Birthdays

We celebrated two birthdays this summer- Alex turning 2 on July 13th and Drew turning 5 on August 22nd. The kids and I took a trip to Utah towards the end of July to visit Grandma Janet and go to the Asay reunion in Provo. Grandma Janet, Jennifer and Stanton also came to visit for about a week. Mike came over for a few days as well so he could visit and help us fix the car. The kids also went back to school; Erik and Lily started 4th and 2nd grades on August 14th and Drew started PM kindergarten on August 19th. Erik and Lily were ready and excited and liked seeing their new classrooms at Back to School night. Drew......not so much. He wouldn't even go in to see his desk. The first day was not a pleasant experience for anyone. Here is a quick rundown of the end of summer activities.

  First up was Alex's Birthday on July 13th. My parents and Corbin came to visit for about 5 days, so they were here to help celebrate Alex's birthday. We put a few trucks on his cake and he loved it! He got some tractors from Dub and Grandma Dub, a ride in fire truck from Grandma Janet, a truck from Jennifer and Stanton, water/sand toys from Emily and cars and trucks from us. I can't believe little man is already 2 (although he wears 3T and 4T clothes)!

He LOVES his present from Grandma Janet, which came a few days early. :)

He put out all the birthday plates. 

Construction Zone 

Yummy cake

Birthday boy! What a handsome 2 year old!! 

The "guests" 

Waiting to blow out the candles. 

I love this face. He was so excited! 

Time for presents! Woo hoo!! 

He had to play with each toy after it was opened.

Checking out his loot.

  We headed to Utah on the Wednesday after Alex's birthday (the 17th). We were driving over the same time as my parents. We left the house at 7 am, dropped Daniel off for a meeting at work, then drove over to Broomfield (20 minutes away) to pick up the rental van. We got there at 7:45 only to find out they didn't have our rental, and it would be an hour before they would have a replacement. Ummm....no! Instead of a mini van, we ended up getting a GMC Arcadia, which was a smaller SUV, but still had room for 7, but not a lot of room for luggage. We dropped off the car at Daniel's work and got on the road about 9, which was an hour later than planned. About 20 miles north, a guy fell asleep at the wheel and side swiped my parents' car. We ended up waiting 2 hours for the police and paramedics to finish checking out Corbin and Lily. Then Rose had to eat. Instead of taking us an hour to get out of Colorado, we ended up taking almost 4 hours!!! Not a good sign. We stopped for lunch at a rest area in Wyoming and Alex was really sad. He didn't sleep well in the car and wasn't eating very well....not even his bottle. I just figured he was really tired. As we were coming down the canyon just across the Wyoming border into Utah, Alex started crying and whining. Suddenly, he threw up all over himself and his car seat. We pulled over on the side of the freeway and cleaned him up as best as we could. We finally get to Janet's at 8:00pm - 13 hours after we left our house!! (The trip usually takes 8 or 9 hours, including stops.) As we are unloading the car we hear this weird sound. Turns out the back tire was going flat....I ran over something in the road construction up by Park City. I'm just grateful we made it to Salt Lake before the tire went flat. It was a HORRIBLE trip!!! It didn't help that Daniel wasn't with me. I was exhausted! I spent the next morning running around trying to get the tire fixed, but I ended up driving out to the airport to get a different car. The rest of the trip went well. The kids had fun visiting family, we had a fun time at the reunion and everyone slept pretty well. Yay! I ended up going home Monday instead of Tuesday though. I was just too tired and the kids were ready to sleep in their own beds. Erik stayed with Jennifer because she, Stanton and Janet were coming over to Colorado at the end of the week. He had a blast and wants to do it every summer! I don't have any pictures from this trip because I forgot to take the camera, and I don't have a very good camera phone. We had a much better trip coming home, and we were all excited to be back!

  While Jennifer and Janet were here we went swimming, went to the aquarium (which everyone loved, especially Alex), and played at the park.

Denver Aquarium

You can see Alex trying to climb the rock wall (in the tie-dyed shirt) by Lily. He loves fish and was the most excited to be here. He just kept running back and forth saying, "Fish! Fish!" It was adorable. All the kids had a great time though.

There were mermaids putting on a show on the other side of this tank. Lily was mesmerized by them! She said it would be fun to be a mermaid. Love that girl!

Shark tank

  Mike came over after our other Utah company left and helped Daniel fix the car. He spent a few days here and went to our ward pool party. The kids had fun with Grandpa Mike.

 After all our company left, it was time to get ready for school. Erik has Ms. Knudson for 4th grade and Lily has Mrs. Kelley for 2nd grade. They were both excited and not excited for school to start. They went back on Wednesday, August 14. They are going to have a great year! Drew started the following Monday, August 19. He is going to afternoon kindergarten, just like preschool last year. We talked about it before starting and he seemed excited to be going to the same school as Erik and Lily. Monday afternoon as we were driving to the school he started saying he didn't want to go and wanted to go home with us. He wouldn't go play with the kids, put his backpack in line, or talk to anyone. He wouldn't even let go of Daniel and I. When it was time to line up to go inside he started crying and yelling. He even tried to run back to the car. We finally caught him and the counselor and the principal held him while we went back to the car. He finally went inside....after all the other kids had gone in. I knew he would be fine, he just doesn't like new and unfamiliar situations. When I picked the kids up after school he said he had fun and wanted to go back the next day. I was going to drive the kids one more day, but he said he wanted to ride the bus. So, he's been riding the bus since the 2nd day of school and we haven't had any more issues......other than him being tired when he gets home. He also has quite a bit of homework, but he's doing pretty well with that. Now, he loves school and his teacher. Yay! He's coming out of his shell a lot too.

Drew NOT having fun at back to school night.

Drew's first day of kindergarten. He is still smiling here.....

This was the last smile we got. Not long after is when he started having his meltdown. (We don't have any pictures of that.)

Waiting for the bus.....no problem!

Notice just how big of a frown Drew has in this picture! :)

We don't have any pictures of Erik or Lily on their first day because it was no big deal for them. I probably forgot to even take any. :)

  A few days after Drew started school, we celebrated his 5th birthday on Thursday, August 22. He really liked Alex's fire truck, but he was too big for it. Well, Grandma Janet made his year when she sent him his birthday present: a fire truck that is a pedal car. It even came a few days early. He was so excited for that to get put together. He made sure Daniel started on it as soon as he got up the morning after it arrived on our porch. He drives that thing everywhere! He also wanted an Angry Birds cake. We lucked out because Walmart had one in their case the day before his birthday. We had donuts for breakfast and he chose pizza for dinner. He got a pogo stick from Stanton and Jennifer, Angry Birds art supplies, Mario Kart wall stickers, a "gun key" and a picture with the quote "you make me happy when skies are gray" because You Are My Sunshine is his favorite song! He also got money from Dub and Grandma Dub. We sure love this crazy, loving, helpful, stubborn boy!

He was so excited when dad finally finished putting this together! Thanks Grandma Janet.

Opening presents before school.

Enjoying cake after dinner....with wicked black frosting!

  Finally, Daniel's company, Digital Globe, treated families to a BBQ and Rockies baseball game. Erik and Lily have been to a Rockies game before, but it was the first game for Drew, Alex and Rose. The BBQ started an hour and a half before the game, and it was super hot because it was the end of August, so we didn't make it too long into the game before kids were getting hungry and tired. We left in the 4th inning, but it was a fun time together as a family. I can't wait to do it again when the little ones are just a bit older so we can enjoy it more. Next time we'll know to bring snacks and water bottles since everything at the field is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive!! The kids even liked riding the shuttle to and from the stadium! Love these crazy munchkins!

On the shuttle, or the bus as Alex called it.

Walking around the stadium before the game started.

Enjoying the game from the Rock Pile, out above center field.

Rose starting to get hungry.

Our view

Alex playing with the ice in our cup. Right after this he dumped it out and was stomping on it. Then he decided to pick it up and throw it. The people around us were amused, but it's a good thing he can't throw very precisely or very hard.

Drew's flag he bought with his own money.

Family time at the Rockies. What a fun time!

Now we are settling into a routine of school, homework and playing with friends. I'm back subbing and have been working most days for last week and this week. It's tough, but it's only for another week or so, then I'll be back to subbing less often. The cooler weather finally hit this week too. YAY!!! I was so tired of 90+ degrees. The rain has been nice too. Now it's time to get ready to celebrate the holidays for the first time in our own home!