Rick's Roast

We celebrated Rick's Roast on Saturday, September 15th this year. It is a great family gathering and a wonderful celebration of Rick's life.

Brett, Hunter, Sam (cousin) & Kelsey (cousin) digging into the massive amounts of food
Orion and Ashley (cousin)
Winston (cousin), Missy (aunt), Steven (friend) and Drew (cousin) hanging out around the fire.
Sam (cousin), Dixie (Grandma) and Steve (cousin). Steven is learning to play the guitar, so he played a handful of songs around the fire.
Ashley, Steven, Orion & Lizzie (cousin) enjoy Steven's guitar playing and roasting marshmellows.

Isabella's First Day of Preschool

Isabella, Brett and I went to Isabella's preschool Open House on September 4th and the first day of school was September 6th. The week before preschool started Isabella told us every day that she was so excited she couldn't sleep. She is carrying her school supplies in her decorated bucket. The students bring home their art work, papers and letters in these buckets.
Isabella is making her snack mat. She used flowers, stickers and a few pictures of our family.
We had to drop Orion off at kindergarten before preschool started, so I took a picture of Orion and Isabella in the parking lot of Orion's school.
Isabella went right into the classrom without even looking back at me. It is the same classroom Orion was in for preschool, so she didn't have any reservations. As well, Isabella has always been a pretty out-going kid. So far she LOVES preschool and can't wait to go.

Orion's First 14'er Hike

I should get Brett to write this entry, but then we all might wait a long time. On Saturday, Septmeber 1st Brett took Orion to climb his first 14'er. This is a BIG event in our family. Brett and I both enjoy hiking and climbing very much. Brett likes more challenge than I do, but I still get out there and hike - at least we did before we had kids.

Brett woke Orion up around 5:30 am so that they could enjoy a meteor shower before leaving on their hike. Then they drove to the base of Mt Deomocrat (http://www.14ers.com/photos/peakmain.php?peak=Mt.%20Democrat). There isn't any political connection to picking that mountain to be Orion's first 14'er; it just happens to be a fairly easy one and relatively close to Colorado Springs. I can't give a direct account of the hike, but I hear that Orion had a really good time and hiked well. Barley got to go also which made her a VERY happy and VERY tired beagle.

Orion crossing a creek at the start of the climb.

The "official" picture before the climb.

Orion on the trail up.

Brett and Orion on the summit.
Orion and Barley on the summit.
Orion enjoyed the shelter of this old shack on the way down. He hung out in here talking with another young boy who had made the climb.
Orion looking out over the mountain. The green area below is where the car was parked.

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.

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.