Colorado in the Summer

Brady and I took Hallie, Bailee and Jay to Colorado for a fun vacation the week before school started. Unfortunately, Riley had to stay in town for dance team and cheerleading practices. Charlie was happy to stay with his Mimi! Even though we missed them terribly, it was a blessing to spend some more focused time on our middle little ones! We went to Frisco, Co to see our friends Jason and Mary. Brady and Jason spent four days on lakes and rivers fly fishing. Mary and I took the kids hiking one day, we found a little time to do some back to school shopping and we even took them through a museum! I felt like such the academic momma!
Jason and Mary, they are too cute!
Here are our wilderness trekkers! The girls had so much fun together communicating with their walkie-talkies! Sweet Andrew tolerated little Jay . Jay admired Andrew with good reason... he skates at a real skate park and can hop on a pogo stick like no one he's ever seen!

On our last day with them we went to Breckenridge and rode the Alpine slides. SO FUN! Jay loved it, I'm afraid he is going to be an adrenaline junkie like his daddy.
Jay and I - Hallie and Kate - on the ski lifts up to the slides.For the second half of our Colorado vacay we went to see Brady's Uncle and Aunt who live in Ridgeway, Co on Ralph Lauren's Ranch. They live in a beautiful log cabin tucked away where only the bears could find ya. We had such a wonderful time seeing them!

They even gave us a tour of Ralph Lauren's beautiful ranch! Here we are in his saloon wearing some of his decorations!

This was taken in Ralph's theater room. My poor children they are just so shy! We even watched a little of "The Office."

I've always been the kind of girl who thinks it is not a vacation unless I've been to the beach. However, this trip changed my mind. I totally get why people go to the mountains to get away from it all! It was amazing hiking up a mountain for two miles and encouraging myself, I mean, my kids all the while. The views of God's creation was magnificent. We even went home with a couple of healthier cookbooks and some agave nectar for my coffee!

Texas and Oklahoma Trip Summer '09

This post is a little over due but, better late than never. With four of my five kiddos at school this morning I found a moment to fill you in on our trip down south.
(The house cleaning will have to wait,
I'm working on getting my priorities straight.)

The second and third week of summer we drove to Texas and Oklahoma to see friends and family we hadn't seen in two years! We spent the first night in Cheyenne, WY. Then we went to Brownfield, TX for a couple of days to see Brady's grandparents and his dad! (Sorry, no pics of this part of the trip because the camera battery was dead grrrrr.)

Next stop Abilene, TX to see Brady's sister and her husband and their two adorable girlies. I also got to see my sweet, beautiful cousin, Erika, who is about to get married and graduate from ACU. Contrary to popular belief, you don't get a husband included with your diploma! She showed us around the campus so our kids could see what it was like. It will be four short years of high school and then Riley will be "on campus."

With Abilene in our rear view mirror we headed to Ft. Worth to spend one night with our college friends Clay and Anita. We had too much fun! No really, we did! Thank goodness no one took any photos!

Dallas was our longest furlough. Three days and three nights of warm weather, swimming, great food, and even better company. My sweet aunt Penny from Houston drove up to see all of us for a couple of days.

Brady and Jean Ann had to head back to Montana for work so they dropped the kids and I off in Oklahoma. I got to meet my niece Bianca for the first time and we think she's going to be a lefty! My mom and Jim got to have all seven of their grand kids under one roof and in one swimming pool! And of course, we went out to my dad and Vickie's farm. So fun!

The last leg of our trip was me driving all five kids home (two ten-hour days of driving, much road construction in the summer). My philosophy for road-trips is expect the worst and hope for the best. So, I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun we had! We stayed the night in Denver...Starbucks for breakfast, Sonic for lunch, and Jim Gaffigan keeping us laughing. The Lord blessed us with safe travels and healthy kids. I only made one wrong turn (which Riley quickly pointed out)!