Things That Go Bump in the Night

 

In the wee hours of the morning I was awakened by a thud. Instantly I knew Midge had fallen from the top bunk.  I'm not sure how I knew, but I was out of my room and to the bunks in mere seconds.  Sure enough, there she lay just starting to cry.  How on earth she fell face first is beyond me.  Her nose and lips were bleeding.  I got her cleaned up, but neither of us really went back to sleep. Poor child has road rash from her lips to her nose.  Needless to say we will be putting up a rail before she sleeps up there again...

Monday at the Zoo

There was no sleeping in on Monday morning.  It was easy to get everyone up and going though, they were all excited to visit the zoo!  We met some friends, took a lunch, and made  a whole day of it.  The weather wasn't too hot and oddly it wasn't too crowded.  

 Buster's favorite animals were the elephants.  He kept asking why they were so big and if they could get out of their "cage." 

I really liked the tropical bird/fish/reptile section.  The sea turtles were amazing!  The polar bears were cool too, I just wish we could've seen them swimming.  It was yet again a fabulous day, but by that night we were all EXHAUSTED!

Sunday

Sunday was another busy day that started off early with church.  Afterwards we took the kids to TCBY for the first time, where they enjoyed building their own frozen yogurt creations.  I hadn't had it in years and really enjoyed my classic vanilla with cookie dough bites...yum!

 

When we got home I had a bunch of school work to do.  I ended up spending a good deal of the afternoon at McD's just so I could work in peace.  Finally, I got my work submitted and headed home to spend the evening with my family.



 

 There was karaoke and nachos at the park that night.  Tea, Midge, and even Buster sang and it was so adorable to watch.  Some of the songs were really funny and we had a good time just watching. 

We finished the night off with another camp fire and s'mores.  We were all exhausted and looking forward to our fun plans for the next day!



Saturday

It was so nice to sleep in until past 8 on Saturday morning!  We had been up late the night before, so I was thankful.  I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and we all got ready for the day.  The first event was a dog parade and contest.  The kids had entered Boston the day before and had been practicing his tricks with him.  It's amazing what that dog will do for food!  Tea ended up being the one to walk him and take him up to see the judges.  Afterwards we all waited for the results.  Boston won a prize!  There were six prizes total so the kids were thrilled.  He one a gift card to Petsmart which I am sure we will cash in on soon.

 

Later that day the kids played candy bar bingo and then made a sun catcher during craft time.  They were bummed that none of them won at bingo, but it was fun anyway.  After craft the King took a couple of kids to an event in town and the older ones stayed and played in the lounge and game room with some of their friends. 

That night, we had a delicious bbq and one of the King's friends from work came over.  We ate and then made a dessert of strawberry shortcake which we carried up to the park to eat while we listened to the live band.  It was 10 pm before we headed to the showers and finally went to bed after 11.  It was another really great day!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a really great weekend this year.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous for the whole thing.  We were so busy it was a little exhausting, but it was a welcome change to the slower life we lived for so long.  It's too much to contain in one entry, so I will break it down by day.  The best thing of all was the King's time off.  He worked very long days Monday-Thursday and then got off at noon on Friday.  I was so excited that the week went pretty slow early on.  Things picked up on Thursday.  I took the kids to the rec center to swim and we ended up staying for several hours.  By the time we got done it was time to take Chiggie to youth group.  She is really enjoying that and each week seems to go even better than the week before.

By Friday morning we were all getting excited for the plans we had.  There was a small kink in things when the King blew a tire at 4:30 in the morning in the middle of nowhere, requiring road side service, and an astronomical amount of money.  He made it to work and finished out the morning though.  The kids and I were busy that morning, cleaning and grocery shopping in order to get things in order for the weekend.  By the time we got home the King was home, the awning was out, and the park was packed with holiday weekend campers.  We set up our picnic table and sat outside for a bit before going out to dinner.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner out and were surprised that it really wasn't that crowded.  We came home and watched the movie The Hobbit.  We finished the book the day before and thouroughly enjoyed both.  We fell asleep late but without worry knowing we could sleep in a little on Saturday!  It was a great Friday.

The Jump

In mid May we returned to our old town to celebrate my Mom's birthday.  It was a big one for her as she was celebrating turning 50.  I was so stinkin' happy to be able to be there.  After over a month of not seeing them it was so great to be back together again.  My only complaint was the time went too fast!

 

 My mom is one crazy lady and to make a statement on her big day she went sky diving.  What a cool thing to be a part of.  I don't think the kids will ever forget this experience.  Or the adults for that matter.

 I had crazy butterflies in my stomach as I watched her get harnessed up and pack a parachute.  At this point I was thinking, "what in the world is she doing this for???"

 She boarded the plane and gave a big thumbs up to the kids, who were shrieking with delight and chanting, "Mema! Mema!"  As the plane took off and gained altitude, I almost passed out with anticipation.

 I don't think I have ever felt more relieved than I did when her parachute opened.  At this point, I finally relaxed and enjoyed watching.

 The landing was great and she looked so happy.  Everyone was jumping up and down and it was starting to rain.  The whole experience felt pretty surreal.

You did it Mom!  I love you and hope you had a fantastic birthday!  This is only the beginning and I am sure you have many more crazy experiences ahead of you!

Real Life Learning



Our official school year may be over, but the older my kids get the more I realize that major learning opportunities are happening all the time.  We wanted to go somewhere really different so instead of heading west like we do most days we headed east.  Several miles up the road from our RV park is an absolutely awesome mountain park.  It has been named favorite unanimously.

 

 The views at this park are spectacular.  The river flows right through the middle with several areas that are just perfect for wading in.  I am sure the fishing is great too, but we haven't tried that.

 The pavillions are in little cabin like structures.  They are really rustic, but so neat.  There was also a little "hut" that had all kinds of information on the types of nature and wildlife found in this particular area.  The kids loved reading about it all and were talking about it the whole next week.

 Perhaps the most interesting thing about the whole park was the history behind it.  This here is the remnants of the original power plant for the area that was wiped out in the Big Thompson River flood of 1976.  I wasn't even aware of this particular flood, but was surprised to learn it was/is the worst natural disaster in Colorado history.  There was a sign showing the water level at the time and I was shocked to see how fast the water got so high!  Fortunately the design of the area was revamped and something like that cannot happen again!

 After visiting the park we went to the gift shop and climbed this tower to see the dam from the top.  Again, the views were spectacular.  I am not a fan of heights, but it was worth it.

 I am hoping our summer is filled to the brim with experiences  like this!  This is one of the things that made me so excited about the opportunity to travel.  Seeing and being a part of things like this is a lot more fun than just reading about them.



Birthday at the Ball Park

This year the King chose to celebrate his birthday at the ball park and we were lucky enough to be able to take the kids along.  They were so excited!  Of course they had to have the full experience and enjoy ball park food!

 

 In celebration of Cinco De Mayo, everyone got a Vinny Castilla bobblehead, which made the kids pretty happy. 

 

It was a great game, even though our team lost.  The King had a wonderful birthday and it was so nice to all be together!

A Walk Around the Lake

As the weather warmed up and the rain stopped, or so we thought, we got a little bit more adventurous.  One Friday afternoon, after a full week of rainy days inside doing school, we headed out to find something interesting to do.  We finally settled on a walk around Lake Loveland.  As soon as got parked and made our way to the path it started raining.....hard.  Then the rain switched to hail and we couldn't help but laugh maniacally as we ran around the lake.  It stopped soon and our walk became a little more enjoyable.

 

 

 There are some really cool statues around the lake and we stopped to look at most of them.  The kids enjoyed posing and giving them names of their own.

Hopefully this picture of them with "The Statue of Liberty" isn't as close as we ever get!

May Showers?

The snow may have been over, but the moisture wasn't quite done with us!  Luck has it that most of love the rain (Midge isn't a fan) so we enjoyed the rainy days while they lasted.  It was amazing to watch how much things greened up and so fast too.  

 

Spring???

After the first of May, the weather finally turned and it really started feeling like spring.  To celebrate the kids and I went on a drive through town for no other purpose than to just explore.  We got lost a couple of times, but were quickly found thanks to GPS.  We were on the hunt for a new and exciting park, but initially our hunger got the best of us and we ended up stopping at a Mickey Dees first.

With full bellies, we were back out and even more determined to find a cool park.  It didn't take long and we hit the park jackpot.  We found what seriously was the coolest park we had (at that point) been to.  The whole thing was themed after the Wizard of Oz, complete with a tornado that functions as a sprinkler in the summer.

 

The kids played for a couple of hours and then we took a walk around the pond and checked out the skate park area. It felt so good just to be outside enjoying the fresh air!  This was our first of many adventures in the month of May.  Stay tuned if you want to see the park that topped even this one!