renaissance festival

We sure have been visiting the renaissance festival for a long time now. I took a trip back down memory lane and checked our posts from our prior visits. My, oh my have our babies grown. Here are the prior year’s visits:

This year we got a later start than usual. Poor G woke up with a migraine. The only cure for that is sleep (and she typically throws up!). She woke up at 5 am with a smashing headache, threw up and then slept again until about 10. When she woke up again she was all smiles and ready to conquer the day. The girls is fierce!

We headed down to Larkspur to check out the craziness that is the Renaissance Festival. It is always quite a spectacle. The people watching is AMAZING! They have the most elaborate costumes. I’ll never understand how they can be dressed head to toe in those garments in the sweltering heat. That is dedication!

This year was hot, hot, hot and crowded. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people there. It was difficult to navigate and the lines were long. We managed to get some snacks and found a great little bench for people watching.

The girls road a few rides and we had some treats.

And then before we all thoroughly melted, we decided to call it a day. I’m not sure we can call it a success because we didn’t see Twig the fairy or get a pickle. The girls said they absolutely loved it though so the day was not a loss.

vivian’s wedding

What a day! B joined us for the swim meet and then was a cooking fool with two catering events this evening. One of the catering events was Vivian’s wedding. Our entire family was invited to the wedding and we were so happy to celebrate this beautiful day with them. We were also pretty excited that we got to eat B’s food which was absolutely delicious.

A few of my favorite wedding pictures below:

Vivian, or Baby Carrots as my girls like to call her, was a beautiful bride

This is real life, folks…real life…

swim meet | alligators at northglen

Final swim meet of the summer. I’m glad they are over and we get our mornings back – Gwyneth and I sure do love our sleep in the mornings – but I’ll be sad to not see these little swimmers in action.

They have decided to try out for the competitive swim team in our town which practices year round. Try outs are in September. Until then we enjoy where we are…

Sweet sisters.

This meet was run beautifully. It was just two teams and the event was very organized. The girls swam well and again, snagged themselves a few blue ribbons.

We celebrate aftewards with Koana Ice

So proud of our ladies. Good swim, girls!!

elitch gardens

Annabelle and I spent a very warm Friday at Elitch Gardens. This girl is a roller coaster junkie! We went on one after another. We took a little break for the tea cups and then it was back to the roller coasters.

We wore ourselves out. It was a such a thrill filled day. I am going to be very sad when my gals head back to school, because we’ve had so much fun together this summer.

science museum | camp sleepover

While Gwyneth attended Girl Scout Camp, Annabelle and I explored the science museum. It is still one of my favorites. I love it and I’m always intrigued by the special exhibits.

The special exhibit this visit was Nature’s Amazing Machines. It was amazing. We saw an actual giraffe heart which was super grody and awesome. Annabelle didn’t think it was so cool and I’ve spared you a photo of it here. It was huge!

Annabelle was rocking some pretty rad pink hair today. She wants to dye her hair permanently pink but we’ve compromised on the chalk dye for now. It washes out but I do have to admit she looks pretty punk with it and she absolutely owns it.

Taking a trip on the rock wall…in flip flops.

I had a great day with my girl. She entertains me with her stories of friendships and her take on the world. She is a funny girl and keeps me on my toes.

Where did my baby go?

We scooped up and B headed up to Boulder to tuck Gwyneth in at her camp sleepover. The girl scouts do little skits and show us their sleeping arrangements. No nerves for our girl this evening. She was ready to hang out with friends. The sleepover part of the camp seems to be her favorite part.

Monkey had to join in on the fun.

Skit time:

It was quite silly and involved jumping/getting thrown out of an airplane:

Gwyneth was in her element and laughed her way through the entire skit.

Bed buddies. They set up sleeping bags right next to each other. These two are inseparable.

Sweet friends from kindergarten. I love watching them all grow up together.

among the pines | whimsy | swimming

Gwyneth attended Among the Pines camp again this year. We’ve had a girl scout at that camp for the past 3 years and I’m pretty certain we’ll keep signing up for a few years to come. It’s a pretty great camp and the girls have had such wonderful experiences. Annabelle took this year off, but after seeing all the fun that Gwyneth was having I think she was wishful that she had signed up again too.

It was a week long camp and Gwyneth came home worn out at the end of each day. During those days I had some special one on one time with Annabelle. We played and we worked and we certainly kept busy.

Gwyneth and her camp buddies:

One of the days Annabelle joined her friend, Karsen at Whimsy. They painted these grumpy cats. I love it and it’s hanging in their playroom in our basement. Annabelle nailed it – her cat sure does look grumpy!

We grabbed lunch at Hu Hot and the girls enjoyed some Smores for dessert.

Annabelle and Karsen played at our house while we waited for Miss G to arrive home. She was pretty tired after camp but agreed to go for a swim. On the way to our neighborhood pool I got an update that the pool was closed because of a poo accident. Yuck, yuck, yuck. We quickly changed our plan and headed to the indoor rec center pool. Turned out to be a lucky change because it started raining not long after we arrived.

More fun with the underwater photos:

alligators at vista ridge | water world

The girls were pretty jazzed about their second swim meet. They were up and at ’em bright and early that Saturday morning. Naturally, we showed up at the wrong pool (along with several others) and scurried over to the right pool just in time for warm ups.

They were legit with their races written on their arms in sharpie…that’s how the cool kids do it, you know. (I actually did not but got schooled by my hip children).

I don’t know if we just got lucky at our neighborhood pool for the last meet or if this meet was just chaos….I’m going to go with the latter. It was just nuts! There were three teams competing and it was crowded and not very organized. The kids had to wait for their heat in the parking lot. Not many of the parents felt comfortable just sending the kids out to the parking lot so the it was crowded out there. The kids without parents were running around the cars and creating havoc. It was nuts. Nuts I tell ya.

Both girls did well, but it was a little too chaotic for their liking. It was also looooong. We were at the pool for almost 6 hours.

They did it. A few more blue ribbons under their belts.

I’m so impressed with their swimming and I get such a kick out of watching them.

After swimming we headed straight to Water World for a birthday party. Karsen is a friend from school and was sweet enough to invite both girls to her Water World party. I stuck around too and we rode lots of water slides before the rain hit. It got super cold, super fast, but that did not slow these ladies down.

I received a water proof camera as an extension of my birthday gift (40 was pretty great. Feeling spoiled). The girls are having a blast with it and love taking underwater snapshots of each other.

That’s a lot of swimming for one day!

And it’s a rap for these pruney little ladies!

build a bear | boondocks

Miss Gwyneth had a gift card just burning a hole in her pocket. She could hardly wait to get to Build a Bear and build herself a stuffy. She’s a junky, really. She loves her stuffed animals so much. They all have names and backstories and her dad does these silly little shows with them at night.

She can’t part with any of them and she knows exactly who gave her each one. Her stuffed animal collection is always growing and it makes her just the happiest little girl in the world.

I had additional gift cards and coupons so Miss Annabelle decided to make an animal too. She loves her stuffies also, but she seems to still have the specialist place in her heart for that old shmoozie bear.

After our little trek to the mall we picked up some friends and headed over to Boondocks.

The girls spent most of their time on the bumper boats. They got nice and soaked! They were all giggles and silliness. I loved hearing “hey, don’t get me wet!”. And I do believe they were serious. On the bumper boats. Silliness for sure!

And then they did a little go carting. I may be a touch concerned about this one getting a drivers license some day.

No time for messing around. Annabelle is a girl on a mission.

And again there is this one who is not even looking at where she is going. oh my heavens!

whimsy | aquarium | children’s museum

Another busy, busy day ahead. This week seems even busier than normal. The girls attended camp at Whimsy which is across the street from my store. Now, that is convenient!

They painted some fabulous giraffes. Gwyneth liked hers so much it went right on the wall in their basement playroom.

I worked, worked, worked all afternoon and then we decided to head to the Aquarium for dinner. We realized over dinner that our membership had expired. We ate at the aquarium restaurant but then decided not to renew. We’ve had passes since the girls were born so this is sadly the end of an era. We decided to have dinner there on occasion so we can still check out the mermaids now and again.

mermaid tails…

pretty great view from the aquarium restaurant balcony

This guy!

After dinner we walked on over to the Children’s Museum for members night. The museum is open 3 hours exclusively for members. We didn’t make it until close to 7 and I was surprised how busy it still was. The girls love this museum and an opportunity to have it a bit less crowded just couldn’t be passed up. They have a complete renovation and it is great!

Time to wrap things up. It’s been a long day.

This picture cracks me up. I tell stories about our tired or hungry Gwyneth and no one believes me. Here’s the proof. The tired Gwyneth is not one to be messed with!

tiny town

We’re maintaining a wild schedule this summer. The girls practice for swim team each morning (well, Monday – Thursday) and then have early morning meets on Saturdays. Early! I’m not a morning person so let me say again these are EARLY! We have to be at the pool for warm ups at 7 a.m. On a Saturday. I’m so glad these girls are devoted to swimming and practicing and have so much fun at the meets. I don’t even complain about the early hour….well, on here I may a bit but the morning of the meets we hop up and off we head to the pool without a whimper.

Seriously how flippin’ cute are these sisters together…

After swim my little ladies had to join me for some work errands. I do appreciate the patience and company of my girls. We were in a new neck of the woods and found an Italian restaurant we had to try for lunch.

Amici’s is no where near our house which is unfortunate because the food was delicious.

Cavetelli — yum, yum, yum!

After lunch we took a little detour to Tiny Town. We visit every summer and I love comparing pictures of the girls year after year. My oh my have they grown.

Annabelle was playing around with lipstick and gave her sister a big ol’ smooch on the cheek. They both thought it was hilarious.

The weather was not very agreeable so we hopped right on the train. We knew the rain would be rolling in soon and we didn’t want to miss our chance to ride.

This place is so quirky. It’s so unique and Colorado. I just love bringing the girls here.

The train conductors are volunteers and they are quite quirky themselves. They always have cheesy jokes and little stories to share with the kids. Seems like a fun way to spend retirement.