Summer's End.

I can't believe it's over. Another Summer has come and gone. I know they always go fast (and the saying goes- time flies when your having fun!) but this one seemed to sweep by even faster. We were so busy, so I know that was part of it. But we also had so much fun!!  I really love being able to stay home with these kids and do all these fun things over the summer. I get to see Jayce and Amara all day (or at least mostly all day) everyday, but not Riley now that he's getting older. So I really cherish the summer time. Everyone always asks when/if I'll return to rangering. And I always say eventually. I love it too much not to, but I also love having my summers that I can wholly devote to my kids. To hang out with them, to experience new things with them, to be there for them, and to create memories with them. My mom was a teacher, and had her summers free to spend time with us. That was the most precious time for me. We would go camping, on beach vacations, out here to Colorado, or just play together in the yard and have popsicles. I wouldn't trade those moments for anything in the world, and I want my children to have those memories too. So until they say otherwise (and maybe not even then!) I will spend every summer, as much time as I can with them!!

Ok, enough sappy . . . well, maybe not since I'm talking about Riley starting school now!!  lol Yep, that's right. I now have a 3rd grader!!  I can't believe it. He is so grown up! I really saw him shine this summer with how much he has matured. (Thankfully there's still quite a bit to go, but even since last year he has really gained a lot of confidence, maturity, and dare I say wisdom) Perfect example . . . This weekend we went to our small town's annual festival. Long story short, I was walking around with a petition talking to people, and Cam had to take Jayce to his rock climbing class. So that left Riley to watch after Amara for me. I wasn't intending that, I had the stroller and was planning to push her around with me, but Riley took over. Playing with her on the playground, pushing her around to different places and booths, even checking in with me every 10 minutes or so. But my favorite part - The bounce houses. There were 2 of them. One for big kids, and one for little kids. He wanted to go down the big kid one of course, but Amara wasn't allowed to go in. So instead of leaving her outside by herself, he put his own wishes aside and took her to the little kid one. But, he was too old to go in, so again he missed out on his chance to jump in the bounce house. The best part though, he didn't just leave to come back and tell me they couldn't jump. He stood there and waited while his little sister had fun jumping in the bounce house without him! This kid really is golden! He's so considerate, kind, and caring that I couldn't be prouder of him! And he's like that with a lot of things. He gives up a lot to put his younger siblings first, like riding his bike to school instead of his scooter because he knows that Jayce needs the practice on his bike. Like not getting candy for a treat because Amara got treats taken away and if he gets one she will throw a fit. Of course he is usually sad about these things, but he doesn't dwell on them and pout for hours on end like his siblings would. I'm really amazed at how understanding he is. So, I better stop there before I get too weepy!  Here is his picture from his first day of school last week.

That day was quite the day for me. Well, for Jayce really. Remember me saying how Riley is growing up and maturing? Well, we are still working on that with Jayce. That morning was a complete disaster for him, and therefore for me too. After prepping him for a week about taking Riley to school and riding our bikes, and getting up early, etc. I thought he would be ready for all the change that comes with the first day of school. Nope, not a chance! He made it about 2 blocks before throwing a compete meltdown fit, refusing to ride his bike the last 4 blocks to the school. I tried leaving the bike for us to continue the walk (and get there on time still) and pick it up on the way back . . . that just made it worse. So I ended up alternating dragging him, walking a ways and waiting for him, then just flat out leaving him, so that I could get Riley to school on time. The best part, I was still dragging the bike for a while, but now I also had about 600 parents staring at me and my screaming child. Poor Riley. He had to be so embarrassed. After he was in the school I made a beeline for the gate, and at that point Jayce decided to rip his (already slightly broken) sandals to shreds. So now he also had to ride his bike home without any shoes! That made things worse again, and now we were sitting just outside the school playground gate with him screaming and crying and every single parent walking by. It was fabulous! NOT!!! We then sat in that same spot for 45 minutes until another little girl about his age rode by on her bike, and then SNAP! Magically he was fine and could ride his bike again! ugh. this kid. But the good news . . . after that day of me forcing him to ride his bike both to drop off and pick up Riley, he was a pro! He had struggled all summer to learn. He could ride it, but had trouble starting and stopping the bike on his own. And when you live 6 blocks from school and have to stop and start at every corner going there and back twice in one day . . . you get lots of practice in!!  :) I know I'm such a mean horrible mother aren't I! And just this morning (only day 3 of school) he's doing it entirely on his own, even standing up on the pedals to ride! Jayce doesn't like doing new things, but he's usually so good at them once he finally does! he's a natural at just about everything. If he would just jump in with a positive attitude . . . Oh well. He doesn't start preschool for another couple weeks. He's doing the actual pre-k class this year (as opposed to the beginners class he did last year) and it goes 3 days a week for 3 hours a day. He's still in afternoons, so I'm hoping to get a few hours of peace and quiet while he's at school and Amara is napping.

Ahhhhh, Amara! This girl is something else! She is so fun, and such a pain at the same time! She's all girl, but she knows how to hang with the boys! She will bring her "baby" everywhere with us, but drops her off in the driveway when it's time to play with the cars in the mud! She jumps on the trampoline getting tossed and flipped by the bigger kids, then comes and cuddles with me on my lap during a movie. Just yesterday I had a few glimpses of her girlie side. While curling my hair with the curling iron for church, she comes in and announces she wants me to curl her hair too! I've attempted this only a couple times with her (once being for my sister's wedding) so for her to be so gung-ho about doing it was a big surprise! A welcome one! So you betcha I curled that hair!! It lasted all of 30 minutes in her fine baby hair, but I don't care! Then again last night I was soaking my feet in my fabulous sea salt mix from Pink papaya that I love, and she came in (from playing with the boys outside getting dirty) and wanted to soak her feet too! Of course her feet were filthy, and as much as I wanted that nice clean calming water to myself, I couldn't say no to a chance to sit still with her for a few minutes! So we did. We soaked our feet together. Although she only stuck around for about 3 minutes so it was more like washing her feet, but I don't care. I'll take these little snippets when I get them. The screaming however, that I could do without. We are entering the phase with her where I'm beginning to see the difference between boys and girls. Jayce throws fits, and cries, and screams. But Amara, she screams!! There's just something about the difference between the boy cries and wails, and the squeals and screeches of a girl! And it's not just when they are upset and crying (which is way more often than boys - even Jayce!) but when they are happy and laughing too. My poor ears!!! So i'm really learning to take the good with the bad with Amara!  lol

As for our end of summer adventures, we did have a few. Of course we had some more hikes, but I'll do those in my #52hikechallage update. We had a playdate with MOPS at the Poudre River, and got to cool off on a hot day, took a trip to the zoo, and Cam took the boys on one last Camping trip. Here's a few pictures from our "end of the summer she-bags!"

#52 Hike Challenge Hikes

#13: Ramsey Shockey Open Space 8/4/15

#14: Hewlett Gulch 8/10/15

Summer almost over?!?!

I can't believe it's August already! This summer is flying by. Literally!  Riley starts school in 10 days. 10 DAYS!!!  I can't believe it!

So rather than freak out about what's coming. Let's remember the good times we've had so far!  lol. Let's see, last I left off we had been hiking like crazy. But we've also been swimming a lot too. We've been mostly going to our friend Jan's pool. She is so nice to let us tag along, and it's been great confidence builders for all 3 kiddos. Riley is now going off the high dive, Jayce is swimming on his own in a life jacket, and Amara isn't scared of the water (or pool noodles) at all!! It's great. I even got a new waterproof camera recently and we've had so much fun testing it out! Here's some of our fun water pictures:

We also used the camera on our very first family 5K run! We did the bubble run in Denver a few weekends ago. It was so much fun!  They have huge bubble cannons over head with a continuous stream of bubbles flowing down on you. The first round isn't colored, but the other ones are. So you end up tie dyed like if you did one of the color runs. Riley and Jayce had the most fun of course. Amara. . . she liked all the bubbles, and playing in them, but she DID NOT like the cannons. The first one was ok for her. I put Jayce and Amara in the bike trailer (the stroller version of it) and so it acted like a giant funnel collecting all the bubbles as we walked through. They were buried within seconds! So at the second round of bubbles I thought they might like to walk through them. Bad Idea Mom!! Jayce was fine, holding onto the stroller, but Amara was soon lost!  She was holding onto the stroller and as soon as we went under the cannons she disappeared. I quickly grabbed what little of her hand I could still see and dragged her out as best as I could!  She wasn't a happy camper after that, screaming NO everytime it was time to go through another bubble station. She had fun playing in the bubbles after each station, she just wasn't too keen on going through them. Over all we all had fun, and the boys ended up looking like smurfs by the time we got home. They had a blue cannon at the start finish line and they played in it for nearly a half hour!

After that we took a trip up to the cabin. My aunt and Uncle from Montana were visiting and invited us up for a BBQ. It was a great day. We hiked to the dam up the Black Hollow Creek, a favorite place of mine as a child! So it was really cool to share it with my kids. Amara wasn't really up for a hike, but we all carried her some and it was a great time. Uncle Bud cooked up some of his wonderful rainbow trout he caught that morning, along with some chicken, corn, and yummy pasta salad. Oh, and you can't forget the smores for dessert! It was great to catch up with family and spend the day in the great outdoors!

More fun . . . Painting classes! I am totally addicted to the place Picasso & Wine. And in the summer they have great kids paintings too. The boys have done it every summer since I found them. And this year Amara was old enough to do it too! Riley and his friend Tanner did R2D2, and then later that week Amara and Jayce did Finger Painting Lion. It was so cute to see them and their different personalities. Riley worked way ahead of the teacher and was done and wandering around most of the time. Jayce was so into it I had to hold him back from covering the entire canvas in every color possible. And Amara was so meticulous she was determined to use 3 fingers like instructed.  :) All the paintings turned out really cute! I'm so proud of my little artists!

Cam took some time off work a couple weekends ago and we had the intentions of going to Steamboat Springs to camp or something equally exciting. But, with how busy things have been we 1. didn't have time to really plan anything, and 2. really just wanted a more relaxing vacation at home. So that's what we did! Cam took the boys to play at Fort Fun one day, since Riley now has his go-kart driver's license. One day we took the Jeep up to play in the mountains and do some hiking. We went to the movies and to get some Star Wars Build-a-Bears, and we just lounged around the house. It was exactly what we needed.

Because this past weekend was a bit overly crazy!  My good friend Trista is about ready to have her newest little baby, and I wanted to throw her a shower to celebrate! But first we had to celebrate the big sister at her annual Little Angels Pageant. I've gotten to photograph her for this fun event twice now, and it's so great to go behind the scenes and watch her get ready. It truly is a special day! Here's some photos from Saturday, and it was a FULL day!!

Now we are trying to wind down a little bit and relax before school starts. We still have a bunch of fun stuff planned, including some more fun water time, movies, and a zoo trip. But we have our back-to-school shopping all done, everyone is registered, and the planning for our MOPS group is underway. Before you know it, it will be Christmas time!!  AHHHHH!!!!!

Keeping up with my 52 hikes, here's the additional ones we've done.

Hike #9: Alberta Falls (7/17/15)

Hike #10: Black Hollow Creak Dam/Waterfall (7/19/15)

Hike #11: Twin Lakes (7/24/15)

Hike #12: Coyote Ridge Cabin (7/30/15)