Scary!

We went rock climbing with our friends last month and I thought it was scary. Jesse is a rock climber so he has all the gear and we tagged along with them. Elle and Reese both did it and did really well, but me on the other hand, I am a whimp. We are on the edge of a mountain and right below us is the highway. I looked down and about threw up. Ryan got almost to the top and probably could have kept going if he had shoes that fit him. Jesse's shoes were a little small on him. I will spare you all the pictures of me and my backside. I thought rapelling was scary too. Let's just say the whole thing was a lot different than climbing on a rock wall in a gym.

See what I mean about the highway being right below?!

1st day of 2nd Grade and Pre-K

I cannot believe Elle is in 2nd grade!! The amount of time she has been alive right now, she will be driving in that much more time, and it has flown by! Reese is in Pre K this year back up in Evergreen. It is our last year driving up there! Hooray!!

This is Elle and her friend Jacob, who have been friends since they were tiny babies

Mt Sniktau and Breckenridge

We took the kids to hike a 13er this summer because Elle has been begging to hike and I don't think she is ready for a 14er. So we took them to Mt Sniktau on Loveland Pass. Let's just say...we didn't make it. I know that was suspenseful, right? Elle probably could have made it but she knew we were going to Breckenridge afterwards and that is currently her favorite place on earth. Reese, there is no way. She did pretty darn good though because it was a lot harder than we bargained for. The pictures in the river are in Breckenridge. The water was FREEZING!!

Commerce City Swordfish

Elle did swim team through the rec center this summer and I have to say, even though it was a lot of practice and early meets, she is a really good swimmer so it was fun to watch. They actually only had five meets, three of which were on Sunday, so we only had to suffer through two meets. Swim meets, for those of you who have never been, start early and last long and are very hot because they are either in a humid indoor pool or outside during the heat of the day. But we had fun watching her and cheering her team on. She did the breaststroke, freestyle, backstroke, and relays. Her favorite is the breaststroke. I don't know folks, but we may have the next Michaela Phelps on our hands.

Elle and Cydnee before the races. Cydnee liked to play mom to Elle and the other two young girls on the team

Poor girl lost her goggles during this race and got slowed up, but she didn't stop to fix them like I thought she would.

Camping

Ahhh...camping, gotta love it. Acutally, I do like camping until it gets to the sleeping part and the unpacking part. We went with our friends, the Eatons, to Salida in August so that Nate and Ryan could hike a 14er that is out there. Needless to say, it was a little harder than they bargained for. We took the kids to feed the chipmunks at St. Elmo's and let them play in the creek, roast smores, and run around getting filthy. It was a fun camping trip though. On the way up, we stopped at the famous Coney Island that has been featured on Travel Channel. The kids LOVED it, but the hot dogs were not all they were cracked up to be.

Rocky Mountain National Park and Trail Ridge Road

Any of you who know Ryan know he is in LOVE with the mountains and being in them. So we have kind of a tradition where we drive up one of the major mountain roads every year and picnic and stuff. This year we drove up Trail Ridge Road and it leads into Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park (a neat little mountain town). The snow was still ridiculously high and there were a ton of elk and deer out and about. We took the kids fishing and had a picnic and had lots of fun. Sorry, there are a lot of pictures on this post everyone!:)