Zoo with Cramers

It was suppose to be unusually cool weather so we thought we would take advantage of the day at the zoo with our friends. As it turns out, half of Denver metro had the same idea. Even with the crowds, it was a great day. We love exploring the zoo and the only thing that makes it better is when friends can join us! Crazy that we use to be a party of 4 and now we're a party of 8 when these two families visit the zoo together.

The crew...

plus one! She is an angel baby and didn't make one peep the entire day!

Myles just waiting for Samantha to get big enough to have a buddy. I can be pretty good at helping my kids to "capture the moment" but this was completely all on their own.

Love that they still get excited for the train ride.

Myles was hands-down the most excited one. He is so much fun when he isn't being a little two-year-old tyrant. :)

Cramers mentioned they were going to stop by Voodoo Doughnuts on their way home. We thought this was an excellent idea, especially because this would be our first time trying them out.

Myles was diggin' the donut joint. I felt way out of place and definitely no where near the cool level of all the hipster apparel that was surrounding me.

Fort-Making Kind of Afternoon

We were rained out at the swimming pool one afternoon. We came home and decided to invite our favorite neighbors over a movie in a fort. The pictures are not the best, but these kids are living quite the childhood by having such great friends as next door neighbors.

Luke played a good host and set up their concessions stand.

I know, great pic, but it makes me smile. :)

Coach Pitch

Luke wanted to continue on with baseball. He is on a coach-pitch team with lots of buddies. He has the same coach from last year and we appreciate how awesome he is with the kids. Luke has tasted some of the victories and defeats that come with playing the game. It's been hard for him, but good lessons are being learned (I hope).

GOOOO Raptors #12!

Skate Park

I've promised the kids I would take them to the skate park for a loooong time.  I finally made good on this promise. We loaded up the car with a bike, a scooter and makeshift wiggle car. Myles was in a funk and not having any of it. Luke was loving the hills and making a new friend. Emma was content to hang out by me. It felt so crazy to me trying to manage three kids, all on wheels. Myles turned the corner for the last 45 minutes and it was truly enjoyable. However, I have zero desire to return unless Bryan is accompanying or it's 5 years down the road.

Emma tearing it up on her Dora scooter.

We stopped for a slushee at Maverick to help cool these guys off and put me in a better mood. It worked on all accounts!

Crawdad Fishing

For a mutual activity with some of the young men, Bryan and a few other youth leaders took them crawdad fishing. Bryan also invited other families to join in. The kids loved it and several of the youth really got into it. We caught so many is such a short amount of time. Emma caught three crawdads at the same time with just one piece of jerky. Myles took an unintentional swim so he cuddled with me the last 20 minutes.

This was only after 20 minutes of fishing. Yikes!

Father's Day Weekend

Bryan took the kids on a short backpack-in camping trip while I did the 14ers with the ladies the day before Father's Day. He is a wonderful father. I hope these kids realize (at some point) how incredible their dad is, because I think they're pretty clueless how good they have it. We tried to spoil Bryan with a breakfast packed full of meat, kind notes, a gift and letting him provide the main course for dinner. :) He is dialed on the Traeger and we enjoy most of our Sunday dinners' main course from his culinary skills.

One of the young men from our church went along on the camping trip. I told Bryan he probably had more fun without me going. :)

I can't help myself and start singing, "Every single one of us, the devil inside...the devil inside.." every time I see this picture!

A few pics capturing what an awesome, supportive dad Bryan is to these three lucky kids.