Rest of April and May 2009

Let's see. I figured I would tell a couple of months at a time! After Mother's Day it snowed here alot! It was nice and deep in the back yard. The kids had a blast with it. The snow here is wet and soft and tends to melt away in a 24 hour period. Much different then ND.

As you can see Chris had a great time himself!

MAY
We have done quit a bit of exploring since we have moved here. We received a zoo pass and we went to the Natural History Museum. The boys loved the dinosaur displays and they ask to go there often.

On Memorial Day Weekend Chris had some time off so we decided to do some camping at Estes Park which is one of the entrances to Rocky Mountain National Park. We had so much fun. It did rain every day and at night it was very chilly but we loved being outdoors and being together.

Alec with a walking stick that he found. All of the kids loved taking turns with it. It became a very nice writing stick too.

The day before we left we went for a hike on a trail head that took us in to the Park. The beginning of the hike was a steep incline and the kids kept stopping every couple of minutes saying " I'm tired and I need some shade" Chris and I would just look at each other and think "You're tired? What about Mom and Dad. After we got to the top it became very simple and we were hiking amongst aspens and pines with the beautiful peaks in view.

I love this picture. Alec loves being up high!

We hiked right into the Great Basin Campground. If it would not have been for the beetles there would have been alot more trees. On the way back it started to rain and we spent most of the evening playing games in our tent.

SCHOOL ALREADY

It is so hard to believe that summer is already over. The kids were so excited to go to school this year! Thursday the 20th the school had Peekaboo where they were able to see who their teachers were going to be and they also got to meet them. Alyssa's teacher was not there that day, she was taking her youngest to college. We went back on Friday so she could meet her! Alyssa with Mrs. Balagna(pronounced like lasagna)

Alec with Mrs. Deutchmann or Mrs. D as the kids call her. He was so excited that he got her he had been hoping this is who he would get.

Hayden with Ms. Berges. He is in Kindergarten this year. It is going to be hard to see him go. He is so excited though. His first day is today at 11:45 PM and he keeps asking every 5 min. if it is time to go to school yet!

Alyssa and Alec started on Monday the 24th!

So off to a new year with hopefully some kind of schedule now. I will try and post all about our summer soon!!!!!!

Mother's Day 2009

I have always enjoyed church on Mother's Day. However today brought on a lot of emotions for me. My morning started with Alec bringing me a huge bowl of cereal with a side of yogurt. Who can complain about breakfast in bed? I received a box of flowers and pictures from my kids that I saw them working on this week. It was so sweet of them to think of me. Aside from that we began getting ready for church while it was raining outside. During announcements I received my calling as the YW president in our ward. I have known about this for almost 2 weeks and it still had me feeling excited and nervous at the same time. The YW were sad to see their previous leader leave but they were kind to us as a new presidency. After church we were all set apart. I left feeling a huge load lifted off my shoulders knowing that the Lord is my guide and having an instant love for these girls. I know a lot of responsibility follows and I hope and pray I can be all that I need to be. I reflected a lot on my YW leaders that I had as a youth and of course that led to thoughts of my sweet mother and the wonderful example that she was and is to me. So thank you Mom for being who you are and for loving the Savior like you do. I love you!!!!! Happy Mother's Day!!!!!!!

Locks of Love

About a week ago Alyssa came home from school with a letter from the school stating that there was a girl at their school that had cancer and that she was going to be going thru chemo therapy. The school decided that they wanted to support her, so they had asked the kids who were eligible to donate their hair to Locks of Love which is a non-profit organization that collects hair and makes wigs for children that have any medical illness. Alyssa had said that her teacher stated that she did not have to do it if she did not want too. At first with not really knowing what it was all about she said"MOM, I like my hair!!!" I read her the paper and explained to her what a good service it would be but I told her it was her choice. She looked and me and said "Let's do it Mom!!!" So today at 1:30 Alyssa and all the other girls that chose to do it too got their hair cut off at the school. Her class was there to watch her and cheer her on. They had made little posters and were there holding them up to give her support. She did great and I was so proud of her!

She had to wear a pony tail in her hair that day and her hair had to be at least 10 inches long. They cut their hair right below the rubberband and then they put their hair in a ziploc bag to be mailed to Locks of Love.

Alyssa donated 11 1/2"

Here are all the girls and staff that participated!

They asked all the girls that were going to do it to get a hair appointment afterwards to shape it, so after school we went to get her hair finished.

She looks so cute and she has been smiling ever since. We love you Alyssa!!!!!

Easter and Aqarium

Easter morning was great and our meetings were wonderful. I am so grateful for a loving Savior who gave me a wonderful family and who knows that we are not perfect. His sacrifice is the greatest love that I hope I can at least some what achieve some day.

Luckily I found a spot to set the camera for a family picture. Some day I will own a tripod. We did not do a fancy dinner this year since we had a nice one with my family earlier this month. So after our breakfast for lunch/dinner or (linner) as we call it, we colored Easter eggs and then the kids hid the plastic eggs in the house since it was an overcast day here in Denver.

On Tuesday the 14th we all went to the Aquarium. They had a crazy tank man to take pictures in. Doesn't Chris look like he is having fun.

Hayden just had to have a picture with Dory he was so hyper and excited to see all of the fish. He was dancing around and always one step or two ahead of us.

The kids got to touch star fish and some crabs. Unfortunately the sting ray exhibit was being worked on so they did not get to touch them too. They were pretty sad about that.

The sharks were the highlight of Alec's evening. He rushed us through the place as fast as he could looking for them.

Castlewood Canyon

We discovered that in Colorado there are a lot of state parks to enjoy. We love being outdoors and so on Sat. the 11th we decided to check out one of them near Castlerock. It was a very windy day and the hike starts out pretty high. As we hiked down into the canyon the wind went away.

The boys loved it. There were lots of big rocks and logs to climb on and they just could not help themselves. Hayden had to jump off and climb almost anything he could find.(I wonder who he got that from? DAD!!!)

Cherry creek ran through the canyon so there was water next to us. It was really nice!
Alyssa tripped and fell at the beginning of the hike which hurt her knee. So the rest of the hike she was very precocious. The rocks laying together would sometimes make little caves and the kids kept asking if we would see any bears.

We had a great time and we are excited to try out another park soon.

Trying to catch up

After my Mom and I went to find a home. Chris came up with his Toyota that was having problems. He drove from Vandenberg to Snowflake and dropped off the car and took the van back with him. My Dad spent so much time on fixing our car. Thank you Dad!!!!
He pulled out the transmission and fixed all the seals and got it all put back together and the thing would not go into gear. The tranny was shot. I thought I would be so happy to see that car go but when I thought it was a goner I got all emotional. That car had been with us since Alyssa was a baby. My Dad reassured me that he could find a new tranny for it. Since the car was not ready to go when we needed to leave to move to Denver my parents let us take one of their cars. My Mom and Dad came with us to help me with the kids while we moved in. It was so nice to have them with me. My Dad went around fixing odds and ends in our home and my Mom was a great help with the kids and unpacking. I was so sad to see them go. Melissa and George came to help me for a while too. Chris was not due back until the 12th of March so Grandpa got to fill in at Alyssa's achievement day activity. Grandpa got to give Alyssa a nerd hairdo it was a good one too.
The date was March 6th which was also our anniversary. A happy 11 years!!!!!! Chris sent me flowers since he was not able to be there. They were beautiful and they made me miss him even more. What a good man!!!!!
While George and Melissa were here it decided to snow. It made us feel right at home. Grandma and Grandpa were a great help and they had to leave on the 10th which was Chris' birthday. It was so nice to have them with us too.

Chris decided to drive all day on the 11th and he got here around 11pm. It was so good to see him again and to know that we were finally done with all of this separation. We kept busy for a couple of weeks trying to get the house in order and being together again. We are finally feeling settled. The only project left is the garage. YEAH!!!!!

During spring break my Dad called and said that the Toyota was ready to go. So we packed up on Thursday and headed to Snowflake to retrieve it. We could not have been happier. Thanks Dad for all of your hard work. We love you!!!! We went to the park while we were there and had a great time! Hold on Alec!

We had a lot of fun seeing family again and set on for home on Sunday. We hit snow when it started to get dark but we made it home. With the van and Toyota. Home at last!!!!!!