breckenridge

We took advantage of a small break from school and were able to head up to the mountains. B was able to get away for the weekend and Don and Lisa joined us for a night as well. We didn’t have much planned just a few days of relaxing. I really enjoy the down time playing games. It’s such a wonderful treat.

B had to head back down Sunday night for work, but I was able to work from the mountains and enjoy the Monday and Tuesday the girls had off school.

We played around town and then I spent Tuesday morning picking up the house to head back home. I took a little too long and we left about an hour too late. It started to snow and by the time we made it to Silverthorne I was very uncomfortable with the limited visability. We got a little nervous and turned back. We stayed an extra night and the next morning was all sunshine making it much easier to get home.

A lovely day in Breck

We grabbed lunch at Empire Burger and then wandered around town. It was a beautiful day.

Our lunch spot

The girls requested a crafty afternoon. Annabelle decided to try her hand at canvas painting.

Gwyneth and I gave mosaics a try.

Annabelle did a great job on her painting and left it as a gift for my dad and Melissa.

The mosaics were really fun. Gwyneth and I loved our pieces (after they were cleaned up). We’re eager to try it again and I’m trying to figure out if I can offer it at my studio.

We spent our night playing games and watching movies. Our favorite game these days is Farkle. I’m a risk taker in that game and it never seems to work out for me. The girls beat me every single time.

Tuesday morning started off gorgeous. A bright sunny day….who would have though we would end up snowed in!

We grabbed lunch at Eric’s and then played around town.

And then it started to snow. Just nice fluffy flakes at first. I love snow! I just don’t love driving in it.

This cracks me up! Gwyneth was loving the snow and Annabelle was counting down the days until she moves to California.

Annabelle really hates the snow. She is our beach babe!

Luckily my dad and Melissa didn’t mind us staying another night in Breckenridge. We went back to the house and snuggled up. Sadly I had tossed out all our food because I thought we were heading home. We didn’t have much with us so we braved the weather for dinner at Breckenridge Brewery. The rest of the night we laid low, watching movies, and playing games.

aladdin and the last weeks of summer

And then just like that the summer got away from me….

The last two weeks of summer were a bit of a blur. The girls attended an Aladdin theater camp which they absolutely loved. They were gone Monday – Friday for TWO weeks from 9 am – 4 pm. It was an intense camp and they came home pretty worn out.

It was nice to be able to get caught up at work, but I really did miss having them around. It also made the end of summer feel like it just slipped away. My heart hurt a bit because I need more time with these little ladies.

We squeezed in some fun activities over the weekends and in the evenings, but I wasn’t super great about taking pictures. Here’s what I got:

A night of sushi at our favorite restaurant, Ooka. I love how adventurous these girls are with food. Annabelle has found wasabi and has become a big fan.

I was sick, sick, sick with a migraine one day last week. My family was so kind and scooped me up and took me for pizza and ice cream after a horrible day of a headache.

I wish I could innocently wonder where Annabelle gets this crazy from, but I have pictures of myself doing this (and they are from last week, not from my childhood…)

The girls immersed themselves in an emoji marker maker craft one evening. Annabelle received it as a birthday present and fell in love. She was a fab big sister and even let Gwyneth help.

Their friend, Kate joined them for Aladdin camp and had a sleepover one evening afterwards. They loved hanging out with her for the two weeks!

Another evening they made dinner all by themselves. They did all the cutting and cooking. We were quite proud of them and enjoyed their feast.

After dinner we treated them to games at Dave and Busters. Wednesday nights are half price games. We just went for games, but we decided to grab a beer and our server treated them to this sugary goodness!

Back to school night! We got to explore their school and find their lockers. The lockers are a great source of excitement and nervousness!

We attended an after hours event at Butterfly Pavilion for Members Only. It was a fun BBQ with good food and free beers. The only sad part was the girls didn’t get to hold Rosie the tarantula.

Last day of Aladdin camp.

Game night and pizza making with friends.

The day of the performances finally arrived and the girls were beside themselves with excitement! They did a great job and had such a fun time. They can’t wait to do it again!

I have several photos of Gwyneth after the performance, but Annabelle was hangry. We waited for a group photo until after lunch.

Much need lunch between shows.

All three girls did great! They did two shows and we had a wonderful time watching them perform.

Sunday was all about college friends. We had two great friends, Dan and Eric from school and Eric’s wife, who we love and their two kids who we finally got to meet over for the day. We played games and talked and talked and laughed and had the best time!!

We spent our 2nd to last day of summer running errands. We had to get new school shoes and last minute things and of course, frozen yogurt.

And then the last day of summer break was upon us. Annabelle got invited to spend the day with a friend, so Gwyneth and I had some lovely one on one time. She asked to go peddle boating and for lunch and ice cream in Louisville. We talked about the upcoming school year, what is making her nervous, what is making her excited, what is making her a bit scared. I love that one on one time.

We had planned to head downtown for dinner at Mortons because that is our place. Well, everyone was pretty worn out by dinner time. The girls requested Outback because it was closer to home and they didn’t have to get dressed up. We had a low key dinner and then just like that it was time to get ready for the big 1st day of school tomorrow…

And just like that summer break came to an end. It was a good summer indeed.

emoji movie

We’ve seen lots of movies this summer, but the Emoji movie has been on the top of Annabelle’s to see list. She is an emoji lover! They are her absolute favorite thing right now.

I didn’t think the movie was terrible. Annabelle liked it. Gwyneth said it was ok. B slept. Ha!

I read the reviews afterwards and it is being called the absolute worst movie of the year. Yikes! I don’t think it was really that bad. That seems a bit harsh….I mean I saw Captain Underpants and that was a real stinker.

I chuckled along with Annabelle at poop emoji jokes, but I’d wait for video or commit to a nap like B if you are heading to the theater if you are seeing this gem.

Annabelle’s room. Emoji obsessed!

basement sleepover | casa bonita

We are in the process of upgrading our basement. Nothing too serious. No major construction. Just moving some things around, throwing out a lot (I love a good purge – I’m not a very good hoarder), and getting a new couch. B has always hated the couch in the basement and I’m almost certain that’s why we don’t spend very much time down there anymore. The basement is intended to be our comfortable place and if the couch isn’t comfy than that will never do.

We moved spaces around and now we just wait for our new couch to be delivered. I will post pics when it’s complete.

For now, we have a big open space in the basement which makes for an awesome sleepover space. The girls each had a friend over and B set up air mattresses for them and they had a pretty great movie night. That B sure is a great dad and knows how to make a sleepover extra fun. I think the girls are going to be sad when the couch arrives and they don’t have that big open space for air mattresses and cartwheels.

Annabelle’s friend Molly recently moved to Colorado and we couldn’t resist introducing her to Casa Bonita.

We had a great table with the ultimate view of the divers. They climbed right up the cliffs by our table to do the dives. It was pretty spectacular and the girls were definitely wowed.

The sopapillas are the big hit on the menu.

That face! Oh, that B. Not sure if he frowning about his obstructed view, eating at Casa Bonita, or all of the above.

We all survived and no one got sick (that is not always the case when eating here). We can cross that off our summer to do list and give our stomachs a break until next year.

adams county museum | pancake wars

I was a working fool today and my girls tagged along for many an errand. They never complained. They just took it all in stride and were pretty sweet. They read their books in the car and didn’t fight and that is a victory.

Or last stop on the errand list was to check out the Adams County Museum. I had driven by before and thought it might be a great outing for Girl Scouts. We checked it out and it will be perfect. We set up our field trip that day.

Look at that sky. What a gorgeous day.

Those precious little feet and their favorite footwear. Isn’t it funny how our shoes can define you?

That evening Gwyneth’s friend and family joined her at Blue Mountain Kitchen for a Pancake Wars party. She came up with the idea all on her own. B helped them make basic pancakes and they were able to add special ingredients to flavor them and make their pancakes unique. They came up some interesting combinations.

Gwyneth and her girls. She really does have the most wonderful group of friends. Not just these ladies, but all of them that came to celebrate with us tonight.

Instead of cake she wanted a big ol’ stack of pancakes. I love it! She got one of each pancake that each of the kiddos made. What a variety! She is definitely our breakfast lover and I can’t imagine a better party for her.

After pancakes all the kids painted donut banks.

Present time. Her friends asked her to open their gifts. She was pretty pleased.

The whole gang.

Much to her dad’s dismay, she always seems to be surrounded by some cute little boys…

Even her Godfather came our to celebrate with her.

Happiest of birthdays to our sweet little Gwyneth. We just love you so much and hope you had the best birthday celebration. Welcome to nine!

gators banquet

We made it home from Colorado Springs just in time for the Gators Banquet. The girls were so exited to receive their ribbons and trophies. They did great this season and we are so excited to see where their next journey in swimming takes us.

For the summer they ended up with the following ribbons:

SEVEN First places

THREE 2nd places

THREE 3rd places

FIVE 4th places

TWO 5th places

They managed to place in every single race. Wowsa! I’m so, so proud of these girls for working hard and pushing themselves.

happy birthday gwyneth | great wolf lodge

Gwyneth really wanted to celebrate her birthday at Great Wolf Lodge so off we went!

Thanks to a 50% coupon we were able to stay for a couple nights for a slightly reasonable price. It’s all a bit overpriced but the coupon does help.

I think this may be the girls’ happy place. They love to swim and just love everything about this place. We stayed 3 night which wasn’t enough for them. I think two is probably good for me and 1 is probably good for B. Ha!

Let’s get in the pool!

And off they went. Sunday night they shut it down. They were so happy to swim, swim, swim.

Silly sisters!

Monday we were right back at it. Bright and early. We were at the water park when it opened at 9 am. Took breaks for meals but didn’t leave until 8 pm that evening Now, that is a day of swimming!

This is one of my favorites shots of Gwyneth!

Annabelle snapped it of her dancing underwater. Fabulous!

And just like that our baby is NINE!! Love that bed head.

Gwyneth ran the show for the day and she wanted to start the day with a big breakfast. Absolutely no surprise there.

Next stop mini-golf. Miss Annabelle was pretty pleased with her hole-in-one!

And then the ropes course. G didn’t have tennis shoes but that didn’t stop her. of course she climbed in ruby slippers. That’s how this girl rolls.

And then bowling!

Gwyneth’s buddy Ruby was there for the night as well. They have been friends since kindergarten and share the same birthday. What a fun birthday coincidence to be there at the same time.

We hit the waterpark after lunch and spent a few hours. Unfortunately B had to head home and get some work done, but we had a great time all together.

After dinner the girls talked me into playing Magiquest. I didn’t know much about it, but the girls were eager to check it out. They got a wand and got right down to it. I still don’t know much about it but it involves finding clues through the resort and it kept them entertained for hours.

While they were exploring and waving those magic wands, I sat and read an entire book and had a glass of wine. I can’t complain, but I wish B would have been there to enjoy that glass of wine with me.

Our last day we hit the water park one last time. Lots of water slides and time in the wave pool. We definitely made the most of our opportunity.

We finished off the trip with pedicures and ice cream. Gwyneth’s dream. She loves the scoops spa and it was the perfect ending to a fabulous birthday trip!

Happiest birthday to our fierce, funny, loving, smart, beautiful baby. We love this girl so, so much!

These girls have ticklish feet. She reminds me so much of my sister, Stacy in these pictures.

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!!

Meyered…With Children

2017 Summer Bucket List