Colorado Wilsons: August 2007

Monday, August 27, 2007

Elitch Garden's - Our End of the Summer Tradition

For at least the past five years, Lockheed/Martin has had a Family Day at Elitch Gardens (http://www.elitchgardens.com/). We went up to Denver early in the morning and managed to drag the kids around the amusement park until well past their fill of fun!

In the early part of the day when it was really warm we went to the water park. Brett and the kids played in the wave pool. Then the kids and I rode around the Castaway Creek in an inner tube.

Hunter went crazy in the big room where there are balls flying everywhere. Hunter was throwing a ball at Brett when he took this picture.

Orion tried to collect as many balls as the bag and he could hold - all to pounce on Daddy with.

Isabella wanted to ride EVERY ride she could. She's not quite tall enough for the big rides yet, but once she is there will be not stopping her.

Brett said that Orion and Isabella loved the bumper cars, probably because they could run into each other. I had taken Hunter back to the ball room while Orion and Isabella rode the bumper cars.

Sabrina was an angel all day long. She actually took three decent naps in her stoller and other than that just looked around contently.

Hunter did NOT like most of the rides. He is crying in this picture for us to get him out of the boats.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Orion's First Day of School

August 16th was a big day for our family. It was Orion's first day of kindergarten. He is attending Vera Scott Elementary (http://www.d11.org/scott/). This is our "neighborhood" school, but it isn't in our neighborhood. We tried to take pictures of the kids on our front steps, but it was very sunny and they all squinted. We'll have to take the "first-day-of-school" pictures against the retaining wall every year now.

Orion and Mommy walking up the sidewalk on the way to school. Orion is wearing the new outfit his Grandma Dixie sent. It arrived in the mail the day before - perfect timing. And a nice surprise because I hadn't thought to get him a new outfit for school.

Orion standing outside the front door of his school.

Orion and his teacher, Mrs. Douglas

Orion's kindergarten class of TWENTY-FIVE students. I would be crazy in a room of five kindergarteners. This is Mrs. Douglas' 21st year teachering kindergarten. She must LOVE what she does.

Sabrina at Three Months

Over Sabrina's three month birthday we were doing A LOT of traveling. It was hard on her. She was expected to nap in the car and not when she wanted to. There were lots of people that wanted to hold her and Sabrina wasn't so crazy about that. She did let her Great Grandma Kirby hold her one afternoon.

I posted this picture with our Durango pictures, but I just think it is SO cute - even though it reminds me of my "bad mommy" moment letting Sabrina get sunburned.

Sabrina's three month bouncy chair picture - she wouldn't calm down. We were on vacation and she was just too worn out.

Sabrina laughing with Daddy

I think Sabrina looks like a little doll in these two pictures. She acts like a doll most of the time!

Durango - Silverton Railway

On Saturday during the family reunion we all took the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway (http://www.durangotrain.com/). We had a great time on the train visiting with each other, viewing the beautiful mountain scenery and catching a few naps. The kids enjoyed being on the train, but it was a long day; we left Durango at 8:15am and returned at 5:40pm. We had a two hour stop in Silverton where we ate lunch and wandered the old mining town.

Aunt Patti, Mom, Grandma, me & Sabrina, & Mike

Isabella staring out the train car.

Orion and me - our group got "in trouble" with the conductors because we were supposed to stay seated and out of the aisle, but there were almost 30 of us and we wanted to visit with each other!

Brett and Sabrina

Isabella, Hunter and my cousin, Meghan. She held Hunter most of the ride to Silverton and Isabella slept on her lap the train ride back to Durango.

Orion and Isabella running the streets of Silverton

Hunter was hiding in his shirt. He thought this was a really fun game!

Hunter is bargaining with a "salesman" for the purchase of a crystal. It was a very funny exchange to watch. The "salesman" was about 8 years old and he was trying his best to get Hunter to spend his "vacation" dollar on a rock with a face drawn on it. Hunter ended up buying the crystal rock for 75 cents.

We enjoyed some ice cream before getting back on the train.

My cousin, Whit is a big guy, so the kids enjoyed using Whit as a walking jungle gym. Whit didn't seem to mind too much.

Family Reunion in Durango

From Albuquerque the kids and I drove with my parents to Vallecito Lake which is about 40 minutes northeast of Durango. Brett met us there. We spent five nights at the lake in cabins with our Kirby-Reynolds family. The part of my family gets together every five years.

Brett and the kids took the canoe out three times, but never caught any fish. Orion would come back saying that his Daddy got "skunked"

Jackie (my cousin's girlfriend) swam Isabella from the lake shore out to this rusty old dock. Isabella thought she was pretty cool to hang out with the "big" kids.

After watching his little sister swim out there Orion decided he wanted his Daddy to swim him out to the dock also.

Hunter refused to wear his lifejacket, so he wasn't able to go out in the canoe - typical "terrible two-year old." Instead Hunter spent many hours playing under the picnic tables outside our cabin. He kept telling me that he was building his house.

Grandpa and Hunter at the Luau

The six of us together - we didn't actually spend a lot of time together because O, I, H, & S are the only young kids, so all of my aunts & uncles and cousins wanted to play with them.

Sabrina looks so adorable and sunburned in this picture. She fell asleep in my arms with just one side of her face exposed. It was a "bad mommy" moment.

My Grandma is holding Sabrina. My parents on either side of her with Orion and Isabella. Then along the back ros is Hunter, me, my brother - Mike and Brett.

Vacation in New Mexico

The end of July the kids and I went to New Mexico for a week. The timing of the trip was because my grandma celebrated her 80th birthday, but I don't have any pictures of that celebration. We spent a few days in Albuquerque at my parents' house and a few days in Silver City for my Grandma's birthday party.

We visited my Grandma Kirby one afternoon. We took squirt guns to keep the kids busy while we visited with my Grandma. The kids' Grandpa (my Dad) was happy to engage them in a squirt gun fight.