August

First day of the second year of preschool. Logan is in the same class with Ms. Kristin again, so the first day was no big deal. He got to work right away and came home with a book he made about parts of the earth. We have about 50 parts of the.. books from last year. The second week he was excited to learn the 45 layout, which I had to google... turns out that's  counting to 9000 via the number beads/blocks.

Brother-sister love, while visiting Ginny.  They were showing off their new shades. Ginny likes our visits, though they tend to end with us rushing out the door after one scream too many from Ama.

Daddy & Ama at St. Mary's Glacier

One more, couldn't decide which I liked better.

Pigtails.  Turns out I can bribe her with chocolate to let me do her hair.

Auntie Kenny!

Mark & Logan at the summit of a mountain in Three Sisters

Cousin Brett came to visit! Ama hadn't quite warmed up to her yet.

I was there too.

Amelie loves moss. Loves to point it out in the yard and on our hikes. She also likes to point out cracks in the sidewalk/boardwalk around the lake and does not like to step on them.  Hates stepping on grates, too. I guess when you're that close to the ground, you notice those things more.

Our Oregon cousins visited!  Logan had a ball playing Minecraft and legos with Henry and Duncan (I guess his summer of Minecraft practice with Tori paid off).  Amelie even warmed up and played Go Away Monster with Dan & Jen. Here they are tracking dinosaurs at Dinosaur Ridge.

Logan & Amelie were to young, but Mark got to go rafting in Clear Creek with Dan, Jen, Henry, & Duncan. Sounds like it was pretty sick.

Summer at Tammy's

Logan & Amelie spent the summer together at Tammy's. Logan loves it there-- he gets to spend time with his future wife Tori and play lots of Minecraft. Amelie loves it too.  There are lots of babies for her to take care of, including a real one (1 year old Jack).

Playhouse.  This is where Logan and Tori plan to live when they are married. Pretty nice digs.

Ama and her Tori

Nap time

Logan flirting with Tori.  Something along the lines of "I heard you were a really cute baby"

Showing off her climbing skillz

Little mama

Amelie taking care of her babies

Watching Tori play minecraft.  Why that is fun, I don't know.

Turquoise Lake

Our last camping trip of the season was at Turquoise Lake in Leadville.We are kind of over camping at this point in the summer.  We sort of just wanted to stay home and sit on the couch, but I'm glad we rallied.  I got to go on a beautiful hike at Fancy Pass/Missouri Lakes.  The kids had fun playing in the lake (despite the fact that the water was freezing), riding bikes, and generally running wild around the campground.  

Boys playing in the lake

Amelie collecting rocks... her collection rivals Mark's

Fancy Lake

Other side of Fancy Pass.  There were a million flowers out.

Missouri Pass

Missouri Lakes

More flowers

Reading in the tent.  Amelie loves her hats.

Harry Gates hut

We spent a few days up near Eagle at one of the 10th Mountain division huts, Harry Gates. These are always booked up in the winter, but you can often have the hut all to yourself in the summer. This one was pretty easy to access with no Civic 4-wheeling required. We founds lots of wildflowers (and even learned the names of a few, though I promptly forgot them), did a beautiful death march to a high mountain lake in the Holy Cross Wilderness, and cooked a pizza in a wood-fired oven. Logan got in some mountain biking and lots of Uno too.
  

Logan & Amelie at the Harry Gates hut

Picking giant dandelions

Ama & Daddy

Eagle Lake in the Holy Cross Wilderness

Overgrown hike through the Aspen forest up to Eagle Lake

Biking from the hut down to the car.  This is the fun direction.  The opposite direction involves lots of pushing by Mom.