1st Day!

The kids were all smiles on their first day back-to-school. We have a few families in the neighborhood that we walk with to school. Quite the great childhood and life for all of us! I barely got a hug in before Luke ran into the school. Emma is in afternoon kindergarten. It is proving to be a good thing as our sleeping beauty is getting up well after 8 AM. We walked to the school again for her drop off at 12:30. She kept telling me she wasn't nervous at all. I almost believed her until we walked into the school. As we walked down the hallway to her classroom, her grip tightened on my hand and she scooted in closer to me. However, with a brief reassurance from me, she walked in confidently to the classroom and jumped right into the puzzles. It helps having one of her good friends, Milly, in her class.

Heading to pick up the kids. Myles thinks he is too cool for school.

The best part of the first day of school?? Receiving a copy of the picture below from Emma's teacher. I could not quit giggling. When I asked Emma why she wasn't smiling, she responded, they didn't tell me to smile! Ha! Oh Emma...despite this picture, she told me she had a GREAT first day! :)

End of Summer Bash

Cramers held their annual water party. We love this tradition and are grateful they continue it each summer!

Back to School Feast

How is it already time for this tradition again? What a fun, fast Summer we enjoyed! The kids get so excited when they find out it's our feast. Our family theme for this school year is Choose the Right. We gave each of the kids CTR rings. I was pleasantly surprised how excited they were about them. Sometimes, you never know. We discussed what it means to choose the right and times when it might be hard to choose the right. I love Pres. Monson's quote, "May we ever choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong." The highlight is usually chocolate fondue for dessert. The kids (well, all of us!) love it. Following dinner, Bryan gave each of them, including Myles, a Father's blessing. I couldn't believe that Myles sat perfectly still with his arms folded during the blessing.  Luke has such a tender and sensitive heart. Emma's heart is filled with service and kindness. I pray that these characteristics will serve each of them well. I'm hopeful for Luke and Emma that they will grow in many ways this school year. As excited as we all are for the new school year (especially my sanity), a piece of my heart feels like it's going right out the door with them. How quickly time goes.

We finished the night off with a round of "Slammer." Proud to report that no one lost any fingers!

Maroon Bells Camping Trip

Our friends, the Marzos, invited us along on a camping trip to the Maroon Bells in Aspen. They showed us how car camping should be done. She had camping bins that she keeps ready to go. Some of the things that I would like to incorporate when I get around to making us a camping bin: kitchen cookware and serving-ware, paper goods, cutting board, tablecloth, hot pads, cooking spray, matches and soap/hand sanitizer. We stayed at the Silver Bell Campground. Karalyn did her homework and reserved our spot as soon as she could, 6 months ahead. She snagged the last spot-we were lucky! Marzso also cooked meals that were gourmet for camping (scones, tin-foil dinner and the really impressive one---homemade cookies!). Clearly, we are going to need to step up our game to go camping with them.

Thursday: Set-up camp. Explored around the campsite. Dinner of hot dogs, chips and fruit. S'mores. Campfire. Bedtime.

  

Friday: Scones and the most delicious raspberry jam for breakfast. Hiked around the Maroon Bells and did some fishing for the first half of the day. Luckily, Bryan is good at this fishing thing and all of the kids got to touch the fish he caught. Enjoyed at picnic at Maroon Bells for lunch. For the afternoon, we headed to Snowmass and rode the gondola for free and topped it off with an ice cream stop in their mountain village. Karalyn and I rode 18 miles on our rode bikes early that evening while the men started the tinfoil dinners. They met us at the top of the canyon (perfect timing, as it was just starting to rain) and took us back to camp for dinner. We hung around the campsite and even enjoyed homemade cookies this night. 

Saturday: Chocolate chip pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Delicious. We broke camp and headed for home. We went through Independence Pass on our way back and stopped at The Grottos. Such a cool spot. It'll be an even better spot when the kids are a little older and can cliff jump. 

Overall, the kids had a great time hiking, exploring, biking, making a parade, getting dirty, sitting around the campfire and running around to their hearts' content. It was a short, but sweet couple days together.