And not to be left out of the back-to-school shananigans...

Happy 2nd birthday, my little princess!

Today is Kate's birthday. She's two! And does she ever act like it? She fights about what to wear, when to get dressed, what hair clip and shoes to match, where to go, when to leave, where to sit in the car, what to eat, when to eat, where to sit to eat, when to nap, what toys and blanket to nap with, who to hold her, when and how she is held, how her hair is done, when her hair is touched, where/when/how/by whom her diaper is changed... Should I go on, or are you getting the idea?

God sure knew how to make sure that this firecracker was my last!

When she doesn't get what she wants - and honestly, she doesn't know what she wants most of the time - she kicks, screams, hits, throws, bites... Wow. It sometimes seriously leaves me speechless.

I can't possibly count the number of public tantrums this girl has thrown. She definitely has topped the number of all my boys combined! I never would have had the courage to deal with her in Walmart, the library, the park, the pool, the bike-trailer, the stroller, etc etc if she was my oldest. Now, I just roll my eyes, grab her off the ground and smile at all the onlookers begging with their eyes to give me advice that I totally don't want.

Kate is who she is. My job is to mold, shape - and hopefully inspire - her to use all this stubborness for good. Pray for us.

And she is totally and utterly adorable. Her blond curls, her tan skin, her chubby cheeks, her blue eyes, her plump thighs, her darling smile... She gets her way with strangers.

But this momma and daddy know better though. We try not to let her get away with too much, but hey - She is the baby. Everyone else had been replaced in "baby" status by this point.

And it goes without saying that she will always have a special place in my heart as our "limited edition" baby girl.

Happy Two Years, Princess! Stay cute. And be nice to your mom and dad.

* * *

Kate loves to "help" me cook in the kitchen, so we got her some Ikea stuffed food,

... a wood birthday cake with velcro candles and a wood pizza set with velcro toppings,

... and the grand finale - 

An Ikea Kitchen! She loves it.

First Day 2017-2018

Collin - Mrs Eucker - 3rd Grade

 Brennan - Mrs Harras - 1st Grade

Best Friends

They all left us together today. Good luck, Team!

Eclipse Totality

So I had thought all the media hype pre-eclipse had been super overdone. But I did get us all free glasses at the library about a month ago. Then when Ryan said none of the other "smart" guys at work were going to come in on Monday, he got a whole outing planned for us to Scottsbluff, NE - inside the band of totality.

Our plan was to get up at 5:30 and leave when the kids woke up naturally at 6:30. As we spoke with friends all weekend, we decided that leaving so late was not going to work, so as we finally went to bed about 11pm Sunday night, we set the alarm for 3am! We woke up the kids at 3:30 (Silly Ryan thought they'd go back to sleep in the car, ha!) and were on the road by 3:45.

About now is when I turned around and realized that in the chaos of waking up the kids and getting loaded, Ryan nor I grabbed Kate any shoes. So we had a little hillbilly all day with us. Oops. Maybe she'll start grabbing her own, like the boys! 

Traffic was heavy but not slow going up, and we got to the National Monument a few minutes after 6am. There was a short wait to get into the lot, but it went really smoothly. The huge disappointment was that they weren't allowing any cars to drive to the top, and they weren't letting anyone park at the bottom and hike to the top.

So... we were stuck at the bottom for the next six hours waiting for "the event." Before we even got out of the car, they had closed the lot to additional cars, and they didn't allow any people to walk/bike in. It was just us and about 80ish other cars.

But the long wait went sooo fast! They had eclipse workbooks for the kids and when they were completed, they showed the ranger and received a wood pin and badge. They had a special performance in the ampitheater about the man the area was named after.

 And we also toured the museum and watched a short movie in there too. We walked down a short trail with information about the Oregon Trail and replicas of wagons and oxen teams too.

I had read online in advance that the solar glasses were not very affective for children, since they are sized for adults. A craft was provided where the glasses are mounted to paper plates. So Ryan worked with each of the kids to make paper plate masks for their glasses and attached string so they stayed on well. They decorated them, and I think it was a great way to pass the time.

I helped them with their workbooks. 

Then at about 10:20, we started to see the first bite out of the top right corner. It was really exciting! Everyone inside this area was really into what was happening. Most were from the Denver area and had also been up since 3am. There was no alcohol allowed, so everyone was acting responsible.

One guy had his telescope set up with a mirror to reflect the image onto a screen. He explained the whole process to all the kids. The rangers also had a mega-telescope arranged, and we could even view the sun spots through it. Another family had brought a colander to view the strange shadows, and they handed out pinhole cards for each of the kids too. A group of grandparents brought aluminum foil and wrapped their hats, just to be silly. Everyone was so friendly and interesting.

And then at 11:48... Total eclipse! It really was amazing. So crazy! It was worth all the media-hype, for real. Everyone cheered, and it got cooler (84 degrees to 67 degrees, according to Ryan's special watch) and the birds stopped chirping. The rangers kept warning us that the rattlesnakes might come out and to watch our kids and the tall grass, but honestly - I forgot! But no one got bit, so I guess it was fine. ;-)

It was only as dark as it'd be at 8pm or so, but the corona was incredible! We saw Sirius and Venus too. With glasses on, it was totally black, which is why it was ok to remove the solar glasses during totality. There was a perfect black - kinda scary! - disc in the center of a brilliant perfect circle of bright, wavy light. It really was pretty creepy. And so totally amazing!

After it ended, we were hoping they'd open the road to the top so we could hike, but they said because of the numbers of people, they planned to keep it closed all day. :-( So we headed home.

Kate was one sleepy little princess by noon as we headed towards home. She fell right asleep, but only slept about 10 minutes. It was probably the longest day of her life. :-)

The first hour of the drive was fine, but when we got to Cheyenne, the traffic got really bad, and it was stop-and-go until northern FoCo. We exited the freeway then and took the country/local roads through towns to get back home.

We got home about 3:30 and even spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool to maximize Ryan's vacation day.

All in all, it was PERFECT! We hardly planned, and we were really anxiously about traffic, parking, food (I packed two meals and extra bottled water, but didn't need it), toilets (I took my camping potty, but didn't need it), gas (we had a full tank to begin at the start). It was super smooth considering the numbers of people flocking to see it.

Total eclipse awesomeness!

Breck-ation

I love this state we get to call home. We headed to the ski town of Breckenridge last weekend. It is only about 2-1/2 hours away, and all the hotels are deeply discounted in the summer-time. We were able to stay in a nice townehome (3 bed, 3 bath, full kitchen, dining area and family room). We had such a great time in Steamboat Springs last year that we wanted to try another ski-town-in-the-summer-time this year.

THURSDAY
We left early (6:30am) and headed straight to our longest, hardest hike. McCullough Gulch Trail was about 5 miles roundtrip, but about 2 miles of it was just on a 4WD-only road to the trailhead. The actually hike was 3-miles. It has rained a lot this summer, so it was super muddy, rocky and steep.

The trail followed the river, which was really going, and the falls at the top were incredible.

We had a nice picnic at the top by the falls before heading back down.

We tried to check into our hotel early, but when we had to wait for it to be cleaned, we parked the van and took the short walk to the cute downtown area. We'd heard a lot about a crepes stand (Crepes a la Cart), so we went there for a little post-hike treat. It lived up to its fame and was almost worth the long line. Haha.

We headed back to the hotel for a short kid nap, and then we walked back downtown to get pizza (Downstairs at Eric's) for dinner. They were in the process of closing all the roads for a big bike race the next morning. The kids played at a little playground before we headed back to the hotel to get the kids in bed.

Collin has his own watch phone now, so we've been using him this summer to do some light-babysitting (usually everyone is asleep but him and maybe Brennan). Anyway, Ryan and I headed to the hot tub after bedtime and left Collin in charge.

FRIDAY

Friday morning was a little more relaxing. We did a short nature walk right from our hotel (Sawmill Trail). It was pretty muddy too and the river was running really strong too.

There were lots of beaver dams, and it ended at the reservoir. The wild flowers were outstanding too. So many vivid colors! It was peaceful.

After our leisurely stroll, we traded Kate's hiking backpack for the double stroller and headed downtown again. There was a little festival there in town, and the kids splashed in the ice cold stream.

Collin tried out this bicycle that was attached to a blender so that you could blend your own smoothies. 

The women's bike race was just beginning, so we found a place on the sidewalk to watch while the kids played on another playground behind us.

They called this the Bike-iffel Tower. 

The race was a 10km loop. The women did 5 laps of in the morning, and the men did 10 laps of in the afternoon. Every 20 minutes or so, we'd see the pack of racers fly by. It was great fun. Ryan has always really loved road biking (and recently mountain biking too), and he's always tried to get me involved... with varying degrees of success... so this was right up our alley.

We ate sandwiches while the cyclists lapped, but then it was nap time again. I really wanted to see the end of the race though, so Ryan took the kids back to the hotel while I waited at the finish line and then watched the award ceremony. As I was headed to the hotel to trade Ryan so he could watch the afternoon men's race, he was actually headed down the hill towards me. Collin was "babysitting," and all the other kids were napping. So we headed to the start line - after a quick stop to buy my sunburned-self a hat - for the men's race. By this point, we'd acquired two more bells (3 in all) and a cheering sign. Good times.

After a few laps of watching the men, we returned to the hotel where the kids were just about to wake up. We loaded them up and headed to the Gondola. Kate was pretty excited at the start, but they had to stop the ride a few times (probably other people loading/unloading mountain bikes), and she started crying and shaking with fear. It was so sad.

The boys were kinda teasing her, but Ryan snuggled with her each time we slowed and swung at stops. I was trying to be brave, but I was sorta with her - The stopping was a little scary and kinda made me nauseous.


When we finally got to the top, it was suddenly super windy and cold and spitting rain. Definitely a weather change from the bottom! We put on our jackets and hoods and wandered around a bit. There was a a huge snow-field, so despite being in sandals, we did a little snowball fight... in August!

After playing at the top of the mountain, we headed back down on the Gondola and the men's race was just ending. In fact, we got to see the winner cross the finish line! As they slowly opened the roads and the traffic died down, we grabbed burgers and onion rings (Empire Burgers). Delish!

Totally worn out, we got the kids in bed and spent a good amount of time ourselves in the hot tub. This was our hard, long, sunburned day. It was awesome, but we were totally wasted tired.

SATURDAY

Saturday morning we got all checked out and headed to Hoosier Pass Trail. It was supposed to be a 3-mile "easy" hike above the treeline, but we honestly aren't sure when we were on the trail and when we were doing our own thing.

Our hike ended up being a mile of walking on a 4WD-only jeep trail, then a short, straight-up rock climb to the spine of a mountain ridge. The ridge was well-above the treeline. The wind was whipping so hard up there we could barely speak to each other, and Kate was screaming (from fear or cold we couldn't tell.)

We hid behind a little hilltop to have a snack, and then headed back down a dirt path along the ridge. We figured this was the trail we were supposed to be on all along, but as we descended, the trail got less and less traveled looking. In the end, we had to slide on our bums down a water-slick back to our original jeep-road. Probably not the intended trail, eh?

Anyway, it was gorgeous, but I honestly don't know what the trail was supposed to be. Our hike ended up only being about 2 miles and it wasn't "easy," so we definitely went astray somehow. But, I've never hiked above the treeline before, and we saw some tough, unique plants up there. There was also a beautiful reservoir and wild flowers along the jeep-road, so it was super cool. Since we found our way back to the car, I loved it. But there were times I might have been a bit worried. ;-)

Since our hike went faster than we'd expected, we stopped at a little railroad playground and had our picnic lunch. We also grabbed some ice cream before heading out of town. I thoroughly enjoyed my short break from my summer-long diet. Hehe.

What a cute little town Breckenridge is! We had a great time being together as a family. Kate had her shrieking fits, and Ethan had his accidents (his potty-training had apparently gone too easily). Brennan had his "I hate the outdoors" moments, and Collin had his "I can't stand these people one second longer!" times. But, all in all, it was a great final back-to-school-soon summer get-away. I wouldn't have done it any other way.

And now school starts next week. Ahhh!