2nd Week of Summer Vacation

This week was just as fun as the first week of summer! We have had our friends, the Chapman's, staying with us while they are in transition to move to Texas. We are so sad they are leaving us for the Lone Star State, but it has been fun to spend more time with them while they "live" with us for awhile. I recruited their kids to help me plant all the flowers I bought and we got them all in the dirt. I am so excited to have pretty flowers blooming in the front yard. Mostly I planted perennials so they will hopefully come up every year now. We got snow-cones afterwards which really hit the spot!

Kylee and Aubree are in art camp all week and they have just loved it. The theme for the week is "New York" so they have done various crafts and pictures having to do with New York. They really want to do art camp again next week but I have held off. I want to spend time with them too! I will post some pics of their work later.

Wednesday I had Jenny come and give massages at my house. She trades massages for eye care/glasses at Gary's office so I am the lucky recipient of that! Michelle got one, then me, then Amy. It was heaven. I have been pretty sore with all my mountain biking and running so I absolutely loved getting a massage. That night I took the activity day girls to a new bike park here in Fruita. It was fun but I was unorganized and it became chaotic. I had plans of having a little lesson about biking and then working through some skills together. However, we got there, got the bikes out, and the girls sort of did their own thing for the whole time. Before I knew it, it was 7pm and we hadn't even rounded up the girls or bikes up yet! I got back to the church late and felt like it just didn't go like I wanted it to. I need to be more prepared for next time.

Thursday I went mountain biking with Amy and Michelle again and that was great. We did Zippity Do-Dah, which is becoming one of my favorite rides. After I got the Kylee and Aubree from art camp, we went to the rec. center to swim. Amy, Melissa and Darcy all came with their kids so it was a blast. All our kids LOVE the water so they were in heaven.

Friday night we had a big pasta pot-luck dinner at the park with all the friends that were doing the Highline Hustle the next morning. I didn't do it this year, but Gary did. We played at the park for a couple hours and just had fun. Gary has been promising our kids that we will do a camp-out on our back porch sometime, and he decided this was the night. To be honest, I wasn't really into it but I was a "happy camper" and went along with it! The kids absolutely loved it. We brought out the mattresses and blankets and told "scary" stories. Braden and Aubree would NOT go to sleep and continued to make up stories until LATE into the night! Braden's were hilarious because he would get a scary sounding voice and then say things like, "there was a bear...a big bear...on the dark side of the moon. He was afraid of the dark..he stole all the flashlights...and that is the end." He had quite a few like that!

I lasted until about 2 am but with Braden on one side of my and Aubree on the other, I could not go to sleep. They were either rolling or kicking me or snoring. I finally snuck out and went into the house! I was glad I stayed out there in the first place to hear all the great stories. Gary and I told some stories too. "Bloody Finger" and "10 Holes" and "I gottcha where I want you, now I'm gonna eatcha!"where the ones we told. It is funny how such dumb stories entertained our kids for so long. They wanted to tell them again and again!

Saturday morning was the Highline Hustle! Gary did awesome and came in with a really good time. He had to swim 1/4 mile, then bike 16 miles then run 3 miles. It took him like 1 hr. 41 min. I did the race last year and got 1 hr. 59 min. so he was way faster than I was! I think I would've been a lot faster this year though because the weather was a lot better. Last year it rained and was cold the whole time. I hope to do it again next time.

Amy Stegelmeier making her last turn before the finish!

Gary "jogging" to the finish!

Darcy Case smiling to the end!

Darrin Case happy to be done

Tri-athletes! Chad, Mindy, Gary, Darcy, Darrin, Amy, Phil and Melissa! Job well done!

We stayed after the race and played at the lake. It was sunny and even though the water was freezing, all 3 kids swam in it! I stayed on the beach and watched or read a book. it was great. After, Kylee and Aubree went to Makell's b-day party and then later, Aubree went to another b-day party for her best friend Amber. It was a day of partying! Gary and I went out to dinner with friends to celebrate the race. The Stocking's, Latteiers and Martin's came. It was a beautiful night so we ate out on the patio and watched the sunset. It was a very enjoyable night!

Braden throwing rocks into the lake

Kylee working on her tan

That about wraps up this week! You gotta love summer!