Heat, Water, and SNAKES - OH MY!!

Oh My, Updates Overload!!!  Either I'm way behind on letting you all know everything we've been up to, or we have just been way too busy the past couple weeks!!  lol  So, let's see . . . I'll try not to give too many pictures, but there's just so many to share! 

So last week we had another MOPS park play date - only this one wasn't actually at a park.  One of the Moms, Audrey owns a bunch of land in Wellington (farming community just north of Fort Collins) and has her own private lake!  So we all went to Audrey's house to play on the beach and in the lake!  It was so awesome - I'm totally jealous!  It was Jayce's first time to play in the sand and he wasn't quite sure what to think of it.  But Riley found some water guns and had a BLAST!!  We also got a surprise visit from a VERY LONG water snake!  All the boys were completely fascinated, and all the girls went screaming from the water!  hahaha! 

Later that week I gave Jayce another Haircut!  He was starting to get "stringy" and I was fighting tangles all the time.  So we gave him a little trim on top just to cut off the scraggly ends.  It looks so much better, and it's still long.  Other info on Jayce in the last couple weeks:  He's crawling now!!  It's kinda a Froggie-hop, but it's on hands and knees instead of his belly and elbows.  It goes, hand, hand, hop with both knees - and it's so cute!  He can also blow raspberries and get to a sitting position on his own.  We introduced finger foods this week - "puffs" and he's not quite sure about those yet.  I think he's gonna be my picky eater!  He already shows a preference for tastes and textures. 

Pre-haircut

Blowing Raspberries

Post Haircut

ok, moving on!  We made a trip to Walmart for some new folding chairs (we finally blew ours out over the 4th) and got the boys some kid sized ones - so cute!!  And a baby pool (it's just been so dag-gone hot around here!!)  So we've also been spending a lot of time outside in our Mini-pool and Homemade Water slide!  I love how easy they are to entertain at this age!

This week we did a lot of running around too.  Tuesday I found out that one of the outdoor malls in Loveland has a Free Kids Day on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays.  They have games, balloon makers, face painting and more - all for free.  So we went to check it out!  IT WAS SO HOT THOUGH!!!  I'm glad they have these little random squirt fountains!  Riley LOVED it - once he figured out that it was ok to get his clothes wet.  (I figured after about an hour in the 98+ degree heat even his thick canvas shorts would be dry for the drive home!!)  So we played in the fountains, got balloons made (Riley a sword, Jayce a Monkey), rode in a horse drawn carriage, and got face paintings.  Riley wanted a scorpion . . . OK!! 

Then on Thursday we went on a hike with some friends to our favorite waterfall!  And luckily there was still a LOT of water falling, cuz it was super hot again!  But the main event - a Rattlesnake!  It was laying right in the middle of the trail and after stomping on the ground near it, tossing stones at the ground and beating the ground with a stick (because snakes feel the vibrations) I had assumed that the snake was dead.  There was absolutely NO movement at all through this including no flicking tongue.  So, I proceeded to poke the snake before attempting to flip it off the trail with the stick.  After about the third or forth poke, the snake decided it was time to wake up from it's deep slumber!!!  And turned to coil, rattle and strike!  Thankfully it was a baby snake (I only counted about four buttons on its rattle and it was about 20 inches long max) and my ranger training has taught me that rattlesnakes can only "jump" half the length of their body, so I got a stick that was at least as long as the snake knowing he wouldn't be able to reach me.  So after that wake up call (for both the snake and the onlookers on the trail) he packed up and moved on . . . and so did we - rather quickly!  I think the kids learned an important lesson that day - Let a trained professional handle a snake - even if you think it's dead!

Justin, Riley and Makenna cooling off after the hike

And then, ANOTHER hike today!!  This time with Daddy too!  We went to Red Mountain open space and hiked the Bent Rock trail.  There were a ton of biting flies and mosquitoes, but it was so beautiful and there was a nice breeze, so it was a fabulous time. 

 

Overall we've had a great couple of weeks.  It's hard to think that July has gone by so quickly!  But I'm looking forward to August!  At least the first week of it!  The first weekend I'm off to a kid-free weekend with about 4000 other Christian Moms.  Yep, it's time for MOPS Convention again!!  This year it's in Nashville, TN.  I can't wait for my mini-vacation and rejuvenation opportunity!  And I have to say how grateful I am to have such wonderful MOPS Moms as friends!  One of my friends is going to watch Jayce and Riley for us while Cameron is working and I'm gone . . . all so that Cam can save his vacation days and we can take a trip to Hawaii later this year!!  Yes, I said HAWAII!!!  I'm stoked!!!  I finally get a beach vacation!!!  More info to come about that later as details unfold.  But that's all for now . . . have a great rest of July everyone - and stay cool out there!