Max Play

After getting all of our household goods delivered, Max had a wonderful time getting reacquainted with all of his stuff!

Sneaking in on him...




It was fun to see him play with things he hadn't in a while.





Heroica Legos


And a little later in the evening... he loves to take a toy and play with it while playing on the computer. He combines the two adventures somehow...

Science, Crowderus Style

Zoey is enjoying changing classes in middle school and experiencing different teachers. She seems to have a pretty good Science teacher, Mr Crowder, aka Crowderus Maximus. (I don't ask, I just report)

She had to do a quick experiment at home one evening. And can you guess who else is enjoying middle school science?



That bandage on her nose was from a crazy soccer incident (minor).







They were changing the length of the string and adding weights and seeing how many swings occur in a certain amount of time.




fun!

loved doggies...

I will preface this by saying that I do realize what a crazy amount of stuffed dogs this is. That is part of the motivation behind the pictures. Also, our kids love them. They are willing to get rid of other toys before any dogs.

So, the one thing the kids missed when we were in lingo, was their stuffed pups. We brought a handful along, but as you will see, it doesn't cut it. They also saw me stuff them into the space saver bags and vacuum them up for storage, so they kept pretending to call them and ask if they could breathe! Nice... I didn't fall for that guilt trip...

Needless to say, they were happy to meet again...

With my position and lens, I couldn't even get them all in one picture.




I think I might turn this one into a poster for Max's room!


Just another view...


And look who snuck in!


And then, Max buried Zoey



Her hand is emerging!


And waving. Hi Zoey!

and finally...

We moved out of our house in Ohio in mid-March. When we did that, we didn't quite realize the adventure that we were really about to embark on. That being said, we were also aware of the blessings surrounding us and that moving out of our house that sold so quickly allowed us to be able to move into our new house.

It wasn't easy, and it wasn't fast... BUT on Sept 16 we were able to move in to our new abode!

That was 6+ months of living in two apartments (2 bedrooms, so the kids shared the whole time), staying at grandparents houses and a couple of hotel rooms along the way.... It wore us down at times, but we tried to see the positive side throughout.

The second morning in our house I got up and went downstairs and saw this lovely sight...



A welcome home of sorts!

And then it was time to tackle this...



And do you see that big empty space in the background? That is where a fridge should be. We bought a fridge to be delivered the day before this picture was taken but this is an example of how everything in our move went... No fridge. until two days later. oh, no wait, now it's ten days! What? A family without a fridge is a little difficult! We had to go by a little dorm fridge! Anyway, it all worked out in the end. And although it has been a s-l-o-w process of getting things unpacked, we are getting settled.

I will have to write more on our downsizing adventure sometime.

My Birthday Dinner

My birthday this year fell on a Thursday right before Labor Day Weekend, so it was a little busy. Ross took that Thursday off of work, which he normally does (so sweet), and we spent the day together. It was nice, even though we had to go to get our car registered at the DMV...

But, we didn't get to have a birthday dinner for a couple of weeks! Still, when the time, it was really a lovely evening with delicious food and great company. The kids are always especially sweet and good when we are going out for a special dinner...

We headed into downtown Denver, or LoDo, I think, to hit the Vesta Dipping Grill! Fun entrees with dipping sauces... love!!

Ross and I had been before, in fact, the last time was right before he deployed (sad cloud), but we hadn't ever taken the kids. They were excited to try this, since I talked it up so much!

We were early for our reservation, so we walked a little bit...


Waiting to cross the street...




A funny side note about Max's shirt... it is a little big on him because I bought it to wear for me! When I was in Arizona, I needed a collared shirt for golf and couldn't find a women's one I liked, so I just got a boys shirt and figured Max could grow into it!!


love these three:)


But, I still can't get a posed shot! Where is everyone looking??? (not you, ross)


Her face after I asked her where she was looking in the last picture.


Hey Mom, I can smile good for the camera, if Zoey can't! Yep, that's what he is thinking....


Zoey probably went and hit him next, so I pretended to take pictures of the street and let Ross deal with it!



Moving on... still trying to make it to the restaurant. And for the purpose of preservation, Max just asked, "How much more longer until we get there?"



now a willing participant...


Made it! Max is already at the door!


This is a fun place (its dark though), with neat atmosphere... Around the table we go....













Look, I was there too!







I love when Zoey's real smile comes out... it is so lovely and lights up her face!

During the Flood

A couple of days before the Boulder Flood, Ross found a mini exercise trampoline by the trash in our apartment building. He grabbed and put it in our little courtyard. He figured it would be novel entertainment for the kids for a little bit. He was right. The kids jumped and jumped and then made us jump on it to enter our apartment every time. On one of the days they were off from school, they needed to really let off some steam and get some energy out. Since we couldn't go anywhere in our car and it was raining like crazy, we just had to jump!

The trampoline was just under the covered part; you can see the rain coming down in the background.