Summer fun

The kids have had a busy summer.  We scheduled them with some weeks of camp, and some free time to hang out with Pilar, but with karate and swim lessons continuing throughout.   Here are some cute pictures of the "off-weeks". 

Their first week of camp was soccer for Isaac and "Frozen" (art and music) for Caitlin, and they both had fun (although I have no pics).  The next camp, Rocky Mountain Kids, was two weeks. This was an amazing camp with 6-8 different activities each day, ranging from art to soccer to swimming to archery, and even had color war where the kids learned all kinds of awesome camp songs, competed in silly games, wore costumes, and had a blast.

Their third camp was Avid4Adventure, where they rock-climbed (Cate on a wall, Isaac on actual boulders), kayaked, mountain-biked, canoed, did yoga, and hiked. The camp was fantastic at challenging the kids to try new things, and they came home excited to tell us what they accomplished every night. The highlights for both were mountain bike day - Isaac learned how to do wheelies and bike over rocks and Cate learned how to ride on a two wheeler! Even though it's only a week, they have a parents day (Canoe day), which Bill was lucky enough to get to attend, so he got in on the adventure too!  Here are some pictures of the kids on their adventures:

For the last week of camp, Isaac chose a cooking camp, and Caitlin chose "Meet the Artist".  He got to prep and cook lots of breakfast treats and she came home with a different masterpiece every day.  I don't have pics of Cate's camp, but here she is with her favorite art teacher (who hosted her birthday party too!)

The kids have a couple of weeks to hang out, then on to Breckenridge with Grandma & Grandpa, Cancun with us, and then school starts.  Amazing how quickly the summer is flying by!

Saying goodbye

Unfortunately, we've had to say too many goodbyes this month.  We've known Jen, Max and the kids were moving to Israel since last Fall, but that didn't make the actual goodbye easier.  In the last year we've had lots of "lasts", and in the weeks leading up to the actual departure, we took advantage of every opportunity to be together, and to eat ice cream!  Here are some pictures of the togetherness.

Weekend brunch in Stapleton, followed by a park visit and some ice cream.

We coordinated schedules so all the kids could get their celiac and diabetes trial tests together.  Having them all in one place helped to ensure one was braver than the next.  Five kids got blood drawn with almost no tears! Impressive. Of course, we had to follow it up with ice cream.

Impromptu pasta dinner in Boulder - on a weeknight! Followed by... ice cream!

Bill and I went to the beach the week leading up to the 4th of July, and the kids were lucky enough to spend the week with Grandma and Grandpa (will post separately on that), and the last night on a sleepover with their cousins.  Then we all spent the 4th of July together, and had a big party for the whole family to celebrate all the summer birthdays and have a formal send-off party.  We brought out the water slide, made lots of sangria, and enjoyed delicious food made by everyone.  Then we headed to a friend's house on the golf course for a first row viewing of some great fireworks before heading back home for another family sleepover.

After a heartwrenching goodbye on the 5th, and knowing that they still had one more night, we all headed down to Lowry for a pizza party at Zoe & Joey's, and a happier sendoff.  The kids had a dance party, we drank wine, and we all got in lots of last hugs and smiles.  Here are some pics from that night, including the view from the car as we made 3 u-turns for some final, final goodbye waves.  

We are excited for them and the adventure they are about to undertake, but are heartbroken for the hole they will leave here, and will miss them lots.

The same month, we had to say goodbye to the Kruses who are moving to Portland!  While we didn't get to see them as regularly as we would like to, it was fun when we did, and comforting knowing they were around. We had lots of fun at their sendoff party, and the kids got a chance to say goodbye on their last day, and we snapped these pics during those. We'll miss them too!

Baby Alice (new cousin) is born!

The kids have been watching Aunt Adrienne's belly grow and getting so excited for their new cousin to be born!  Finally, we got the news that Adrienne was in labor (2 weeks early!) and waited anxiously for the news.  Baby Alice took her time being born, and 37 hours passed before we got the great news.  While we were waiting, we saw this beautiful rainbow outside, and the kids decided it was just for Baby Alice :)

When we got the news (after bedtime), I headed to the hospital to meet our new niece.  The new parents were understandably exhausted, but happy and all was good with Alice.  Here are some pictures from her first few days and the kids' first time meeting their new cousin. They think she's really cute, but can't wait to be able to really play with her :)

Isaac lost his first tooth!

Isaac finally lost his first tooth! It was loose for awhile, but didn't seem to be making much progress.  I told him that Colin pulled his own tooth out, and it apparently had an impact and inspired him to act on his own! He wasn't happy with us for going to Red Rocks for a John Legend concert (great concert!), so he chose that night (!!).   When we got to the concert, Pilar called and told us he came down to her room after bedtime and said - I lost my tooth! She was so excited, and made him feel really special, which was much appreciated, since we missed it! They sent us these pictures, and he promised to wrap it in aluminum foil so the tooth fairy could find it.  When we got home, we saw that Pilar had decorated the door with a "We Love Your Smile, Isaac" sign, which he loved.  He was very excited when he woke up in the morning to find that the Tooth Fairy had left him $2.