What a kid!

We have had a fun summer of fishing, swimming, hiking, traveling and you name it. It is hard to believe that we are down to less than a month until my little girl starts school. I guess she is not such a little girl anymore. She is such a good climber, biker, reader, teaser, hiker, scrapbooker, helper, gymnast, and I could go on and on. I can now also add swimmer to the list. I am so proud of her. She loves to go to the pool, but hates to get her head wet. This last week in swimming lessons, the light turned on. She's now such a good little swimmer and she loves it! She even wants to swim with her head under the water when we are at the lake. It is so fun watching them learn, grow, and succeed. She is really excited to start school, and I am too. I know that I am going to be so lonely without her. She has been at my side almost constantly for the past whats almost 6 years now. I love her so much and am so grateful that my life is blessed by her being in it!

(She couldn't decide which video to post and really wanted them both, so here they are.)

Welcome Home Drew!!!

We were planning on taking a trip out to Iowa this summer. Drew was coming home from his mission mid-July, so we decided to hit it just at the right time. It was so good to see him. I can't believe that he is home already. He left just after Darrick finished dental school. Boy, we are getting old. Welcome home Drew! Great job out there. We love you and are so proud of you! The girls waiting patiently for Uncle Drew to come home!

Drew heading into the airport. (I know, nice fuzz, but oh well cute picture. :))

The girls hanging out with and having lots of fun with Uncle Drew!

Reunion with the Jones

We recently took a trip back to our old stomping grounds in Iowa. Our first stop was to see our good friends the Jones'. It was so good to see them. I sure wish that we lived closer, but we plan on continuing to get together every once in a while. It was a long drive to get there, but it was so much fun hanging out with them again. Camden was so excited to see Keira again. She had a really hard time saying good-bye. On our way back through she kept begging to go and see Keira again. We really do miss those guys a lot. I feel bad that I was such a dead beat while we were there. Boy I hate those nasty migraines.

Fourth of July Fun!

We had so much fun this fourth. Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Carolyn came out for a visit. We had a great time with them. Thanks so much for the visit.

We started off the day with the sound of hot air balloons right outside our window. We got up to see the sky full of them. It was really neat. One landed in our neighbor's backyard while a plane took off. Another one landed and folded up right across the street from us. Darrick and the girls even went around town following them for a while. Kota almost got into one of the baskets. What a fun way to start the fourth!

Next we took off for the parade in Crested Butte. It was fun. The girls had forgotten how much candy you could gather at a parade.

We left there and headed up the mountain where we went hiking. It was such a beautiful day. We came home rested a bit, had a fun Bar-B-Q, and went out to our favorite fishing hole. We got skunked! This was our first experience to come up empty handed. Oh well. We chalked it up for coming a little earlier than usual. We then came home to enjoy the fireworks. It was a great day! We sure were glad to have family here to celebrate with us.

UP

A couple of weeks ago we took the kids to the drive-in to watch "Up." It was such a cute movie and they had a blast there. This is a conversation that stemmed from that.

While out on the mountain watching Camden rock climb, Kota had to go to the bathroom. Darrick took her over in the bushes to go.

Kota: "I've always wanted to do this."
"Do you dig the hole before or after?"

Every time that Kota goes to the bathroom since then, she calls me in and asks me the same question. "Do you dig the hole, before or after?"

The funny little things that they pick up on.

I have since then been called as cub master, that's right over it all. Yes me who knows nothing about it. It wonder if it is a sign that I am never going to get any boys, so to take advantage of doing the scouting thing now. :) Anyway the girls think that it is pretty cool that I am going to be a wilderness something or other expert. (Like Russell from the movie.)

Camden has been busy

Right after we moved here Camden learned to ride a bike as well as jump rope. I think that she jumped rope for a week straight. She kept asking me and asking me to post about it, and here I am, finally doing it. She has even moved up to a bigger bike now. The other day we even ventured to ride across town. Nice work Camden.

Camden missed the last little bit of preschool when we moved. I felt bad when she had to miss her graduation. I decided that we would do something special for her here and do our own little graduation. I just told her that it was her special day. We made her a little cake and had a little ceremony for her. She was not too excited about that. She does not like all of the attention on her. She didn't want to wear the cap at first, but we finally did squeeze out a smile. We were proud of our little graduate.

Camden also recently started a rock climbing class. Busy girl. She loves it! They go out for 3 hours once a week and climb. She does really well. She was a little timid about it at first, but does better each week. She is still learning to trust that her teachers will catch her if she falls. It has been a lot of fun watching her. What a great kid she is!

Our new little hobby

We have found a new hobby. This is a big fishing area, so we decided to give it a try. The rec center in town was doing a fishing derby for all of the kids. The day before we went and got poles, worms, and headed off to the small lake to try it out. I have to admit, I was not in the mood to go at all. I had so many things to do around the house and felt like I was so far behind on everything. I was a little upset, until Kota caught a fish. We hadn't been there long at all. It was so cute she reeled it in by herself too. That made the whole fishing trip worth it for me. It was so cute. We forgot the camera, luckily we only live a couple of blocks away and I ran home to get it. When I got back Kota wouldn't get near the fish, not even for a picture.

We stayed there for a little longer before we were ready to go. Camden then informed us that we couldn't go until she too caught a fish. A couple of minutes later, she did. She brought it in all by herself. They had a great time.

The next day was the derby. We didn't catch anything. The pond was surrounded by kids. They had a lot of fun things to do there. The girls got to shoot bow and arrows. Camden got to shoot in a simulation thing and actually shot a few elk. Smokey the bear came. There were a lot of other great things to do as well. They sure did a great job with it.

Later that night we decided to go fishing again. We wanted to try another pond here in town. We pulled up, got out our Barbie and Princess fishing poles and went to it. Six casts and six fish later, we were pleased with the results. There was a man there with his granddaughter. They said they had been there for 2 hours and had caught 2 fish. We caught a few of ours deep and had to take them. We gave a couple to him, let a couple go and brought a couple home. The man said to us, "People might laugh at you for using those worms and poles, but hey I'm not laughing. You've made a believer out of me." Pretty fun. We have since had some more luck out there fishing. I think that it is going to be a regular occurrence.