Ketchup/Catch up...Potato/Po-tah-to

This whole month of June seems like it's been a blur.  We started the month off with my semi-annual piano recital.  My kids did awesome and it's great to see them progress.  We're finally getting into some exciting songs and I think the kids are starting to show enthusiasm for what they can accomplish.

We headed up to the Powell's to celebrate London's b-day.  Seems like the kids were way more intrigued with the new toy then actually celebrating.

 Can't believe that a year ago we were celebrating the births of these two.  Crazy how quickly time passes.

Last week was girls' camp for me.  It was kind of crazy and hectic leading up to it but I had a lot of fun with these girls.

Kind of weird to think that I'm old enough to be leading these girls.  I realized that one of the sweatshirts that I had brought up was older than some of the beehives.  Yikes!!!!

 One of the most memorable experiences from camp was watching the 4th (15yrold) years yike in from their 3 day hike.  They started Tuesday morning and hiked through parts of San Isabel National Forest and finishing off hiking into our camp.  They hiked approx. 30 miles in 3 days carrying 30-40 lb. packs.  To see them hike in was a pretty emotional experience especially knowing that some were super nervous and not confident that they would be able to accomplish such a thing. 

After they hiked in, we celebrated their arrival with a board breaking ceremony.  The girls and leaders had made a board that listed their goals on one side and the obstacles they'd run into on the other side.  The girls then karate chopped their way through the obstacles to reach their goals..  It was pretty cool to see their reactions once they realized that they had done it.  Trust me...very emotional. 

The whole week was fabulous and for the past 2 days since I've been home I've had camp songs running through my head.  Every time I start singing one Brooke just stares at me like a crazy woman.

Life at home is starting to get back to it's normal routine...

Like Brooke drawing on her door.

Then learning what the use of a Magic Eraser is for.

 Reading in the reading corner.

Trying to survive the triple digit heat.  We'll probably be making a record tomorrow with 5 consecutive days of record breaking heat in the low 100s.

We've had a fabulous month but the crazy/busy-ness isn't over yet.  Stay tuned for more summer fun!!!!!

All Hail Mother Nature

After living here for 7 years we should know that during the late spring/summer months Mother Nature can get a little vit testy.  Well, Mother Nature let us have it last Wednesday.  Troy was still traveling back from Puerto Rico so he wasn't able to witness the actual wrath but he was definitely able to see the destruction the following morning.

The hail storm started around 7:45ish while I was finishing giving Brooke a bath.  Connor was already down for the night and slept through the whole thing.  Brooke looked out the window and was excited to see it snow.  I had to explain to her that it wasn't snow but hail.  I think I would have much prefered snow over this.  Majority of the hail was at least quarter size or bigger and it was coming down heavy.  A friend of mine had to push her dirt bike trailer out so her husband could pull in the garage and she was covered in welts from the hail.  Crazy.

The first storm lasted for about 5ish minutes.  I got Brooke into bed and read her a couple stories before the second storm hit.  This one lasted a little bit longer but the hail was just the same size.

By the time the hail storms were done it literally looked like it had snowed.  You would never have known the difference except that it was still relatively warm outside.

During all of this there were several emergency alerts.  One of them being a tornado warning.  I think 6 funnel clouds had already been sighted but luckily we were safe.  Which is a good thing because I have no idea what to do.  I only know what to do during an earthquake...crawl under your desk at school or find a door jam.

Thursday morning was spent surveying the disaster.  Troy checked it out first and tried to prepare me for the worst.

After 5 years living here we finally had a first batch of apples on our tree.  They are no longer.  :(  I think there may be 2 left on the tree but who knows how bruised they are.

It seems like our peach tree is an-every-other-year producer and this was the other year.  I think we lost at least 80% of the peaches.

The garden was totally thrashed.  It looked like someone came through with a machete and chopped off all the leaves.  Earlier Wednesday morning while I was out watering our garden, I was admiring how good everything looked and how grateful I was that we were able to plant early in the season.  We even had our first flower on one of the tomato plants.  I may have come very close to shedding a tear looking at our garden.  We lost our beans, snow peas, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, peppers, cantelope, watermelon, herb garden, and pumpkins.  We're hoping that our carrots, green onions, and potatoes can somehow pull through.

 This will be our third firepit cover that we will have replaced in the 4 years we've had it.

And lastly, just to show how crazy fast the hail was, it put a hole in our plastic hose thing.  Thursday was a pretty depressing day but luckily we had a fun weekend to look forward to.

Last minute, I decided to join a friend and run the Run the Rockies 10k race on Saturday. We started at Copper Mountain and ran along I-70 on the bike path and ended in Frisco. It was a beautiful run and the weather was perfect.

 The race is advertised as being 100% downhill and it didn't disappoint.  I ran my fastest 10k coming in at 1:02:08.  I think I could have come in at a faster time had we not had to funnel onto the bike path.  That took a lot of time to funnel in and manuever around people.  I think I could have come in under an hour which would have been pretty cool.  Regardless, it was a fun race and I think I would do it again.  5 races down and only 2 more to go...the Warrior Dash and Tough Mudder.  Bring it!

We finished the day off hanging out with Jonathan.  Every time we asked Brooke to guess who we'd be seeing she always say Coco even though that wasn't who we were going to see so I figured it was about time that we made a visit.

 The weather was perfect for swimming and both Brooke and Connor loved every minute of it.  This was Connor's first time ever in a pool and he just loved splashing and walking everywhere.

 Afterwards, Jonathan treated us to a delicious homemade dinner and entertained the kids for a bit. 

They really do love having their Coco live so close.  We're sad that this will most likely be his last year here so hopefully we'll be able to get more visits in.

All in all, this last week was pretty eventful.  The one thing we learned...don't mess with Mother Nature.