Update: June and July

The cheese thief strikes again!   Hiking on our mini-break up at the Garcia’s cabin in Mora. Picnic lunch and wading at Morphy Lake near Mora. This poor lake had been so severely affected by the drought that the shore was at least 50 feet away from the end of the boat ramp. All that was left was a small pond filled with ultra sticky mud. Apparently there must have been some fish in there as well, because it was still full of families fishing. Gymnastics has made this boy ripped. He’s going to be a heartbreaker! Dad was a good sport and braved the mud and cold. Mom wisely stayed on shore—to take pictures, of course. Averi lost her flip flops in the mud. Some kind lake neighbors were willing to go in there and fish for it when I wasn’t. I would have just left it there. When all your children are just lying on the floor doing nothing you know they’re not feeling well. Aaron’s birthday cake. We didn’t have any appropriate candles, so the emergency candle had to do. Unfortunately, this was not the last birthday that had to use this candle.   Isotopes ball game, taken on the phone. Much swimming was done this summer. Katie and Paul got to the point where I was comfortable with them swimming in the big pool while I stayed with the two younger girls in the wading pool. Camping and hiking trip to Cloudcroft, NM. It was incredibly beautiful, and the kids were amazing hikers. The Mexican Canyon Railroad Trestle, part of the Cloud-Climbing Railroad. These two are the very best of friends. I love watching them talk to each other. Guess what we were eating!   Trip to the Natural History Museum with our friends, the Larsons. Unfortunately, I took these pictures with the phone and hardly any of them turned out. I’m still figuring that thing out. Yes, my baby has no pants. We had a massive blow-out before we even entered the museum, and of course I came completely unprepared. At least I had a diaper, which is an improvement over many other situations in the past.

Update: April and May

Trip to the zoo on one of Aaron’s Fridays off. We made a stop by the Dog House before because we actually had cash, and it was worth the wait. I don’t know what they do, but those hot dogs are DELICIOUS. I ran a 5K in April. I hadn’t run in forever, so it was a big achievement, even if it was the slowest race I’ve run yet. Definitely not posting pictures of me running, because I look like I should go on The Biggest Loser. I know Aaron hates when I say things like that, but even he agrees that those pictures turned out very, very badly. Here’s a picture post run after I had recovered a bit. Best part of April was going on a girls’ trip to Phoenix with some of my closest friends. We all lived in Albuquerque at some point, but about half of us have moved away from the Ventana Ward. People came from California, Texas, and Washington to play. We had an amazing time. I am so blessed to be able to call all of these women my friends. Matching shirts and trips to Ikea FTW! Many preschool field trips occurred in April and May: Dions   The firestation   Mr. Walkers Popcorn Bridget had her first haircut.   Katie with Mrs. Sickenger on the last day of 2nd Grade. Paul with Mr. Nunn on the last day of kindergarten. Averi helped me make this “Welcome to summer” banner.   Paul and Katie learned how to ride their bikes without training wheels this summer. Aaron and I realized we had been extremely remiss in teaching them, and so the day after school got out Aaron spent the evening teaching them how to ride. They learned in one night! I was so impressed. It was such a wonderful feeling as a parent watching them master that skill and seeing the joy and surprise on their faces as they did it. Just as a side note: Paul has a boy’s bike. We just had him learn on the smaller one until he mastered it. He’s still a manly man. Super cute Bridget loves her babies.