bad blogger

I have fallen off the blogging wagon.  It's so much easier to share pictures with people through Instagram and Facebook that I find myself neglecting the blog.  But in the end, even if people aren't reading blogs anymore, it's a great place for me to detail our family happenings and I always turn the blog into a book at the end of the year!

We went to Kings Dominion a couple of weeks ago!

The kids love when Nana joins us because it makes it easier for both kids to ride the rides they want.  

The kids went to a baseball game with Jason's parents one night.

Emmy is still terrified of mascots.  

We went to Barnes and Noble one day because Bryce earned a free book!  I let Emmy choose a book too since she's worked so hard learning to read with me this summer!

Emmy moved up to a pre-team gymnastics class this summer and her team leo came in yesterday.  She was excited to finally get it! 

We're down to about a week and a half before school starts.  We've trying to enjoy the last little bit of summer!

back to school haircut

I took Emmy to get a back to school haircut today!  

She always wants to cut her hair short to minimize tangles, but I'm always hesitant because I like it long for pony tails and french braids for gymnastics.  

She's finally started to get it washed when we go.  She loves it now!

In the end, we just got a trim.  Not much difference, but nice and healthy!

I got a back to school haircut today too!  I'll be heading back to work as an SOL tutor after being home for the last 5 years!  

eclipse 2017

When the eclipse hype first started, I had heard that South Carolina would be a great place for viewing.  I mentioned it to Jason and he didn't think much about it.  When I mentioned it again last week, he basically made fun of me and asked if I thought it was going to get dark or something.  I was like, yeah!!  So he did a little research and realized that places that saw complete totality would be rather dark.  That's all it took for me to convince him to take a road trip!  Luckily Jason had picked up some free glasses at a fair when he was in New York for work a few weeks ago!

Jason went out Saturday night and got us some Krispy Kreme eclipse donuts for Sunday breakfast.  Of course we had to eat them with our glasses on!  We went to early church on Sunday and then hit the road to South Carolina.  We kind of invited ourselves to stay with a high school friend who lives down there!  We got there in time to catch up with them over dinner.

Our friends had to work on Monday and their son had a half day of school so we headed out for some fun and to drive a little closer to totality!  We found our way to the Greenville Zoo.

After the zoo, we got some lunch and then just ended up hanging out in a parking lot to watch the eclipse.  

It's nearly impossible to take a selfie while wearing eclipse glasses since everything is completely black!

I had seen this paper plate trick on Facebook so Jason fabricated these.  He even added a rubber band to the back so they could be hands free!

We enjoyed a little ice cream to take a break form the heat.

The kids loved the experience and memories were made!

It was amazing to view the stages of the eclipse through the special glasses.  What was even more amazing was watching the totality through the glasses and everything going completely dark.  Once that happened, we were able to take our glasses off and look at it with the naked eye.  It was amazing.

The pictures don't do it justice because there was so many store and parking lot lights, but it's incredible how dark it actually got!

We're already debating where we'll go to watch it in 2024!

jamestown beach

For the fourth year in a row, my friend Barbara and I took the kids to the beach for a day!  Our usual beach had had some bacteria issues and we didn't want to risk anything so we went to a new location this year and had a great time!

Emmy looks so athletic to me in this picture.

I don't even recognize this guy anymore without his glasses.

These two have it made!

Best buds.

Worn out after a day at the beach.

I love those little piggies!

Barbara is so good at taking pictures and sharing them with me!  She even made sure to photograph me doing what I do best at the beach!

bowling

We have had a fun filled and busy summer.  I feel like the last four weeks or so have been spent getting ready for vacations, going on vacations, and recovering from vacations!  Yesterday we got back into summer mode and had a fun outing with our friend Thomas.  

We made a bucket list at the beginning of the summer and bowling made the list.  

We bowled two games and both kids got at least one spare to celebrate. 

This little cutie is getting so big and I don't want to send her to kindergarten.

After a few games in the arcade, we headed to Sweet Frog to round out our afternoon of fun!

Today we're headed to Kings Dominion.

gold, rocky mountain state park and estes park

We packed our last day full of fun!  We started off at a gold mine and went on a tour.

Pretending to set off some dynamite.  

After the tour, we were given a gold panning lesson and then we set out to strike it rich.

I think we failed our panning lesson because we really didn't know what we were looking for.  Needless to say, we didn't strike it rich, ha!

The kids had a fun time playing in the water though.

That's creative panning right there.

We didn't find gold, but these cute chipmunks made up for it.

We stopped for ice cream in the small mining town before heading on our way.

We spent the afternoon driving through Rocky Mountain State Park.

We did a little hiking in hopes of seeing more animals.

Apparently we had just missed the moose at this stop.  Bummer!

Jason and I celebrated our 14th anniversary this day!  We are so blessed!

It was another chilly day on the mountain.  After this stop the kids added pants and we put on our rain coats to take a little hike but as we got out of the car, the wind picked up and sleet started falling fast and hard.  Needless to say, we stayed in the car and skipped the hike.  

This beautiful rainbow appeared after the storm.  You could see where the rainbow started.  The picture doesn't do it justice.

We ended the evening in Estes Park and got there just in time to take a tram ride up the mountain. 

We enjoyed dinner to celebrate our anniversary and then enjoyed a little shopping in the town before heading back to Denver.

Jason's fondest memory of Estes Park were the elk and how they walked around the town.  We were lucky enough to spot a few on our way out!

We had an amazing trip and hope we made lasting memories for the kids.