The Colorado Adventure

Here are a few shots of the girls today, they are ready for the 4th!

Check out my ‘Things to do in Denver’ page. I put all the stuff that I added to our HS groups message board there too.

I know, my Mom isn’t coming here to inspect my toilets, but I am cleaning today. I have to vacuum anyway and the bathrooms really needed a cleaning and I needed to mop the kitchen. So, it would have gotten done anyway….just maybe not today. We had a great time at the park yesterday, we went to a different park that had a small creek. The kids had fun getting wet and we had fun talking. I kept Christine’s son for a play date so she could clean her house (her Mom and Dad are coming Friday too!) So, today the girls are playing at her house so I can clean. I might get so carried away with quiet that I actually read a book instead. I think that would make a neat book:

‘If you give a Mom a quiet house she will think reading is better than cleaning. Mom will relax on the couch and get lost in the court of King Henry and his escapades with the Boleyn family. She will be so immersed in reading that the hours will fly by. Suddenly she will hear that her kids are coming home and will start cleaning with a vengeance!’ It’s just a rough draft.

One more day till Grandma comes.

I’m starting a new thing, a new Bible verse every Wed.

Deuteronomy 6

5 Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got!

6-9 Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.

I don’t have a wedding photo for I ♥ Faces, so here is my just for fun pic of Hannah at the creek.

OK, just had to put this one in there too!

See more fun and wedding photos here: http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

Before we went to the Ann Lincoln magic show today we stopped by the SAME cafe to eat lunch. it’s here at: 2023 E. Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO. The cafe is called So All May Eat and it’s a wonderful concept. They have a new menu everyday using fresh foods from locals and organic food too. They usually have a soup, salad and pizza choice and it’s pay what you want. Yeah, you heard me, pay what you want or can. If you can’t pay at all, you can work in the kitchen for an hour to pay for your meal. If you can pay a dollar, then that’s what you pay for some awesome food and if you can pay more then you help out those that can’t pay much. We had tomato soup, puttanesca pizza, spinach pizza and watermelon salad (I would have never thought to combine watermelon, onion, carrots, olives and feta cheese, it was delicious!) We also had cupcakes and Oogave organic sodas (try the ginger ale, yum.) If I could have the pizza I’d eat there every day, they are open Tues-Sat (not the 4th of July though) from 11-2. I hope everyone goes and pays more than they can for their food, it is truly an amazing concept.

Next stop the central library. We saw Ann Lincoln do her circus magic show. She has trained a little puppy to do tricks (isn’t he cute?)

We got to pet him and the bunny at the end of the show. She is the one who got Joel interested in juggling and he read books and practiced and the next year he showed off what he had learned. We see her every year so she remembered us and asked how Joel was doing (he wasn’t there.) Still juggling and doing pretty well at it too. His flight instructor told him that juggling was good for his hand/eye coordination in flying - that was all the reason he needed to continue!

Now we’re back at home and we’re taking off in a bit to drop Joel at his gun safety class (turns out it was in the evening, not in the morning.)

Yesterday we invited some friends to go to the creek with us. We met up and started through the grove of trees, wound around the path, through the thistle bushes and past the hornet’s nest until we came to the cottonwood tree.

Bethany and her friends started playing by the felled tree making up their own island and making mud pies. Here is my friend Christine, we were playing dueling cameras!

I threw a rope over a branch and the kids took turns swinging into the water.

Hannah needed a little help and so did her friend Noah.

They were fighting here.

I took some pics of the insects and flowers, as a bonus in this pic I have a small flying insect hovering in the picture too.

I chased down a blue damselfly and caught it on a leaf for a few moments.

We walked down the creek to a place Hannah called the ‘hot tub’, it was deeper than the rest of the creek. That’s where I’m hanging a rope next time, then you have more than 6 inches of water to splash into. We wandered under branches and over logs finally ending up by a huge dam of sticks. Then we walked back up through the sand to our shady place. Here are Hannah and Noah sitting in the creek.

We also found a caterpillar, but the kids left the bug jar in the hot sun (it has a magnifying glass on it) and the bug got fried. Note to self, put it in the shade next time. After 3 1/2 hours we were ready to go, but we’ll be back…

Friday night we had fun at the Nim’s island movie at Lookout Mt. church. We had hot dogs, chips, popcorn and wore sandals and hats while we watched the movie.

I love that movie. Saturday Joel had his airsoft competition with another CAP wing.

He won 2nd place in individual shooting, another cadet in his squadron won 1st; so Dakota ridge won the top 2 places, pretty cool.

Grace’s other tooth fell out, but she swallowed it during the night. We went by the thrift store and look what she scored (the humpback and baby pic, the other stuff she already had.)

Whoever it is that keeps getting rid of their whale collection at the thrift store, thanks!

2 loose teeth + 1 whack of a sister’s head = 1 cute tooth gap!

Our GS troop and HS group met at the sprayground today.

The girls had a hula-hoop contest, they are really good!

Look at E jump in the air, that is a cool picture. Wanna know how to get a loose tooth out? Bang you mouth against your sister’s head, it works!

Now Grace has another loose tooth hanging by a thread.

We played until the tornado siren squealed out, I thought it was just a thunderstorm warning because the clouds had rolled in, but there was a tornado watch in in effect I found out later. We’ve been having our daily thunderstorms that bring rain, hail and in some cases tornadoes, so we all packed up and left the park. When we got home Grace noticed that she didn’t have her glasses (I know, if they aren’t on your face at the park how can you only notice that they aren’t on your face when I drive all the way home?) So I had to go back and get them, no one stepped on them so that’s a good thing. Speaking of glasses, James got a pair of real glasses (not the dollar store variety.) They are pretty neat looking with chrome on the nose part and ear parts. I think they look cool, James thinks they make him look old.

This is our 6th week on our new diet. We’ve lost weight, are eating better foods, we’ve saved money by not eating out……..every day. But, the best part (besides getting new underwear) is our blood pressure. My highest reading was the day I had Grace, 210/110. In fact, it was so high they had to get a different machine to read it and even then the nurse thought she was misreading it, she wasn’t.

My BP hovers around 160-180 over my-doc-would-kill-me-if-she-knew-the-bottom-number. Last night my BP reading was…..wait for it…….136/68! James’ was 128/70. Wow, I can’t remember the last time my BP was that low (maybe 9th grade.) My doc will be shocked when she sees that number, the weight loss and the fact that I quit taking BP meds. I’m not going in until I get another 35 lbs off, that will be 50 lost and I think that will make a better impression.

I also spent the longest time yet on the eliptical stepper at the gym, 45 minutes. It helped that the TV was set to a real show and not sports.