Mutton Bustin'

Emma found her courage and tried her luck at mutton bustin'. Luke helped encourage her and cheered her on from the sidelines. He was too big this year to participate. We met up with other friends that were also participating. After the "main event," we went to see the animals in the 4-H barns. Myles kept say "toot (cute) bunny!!" in the bunny barn. The guy tried to send me home with one of the bunnies, but I stuck to my guns and managed to escape bunny free.

Emma is Living the Dream

One evening, I took the kids to the school grounds for some fresh air and exercise. I wanted to work with Emma on her bike-sans training wheels. The boys were excited to play golf and have a little more space to run around in than our backyard affords. Well, it was the magical night for Emma and it just clicked. She was adorable pedaling around (I know I'm slightly prejudice). My favorite comment was, "Mom! It feels like a dream! I can't believe I'm riding my bike!"

Wildlife Experience

It's real name is CU South Denver, but it will always be known to me as the Wildlife Experience. I utilized our library's resources and requested complimentary tickets for a date this Summer to change things up. It was a good getaway for a few hours and the mannequins were so life-like that each of us took a turn being startled.

Douglas County Parade

I had the realization this year that our small town parade is really not that great as far as floats and creative displays. However, it is incredible with the amount of free hand-outs and advertising. The kids were into the candy and anything handed to them (rarely did they have to even move for their candy...ridiculous).

How did we know the parade was over? It became evident fairly quickly once the street sweeper showed up! :)

KR 2017: Day 6

Day 6: I had quite the mixture of emotions when we left. #1 emotion was relief that it went well and nobody was seriously hurt. :) But I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for family. Family is what matters most! There have been recent events where I feel like people I know have been taken too early from this life. Such a strong reminder that we never know how much time each of us are given. "Beyond grateful" is cliche and inadequate to describe the time we had together this week, but other words escape me right now. Families are forever.


We decided to head to Island Park after the cabin to try our luck fishing at a friend's private lake. It was so much fun and beautiful. We took one of the row boats out for a 5 minute ride. It took more time putting on the life jackets than our actual ride in the boat. We made it to Little America in Wyoming and crashed there for the night. We drove the rest of the way home the next day and jumped back into real life.

 

KR2017: Day 5

Day 5: This morning was the biggest stress to me of the entire reunion...FAMILY PICTURES! Ahhh! It actually went very smoothly, minus my two-year-old, but I was very happy to have everyone accounted for and captured on film...or digitalized. :)

Love my parents. Always an incredible example of love and devotion to each other, their family and our Heavenly Father.

The perks for my parents of putting up with my siblings and me: 

grandkids, all 20 of them, from a 1-year-old to 18-years-old.

I planned a few activities for the afternoon, but everyone appeared to be content to chill around the cabin. We played lawn farkle/yahtzee, whacked a piñata, flew kites, challenged each other at "Scum"-billiards game (hilarious and fun for many ages), paddled around the lake and drove 4-wheeler rides, inhaled otter pops at an alarming rate, played "Pounce"and "Exploding Kittens" and squeezed some visiting in. I thought it was a good sign that we were all happy to hang around each other... especially after 5 days together. :)

Evidently, Zac and some pent-up aggression from a week of family time, ha!