biking the trail...

Easton has not loved bike riding.  He has wrecked several times on his bike even with the training wheels...  taking turns to sharp, etc.  He is always very nervous about riding.  I told him we were going to the trail and he reminded me that he can't ride on trails.  I told him this trail is really flat and I knew he could do it.  He did!  He rode his bike 2 miles on the trail and he was so proud.  And he had tons of fun too.  He was so fast I had to jog to keep up.  It was awesome.

beautiful light...

when I looked over and saw Easton playing cars in his power ranger suit with this beautiful light shining in from the window on him I knew I had to run get my camera...  love love love!

Go Bronco's

We went to the first Bronco football game of the season last sunday night.  It was so much fun!

A funeral at school...

I picked up Dawson from school and he got in the car and said "we had a funeral at school today".  I was surprised...  And said "oh no, who died"?  He responded, "we buried a word"...  And I heard him chuckling a little.  He went on to tell me that Mrs. Cole (his teacher) does not like them to use the word "CAN'T".  And that they always get in trouble when we they say they can't do something.  So, today she made them bury the word.  We were both laughing at this point.  I was thinking she is pretty clever.  He said she had all the students make a list of things they can't do.  They put them in an envelope and went outside and dug a hole and buried the word.  Even found a rock for the headstone and wrote "here lies CAN'T.  Died 2012" on it.  Then she told them to never speak of it again.

fishing monument lake

We've been fishing a lot lately.  We've only caught one fish so far... but it's been lots of fun for all of us.  Easton can cast it out like nobody's business.  He loves giving me fishing lessons.  I play along and he just loves it!  And Dawson and Dallon can do most everything all on their own.  The boys ask to go fishing all the time.  They can't get enough of it.

creating.

Cousins!!!

We were lucky enough to have Emily and her boys come to stay with us for a few days at the beginning of august!  It is always so much fun when we get together.  We both have 3 boys and they play so well together.  It makes it easy on us and everyone has a ball.  We were all so sad to have them leave and we have missed them a ton the last few weeks.

first day of school...

Dawson 4th grade.

Dallon 8th grade

It's always hard to send the boys off to another year of school.  But it's especially hard since we are new to colorado and still making friends. The boys did go to school here in April and May but it was rough. Dallon hated it and had a really hard time finding friends that he had anything in common with.  It's so hard to find your group in middle school.  I know it was always stressful for him worrying about who he would sit with at lunch.  As a mom, it just broke my heart.  Dallon has made some great friends thru church this summer and really bonded with them thru scouting and young mens.  And I know that is going to make all the difference this year... and being involved in football this fall will help too.  But still I worry.  Dawson has done pretty well adjusting.  He too has made good friends thru church this summer.  (Our ward is totally amazing!)  But Dawson's good friends at church do not go to his school.  So he is still trying to find a good friend at school.  I know he will be alright -  he does make friends easy.  But, he misses his friends in San Antonio alot!  Moving is hard.  As I drove Dallon to school on the first day I was giving him a pep talk about being friendly, etc...  and he said "Mom, I think this is harder on you than it is on me".  And I did tear up.  It is so hard to let them go.

Later that day a good friend of mine, Alisa, texted me this poem.  It captured what I was feeling.  I am sure every mom feels this way.

I wonder what you're doing right now,
And if everyone is treating you kind.
I hope there is a special person,
A nice friend that you can find.

I wonder if the teacher knows
Just how special you are to me.
And if the brightness in your heart
Is something she can see.

I wonder if you are thinking about me,
And if you need a hug.
I already miss the sound of your voice
And how you give my leg a tug.

I wonder if you could possibly understand
How hard it is for me to let you grow.
On this day know that my heart breaks,
For this is the first step in letting my baby go.

random summer pics...

Dallon learned to juggle this summer...  and he is really good at it too!

I set up a sewing corner in the basement.  Which has been so nice to have my machine out and ready if I want to sew.  I started sewing a quilt for Dawson...  and it is still a work in progress.  I have pieced together the whole front of it so far.  I also used scraps from it to make Easton this cute little scripture tote...  which he loves so much and uses every week to haul his scriptures to church.

We've been bike riding around the neighborhood.  We bought this bike for Easton that attaches to the back of Aaron's bike.  That way we can all go out riding and not worry about Easton on the big hills in the neighborhood.

The boys and I enjoyed the free summer bowling for kids here at our bowling alley.

Easton and Dawson did tons and tons of crafts / art.  I think this one was their favorite.  The painted these rocks and made each of them into animals or little people.  They have been on display in each of their bedrooms ever since.

The Great American Road Trip

Aaron and I have always wanted to go as a family to see Mt Rushmore.  So, this summer we made a road trip to South Dakota!  It was about a 7 hour drive from our home in Colorado.  Here are some pictures of the things we got to see and do.

Mt Rushmore was so amazing in person.  These pictures do not do it justice.  I had always wanted to go and it was everything I thought it would be and more!  There is so much detail in the carving of each of their faces.  It was so fun to take our kids to see it.  Every single one of us loved it!  It was fun that Dallon was old enough to have heard of it in school and he'd seen it on tv...  so he really appreciated getting to see it in person and really enjoyed it!  We went on a hike on the trails there and it was so fun to see different views of Mt Rushmore.  Oh, and they had the biggest, bestest ice cream cones there ever!

We went on the Alpine Slide right there by Mt Rushmore.  The kids loved riding the lift up the mtn.  Dallon was crazy daring and went down the slide full speed and he wrecked on the way down.  On one of the turns the sled flipped out from under him and he really tore up his elbow and knee bad!!!  He was so tough...  but it was very painful for him that day and for weeks to come.  When we went into the store at bottom of slide to use their first aid kit I bought Dallon this shirt while Aaron doctored him up.

We went to see Crazy Horse.  It was so neat.  The kids really liked it and were so interested in learning about it.  It is a work in progress.  They have been working on it for 60 years and will be blasting and carving the rest of it for another 50 more years.  It is of an indian riding a horse.  Right now they have the face and top of arm done.

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at our hotel and saw that there was a water slide by the pool!  We had booked this hotel because Aaron has traveled so  much with USAA lately that he had hotel points and it was not going to cost us anything to stay during this trip.  So, we really didn't look into what the hotel had to offer because for us it was our only choice.  It was so awesome!  The kids swam and played on the water slide every morning and every night.  It was definitely one of the high lights of the trip.

We went to Bear Country USA.  It was ok.  It had been highly recommended to us, but it was a very hot day and the bears were really just laying around.

Custer State Park was so great!  Definitely a family favorite along with Mt Rushmore and the water slide at the pool!  We drove all around Custer State Park looking at the wildlife there.  There were so many Buffalo.  I have never seen that many Buffalo ever...  and they were right up next to our car.  The kids took turns riding with their head out of the sun roof just soaking it up!  There was a donkey that really wanted to eat dawson's sucker which to this day still makes us laugh.  It was so funny.  And there were beautiful tunnels carved into the mtn's there that you would drive thru and as you drove thru each one you could see Mt Rushmore!  It was so neat!  South Dakota is so beautiful.

The kids think this picture is so funny!  ha ha.