Swetsville zoo

Today we went with McKenzie and her kiddos to the Swetsville Zoo. It was so amazing to see all of the creative sculptures that farmer Swets made out of scrap metal. There were some very clever sculptures. Ethan and Isaac loved the Roadrunner because they love it in Bugs Bunny movies. He even made his house out of putting together unique items. What a way to recycle! Thanks to McKenzie I have pictures, I actually forgot my camera (which Derek would reply, you never!)

A night at the Denver Aquarium!

I found out that on Friday nights at the Denver Aquarium you can get kid's meals for $1.99. For the last 3 years we have gone to the Aquarium but never ate there. So since they validated parking ($7) and the kid's got into the Aquarium for $5 instead of $10 and we got a $6 discount for the parents with the receipt from the restaurant. So, we decided to go for it. Derek decided that the kid's must try Calamari. They were fine with the ones that looked like fried shrimp but Ethan and Lizzie refused to eat the ones that had tentacles. Isaac loved it, because he was like a shark!

Then while I was taking the kids to watch the sharks on the other end of the restaurant Derek ordered the biggest dessert ever because it has the shark wafer on top. The boys did not want to wait for me to take a picture! Ethan said he ate so much of it that it gave him a tummy ache. It had hot fudge inside and caramel and chocolate drizzled on the plate, and ice cream on top.

This year they actually had something at the Aquarium that I had never seen in person. I read a whole bunch of books about sharks so I know a lot about the egg sacks but I never saw one up close. They had cut the front of the sack so that you could see the shark pup growing. It was so cool, but I was the only one really fascinated by it. Because we went so late there were not many people there but most of the fish and other animals were sleeping.

Playing at the Beach

My kids LOVE water and the sand box. So when they have the opportunity to go to a swim beach we could not pass it up! My friend McKenzie invited us to go to the Windsor beach and the kids had such a fun time. We made a sand shark and buried Isaac and McKenzie's cute daughter Kinley in the sand. I even made Isaac a merman.

The Rockies Game

This is the first time the kid's have ever been to a Rockies game. I thought it would be so much fun for them to see everything there is to see. But mainly they saw the cotton candy and Lemonade!!

In the bottom of the 6th Lizzie was getting a little antsy so I brought out my ipod for her to color on. Instead of watching the game Ethan kept wanting to play with the ipod. I was trying to get him interested in the game and he just kept asking why Lizzie was able to play on that while he didn't. I said, "she is little and this is not as much fun for her yet. So he told me, "Mom, Isaac and I don't like sports!"
Oh, well at least we tried. It was fun until that 6th inning. At least the Rockies won!!

Summer bike rides!

For the longest time I have tried to get the boys to want to ride bikes... not interested. It didn't even help to tell them who of their friends or cousins were riding bikes without training wheels. We live on the corner of a sometimes busy intersection in our sub-division, so I don't like them riding in the street near our house, for fear of someone not stopping at the stop sign. So in a way I was helping our situation.
Derek was suppose to go camping with the young men in our church so he took the week off after the boy's birthday. So while he had time to help me teach them, that's what we did. I told them that we can not go swimming, read or watch tv (which are the things they love to do) until we attempt to ride the bikes without training wheels. Ahhhh, mom, it's too hard, I can't do it! Is all I heard for a long time, until suddenly they agreed. We took them to the green belt in our sub-division and after 10 minutes or less they both took off. They love it now. They will ask us if we can go for a family bike ride to the church and around the deserted streets beside it all the time. Lizzie has her own seat behind Daddy and we all ride around the neighborhood.

Ethan and Isaac's Birthday Extravaganza!

June 15th-18th
The boys had a wonderful birthday week! On the 15th Isaac had his "Special Day" where he got to choose what we did and ate the whole day, and he also got to have a friend join us for the whole day as well. His friend was Brodie Wright, he wanted mac and cheese for lunch and pizza for dinner. We went swimming and played on the wii. The next day was Ethan's "Special Day", he had his friend Seth Messervy over and we had hotdogs for dinner and went to the pool again. He was going to have pizza like his brother but I talked him out of it because I didn't want to eat pizza 3 days in a row. The next day, was the boy's real birthday and daddy took the day off, so they got to choose together. So they watched their shows with daddy almost all day!

The next day Friday, we drove down to Denver and went to the Wildlife Experience; because they had a National Geographic Critter Cam. They loved the Great White Shark and Penguin's! They had so much stuff that the boys just loved it. Lizzie loved it too because she got to dress up like a Lemur (she didn't want to take the costume off). They even got to pet a snake!

The next day we had a wonderful family reunion in Denver with my Aunt Janet her daughters Nina and Laura, my Aunt Marilyn, my mom and my brother and sister and their kids. Everyone had such a blast.

The only downside was sleeping with Lizzie in the hotel. My Aunt Janet was so kind to get us a room in Denver for Friday night so we could all be together, but Lizzie rolls a lot in her bed, even so much that she has fallen out a couple of time where the bed rails aren't in one night. So Derek and I decided that we would each be on either side of her. She tossed and turned so much that neither of us got any sleep. Oh well, at least she is still a joyous, wonderful girl.

The good with the bad

On May 8th the day before Mother's day, Derek's wonderful father past away. He was an amazing man! We will all miss him very much! He was a Vietnam Vet and was buried in the Fort Logan cemetery.









The day after his burial Derek's sister Caylee got hitched, (we talked her into doing it then since she was going to do it at the end of the month anyway, and all of her family was in town). She had a luau theme. I know Dennis was watching and smiling.