Lucky Number 13

Happy 13th Anniversary to my wonderful huband, my best friend and biggest support, the doting father of my children, and the most amazing partner in life I could ask for.  Thanks for joining me on this crazy and wonderful adventure that we like to call raising a family!

Blue Hair, Watermelon and P&G

The blue hair divas were trying out their hair clips in anticipation of the 4th of July.

Every summer, Rian eats the most watermelon out of anyone in the family.

We were delighted to have our old neighbors and Hayden's close friends, Peyton and Garrett over for the weekend.  They live south of Denver now and we don't see them nearly enough. We went out to lunch and Menchies for dessert, hung out at home and then blew Garrett's mind by taking him to Nordy's for all-you-can-eat BBQ ribs for dinner.  It was great to have them and the kids all slept out in the tent in our backyard.  (After the smores, of course!). 

The next morning, we made a nice healthy breakfast, the kids played out back and watched a movie before heading back down to Denver.  We miss you P & G, come back soon!

The Chocolate Cafe and Juiced on Imagination

We met up with the Bennetts (Happy, Sage, and Kaia) at the Chocolate Cafe in Old Town Fort Collins.  I had never been there before, and we were all excited to try it. They had a few lunch items, but most of the menu was filled with decadent chocolate desserts of one kind or another.  From looking at the girls' faces, you can tell it didn't disappoint!

Rian and Sage.  Sage had the brownie, and Rian opted for the good old standby- vanilla bean ice cream.

Kaia and Jess- she chose the black and white cheesecake and thought it was "delicious". 

After dessert, the girls all took an art class together at Juiced on Imagination.  They made self-portraits, and I love how they turned out!

Rians' is on the left and Jess's on the right. What a fun way to spend a hot, summer afternoon.

Father's Day

On Father's Day, dad went on a long bike ride with his friend Jim for most of the day.  He was training for his 100 mile bike race coming up the following weekend.  When he got back, the girls had a scavenger hunt all ready for him in order to find his presents. 

Hayden took charge and explained how he would be given clues to the location of each of his gifts.

Clue #1: It's almost outside.

In your favorite place to be. 

It ends with an R.

And starts with a C.

It took him awhile to figure out the clue was his new car, and inside he found goodies to help keep his "Precious" clean.

Rian did the honors of reading Clue #2.

This is easy,

It's where one sleeps.

Just find out where,

And don't make a peep.

After searching his own room, dad finally found gift #2 (flip-flops) in Rian's bed under her covers.

                                                         Jessie read Clue #3.
                                                        It's in the basement,
                                                        Where you never look,
                                                         I need a coat,
                                                         It's on the hook.

Dad found his final gift in the basement closet- the concession style popcorn maker he has been wanting for his basement for family movie night.

 

Grandma and Grandpa came over for a BBQ in the evening and the girls all gave him homemade cards.

Happy Father's Day Dad and Grandpa- We love you tons!

A trip to Denver

To celebrate Rian graduating Kindergarten and Hayden graduating 5th grade, we decided to take a family trip to Denver and spend the night at a hotel. We started the afternoon with a stop for lunch at Gunther Toody's Diner where the girls ate hamburgers and chocolate malts.

After filling up our bellies, we headed to Boondock's and spent several hours riding go karts and bumper boats, playing a round of mini-golf, and spending all our tokens at the arcade.  Rian was the winner for scoring the most tickets from all the games and the three had fun pickining out their "prizes" from the display case.  Jessie took her sweet time deciding what to spend her tickets on. I thought we would never get out of there!

Buckling up and ready to go!

Rian was a very cautious and considerate driver.

Jessie was a little more into speed than following the rules of the road.

And of course daddy was just out to win it.

The bumper boats were fun and everyone enjoyed drenching each other on such a hot afternoon.

Mini golf was fun- for about the first three holes!

Spending time with dad.

After we had our fill at Boondock's, we headed to the city and checked into the Hyatt.  We all went for a swim and hit the hot tub, and then went out to dinner at Pizza Republica.  It was like we were transported to Italy.  It was the best pizza ANY of us had ever eaten, and it would have been worth the entire drive just to go there for dinner. The girls feasted on the World's Best Meatball for an appetizer (it was the size of a softball) and the pizza crust was to die for.  I am sure we will be making another trip there sooner rather than later!

The next morning, we went to breakfast at a cute little restaurant above the Comedy Store named Lucy's, and enjoyed a nice healthy breakfast.  Then we headed back to the hotel and let the kids swim to their heart's content.

Rian has really gotten to be a strong swimmer.

And Jessie still has no fear and showed off her new trick of jumping off the side into the water.

After the girls were good and tired, we packed up and headed home.  It was nice taking time together and getting away for a bit, yet only having an hour or so's drive home. 

A neighborhood guest (I mean pest) and the High Park Fire

After we came back from the Sports Park and celebrating the fact that Black Belt testing was over, we looked out our front door and saw smoke coming from over the hill.  This picture was taken just as the High Park Fire was starting, but it quickly grew to over 75,000 acres and destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate.  The extreme heat, very low himidity and gusty winds all prohibited the firefighters from getting any sort of handle on the out-of-control flames.  The air quality across the entire state was affected from this fire, and it was one of the first of many fires to burn arcross Colorado during the month of June.  There are also fires burning in Boulder, and a huge one in Colorado Springs that has levelled hundreds of homes and whole subdivisions.  There was even a fire that burned in Estes Park for 24 hours, right outside of the YMCA of the Rockies. The High Park Fire is now officially the largest and worst wildfire in Colorado history and it was initially said that it would probably burn until fall.  Due to some recent rains and higher humidity, it is now hopefully going to be contained by the end of the first week in July.  The air quality will be affected for a much longer period of time, however.  And we know people who have lost everything.  We are very fortunate to not have suffered any devastation from this fire. 

On a walk around the block, look what we came across!  Mike of course had to get too close to this rattler, trying to get a good picture. I have seen lots of bull snakes and other non-poisonous snakes around our neighborhood, but I was a little unsettled to think that we have rattlesnakes this close to home (right at the end of our street near the roundabout!)  And the scary thing was that once this snake slithered off the sidewalk back into the grass, you couldn't see him at all, he was completely camoflauged!

Black Belt Testing

Testing for your Black Belt in Taekwondo is a BIG deal.  A really big deal.  Not very many students make it to this point on their martial arts journey. Hayden has been preparing for this day for the past five years.  After a 10 page thesis on What It Means to Become a Black Belt, 25 teaching hours, learning 16 different forms, memorizing Korean terminology, and countless hours on the mat practicing Taekwondo, Hapkido, and Sparring, she was ready to show Grand Master Kim that she was worthy of the title Black Belt.  And boy, was she NERVOUS!! (and to be honest, so was I!)

There were five students testing for Black Belt, one credit testing towards their Second degree Black Belt, and one testng for their Third Degree. They ranged in age from 11 to 44 (guess who was the 11 year old?)

Pre-testing meeting

Angie giving the students a little pep talk.

Bowing in.

There were eight highly qualified examiners testing seven students!  The pressure was a little intense, as is always the case when Grand Master Kim (the founder of the Oriental Moo-Do schools and a 9th Degree Black Belt) flies in to conduct the testing each June.

Practicing kicks.  All my pictures turned out terribly because it was so hot in the dojang (close to 100 degrees) that the garage doors were open to let in some air.  The bright light really messed with the flash on my camera. I took mostly videos of the forms, sparring and breaking.

Grand Master Kim always likes to throw "surprises" at the students during testing.  One of his surprises this time was to have the students do V- Kicks, where you jump straight up in the air and try to break two boards at the same time.  They had never attempted this before, and practiced using pads.  I think most of them fell on their rear ends at least once!

Three step sparring with Kim.

One of the requirements was for each student to fight off two attackers at once during a sparring match.  Hayden was up against Mariah and Haley.

She did a great job of not letting either one of them get behind her and keeping them both together.

Hayden did a three station board break- a front snap kick, a side kick, and a back spinning hook kick.  Breaking has always been the hardest part of testing for Hayden.  She really psyches herself out and convinces herself she can't do it.  She rarely has broken the board on the first try.  Today was a different story, she was feeling confident and believed in herself.  She lined up her three board holders and broke all three boards on the first try. 

Bowing out of class at the end of the three hour testing.

OMS!!!

Later that afternoon, there was an all school picnic at the Loveland Sports Park, and Grand Master Kim wrote each student's name in Korean on the collar of their uniform.  It is always such an honor for him to come and share his time with the students at OMS.