Colorado Springs

Brian was in Colorado Springs (about an hour and a half south of Lafayette) for the past 2 weeks for a class.  The kids and I took a trip to see him over the weekend and had a great time!  We had a mini-vacation and did lots of fun touristy things!

Friday - we packed up after lunch on Friday and drove south to Colorado Springs. The kids were so excited to see daddy after being away from him all week!  We swam at the hotel pool and then drove to the Garden of the gods (or as Aliana named it:  The Garden of God :)

Saturday - today we drove to the little town of Manitou Springs.  We went to Cave of the Winds and went underground on a tour of the caves - it was so cool!  After the tour the kids used sluice boxes to find gems in a bag of sand and dirt.  We walked around the town and had lunch and had planned to swim at the pool again in the afternoon.  Since it was pouring rain, Brian and the kids ran around in their suits!

Sunday - for our last morning we drove to the TOP of Pike's Peak, 14,110 feet!!  It was quite the view from the top!  Colorado Springs is absolutely beautiful and we really enjoyed getting to see more of God's amazing creation!

First Grandparent visit for the summer!

My mom and stepdad stayed with us this week.  The kids loved the time with them and all the fun activities!  Here's what we were up to...

Getting dizzy at the park, rolling down a big hill :)

Nana helped the kids set up and run a lemonade stand, they had some very generous customers and 

got some awesome tips!

Tree  climbing in the backyard, Aliana is taking a little rest 

 

More backyard playtime

This baby bunny was down in one of our window wells, so Grandpa John helped Carson move it out into the field.  It was VERY cute :)

A visit to the local Children's Museum

And the week would not be complete without some good cuddle time on the couch watching a show and reading stories!  Thanks Nana and Grandpa John for coming to see us!

Summer Time

It's summer!!  Daddy and Mommy are excited to be done with school for the year.  However,  I think the kids feel a bit differently... We may have talked up kindergarten a little too much, because on the Saturday after school ended Aliana asked if she got to go to kindergarten now.  When I told her she had to wait until after summer break was over she was not happy!  And Carson said that in PE at the end of the year the teacher told all the kids "whoever is ready for summer, run!"  Carson did not run and said he liked school better than summer.  Who's kids are these?!  Well, I guess we can be thankful they like school for time being :)

Memorial Weekend fishing at a local lake.  Aliana did not like the worms, but she did catch a little fish!  And Carson was a casting-pro by the end of the day!

Bedtime Twister

Denver's Mid-Air Adventures - Carson got to go with a couple boys from school, the mom that took them said Carson was quite a dare devil!!

Aliana got to go to a morning dance camp with three sweet friends from preschool.  The 3 other girls have one more year of pre-K, and I know she is going to miss them so much!

And we have been enjoying lots of bike-riding, playing in the backyard and swimming at the neighborhood pool!  Summer is AWESOME!! :)

Spring Break in Florida

Brian's mom and dad took our family and Brian's brother's family to Magic Kingdom, on a Disney Cruise and then to Legoland!  It was their "retirement trip" :)  and something they have been planning for many years - and what a great trip it was.  Here are some highlights...

Day One - Magic Kingdom.  We got there when the park opened and left when the park closed!  The kids loved the rides!!  We didn't do Space Mountain with our kids this year, but they did every other roller coaster.  Aliana was just tall enough to ride on them, phew!

Days Two-Five - Disney Cruise.  We enjoyed visiting with the Princesses, swimming in the pools, watching shows at night, eating soft serve ice cream at random times throughout the day and eating amazing food!

 One of our stops on the cruise was in Nassau, Bahamas and the other was here on an Island that Disney owns.  Melissa, Sydney and I ran a 5k race and after we enjoyed the day on the beach!

  

Day Six - Legoland.  We spent our final day of the trip at Legoland about an hour from Orlando.  Carson really enjoyed seeing all of the life-size figures made out of tiny Legos!  It was pretty amazing.  Aliana wanted to ride all the roller coasters :)

What an amazing week we had!!

Sweet Freebies

Our new neighborhood has a google group, and neighbors will post things for sale or free they want to get rid of.  We scored two amazing (FREE!) deals this week and are praising God for the blessing!

Freebie 1:  Outdoor Playground

And here's the finished product!  Brian put some major work into taking this thing apart, hauling it to our house (with some great help from Brian's brother and some of the high school students) and then building it back together.  It's been finished for about 1/4 of a day and already the neighbor kids on either side of our house have come to play - it's awesome!!

Freebie 2:  A new bedroom set for Carson!

Here it is in Carson's room... get a good look, his room isn't usually so clean and neat but we had to move everything out to get this in.  Again, Brian did some amazing work building this back together (he basically had to re-build the bunk bed from various pieces).

We have also been enjoying some great outside time with the neighbor kids.  The weather has been on and off with the nice weather but when it's sunny, we go outside!

Carson, Aliana and the two boys that live to the right of us. This afternoon they were playing in gutter water... awesome :)

Aliana, her cousin Sydney and the little neighbor boy (such a boy, right??  He wanted to hear the story Sydney was reading but wanted no part in the tea party :)

Carson, Aliana and the two neighbor kids that live to the left of us.  We really just started playing with them about a week ago (and we have been living here since October!)  and the kids get along great!  They are on their trampoline.

Carson and Aliana being sweet together... yes, it does happen! :)