserable. He slept on me all morning and then took a nap in the afternoon.
-Thursday everyone appears healthy and so we go to the Littleton Historical Museum.
-Friday we clean house. Sarah has a fever. It gets much higher than either Megan's or Matthew's and she is quite miserable. Daddy comes Friday night.
-Saturday Sarah is still sick so we take it easy at grandma and grandpa's house.
-Sunday we went to church. Then we went to visit U's siblings in Golden.

So for the most part, I took care of sick kids and we didn't do too much. But at least I had help with sick kids. And we were in cooler weather. There was one day we were taking a walk and I was observing how it was 40 degrees cooler in Colorado than Phoenix at the time. (It was upper 70s in Denver at the time. Certainly glad to have missed that heat wave!)

Here are some pictures from that time.

Clean kids.

They all liked riding the rocking horse.

Sarah made a special meal for us one night. It was chicken and sauce over shell noodles.

Love Grandpa's Bronco crocs.

Yes, we start them working young! Megan and Matthew both liked sweeping.

Littleton Historical Museum

On the one day the first week where everyone was feeling ok, we managed to make a trip to the Littleton Historical Museum. It's always fun to go see all the animals and look in the old buildings. People really lived a lot differently 100-150 years ago.

The kids with Grandma in Grandma's favorite spot at the Museum.

Posing with the statue.

It's fun to see the peacock.

Eating a picnic at the park after the museum.

Sarah thought it would be fun to swing with Megan. She discovered it was a little crowded.

Visiting the Greats

Monday morning, we drove over to Cedaredge to see Grandma and Grandpa B. We had a yummy lunch and a good visit with them. The kids enjoyed being able to run around and play.

Yummy lunch. Matthew ate a ton of chicken.

Grandma and Sarah

Loving playing with the toys.

Happy girl!

We thought we'd cleaned up all the toys. Evidently we missed one in the parking garage:)

 Megan and Matthew loved petting Sheba.

Grandpa and Jessie walking to see the baby calf that had been born the week before. (And yes, she actually told Grandpa her name was Jessie.)

Sarah and Matthew picked flowers for me. How sweet!

All of us together. Sure glad we were able to stop by.

Visiting the Conrads

While in Grand Junction, we were able to see with the Conrads. We had a yummy dinner and enjoyed visiting with them. We are really grateful that we are able to have an open relationship with Sarah's birth family. Sarah told us that one of her favorite things on our trip to Colorado was "visiting with my birth mom."

Sarah in the really nice dress Grandma and Grandpa gave her for her birthday. What a princess!

Sarah and Grandpa

Sarah with Grandma and Grandpa

Sarah with Anna and Grandma

Silly picture!

The trip to Colorado

After Sarah's swim meet on June 22nd, we started the 16+ hour drive to Colorado. Yes, that sounds long. And yes, it was long. However, the kids did great. And I had an amazing pilot. Seriously, my mom was amazing. She drove the entire way while I took care of the kids and their needs. We had a really close call where a semi-truck tried to merge into us and her quick braking kept us safe. (The truck literally would have hit us--it must not have seen us. Talk about scary!)

The first day, we drove about 7.5 hours to Monticello, Utah. We stopped in Tuba City at McDonalds to eat and let the kids run around a bit. After arriving at our motel, we went to a local park for some more play time.

We went to church the next morning and walked around the temple.

Then we headed over to Grand Junction. It was a short 2.5 hour drive. We had a nice visit with my Aunt Sue and saw her amazing garden.

Megan and Matthew loved having some of their stuff in their backpacks.

Sarah's second swim meet

Sarah had a great second swim meet Saturday. Her times improved in three of her four races.

Breast stroke: 31.00 1st place

Back stroke: 25.91 1st place

Fly: 31.30 2nd place

Freestyle: 27.07 3rd place

She loves it and we love to watch her!

A few other pictures from June visitors

We certainly enjoyed having our grandparents plus Cheryl-Lynn and her boys with us for a bit after the baptism. Grandpa had to get back to work so couldn't stay as long as the others. We had lots of fun playing outside, riding scooters and playing games. We went swimming one evening and my mom and Cheryl-Lynn watched all the kids one evening so we could go on a date:)

Grandma and Benjamin

Some pretty vicious rocking on that teeter totter!

Jamming on the piano....

...and the guitar.

Thanks for coming. You're welcome to come back anytime:)

Scorpion woes

A few months ago, U posted about his nightly hunt. It is so good of him to do this as it really does cut down on the scorpions that we have. (It should, since he's killing multiple each night this time of year.) However, he missed one that's been especially devious. It stung my foot on Monday morning. Yes, it hurt pretty bad--kind of a stingy hurt. I limped around all day and in the evening, my foot was a little swollen and it felt like there was fire shooting out of my toes. Pretty awesome, huh? By Tuesday morning, there was just some numbness which has gradually reduced over time, although I still feel a bit in my foot.

Picture of my feet. It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but everyone in real life could definitely see the swelling on my left foot.

Unfortunately, the scorpion got away. Fast forward to today. Matthew and I were outside and Matthew let out a hurt cry. I ran over to him, picked him up, saw the little scorpion and killed it. (It was a little one, which often means the stings are worse as they don't know how to control their venom as well.) Matthew didn't actually cry long at all. I brought him in and stuck his finger under water. Yes, it appears that Matthew tried to pick up the scorpion. I hope he doesn't do that again! Anyhow, besides biting down on his finger for the first little bit and telling me his finger hurt, he acted normal all day. That kid has a high pain tolerance! In fact, by tonight, he couldn't even remember which finger had been stung! (Right pointer finger, for the record.) We called poison control about the sting and a nurse there followed up with me a few times. She was amazed at his lack of reaction to it and said to consider ourselves blessed. We certainly do!!! Although I'm ok if we skip the scorpion excitement and just stick with the other blessings we have.

Arizona Science Center

We took a trip to the Science Center while my mom and my sister and her boys were in town. We always have a good time there.

Benjamin was happy to have balls to play with.

Luke very intent on going fast in that wheelchair.

Megan figuring out how lungs work.

The kids always love playing in the dirt.

Eating lunch.

Andrew helping Matthew put his shoes on. What a helper:)

Aunt Cheryl-Lynn making Megan's and Matthew's faces look all funny.

Luke's creation.

Sarah's creation.

Luke on the bed of nails.

Pull Megan, pull!

And pull mommy, pull! Matthew loved going up these and then falling down. Almost like a ride, right?