While I was in Colorado with the kids, Shad took advantage of the time and painted our exterior doors Hawaiian yellow, even though it was 110 degrees!
Meanwhile, I was hiking the Manitou Incline with my sisters and nephew, and almost died. Okay, yes, I exaggerate, but the altitude seriously had me with my head between my knees, contemplating going back down and just waiting for the rest to finish. And that was something like 100 steps in.
After I got over the altitude, the rest was just figuring out breaks and stretching to finish the challenging hike. This guy, who I called England, ended up being a great pace setter, for me and the lady from Wyoming. We just focused on following England and that worked for us! And of course, "England" being out here hiking only made me want Haydn, my English pen pal of 9 years, to get out here all the more. He particularly pines for mountains!
View from the top.
I'll be honest, I wasn't overly impressed, but that I may have been overly exhausted to appreciate it much. That, and there were so many other people there that you just had to snap your picture and get out of the way. Asinine is the word I used to describe this hike to Haydn. Still, now that I'm living in Colorado Springs, I only want to conquer this beast all the more.
Jake and I observed bugs with Tommy. It was his topic of interest over the summer.
The whole family went mini golfing. Tommy and Katie paired off with their favorite cousins, Bode and Erik, respectively, and Thora ran off with Lori, so Shad and I were left with a quiet, fun Dancy and Samson date. Dancy is such a sporty girl. She's a great thrower, loves to practice running so she can get faster than Tommy, and picked up our mini golf instructions like it was no big deal. And she's a great poser!
Samson did about as well as a one-and-a-half-year-old might do.
And that is it for the pictures I took. Just one of those years I forget about my phone, I guess. Lisa gave me permission to borrow the following from her:
One night at dinner, Dancy asked Lisa and our 15-year-old nephew, Erik, if they were pregnant. "So...are you two pregnant?!"
Every reunion, Jake hosts a video game day at his apartment. It's not exclusively for the boys, but as my girls aren't interested, it's just understood to be a Boys' Video Game Date, so Lisa initiated Girls' Movie Date. They do makeovers and get all prettied up before going out to a movie. Lisa makes arrangements with me to not let the girls see said movie before their date. This year it was Despicable Me 3. Lisa reported, "Someone was a little bit put-out that I let Uncle Brandon tag along, but I promise she still enjoyed it."
Jake's wife, Amber, joined too, under no objection. Dancy enjoyed the date, despite her face.
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Back home, then:
Samson continued to love combing his hair every morning. The faucet has to be on so he can wet the comb.
Trying out Mom's ear buds.
Thora climbing her rock wall.
I love this boy!
Ugh! Remember my problem with Tommy's yearly birthday party? After we got home from my family reunion, I had to figure out and plan a Lego party for Tommy. I narrowed down my Pinterest finds and had some good ideas to work with: Pin the Head on the Minifig; Lego beanbag toss; Lego ring toss; Master Builder build session; Minifig cake; silicon molds to make brick and minifig shaped ice cubes, chocolates, and crayons.
Read back three words. Chocolates. I needed melting chocolates. That meant Amazon. No big deal, I thought. I've got plenty of time for it to arrive in two days with Prime. Yeah, it wasn't the shipping speed that was the problem. It was the 100 degree July Kansas weather that was the problem. When the box of all my Amazon orders arrived that day, I thought nothing of letting the kids rip it open like they always do. However, this time, Katie was so excited over all the birthday stuff that she came running down to the basement to show me what came...and slipped on the stairs and somehow popped the bag of melted chocolate open in the process. There it is, squirted all over my light gray carpet. Lovely.
I managed to salvage the rest of the chocolate. And it was only after smearing some into the carpet and making it worse that I realized it'd be easier to clean if I let it cool and dry first. Peeled up, no problem.
I worked at the theater that night and it's always amusing when there are two PG-13 movies in 3D. Somehow, Jeremy lost one of his four 3s and so...
The minifig cake turned out well. It's always nice to take the easy way and use a shaped pan instead of carving the cake myself!
Once our kids reach a certain age, it's so very rare that they ever fall asleep on us. And when that does happen, our hearts melt!
Thora's nursery leader, Tony Diaz, started bringing nail polish to church. That's what happens in a small ward with only 4 nursery kids and the leader loves his little girls!
Samson and Dancy developed a good friendship. Look at that little brother go!
