August

I can only remember a few things happening in August. If I didn't have pictures to go through to remind me, I'd probably forget. One thing is that Brian got called to be in the cub scouts with church and he took Cooper on one of the campouts. I sent my camera with him expecting him to return without any, but Brian surprised me and took a couple. It was great to have a few pictures to document this campout. Brian said Cooper was so well behaved and was better than a lot of the boys. He even went on the hike and it was like 10 miles and did it without complaining. Good boy!

We spent a bit of time at the pool and I was grateful we had it to help spend some of the summer active. I think I forgot to mention that  did a track program this summer as well. It kept them running and busy 3 days of the week.

  Cooper, Kiki and Liz started at the same time but Isabelle had to wait a few days for kindergarten to start. Bella was of course thrilled to start school. It was fun to watch her excitement. 

Cooper went from half day to full day school. I waited to watch him go in and he gave me a quick wave and smile on his way in. They do grow up but still melt your heart!

 

 We had a great summer and ready for a great school year......

July Part II- Reunions

The (extended) Porter Family Reunion...

So the weekend after Brian's bday, I drove the kids out to Utah. Brian stayed behind to spend another day with Julia and then of course he had work. The drive went so perfectly! It was amazing! No one fought and we sang songs and just actually had a good time together. It was amazing!

The day after we got there we had a Porter family reunion with all of my Dad's side of the family. It's usually down in Provo up the canyon, which is a really nice place to have it. My parents were in charge this year and did a great job!


We showed up to start off the fun with a hike. It was just our family (John and Lisa and kids) and Ed and Jeff that came to that part. It was a pretty decent hike and my Dad stopped us every so often for a little story. He really put some thought into it.

 They rented a cotton candy maker and brought this huge slip n' slide. Even the adults were involved with it. That was probably the best part. It was hilarious watching all the adults tandem ride down or just go crazy. There was also face painting, (swedish) fishing for the kids, volleyball and water volleyball. It was a really nice good summer family reunion. There wasn't any drama, just nice time together. We all had a blast.

Of course it's sad to not have Grandpa there. He was always big on the family reunions. We did a little tribute to both him and Diane since this was the first reunion we've had without them. Sad to have people so close to us passing away. Glad we had as many there with us as we did. It was a reunion I don't think we'll soon forget!

The Cousins....

 
 The whole crew....

 My favorite picture from the reunion! My sweet Nana.

The rest of the time that we were there we just did the usual. Hung out a lot, ate meals together and let the kids play. My parents had bought us these passes to a water park and to a place where we could play laser tag, bumper cars, water boats and more. That was a lot of fun for all of us!

We took a trip down to Provo to swim at Seven Peaks and stopped in on Nana. This a picture with all the great-grandkids on my Dad's side. (2 more on their way)

I was able to spend a little time with a few of my best friends from high school and college. It was good to see them and spend some time with them. I have so many great memories with them!

 

We even had a date night one night. My parents had bought us tickets to a BeeGees tribute band. They were really good and it was a perfect night. We went out to dinner first then to the concert. The night was beautiful and seeing the mountains all around us and the sunset made it such a great evening. I took so many pictures this trip, but these are the ones that made the cut. It was so much fun to be with family.

July- part I

July is my favorite month. Always so much fun going on and fun things to celebrate. We have 3 July birthdays, the Fourth of July and just lots of other fun. My birthday was a good day. We went to see the movie Monsters University. We all really liked it and had a good time. Then later that night, after presents, brownies and ice cream (yes, I wanted brownies, not cake) we went down to Denver for their Fourth of July celebration. First, we stopped and ate at Noodles and Company for dinner and then walked over to the park where the party was. We ended up getting seats at the very back but it was ok because we could still hear the music. We had a while until the firework show so we pulled out some books and games to pass the time. It was lots of fun. All the kids were really good and the firework show was good and we had a fun time! I always love watching fireworks on my birthday.

 

The next day was of course the Fourth of July. This is my favorite holiday and it's been a little bit of a challenge as the mom of little kids and wife to a husband who doesn't like crowds or parades. I mean, that's what you get with the Fourth of July. The morning didn't start out pretty but I took a little break and went to the craft store to get some things for the kids to decorate. We ended up decorating hats and faces. I tried to get shirts but didn't realize that they had to be washed and cleaned the day before. Next year. The kids love having their faces painted and luckily they're ok with my "artistic" ability.

 Of course we had to have a good ol' summer lunch with hot dogs, chips, baked beans, corn on the cob and root beer. Nothing like a summer lunch to get in the Fourth of July mood.

We were told that our city (Broomfield)  had a great show so we thought we'd give it a try. We didn't want to go too early and just sit around, so we got there about 2 hours before dark and just played some games outside and hung around. The firework show was actually pretty good. Only bad thing was they didn't have any music along with it. Still a good show though.

On the 6th of July, no special day (aside from Suzanne's bday), but Brian planned a day for us and we went to this museum type place near Arvada. The kids had fun learning about blacksmiths and how people lived in the the 1800's. We went into a building that was the school house and she taught them about dunce caps. They seemed to enjoy that, and ringing the school bell.

 After that, we went to this lake in Arvada and had a blast! It was so much fun. About half way through all the sudden the sky got dark and this major wind kicked in. The kids were scared 'cause it was crazy. People's tents collapsed and blew over and this huge raft was blowing towards us. It was kind of fun but the little 2 were scared. It finally calmed down and we finished up pretty soon after that. It was pretty crazy!

A few months back Julia and I had talked about her coming out and surprising Brian for his birthday and we were able to pull it off! Brian had to work on his bday but I worked it out so he'd only have to do a half day. He didn't know that, I did it with Chuck and the ladies up front. So Julia got in at 8:00 in the morning and I picked her up, came and got the kids for a little bit, then told Brian we'd meet up for lunch. I got there a few minutes early so Julia could walk into his office and surprise him and boy did she! They both ended up in tears. It was a surprise well pulled off! I was so excited for him. We went out to get some lunch at a hamburger place and then went to a miniature golf/play place and stayed there for a couple hours. I think the rest of the night we just had ice cream cake and presents and played games. It was so fun to have Julia here. She was great to help around the house, clean some, play with the kids, do the slip n' slide with them and play games with Brian and I. We loved having her visit!

Julia stayed for Bella's bday. Bella wanted to go to the lake that we had gone to a few days ago and I thought that would be perfect fun with Julia, so we did and it was lots of fun. We came back around the time Brian got off work and had presents and watched the birthday video. I love doing those for them. They seem to really enjoy them.

July is such a fun month and the first half sure held up to the expectation!

June

It's fun to watch our kids be creative. I love it when they all go downstairs and just play and no one is screaming or fighting. One thing that they all enjoy doing together is making videos and one day I know they're going to love watching them. They do it a lot, but every now and then I'll snap a picture of them. This one was a little crazy. I don't even know what the story was, but the costumes were too funny.

 

This was one of my favorite shots of the video they made with Bella being a mean girl. Such a pretty little stinker! Hopefully she won't be this edgy when she's older!

 

There were creative times which resulted in an at home spa. Even Cooper was a participant.

 Some self make up application, which is totally common!

 Brian did some popcorn olympics for FHE one day. Of course the kids loved it. There were several "events" and it was a lot of fun. He always comes up with fun things.

Then of course there was Father's Day. I had to get a picture of Brian with the kiddos. IT was such a cute picture of them. Love all these peeps.

 Liz and Caroline started the track program through the community and it was a great way for them to use some energy and stay moving. It was 3 days a week for 2 hours! I think they enjoyed it for the most part, but there were some days it was just way too hot! I think they picked up the running from their cousins, so we'll see if they really like it when next year comes around.

Of course there were just some other crazy moments

Beautiful Moments

 

And moments that made us laugh

A moment to make us cry.... Bella got her Kindergarten shots. 5 of them! She wasn't too happy about it but was rewarded with an ice cream cone from DQ. That made it a little better.

 

 We had park time and swimming time, lots of swimming time....

  Brian had a scout camp out and came back super dirty of course

 We got to go to a Rockies game through Brian's work and we all had a lot of fun with that. They got a box seat and lots of treats. It was a perfect weather night too. Lots of fun!

They did have "peanuts and cracker jacks" and of course, what's a baseball game without a hot dog?! I said I'd go to any game if it was like this. Box seats are the way to go!

 

June proved to be a pretty fun month. Lots of fun going on and lots of time together.

Kiki's Dance

Caroline had a great dance recital this month. She really enjoys dancing and it's fun to see her excel at it. This go round she did a song with Brian and it was fun for them to do the dance together. Caroline really enjoyed the time with her Dad each week practicing. It was like a date for them and fun to see the results from all their efforts.