Trip to Utah

Justin attended a conference a few weeks ago in Park City, UT, so the boys and I joined him.  We had a wonderful time exploring!

 Our drive through Wyoming was windy, rainy, and snowy all the way to Park City.  This was the view from our window when we arrived.

 On our first day, the boys and I drove into Salt Lake City to visit the Natural History Museum of Utah.  It's a great museum with lots to see and explore.

 The boys enjoyed the various dig sites around the museum.

 We spent one afternoon at Park City Mountain Resort, enjoying some of the summer activities and riding the chair lift.

 On our second day, we ventured back into the city to visit the new aquarium.  It was awesome and huge!

 We had a great time exploring all of the exhibits.

 We even splurged and went to the 4-D movie about sharks.

 By the time we were ready to leave, most of Utah had showed up.  It's a very popular, new attraction.

 We visited the Utah Olympic Winter Park on our last afternoon.  These are the medals from the Salt Lake winter games.

 This was one of the puppets from the opening ceremony.

 And we spent a lot of time watching the ski jumpers practice and land in this special pool.  So cool!

 The boys tried out this mini ropes course (although they really wanted to tackle the real ropes course that all of the big kids were going on).

 And we rode more chair lifts...

 After his conference each evening, Justin got to take the boys up the Canyons gondola.

 Having a great time and maybe slightly loopy because of the high altitude.  (:

We were so grateful for our special suite.  Thanks to Justin's conference rate, we were able to upgrade inexpensively so we had a full kitchen, two bathrooms, and large living room with fire place.  It was a lovely time and we hope to visit there again!

Preschool Graduation & Other Events

Here's one of a few catch-up posts, since I'm behind.  We've been busy with summer fun and have lots to share.

First and foremost, Morgan graduated from Pre-K earlier this month and so our time at preschool has officially come to an end.  It was a lovely event followed by a very fun party that went on late into the evening.

 So proud of this boy!

 All of Morgan's friends.  They've been together since the Infant Room!

 Receiving his diploma from Miss S.--love this lady!

 Pondering serious thoughts about his future and what life will be like beyond preschool.

 Mommy and her littlest boy

 And Daddy too

 Jacoby has already started giving Morgan pointers about what life is like at elementary school.  Morgan is so ready!

We're enjoying our summer days together.  I cannot believe it's the end of June already!

Here's Jacoby practicing his jump shot with Daddy.

 The boys are in swim lessons and also participated in VBS for a week.  Can you see that the theme was perfect for them?

 

And last but not least, we celebrated Father's Day with Grandpa Michael and Grandmanette in town.

More to come tomorrow!

Summer is here!

Yay for summer!  We are very happy to be out of school and moving right into (mostly) less hectic days.  I love being home two days a week!  Here's what we've been up to lately:

My family came down for a lovely visit over Memorial weekend.  We went for a hike and picnic one of the days.

 And here is our Second grader and Kindergartner!  Both of them finished up school/preschool well.  Tears were shed by Mommy and Miss S. when I picked Morgan up for the final time from our dear preschool.  I was doing just fine until each of his friends came up and starting giving him hugs, telling him they love him, etc.  Seriously, my heart!  And they lined up along the fence to wave as we left.  Sheesh.  The things they don't tell you when you become a parent!  Morgan informed Justin when we got home that Mommy and Miss S. were sad but he was the first one to go to Kindergarten! (:

 Grandpa and Morgan discussing a Lego magazine over breakfast

 We rode the bus into downtown Denver one day

 And visited our favorite bookstore

 Kenz and I ran the BolderBoulder 10K on Memorial Day, along with 52,000 other people.  It's the best race and it was so fun to run it with my sista!  Like our outfits?  (:  The boys unanimously rejected my tutu as an addition to their dress up bin.

 This girl took off on a mission to win!

 Just a selfie at the starting line

 The finish line is at Folsom Field at CU

 Jacoby helped put together buckets of summer fun, which we gave to Morgan's class on his last day of preschool.

Introducing Legolas and Bilbo

And here are the ants.  These guys have some pretty cool tunneling techniques.  We're sort of exploring creatures this summer.  The boys enjoy observing and taking care of them.

Here's our big summer list.  I think it's going to be a great summer!

Mother's Day Make Up and Other Happenings

Summer break is just a few days away!  We can't wait, although Jacoby is sad about First Grade ending.  We've had busy days, with a stomach bug mixed in there just for fun.

Morgan handled his second endoscopy like a champ.  You'll notice Puppy also received a bandage.  We were grateful to hear that the biopsies came back normal for this guy.  Now we just need to continue to pack on the pounds!

The board meeting in Santa Fe was mostly a success.  The weather in Denver (i.e., a foot or so of snow) did us no favors and left several board members and speakers stranded.  Not much I could do about that, so we just rolled with it.  Santa Fe was lovely, as it always is.

Jacoby finished the 27th and final book in the Junie B Jones series and has recently decided to read the Fellowship of the Ring.  He had a tummy bug for a few days last week.  Thankfully, it has not spread to the rest of us.  I think I set a record for the number of loads of laundry done in a single day so far in my career as mom.

 

The boys have become reacquainted with dinosaurs lately, which is kind of refreshing.  Although, I do see a Lego creation thrown into this scene.

 Morgan got to meet up with some Pre-K friends for a special project for graduation.  He was over the moon about getting to spend time with these guys on a Saturday morning.

 Our time at preschool will be drawing to a close in just a week or so.  I think we're definitely ready for a summer schedule and the transition to Kindergarten.  Pre-K has prepared them well!

 Jacoby had an awesome time at a Hobbit birthday party for one of his BFFs.  This mom definitely raised the bar for parties!  After Hobbit agility training, Gandalf showed up to take them on their "Unexpected Journey".

 And of course that meant getting attacked by a pack of orcs (i.e., a group of awesome 7th graders).

Thankfully, no Hobbits were harmed.  The elves taught them how to shoot bows and arrows.

 And finally, Smaug had to be demolished.  It was a great party and Jacoby had such a good time!

 

 And, of course, he's is wearing his Hobbit cape every.where.  Even to our favorite garden center.

 Morgan having a quiet moment and thinking deep thoughts

 We did a bunch of racing around the field today

 

Morgan and Mommy racing

 The boys treated me to a make-up Mother's Day today.  We picked out a rose bush (not pictured, but we also got this lovely Japanese maple) for our yard and then they let me have a garden day, so lots of planting was done.  One of my very favorite activities.

Mother's Day 2014

The Start of May

I promise there will be no hissy fit throwing on the blog this week!  I am happy to report we have survived and made it to May, where now week by week we will be dropping things off our plate and heading right to summer.  Whoohoo!  Jacoby has just over two weeks of First Grade left.  I think he's a little sad about this, since it's been such a good year and he's had such a great teacher.  Morgan has three weeks left of preschool, and I am happy to report that I paid childcare/preschool tuition for the last time on May 1!  Talk about a major milestone for us!

On to the latest news:

If you look between the two strangers in this picture you'll see the boys staring down into the orchestra pit.  I took them to see Fiddler on the Roof last weekend at one of the local high schools.  It was wonderful--the kids did such a great job and the music was awesome.  The boys loved it.

 One of our favorite friends turned five and invited us to her Frozen birthday.  Lots of fun games involving snow and marshmallows.  Morgan is trying his hand at a marshmallow shooter.

 The kids made snowmen out of tp

 Ice cream sundaes were the birthday treat, so here we are with our own delicious treats.  That's how we roll at parties!

 I ran the Boulder Spring Half Marathon this morning.  It was a good race, but the course very nearly kicked my rear end by the finish line.  It was much, much hotter than all of the training runs, so I was a little wilted and whipped by the end (I might also take issue with their definition of a "flat" course, but whatever).  But I had a good time and it was a good reconnaissance mission for a certain 26.2 mile race my little sister has talked me into in the fall.

 Post-race paraphernalia

 Our garden is planted!  We're growing pumpkin, peas, zucchini, carrot, kale, and jack-be-littles.

It's teacher appreciation week, so the boys and I decided to make hanging terrariums for our teachers.  They're turning out great, and there just might be enough leftover for Mommy to have one too.  (:

Other things coming up this week include Morgan's endoscopy tomorrow morning.  We expect to hear that there's still a problem, since the little man isn't gaining weight and has a pretty rotten time eating right now.  Sigh.  I'm looking forward to really drilling down into the diet this summer and spending more time investigating.  He also has Kindergarten orientation tomorrow afternoon.  Can you believe it?!  I would be sort of sad about this (and I'll be a total mess on the first day of school) except the kid is sooo ready for school and we are sooo ready for the boys to be on the same schedule.

I leave for Santa Fe on Saturday, and yes, I have to work on Mother's Day this year.  That's all I'll say about that, lest I say something unprofessional and inappropriate.  I'm promised a celebration the next weekend, and Jacoby has given me a special rock he found that he wants me to take on my trip so I won't be sad on Mother's Day.  He's the best.  (:

Have a great week everyone!