Family 4th of July

We traveled east to see my parents and my siblings and their families over July 4th. It has been been a roller coaster year for our family, but we had a great time nonetheless. The kids splashed in Nana & Papa's backyard, we went to a huge extended family picnic at a lake, we celebrated Smiley's birthday (again), we had a second memorial walk/run to honor my grandmother, we celebrated 10 years of marriage and a whole lot more! It was certainly a jam-packed few days.


A fun nephew joined us for a family picture

A full crowd ready to embark on the memorial walk/run. I'm so thankful for this big family!

10 year anniversary photo....yikes, we've aged! A lot!


Smiley pondering this oh-so-good gift. For some strange reason our kids love to watch our recycling and garbage being picked up and he loves this truck!


Huddling to stay warm while eating homemade ice cream on a chilly July 4th evening

Good times!

Let's Do This Again!

The last weekend of July we enjoyed good fellowship with some folks from our Sunday school community at Whitestar Campground in the San Isabel National Forest. This was our first camping trip since Sportster was about 9 months old. We were more prepared this time for cold nights and the kids really enjoyed themselves. We needed to remind ourselves from time to time that this was fun, though. I think this will become a yearly outing for our family.

We especially enjoyed Sunday morning worship at the edge of the lake with only mountains and forest in sight. Just before heading home we had the opportunity to try kayaking on the lake and now we have new items on our wish list.

Friday Night Fun

We were blessed with yet another snowfall this week, so when Daddy came home from work on Friday night he went out with the two older kiddos to make some snowmen. Although we've had lots of snow this winter, we haven't had the opportunity to make snowmen since it has also been bitterly cold at those times, we've been gone, or the snow wouldn't pack well.




Then they came in to some fresh hot pizza, a Friday night tradition in our home. I almost always make this myself using a sourdough crust, this recipe, or the Fast & Easy Pizza Crust from this book. We do use a variety of toppings, but we usually always have some part of a pizza that is only pepperoni and cheese, too. This night we enjoyed fresh pineapple & ham on one half.

Date Night

Each Friday we look forward to our date night. Here's how it goes. We get the kids to bed, DH makes guacamole, we drag our couch up near the computer screen, insert DVD from the library or our monthly freebie from Blockbuster and voilà. We started this when Smiley was born because with a newborn we knew it was going to be several months before we could get out for a date that included going out to eat, getting a babysitter and the like. Even though Smiley is not a newborn anymore, we have kept to the tradition partly due to its ease and partly due to our budget. Our grocery budget can pretty easily absorb the cost of a few avacados each week. While we hope to be able to get out of our house for a date night soon, we're happy to have this time set aside each week for us.