Hawaii! Merry Christmas!

We arrived back to Colorado yesterday after a week in Maui visiting Nana & Grandpa John - here are some trip highlights!

At the condo the kids enjoyed...looking for lizards, reading books, playing at the beach, relaxing, riding in the kayak.

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At the beaches we enjoyed ... snorkeling with two turtles, watching the turtles come out of the water to rest, and finding our own coconuts (and breaking them open with grandpa's hammer later)!

                                           

 

In Lahaina we loved ... the Luau and visiting a famous Banyan tree.

In the mountains ... Brian, Carson and I went on an awesome hike!

  

Thanks Nana & Grandpa John!!!  

Merry Christmas!  God's peace and blessings in 2016!

Performances Galore!!

It has been a fun fall!  Here's what we've been up to...

At the end of October, Carson celebrated his birthday with some friends and then again with Opa!  (their birthdays are just a couple of days apart)

About a week later we enjoyed Halloween with our good friends the Carlucci's - the kids always have a good time!!

This past week on Veteran's Day, we held our annual Centaurus Christian Warriors service project with the youth from Brian's school.  We made sandwiches and toiletry kits for the homeless of Boulder and enjoyed our time talking and praying with people living on the streets.

And now... Let the performances begin!!!  

Performance #1:  Ali's Cheerleading Performance with the Centaurus High School Cheerleaders.  Ali attended a cheer camp and then got to perform a dance at half-time of the football game.  She loved it!

Performance # 2:  Carson had a solo in his fall concert last week.  He did AWESOME!!

Performance # 3:  Aliana had a gymnastics performance this week.  She is such a girly-girl.  Although she played soccer this fall, she is really loving gymnastics now.

Performance # 4: We just got back from the Lion King broadway performance in Denver.  It was amazing!  A BIG thanks to Oma & Opa.  We all loved it!

HAPPY FALL!!

Another School Year Has Begun!

Wow! It's October!  The school year has started and it's been busy!  The kids are both playing soccer this fall (I'm coaching Aliana's U7 team with a friend, and Brian's coaching Carson's U9 team), we are still leading CCW (Centaurus Christian Warriors) at Brian's high school, and enjoying the start to fall and Football Season!!


Starting in reverse order....

Men's & Women's retreats: Two different weekends in September, our church hosted retreats in the mountains.  Brian and his brother went for the men's retreat and then the following weekend (at the same Young Life camp) my sister-in-law and I went!  It was amazing!!  The colors were starting to change in the mountains for fall and it was just beautiful.  The most impacting part of the weekend was on Sunday morning when a young-single mom in our cabin was baptized!

*that's the ropes course behind us, and the zipline to the right.  It was AWESOME!!

Back to School:  The kids are back to school (and so are mom & dad!).  I love teaching at Carson and Aliana's school, this year I moved to Elementary special education so I see the kids quite a bit in the halls and around the building!  They both love their teachers and are happy to be back with friends!

*school makes us all VERY tired by the weekend!!!

Time to play... and READ!  This photo cracks me up! It was not staged!! 

*Fun Run with the cousins!

*Annual BrickFest in Denver!

Fall is our family birthday season!!  Aliana turned 6, I turned 35 and Brian turned 36 all in September!  Carson will turn 8 at the end of the month!

 Fuerst Family Reunion:  The weekend before we all started back to school 43 family members from Brian's mom's side me at the YMCA of the Rockies for a family reunion - which Brian's mom has been working on for THREE years! It was amazing!!  

*Here are Brian's NINE BOY cousins :)

And finally... a little laughter and fun for mom & dad!  We went to watch Jim Gaffigan with Brian's brother/wife and it was HILARIOUS!!!

Happy Fall!!!

Summer Wrap-Up

It's hard to believe the summer's over for the Thomas family!!  We start back to work next week - YIKES!!!  It has been awesome getting to enjoy time as a family.  Here's what our summer has looked like in a nutshell.... (get ready for a crazy amount of pictures!)

Church:  We go to an AMAZING church here in Lafayette, which we all absolutely love.  Aliana helps me twice a month with a little 5 year old boy who is hearing impaired.  I sign to him a little and Aliana plays with him a LOT!

Father's Day:  We had a nice brunch out with Brian's parents for Father's day.  There was a girl making balloon animals, they were awesome!

Colorado Springs & Florida:  Brian and Carson went to Florida with some students that Brian had been working with for over a year on a project that was taking a rocket ride to the International Space Station.  The boys had a wonderful week of NASA tours, Wet & Wild and Legoland.  Aliana and I took a girls trip to CO Springs for a night.  Aliana raised money (thank you grandparents and great grandpa) to buy baby items for the Springs Rescue Mission.  She bought the items from Walmart and then we got to drop them off at the Rescue Mission.

Nana's visit: My mom had a conference at the end of June, so we enjoyed having her stay with us before the Denver conference and then visiting her in the city as well.  She and Aliana made the beautiful flower arrangement in the back of a photo inside of a wooden cradle that my great/great/great grandpa made!!

Soccer & Gymnastics:  The kids each chose a summer activity - Carson played baseball (which Brian helped coach) and Aliana did gymnastics classes which she absolutely loved!

Cousin time:  The kids love spending time with Sydney and Bryce who live about 15 min away from us.  They enjoyed many afternoons playing and on this day set up a lemonade stand to earn some cash.

4th of July:  We enjoyed fireworks put on by our city over a local lake.  The kids both fell asleep while waiting for them to start, but after we woke them up enjoyed the show!

Camping at Brainerd Lake:  Right after the 4th we camped with Brian's brother/wife and kids.  Have I mentioned that it always rains when we go camping?!?!  It poured the entire trip so we cut it a night short and had a cookout in Jason & Melissa's backyard the last night.

Texas and the Sand Dunes National Park:  Our big family trip of the summer was to Texas and the Sand Dunes at the end of July.  We had a WONDERFUL trip!!  We went to visit my grandpa, cousin and uncle who live near Austin.  The kids had such a great time in TX visiting with my family, playing at the local park, train, and children's museum, and spending a day at the local water park.  On our way back from TX we drove through the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado which was also amazing!!!  We camped there an had such a fun time hiking, playing in the water and visiting a random alligator farm that was nearby.

We are sad to say good-bye to our easy schedule, relaxed days spending time together as a family, and playdates with some very special friends!  Brian has been busy working on the house (finishing the basement, tiling and constructing our entry way) so that we have some nice places to enjoy on the weekends once the school year gets rolling! I have loved my "stay-at-home mom" time - it's going to be a shock to the system to go back to work!  Bye-Bye Summer!! You were the BEST!!!