danika's birthday

I had a great birthday this year! Thank you to everyone who made it extra special! I got to go out for lunch with some friends, I had several friends stop by unexpectedly, I talked to family on the phone and Skype, I got emails & Facebook messages, my kids made me cards, and we went to dinner as a family.

But these two things still make me laugh so I had to share! My good friend Buffie makes & sells these cute necklaces (because her own 4 children plus the 50 piano students she teaches each week apparently aren't enough to keep her busy!). She made me this necklace...if you can't read it well, it says: "Coupon Queen - I got my tiara for free!"

And my sister-in-law Amy found the perfect card for me:

back to school!

Believe it or not, the boys are already back to school! We are on a modified year-round school schedule, with 7 weeks of summer, and 2 week breaks at fall, holiday, and spring. While it always shocks people that we start school at the end of July, I personally LOVE our schedule! 7 weeks of summer is plenty of time to be stuck inside with the extreme heat here, and I like that we get longer breaks when travelling isn't as busy or expensive and the weather is nicer here so we can actually enjoy our school breaks playing outside.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Brandon is almost 9 and is starting 4th grade:Tyler is 6 and is starting 1st grade:
When we got to school the boys immediately found their best friends, who unfortunately are both not in their classes this year.

Tyler with Kirk:
Brandon with his best friend of 4+ years Joaquin (interestingly enough, one of the tallest boys and one of the shortest boys in 4th grade):
Tyler was happy and excited and waving and shouting "Bye Mom!" as he walked in the building.
Brandon was not as thrilled with his mother who followed him with her big paparazzi camera (his look in the photo below means, "Stop shouting my name Mom, I'll turn around and pretend to smile for you and then will you please leave, you're embarrassing me!"). He said he was excited about school starting again, but I could tell he was a bit nervous and wasn't looking forward to homework again.
They both had a great first day and even though being in school means being busier and more work for everyone, we are all happier with a good schedule and a consistent routine.

colorado - day 6

Thursday was our last day in Colorado. Since we weren't sure what flight times we were going to try to get on, we didn't make any major plans. We checked the flight loads before we left our hotel, which showed that the morning flights were all sold out but that the afternoon & evening flights had almost 100 seats open between 3 flights. That was great news - we could still have a morning of fun in Colorado and then get home that evening!

I had marked a few ideas for places to go see on Thursday if we had time. One of these was Helen Hunts Falls. It said it was a "free, easy hike" which sounded perfect for our family. After a long drive up into the canyon (with our gas tank dangerously empty...we didn't realize it was quite so far) we arrived at the falls.
The falls were nice, but much smaller than I imagined. The "hike" was about 20 stairs. Easy & fun, but probably not worth the drive. But definitely something my kids don't get to see very often.
And we saw another deer on the way out of the canyon!
We drove an hour back up to Denver but still had a few hours to kill before heading to the airport. The last thing on my list was the Littleton Historical Museum. It was a cute place - a living history farm and buildings from the 1800's. The workers were even dressed in costumes.
It was very kid-friendly and had many things they could climb on or touch.
They even had a real blacksmith who was working and gave us a short demonstration! We also spent a bit of time in the main building in the kids area that had fun things for them to play with.
After getting some lunch, we headed to the airport and returned our rental car. We were shocked to learn when we checked in that the flight we had hoped to get on (that had almost 30 seats open that morning) was now overbooked. After a long time getting through security (I think the regular lines were faster than the employee line, plus I forgot to empty my water bottle) we hurried to our gate. We knew it would be close whether we would get on, but crazy things happen with standby. The gate agent told us she MIGHT have 2 seats so we made plans for Natalie & I to go. We got as far as down the jetway and to the airplane door this time, before they told us they only had one seat, so again we gave the seat to the next standby group.

After talking with the gate agents, we learned that the storms each night kept messing things up. She told us it wasn't looking good for the next flight, but to not give up. For a week they had been dealing with flights that were cancelled or delayed, connections that were missed, small planes that couldn't land, and other airlines who would push their passengers onto whichever other carriers had open seats.

It was a three hour wait for the next flight. Thank goodness for portable DVD players! During the wait ANOTHER storm rolled in with hail, lightning, rain, and thunder. As you can see by the photo, you could barely see to the end of the jetway. They closed the whole airport for 2 hours to all incoming and outgoing flights. It was strange to only see people sitting around - not any planes loading or unloading. We weren't sure what to think - this storm could either be really bad for standby or really good for standby. We were nervous because we told them to send our luggage on the first flight (that we didn't make it on) - so if we didn't get on those later flights we would have had no car seats and no luggage! I tried to keep reminding myself this would make for good blog writing!
We learned that our plane for the next flight was delayed - it sat on the tarmac in Phoenix for an hour. They weren't allowed to take off until they were sure they could land in Denver. So we waited another hour. Amazingly, ALL the standbys (I think there were 26 of them) got on the next flight. We got home much later than we hoped, but we made it! It's days like these that we really question if the stress of standby is worth the "price" of flying free (especially when you factor in feeding 5 people expensive airport food!).

Overall, we had a great trip. Thankfully the fun things we did, the good friends we visited with, and the beauty of Colorado far outweighed the travel drama. There were several times before we went that we almost convinced ourselves we shouldn't go because of work problems or bad weather, but we're so glad we ignored those minor issues and went anyway!

colorado - day 5 (part 2)

After Pike's Peak, we grabbed some lunch and headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit (I was still not feeling great from altitude sickness). The kids watched cartoons and Kevin took them swimming in the hotel pool. If you ask them what their favorite part of Colorado was, they will probably tell you the cartoons & pool at the hotel...if we would have known that we would have just gotten a hotel room in Phoenix and saved ourselves a lot of time & money!

Kevin & I LOVE the Olympics and really wanted to visit the Olympic Training Center. It's one of only 3 Olympic Training Centers in the United States. The one in Lake Placid, New York does all the winter sports (since this one was in Colorado, I was quite surprised to learn this). The one in Chula Vista, California does all the outdoor summer sports. And this one in Colorado Springs does all the indoor summer sports.
They show an excellent 10 minute Olympic highlight video at the beginning and then we got to go inside several of the buildings. We were there late in the afternoon so there weren't too many athletes training, but it was cool to see the amazing facilities and hear the interesting information about how the athletes live & train there.

FYI - this set of rings below is not the same as the photo on top - we did not dangle our kids up high in the air!
The tour was free and less than an hour. Definitely worth our time (and money)! Next summer's 2012 London Olympics can't come soon enough for me!
My friend went to Colorado Springs last fall and wrote about a fun restaurant they went to on her blog. I knew my kids (and Kevin) would love it, so we went to check it out for dinner!
You actually eat inside an old plane that has been transformed into a restaurant (and they obviously spent a lot of time & money figuring out a creative name for it!).
The food was okay (after 5 days on vacation, no restaurant food seems very good) and not terribly overpriced.
The best part of the restaurant was that the kids could play in the cockpit the whole time we were waiting for our food!

colorado - day 5 (part 1)

Wednesday was another busy, fun day in Colorado Springs. I think I will split it into two posts since I have so much to write & many photos.

Our first adventure was one of the things I really wanted to do on this trip...the cog train up to the summit of Pikes Peak. Here is the cog train (the highest in the world!) pulling into the station:
Since our vacation plans kept changing and the weather had been unpredictable, we didn't book our reservations until the night before. We were thankful they still had tickets available and we were able to sit together and even on the side of the train with the best views.
These pictures do no justice to how beautiful the scenery truly was. After a week of thunder & rain storms, we were lucky it was a gorgeous morning
Our train conductor was fascinating to listen to as she told the history of the area, the building of train line, and the stories of the summit. She had a great, natural sense of humor, and it never felt "canned" of forced. She stood right next to us speaking into the microphone, so when she wasn't talking I was able to ask her a few questions.
The summit of Pikes Peak is above the tree line, which is an interesting contrast.
A little over an hour on the train...and we made it! The kids kept asking why they had to wear jeans and bring their sweatshirts. As soon as they stepped outside at 14,110 feet they finally understood! It was about 75 degrees at the bottom and 42 degrees at the top.
I was not aware (until the train conductor told us) that the view from Pikes Peak was the inspiration for the song "America the Beautiful." That should tell you something about how the views look from the top! They had this lovely plaque honoring the song.
Here's our cog train! On the other side of the train is a 4,000 foot cliff drop off...
They only allow you about 40 minutes at the top because many people feel altitude sickness after that amount of time. We felt kind of rushed to use the bathroom, buy the famous warm donuts, and take pictures, but I was glad we didn't stay any longer since I was feeling very dizzy & nauseous.
You'll notice there are no guardrails anywhere at the summit. I had read this before and was very nervous. We scared our kids into staying close to us and they did great!
It was expensive, but it was worth every penny (you can also drive up for free, but we heard the roads are very narrow & curvy). My goal for vacations is to do things we cannot do at home and we certainly don't have cog trains, mountains, or views like this in Arizona!

colorado - day 4

Tuesday morning we said goodbye to the Matthews family and headed out on Part 2 of our vacation. When I asked my Facebook friends for advice on what we should do while in Colorado, my friend Mike suggested we head down to Colorado Springs about an hour south of Denver. I am so grateful for this advice (see Facebook is useful...who needs TripAdvisor?). Colorado Springs was amazing and there were so many fun things to see & do.

Garden of the Gods was our first stop. Even my good camera & decent pictures do this place no justice. It was stunning. We spent 3 hours here and could have easily spent longer, if not for our grumpy, tired kids and threatening rain.



We thought it was funny how the kids were "so tired" when walking on the paths, but as soon as we found rocks they could climb on they were suddenly full of energy!
These rocks were named Kissing Camels:
And here's Balanced Rock:
And to my good friend who called me right after this picture below was taken...now you can see why I was acting a bit distracted! I was trying to keep my kids from falling off giant rocks!
And of course, the obligatory "pretend like you're holding up the rock" photos!



We almost hit Bambi while driving!
And we even stopped at the Visitor Center (my dad will be so proud!).
If you look towards the right side at the top of the red rocks, you can see the Kissing Camels! Can you believe this place is free to visit? Me either.
I originally thought "Garden of the Gods" was a bit presumptuous of a name, but now I couldn't agree more. It was truly beautiful.