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.