Independence Pass camping

Our last camping trip of the summer was to Independence Pass. This was sadly the last trip for our 2003 Toyota Corolla as well.  We passed one too many cars at high speed on our way home, and popped a piston or two.  We managed to chug within a few miles of home before our trusty old car gave out completely.  It was such a good car, we replaced it with one just like it, just a few years newer and a couple hundred thousand less miles.  I was sad to give up the old one, but it is nice to have a window that rolls down again, a trunk that pops, and a clicky thing to unlock the doors. Plus we got a few new CDs out of the deal that were left in the CD player, including Michael Jackson's Greatest hits and a medical book on tape :).

Skipping rocks

Exploring the grottos

This boy loves water, no matter how cold

Climbing

Exploring the grottos

Grotto

First day of school- Kindergarten and Pre-K

The last time Amelie smiled about school was before she started

Logan & Amelie are at the same school this year, a Montessori charter school in Golden. Its pretty nice having them in one location.  We can leave 15 minutes later in the morning and those 15 minutes mean we can sleep until 7am!

Logan is in Ms. Kristin's P1 class for kindergarten. Its his 3rd year in her class, so it was an easy transition back for him. On the first day of school, he brought in his half-finished counting chain booklet from last year, and picked up right where he left off. (First he tried to convince me to buy the  Montessori materials to have at home this summer, but they were hundreds of dollars so we decided to wait for school to start again.)

Amelie is in Ms. Capron's P2 class for her first year of pre-K. She's had a tough time adjusting to school. Whereas Logan is my easy-going, roll-with-it kid, Amelie seems to be the opposite.  She's also 6 months younger than Logan was when he started pre-K, so that probably doesn't help.   The first day, she just trailed Logan around the playground like a shadow, crying. For the first few weeks she wasn't eating, did not want to make any friends, sat by herself at lunch, and she developed a stutter from the anxiety of it all. For a while I thought we may have to pull her out and try again next year. I'm still not quite sure. She still cries at drop-off every morning, but they say it only lasts a couple minutes and then she's fine the rest of the day.  Plus Logan reports that she only needs one hug a day now instead of several so that's something.

Tammy

We said good bye to Tammy today. It was totally heart-wrenching since she's raised our babies for the past 5 years. We plan to go back for holidays and school vacations still, which made it a little easier. Here's a video of some of the photos she's sent me over the years of the kids' days at daycare.

This free photo slideshow created with Smilebox And a few photos from Ama's last week: Sidewalk chalking... her favorite thing to do Ama and Kaitlin The whole gang Tammy took Ama shopping to get her first day of school outfit.  All pink, of course!  Down to the socks and sparkly pink shoes. Playing kitchen The only picture I have of Ama and Tammy Their second family

Ouray

We spent a few days in Ouray this summer with my mom, Kendall, and Nate. Ouray is my favorite place in Colorado.  There's great hiking, climbing, hot springs, a fun park, yummy bakery, and everything is close by, so we were able to bike and walk most places. We decided its just like Europe :). Its rare these days to get a real vacation, but my mom babysat every day so we were able to get out for lots of adult-paced hiking and climbing which was super fun.  

Hiking up Twin Peaks trail

View down to Ouray

Mark on top of Twin Peaks

Top of Twin Peaks

Top of Twin Peaks

Box Canyon

Box Canyon

Ouray Overlook

Yankee Boy Basin

Yankee Boy Basin

Yankee Boy Basin

Ouray waterfall

Biking at the park

Crested Butte

Our annual friends camping trip this year was to Lake Irwin in Crested Butte-- my second favorite place in Colorado after Ouray. The wildflowers are beautiful, and there is tons of hiking and mountain biking, plus a cute town. The kids love camping and spend all day roaming the campground in packs, biking, climbing, and generally getting really dirty.  We tolerate the camping because they love it so much.

Lake Irwin

Moms, kids, dogs ready to set off on a hike

Ama, LoLo, and Xander at the waterfall a few minutes from Lake Irwin

LoLo and Ama hiking

Digging at the Lake Irwin "beach"

Canoeing. This is one of those things that looks more fun than it is.

Hike above Lake Irwin to Scarp Ridge

Ladies hike

Ama playing in the creek

LoLo and Mom selfie

Oregon

We spent the 4th of July in Oregon this year with Dan, Jen, Henry, and Duncan. They had a great neighborhood celebration complete with parade, festival, and an impressive fireworks show. Here in the mountains we rarely see fireworks-- they're usually cancelled for fire danger-- so it was fun to join in their 4th festivities.

Mark and Ama at the parade

Ama giving Uncle Dan some love.  She never does this... but Dan is the Pied Piper and my kids (and other kids apparently) always love him. She ran up, sat on his lap, and started stroking his beard.

After the 4th in Portland, we headed down toward Corvallis with a stop at Brett's farm.  Ama was excited to ride Brett's pony, feed the goats, and check out the chickens.  She also found some classic Oregon wildlife-- a giant slug. Brett has a full time job as a firefighter in Portland and still manages to run the farm in her "spare" time.  I'm amazed at how hard she works.

Ama riding Brett's pony

Slug!

Ama, Brett, and LoLo

Next we went to Corvallis to visit Grandma & Grandpa A.  Jen, Dan, Henry and Duncan joined us there for the weekend. Logan loved hanging out with his cousins. We went out to Newport for some beach time and spent lots of time in the parks and woods around Corvallis.  We hit the beginning of blackberry season and got our fill of blackberries, and lots of pizza and cookies at American Dream. We also managed to break both of Karen & Marshall's cars while we were there.  They were good sports but were probably happy to see us go :).

Blackberry walk around the neighborhood.

Grandma, Ama, and Grandpa at the tide pools

Mark, Ama, & Logan at the tidepools

The tidepools are one of my favorite parts of Oregon.  Here's an orange starfish.

And some little crabs hiding in a crevice

The beach was windy and freezing, but Ama loved it anyway.  Nothing will stop her from digging in sand.

On the way to the airport in Portland, I made a quick stop to see my childhood best friend Meaghan and her family.  This was my first time meeting her daughter Clio.  She was adorable!