Hike

A friend of mine took the boys and I on a great hike in Estes Park today!  If felt so amazing to be outside and hiking!!!  I can't wait till the boys are old enough to do some more bigger hikes!

Views of Longs peak and Meeker from the hike.  There were much closer than this picture makes them appear. 

Ethan insisted on walk for a bit of the hike.... he really just wanted to dig in the dirt. 

the rock formations of Lumpy Ridge were amazing!

"Come on Ethan, come on....Are you sure you don't want back in the back pack?"
"NO Mommy!!!! Me do! A me walk!"
Ah, alas, there is no hurrying a two year old..... or making him do something he does not want to do. 

A very proud Matthew for climbing up the rocks!

this is not a great picture but the wild flowers were still amazing!

"lumpy ridge" up close.  You could see rock climbers scaling it.  

Behind this there were several other rocks and a tunnel between them.... We pretended we were on a dragon hunt... big fun for the boys!

Yeah!  He's back in the back pack and smiling about it!

A parting view at the end of the hike

And to make a great day even better, the boys friend William came over to play.  Batman, Flash and a goofy Ethan all had a lot of fun playing together while the "Mommies" sat on the new sofa. 

I have no idea why but for some reason Ethan wanted to wear these safety goggles and kept them on for over an hour. 

My New Porch

My summer project this summer was making our back porch something actually usable.   I put down tile so when the kids fall they won't hurt themselves.  Then I bought a bunch of swings for the boys and hung them from the deck.  Then I put together a giant climbing mountain, a trampoline and then a see saw spinney thing.  I covered as much of it as I could with sun sails for shade and then I started work on a section for adults.  I cleared out all of the crud that was there and put in mat flooring, got an outdoor sofa and a propane fire pit.   Then last but not least I hung up cute little lights for at night.  I am not completely done but so far I am very pleased with the result.  It has been worth all the work!

My Adult Oasis

I love the fireplace!!!  Don't worry it has a control on it so that I won't burn down the house.  I likely will move it out on to the mulch to actually use it anyways - just to be extra safe. 

Ethan - who is suppose to be in bed - enjoyed helping me take pictures. 

Another view of my wonderful little spot!!1

View from the couch....makes me so happy!

The kids space

The climbing mountain!

Nice day off

I was off this past thursday and my parents were staying at a friends cabin up at Red Feather Lakes.   I took the boys up for the day and we all had a good time exploring, relaxing and eating hamburgers.

I Love Wild Flowers. 

The camera on my phone is broken so this is blurry but Matthew is playing with the claw of a dead crawdad!

Ethan enjoyed playing with his plane in the water. 

We found enough pieces and put together almost two entire crawdads.

Ethan tries to sweet talk Grandma into some more goldfish while we wait for the burgers to cook.

Matthew had a blast playing with the ground squirrels who loved that Matthew loved feeding them....

View of the lakes

It was taking forever for the burgers to get done and it was way past nap time... so yes I let the boys play on the table to entertain themselves while they waited. 

left over from grandma's birthday party... It was a Minon party.... Ethan wasn't sure what to make of all of this.. 

Maddie trying to talk to her mom on the phone.... hiding in the pantry to avoid all of Ethan's tantrum screaming.

One last pretty picture for the day

Weekend fun and the fair!