2017 Summer Bucket List

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: 

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. 
My little ladies who are not quite so little anymore and that is all the more evident in tiny town. 
At the Library
Such a poser
So very serious. The make up has to go. She’s looking like a teenager and I need to keep her a tween for just a bit longer. 
Every year they pose on this little house. There was actually time when they could fit all the way on that porch. 
The Seussical house
Cracking me up posing by the saloon. 
And then it started to rain. We were not quite done exploring so we decided it was the perfect excuse for an ice cream break. 
This girl loves her chocolate ice cream. 
The rain cleared and the place was all ours so we did a little more exploring. 
We found this cute little gem in the trees.
I love they still pose for my pictures and they can be so sweet about the things they probably think are silly but still make me so happy. 
It was a good, good day!

discovery

This has been a weird week with the time commitment needed for recital. The girls were a bit stressed about the show, so I worked a lot in the early mornings and tried to focus solely on them in the afternoons and evenings. 
Today we planned a little adventure to Fort Collins. It’s about an hour drive and we wanted to check out the Museum of Discovery. We had been when the girls were younger, but I can’t seem to find the pictures from our visit. 
It’s a great museum and our favorite part is the focus on music. 
We also took the time to see Dream to Fly in the digitial dome. 
I highly recommend checking out a show there. 
The view from the observation deck
After the museum the girls were in a need of  snack. We had pizza at Totally 80’s Pizza and Museum. What an interesting place! It was full of 80’s memorabilia which was an entertaining blast from the past. The girls and I talked all about movies, tv shows, music, video games, and toys from the 80’s which was my childhood. They got a big kick out of hearing about the cereals I liked and all about music videos. We also enjoyed some pizza which was surprisingly good for such an eccentric place. 

molly brown house

I have been wanting to visit the Molly Brown house for so long. B and the girls had all been, but I convinced them I needed to see it too. The girls and I snuck away for the morning and took the tour. 
I had to laugh because we pulled up to the house and I realized for years we had lived about two miles away. So close and I didn’t even know it was there. (I think I was too busy finding bars in those days.)

It was a quiet afternoon and there were only 3 other people on the tour with us. We were able to ask lots of questions and explore. The girls both agreed it was a little less creepy this time. They didn’t know if it was lighter in the house or if they were just getting older?! I am so glad we added this to our summer adventures. I really enjoyed this little trip through history. 
The girls thought the bathroom was disgusting….just trying to keep it real around there. 

camps

I had a creative block for camps this summer. I sat for hours just staring at an empty calendar. I love the camps and I love to plan, but I just couldn’t organize my ideas. 
The big picture was just too big. I was overwhelmed with the idea of coming up with great ideas for the entire summer. I was worried about being stale and not trying new things. I was worried about growing with my kids and coming up with ideas that were still fun and challenging. That’s a lot to have rolling around in the ol’ brain while just staring at a blank calendar. 
I finally got over my mental block simply by asking the girls what the heck we should do. The ideas just flowed from them. Emoji camp, Cake Boss, Princesses, Donuts, Hamburgers…Paint. Cook. Paint. Repeat. 
Why didn’t I start with these little ladies in the first place???
We had a busy week of camps with Emoji Madness and Cake Boss. Two of their brain children and absolute favs. 
Loving Annabelle’s Emoji Pizza
And then it was Cake Boss time: 
We added the painting to the camps and everyone seems really excited about it. For Cake Boss we painted cake slice boxes. 
Our niece Reagan joined us for both camps this week and a sleepover. 
Those are some good lookin’ cakes. 

belle princess party

Miss Gwyneth helped me to organize the Belle Camp at Blue Mountain Kitchen. She loves the princesses. She didn’t ask to invite a friend along today; she was very just very happy to help. 
My girl loves princesses.  She loves the movies, the magic, the dresses and all things sparkly and fancy. I love that she still has this innocence. I was wondering if she would outgrow this phase and think maybe she never will. Maybe she is our little princess and will always love the glitter of it all. 
Have I mentioned that she has gone through a major growth spurt also? She’s so flippin’ tall!

saint mary’s glacier

We headed out early to explore Saint Mary’s Glacier which is just outside of Idaho Springs. We had some grand plans to hike the trails, but it was pretty crowded and the girls were not really feeling it. We did a little exploring by foot and little off-roading in the Jeep. Nothing too wild or crazy but we had a good time. 
How about those views? Pretty great!

B grew up here so he has some great memories from all these trails. He’s also pretty great about researching places to take us. He loves sharing these places with his family and I love hearing him tell the girls stories about growing up in Colorado.

Before calling it a weekend we had to stop for some Mountain Pies at Beau Jo’s. You can’t be near Idaho Springs at lunchtime and pass this up!