4th of July

 We spent the 4th of July weekend camping at Horse-tooth Reservoir near Fort Collins with Tricia, Nathan, and Blake.  The weather was hot and sunny so most of our time was spent on Tricia's boat.  Thank goodness all 3 boys love the water!  

Nathan and James love swimming in the lake.

Charlie was less of a fan of swimming but did enjoy sitting on the back of the boat and jumping in with Doug's encouragement.

All 3 boys loved the tube!

And of course, playing in the dirt.

Montana

My May was filled with trips to Montana.  Sadly, my grandpa passed away so one trip was for his services.  The first pictue is of my brothers, cousins, and me on my grandma's couch.  We have been taking this picture with all of us in the same order for YEARS. 

 Then we journeyed to Circle at the end of the month - me, Kaylynn, James and Charlie made the long drive.  All 3 kids had a great week at Grandma and Grandpa's!

It rained a lot while we were there which made for some great rock throwing and puddle fun.

Kaylynn and James enjoyed jumping off of the cattle loading shoot.



 Kaylynn hit an all-time record of 78 consecutive jumps on the vintage pogo stick.

 While James and Charlie enjoyed the vintage trucks in the tall grass (thanks to all of the rain!).

 Bedtime is never complete without books.

 All 3 looking at the camera - amazing!

We ended our vacation with a fishing trip at the Lindsay Dam.

 All of us were surprised when we actually caught a fish!  James managed to reel in this 24 inch Northern Pike.  We measured him, took some pictures, and then put him back where he came from.



Dinosaur Ridge

I took the boys on a hike on Sunday just west of Denver near the mountains.  We went with some neighbor friends of ours and really enjoyed it!  The hike was called Dinosaur Ridge.  They had a visitor center at the start with some kid-friendly activities.

I

 T

hen we got down to the business of hiking.  Here are the boys sitting in an enormous dinosaur print.

 Lots of climbing...made for great afternoon naps!

Easter

We started the Easter festivities last week in Montana dyeing some eggs at Mom and Dad's.  We couldn't find any dye in good old Circle so we had to improvise with food coloring which worked great!

The boys had some treasures to find and open on Easter morning.

 This is the best picture I was able to capture of the 2 of them together in their Easter clothes.

Kaylynn and Sophie came over to play for the day and the weather was gorgeous!

We ended the afternoon by dyeing more eggs on the deck.  Charlie missed out on some of the Easter pictures due to a much-needed nap.

Butterflies and Bugs

Jamie did a fantastic job of photographing and blogging our latest trip to The Butterfly Pavilion.  Check it out at: The Yestertime Blog!

Snow!

 The past week has been filled with snow!  We haven't had much this winter so it's exciting to be able to do some winter activities such as sledding and shoveling.

We went sledding with some of our neighbor friends a few days ago.

The boys were trying to dig out their bikes and wagon which were deeply buried in the snow; however it kept them busy while the sidewalks and driveway were shoveled.

It takes awhile to dig out a bike with the tiniest of pink shovels.