Mother/Son Event

This banner hung in the lobby of our school to get everyone excited about the upcoming mother/son event!Little Man & Andrea were able to attend. When we arrived, we checked in at the lobby of the school & were given a travel itinerary & our passport. We listened to a brief video from Mr. Holmes (executive director) & we were off!

There were 7 different continents that we had to visit & do a task, road block, or detour on each one.

At the end of each task, they would stamp our passport & give us our next clue. We had dinner, dessert, & even "passport photos" (have not received yet) during the "race."

The pit stop brought us back to the lobby of the school where we were checked in by our principals. Poor Little Man really thought we were going to meet "Phil" & win a million bucks! He was a bit dissapointed that his principal gave him a carrabiner w/a compass on it as the prize.

It was such a fun activity that Andrea forgot to take pictures of us during any of the events! She did discover that Little Man is way more competitive than we thought!

11th Birthday

We celebrated Murph's birthday at The Cheesecake Factory!

Patti came out to teach her how to use her new sewing machine

She made a gym bag for her first project. Happy Birthday!

First Day of School

6th Grade-Middle School
(and she's NOT the Diva!)

3rd Grade

Kindergarten (Full-Day)

Summer Fun

Catching up on Summer Activities ...

First off, we went to Grand Elk & stayed in a cabin with friends

We got in a round of golf,

went swimming, & played lots of games

Second, Little Man took swim lessons!

Third, we visited the Denver Firefighter's Museum with cousins

We went to Johnny Rockets for lunch

Fourth, Little Man started flag football

(He is #4 on the dark blue team)

We Remember!

Today is the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. We took the time to explain to our kids what happened, watching a slide show that Ryan has kept over the years. Andrea even got out some pictures of when we went to New York the first year we were married to show the kids "the way it was" before the attacks. We realized we were there 3 years to the day before it happened.

We also watched a really neat documentary on the science channel about the rebulding of the World Trade Center and the memorial. It was really neat for us to have been there 3 months ago and then to see the finished product on tv! It was also really fun for us to tell the kids some things we remembered from 9/11:

*Murph was only a year old

*Ryan declining a job that would have put us there during the attacks

*Living w/Ryan's parents & getting a phone call while still in bed to inform us about the attacks

*Watching the news the entire day

*Going to a baby shower that evening & our friend was in the hospital having her baby

We remember walking around ground zero in New York in 2011 and how different it is than in 1998. Now, there is an amazing feeling of peace, reverence, & quiet in a city that is always on the go and has so many people in it. We remember how something so tragic and devastating can happen, even in the USA.

Unfortunately, we can't get the slide show to download, but here's a few pics of ground zero in June, 2011.

Tower 1

Harry Potter Fans

It's official. We are now Harry Potter fans! We got home from Utah & found this in the mail:

None of us have read any of the books or know anything about them, but we decided to RSVP. Andrea went to the library to get the first 6 movies & over the last 2 weeks, we have had a Harry Potter marathon & watched them. We rented the 7th movie & watched it Sunday night. All week the kids have been "playing" Harry Potter!

We showed up tonight & avoided all the fans in long lines & walked right in then received free popcorn, drinks, & a few take homes along with this cool pass we had to wear around the theater:

It was an awesome show!

Happy 4th of July!

The girls made this cute poster & then we painted nails for the occasion! We walked across the street & saved a spot on the grass with a blanket then went to Fujiyama's for dinner. Then we went to our spot & watched the fireworks with our neighbors.

July 4th is Andrea's favorite holiday. She wanted to see a great firework show this year, so we went to the Colorado Rockies baseball game with some friends on July 2nd & stayed for the fireworks show after. It was spectacular! We are going to have to make this a tradition!!

Happy Birthday, America!