Looking for the Great Pumpkin

I was lucky enough to get the day off on Carter's actual birthday (yay!), so we (and by that I mean Sean) spent all morning putting together a zillion new birthday Lego sets with the boys.  We took a family trip to the pumpkin patch that afternoon to get a break from all that brick work.  It was a fun, muddy outing.  The boys didn't seem to mind, but I'm glad we decided not to take the electric car.  Sorry, babe!

 The birthday boy!

 Brothers.

 Looking for the perfect pumpkin...

 Nope!  That rotten one is NOT it.

 Pumpkin Picker.

 Love them!

 The bouncy slide was surrounded by mud.

 Cookies make everything better.

  Fun with wooden cut-outs.  

 This way through the hay maze!

 Taking a break.

 Meeting a pony.

 Fall family picture fun. 

Driving off into pumpkin paradise.

Celebrating Mimi

Mimi paid us a visit last week, so of course we had a very belated birthday celebration for her!  We didn't get to do as much partying as we would have liked (life kind of got in the way), but drinks and dinner on the patio were just our speed!  

 Mimi & Sister

 Mimi and her favorite Son-in-Law

 Just the girls!

 Mimi and her rowdy grandsons.  The only way we got them to sit still was to bribe them with dessert.

 Mimi's birthday pie. Yummy!

Even Captain America wanted to help Mimi celebrate! We love you, Mom!  

Happy Birthday, Sean!

Sean's birthday is always close to Father's Day, so we kind of lump the two together.  We took him out to dinner at Fogo de Chao in LoDo.  It was super yummy.  Even Carter found a couple of things he liked! Poor Davis fell asleep on the drive there & snoozed through the entire delicious meal.  He even missed chocolate cake!

 Sean loved the birthday cake but didn't want us to sing to him.  Crazy.

 Photo courtesy of Carter. :-)

Sleepy boy with a purse for a pillow.

 Happy Birthday, Daddy! We love you!

A good time/nap was had by all!

Just Keep Swimming...

The boys started swim lessons at the neighborhood pool a couple of weeks ago.   It is a challenge to get them there (The pool heater is somewhat unpredictable, so you never know if the water will be frigid or just right at 9:30 in the morning.) but once they get started it's usually pretty smooth.  

 Warming up while Carter has his lesson.

 Carter felt like we needed to document that I was actually there, too. ;-)

Suite Game!

Some other nurses & I were lucky enough to score some really good Rockies tickets from work, so we invited some friends & off to the game we went!  Our tickets were for one of the suites, so we got to see how the other half lives...we even got VIP parking!  It will be hard to go back to the Rock Pile after this experience.

 Our good friends Penny & Brian.

The view!

 Go Rockies!

 The kids had so much fun taking advantage of all the space.

 We got to meet Dinger!  (He makes a special appearance in the suite level at the top of the 5th inning. Who knew?!)

 Davis loved Dinger!

 Apparently baseball games are not as exciting as Angry Birds Star Wars.  Sigh.

 The boys got to bring one of our neighbor friends, Zach
. 

My little Rockies fans.

Estes Park YMCA

What a wonderful family destination!  We were so happy with our time at YMCA of the Rockies.  I booked a 3-bedroom cabin at a great price and we headed up after the last day of school.  Mimi & Grampy were in town to join us and Aunt Sister went, too!  The cabin was amazing: big, secluded, stone fireplace to roast marshmallows and free Wi-Fi.  There are a ton of pics here...we had lots to do and lots of great scenery, so I wanted to capture it all!

The playground was one of our favorite spots.

The Craft Center was AMAZING!  We painted wooden toys...

did mosaic glass artwork ...

...and Mimi made a tie-dye shirt!

We saw lots of elk. So cool!

A beautiful rainbow from the porch of our cabin.

The boys had a blast splashing in a mud puddle after the rain while we watched from the porch.  That gave Mimi an opportunity to use the washer & dryer in our cabin, so all's well that ends well.

We got in a game of mini-golf while we waited for our pizza order.

Mimi got a hole in one!

Family Fun!

Early morning coffee at the cabin.  (Sorry for the no make-up shot, mom!)

Snuggling with Aunt Sister.

 Our "hike" to/from the main grounds.

 Cool sign!

 More good times at the playground.

 See the group of deer to the left of Grampy & Sister, by the light pole?  They were just grazing close to the playground without a care in the world.

 Davis getting a lift from Grampy.

 Love these little stinkers!

 Mimi making the most of our big kitchen.

 Grampy made us a fire so we could do s'mores! Yummy!

We can't wait to go back to our cabin in the woods next Summer!