Updated weather photos

The day has progressed on with more storms and a bit of sunshine in between as a teaser. Still in slippers so it's a good day!

Rainy and dreary

This morning is a dreary morning...perfect for coffee and crafting! We are all still in our pj's and Jolene is napping. Now all you hear is Sesame Street and the thunder rolling in the background. I am starting to put together some of the crafts for the November craft fair I've entered here in town. Trying to make a few extra x-mas bucks....Santa's got quite a list from Emmett this year and I think he may need some help from Luke and I! Last night, Emmett said he was ready to write Santa his letter about what he wants this year. It's not even September yet. We're in trouble...

New bike helmet

Emmett had been bugging for a bike helmet ever since our trip to Colorado. He got to borrow one at the Christensen's when he "rode" the scooter(which he rode for all of 1 minute! He realized he was faster on the tricycle.) We discussed that he could wait and ask Santa for one or he could bring his wallet and buy one himself at Walmart. He chose to bring his wallet to Walmart this morning. Luke and I agreed that we would split it with him since he was being responsible, and he's 3. The helmet came with elbow/knee pads that haven't come off since we've been home! Luke took a video of his first trike ride with his helmet!

Tonight was Emmett's preschool parent orientation. Basically we signed up for which days to help out and committees and things. It was nice to meet his teacher and know where to drop him off and where his classrooms are. Should be alot of fun, for Emmett and me!

Family Fun Day at Sleeping Giant Ski Area

Emmett got to take a friend to family fun day yesterday. It started off a bit iffy, since we were at the doctor at 9am for Emmett's runny nose, fever and sheer crankiness! It turns out he has a sinus infection. We got him started on meds and picked up Jaren, Emmett's friend, and headed up the North Fork to the ski area. It poured on us for the first 20 mins. Regardless we kept driving with the mindset that the weather would clear up for our "fun day". and it did! It was a bit cooler than we had thought, but had stashed coats in the car and enjoyed the day. They had raffles, games, three-legged races, even a nature walk. We feed the kids at the BBQ there and finished just in time for the nature "hike". I use that term loosely since we went about 100 yards out from the club house. The ranger discussed hiking in bear country and then we got to fire off a training sample of bear spray. She gave great tips and the kids had a good time picking wildflowers. We didn't stay long after that since we were running into nap times. It was a fun way to spend the day with family plus one!

Finally...a tooth!

When we were in Colorado, Jolene finally got her first tooth! About time! Since we've been home, she is working on two more up on top. They are poking through, but not quite visible yet. Just breaking through and they look painful. I was finally able to get a picture of the one tooth on the bottom- just for proof that she finally has teeth!

Part three...the final days

On Saturday morning, I left mom's to do a bit of shopping in Denver before heading to Castle Rock. Ryan and the girls met up with Emmett, Jolene and I at Costco to stock up for the BBQ we were having at their place on Sunday. Four kids..two adults. We got many looks and a few "you've got such cute kids!" Ryan kept replying "she's the one who wanted four kids...." It was a pretty exciting shopping trip as you can imagine! Then we had a fun lunch at this burger place(can't for the life of me remember the name, but it was darn good!) and headed back to their home in Castle Rock. It became really bittersweet to be there as their dog Jaxson was on his last bit of life-blind, deaf and appeared to have a stroke while I was there. He was 14 years old and was always a really great dog. I knew Ryan in college when he had Jaxson and lived with both for a few years. It was really sad to see him go, but he is in a much better place and Ryan buried him in his parent's back yard in Larkspur. RIP Jaxson! Anyway, while all this was going on, we were still planning the BBQ and friends were on their way. It was GREAT to get to see the Williams family, Jenny and girls, Buddha and his kids, and Emily and Charles came over with the girls as well! This time I got to hold Kenley!Finally!!! We relived a few Armory memories and had quite a few laughs. Aunt Sarah decided that she would give Jolene anything she wanted to be the favorite....needless to say, Jolene ate more stuff in three days than I can remember! I think her favorite was the ice cream sandwich(see pic). Monday, the kids and I picked up Luke and Eric from the airport. The kids were out of steam and both were going nuts! Poor guys- they had a three hour drive to the airport that morning, their flight and now two screaming kids...all while hung over! Impressive. They had a good trip, minus the 110+ heat index. (That just means they had more fun on the boat!) We dropped off Eric and stopped in to see Mark at Bobby and Donna's. He recovered very nicely from his transplant and looked great! We stayed one more night with Ryan and Sarah and visited Mark on Tuesday morning before we headed back up to mom's. Chrissy was meeting us there for dinner and came with lots of pictures to show of her trip to Tanzania and her Kilimanjaro climb. Ken was able to join us and we had a nice dinner and an awesome slideshow of pictures. This all led up to the uneventful drive back to Cody on Wednesday. It always feels good to get home.....but it was a great trip while it lasted.

...part deux

After we left Mark and Deb's, Luke, I and the kids stopped over to meet Kenley Kilcrease, the newest addition to Emily and Charles' family. She's absolutly adorable and I couldn't even hold her! I was recovering from the cough and didn't want to get her sick. We all got to go out to Red Robin for lunch and Jim and Sherry met us there. It was great to see the beaming grandparents, not that they noticed us, with their beautiful grand kids there and all.....but really good to get to spend the short time we could with all of them. Then up to mom's for dinner and time to relax. Luke grilled out for us and we got to hang out and go to bed at a reasonable time. Luke and Emmett went back down to Denver to meet Amy, Mark, Deb, Bobby and his long time friend Greg Watts with his little boy, Cooper, at the Piper. Mark had to go in for a few tests prior to his transplant on Thursday so they were going to be up and why not make a stop at the Piper for some hot wings. The following day, Luke and I left the kids with mom and went down for dinner with Mark and Deb and Donna the night before the big day, Mark's surgery! We spent the last part of the night at Eric and Ivy's. It was nice getting to spend a few hours chatting and then off to bed. The morning came too early when we had to leave at 4am to get the boys to the airport for the annual golf tourney at the lake. Back up to mom's...which they were all just waking up when I got there! We ran errands all day like usual...gotta get my Whole Food's fix!

The wedding...part one

Our vacation started with a journey to Colorado Springs to stay with Grandma and Grandpa. They agreed to watch the kids so Luke and I could attend his good friend's wedding. Matt Lutgen and his new bride Korrie got married on Saturday up in Parker at his sister's home. Her place was gorgeous and had the perfect setting to get married. A pretty pond with blooming flowers and a very nice tent set up for when it briefly rained(outdoor Colorado wedding...who knew!). It was a very nice wedding and we got to see so many people. What a night! Shannon, Tim's sister, wound up driving our drunk butts home and we had to walk a few miles to the car in the morning. We were not prepared to walk, hung over mind you, two miles in flip flops in the heat. Whew! Sunday we lounged around with the kids and cousins at Mark and Deb's. Matt and Luke ran around and played baseball with the kids in the back yard. It was really an awesome sight to see your husband and his brother with all of their kids playing in the grass and laughing/enjoying every minute of it. Just like family should be. Great memories.

Packing

I have been busy packing today for our upcoming trip. I have had a ton of help. Jolene seems to not like things in stacks. She immediately tears into anything that is neatly folded in a stack. Sure makes packing tough. Emmett is also very helpful these days. He chose his underwear and clothes that he wanted to bring and was told that he could bring one blanket and one stuffed dog.

This picture dictates what he must have actually heard.

Getting ready for denver

We leave for Denver trip in two days. Turns out I have Whooping Cough! What?! I have had a cough for about 3 weeks now and have chalked it up to a summer cold. I went to the doc 'cause mom and Chris both said that it was time to go. Good thing I went. I got a tetanus shot(because they now contain the vaccine for whooping cough) and a z-pak for antibiotics. Slightly worried since we will be staying with Mark and Deb and Mark is going in for his kidney surgery next week. We are still up in the air about what to do as I am contagious for a few more days... Kids have been vaccinated and anyone who has recently had a tetanus shot are fine. Crazy!!! Glad I finally went to the doc(Thanks Mom and Chris!). I should be back to normal in a few days. I decided to add a few updated pics of the kids. I took these a few minutes ago. Joey has certainly lost her peanut status. She is growing like a weed and I think Emmett is getting ready to. They both are eating like crazy and keep me on my toes when I am cooking. "Feed me!" "whatcha makin?" "WAHHHHH"(Jolene).

wild friday

Friday turned out to be a crazy hectic day. It wasn't supposed to be, but then our friend Dan drives up the driveway and hops out with his two kids, Wyatt and Kenley. I had offered to watch them but didn't realize it was this Friday. He drops them off at 8am and says he'll be back to pick them up around noon. I have already lined up a rental turn-around for my girlfriends mom who had asked for some help. She has a few rental properties in town and had people checking out at 11am and new renters coming in at 4pm. I had asked my neighbor,Chris, to watch the kiddos so I could help out cleaning the rental. But now I had 4 kids til noon!!! Luke agreed to take an early lunch and came home around 10:45am so I could get into town. I had no idea what I was getting into! I love to clean so I thought this would be no issue. 3 bathrooms and 5 beds later....and it was a stackable washer and dryer! Those things take forever to wash and dry 5 pairs of bed linens. Anyway, a few extra dollars in my pocket and 5 hours later, I went home to relieve Chris of the kids. Then made dinner and rushed over to Jessica's to help set up for our garage sale on Saturday morning. I was there til about 10pm (the bottle of wine that Jess and I polished off did not help matters!) and was back there at 6am. It was worth it because we got rid of a ton of stuff and I made about $120. I brought home the rest of the potential profits aka leftover stuff to put into my neighbor Chris' garage sale in about a month or so. Never a dull moment around here. Luke and I settled in and enjoyed our porch for basically the first time last night. Jolene was in bed and Emmett was cracking us up. Luke put a new fishing lure on his fishing pole(hooks removed!) and he was fishing off the front porch. Truly a sight to see so I videod the event. We thought Uncle Bill would be proud! Bedtime rolled around for Emmett and it was finally quiet and we sat and watched an amazing lightning storm roll in. Luke and I thought we were going to finally get hit hard with rain and it basically split around the house. I think it sprinkled a few drops and the wind gusted a few times as we watched it pour in town and go behind heart mtn. Oh well. It made for some great entertainment. Jolene is completely off bottles now, which will make traveling sooo much easier this next trip. I got really fed up and threw them all away. The bottles were the original ones we used with Emmett just with some new nipples. They were starting to crack and leak everywhere. I think that's when I cracked and threw every last bottle in the trash. She does fine on sippy cups. Problem solved.