To Boulder and Back

Well it has taken me long enough but the pictures are finally uploaded. Now to sum up over two weeks of family vacation/reunion at the Newson household... here goes! Beware, there are way too many pictures in this blog entry. I have to start out by saying a few things about the day of travel to Boulder. It was almost 14 hours from doorstep to doorstep. The kids did incredibly well. We had a little trouble dealing with our lay over in Atlanta when it went from 1 1/2 hours to 3 1/2 hours. But this is a nice picture showing how we passed the time. Constant Motion!! Luke was just happy to be running free instead of being strapped in a stroller or plastered to my lap on the plane. I got a lot of comment on how brave I was to be traveling alone with 4 kids, and also a few compliments on how well they did.

We finally got to Grandma and Grandpa's house a little after dinner time and we were exhausted. Sweet Jack finally got to hug his grandma.
The next day Max asked if Grandpa could make him doggie pancakes and told him about the ones his other Grandpa makes sometimes, so Dad made a western version and Max grabbed a fruit roll up from our airplane snack bag for the tongue. That morning we explored the house and yard, played with old toys and
took a trip to our favorite park to ride down the speedy roller slide and conquer dinosaurs. We also had fun playing with Rachel, Ben, and Brea.

Friday the real fun began with the arrival of the first set of cousins in Jesse and Becky's family from Maryland. It had been too long since we'd seen them. We had a birthday celebration that evening for the both of them. Jesse's birthday was that day and Becky's the week before.

Late Saturday night Tobin flew in and Jer and Heidi's family came from Utah. It was first of many crazy nights of cousin fun. I thought we'd never get the kids to sleep with how excited they were. Sunday was Rachel's birthday and it was celebrated with more treats and presents and cousin happiness.

The next few days were spent playing and playing and playing. Grandma read stories.

Jack and Eli were firemen

They had endless fun in the backyard playing on the tennis court, playing fetch with the neighbor's dogs and digging in the sand pit, a new addition since the recent replacement of the entire septic system a couple of months ago.
They built castles and forts and made sand balls and to have sand fights with.
Here are Eli, Max, Sam, Jack, and Jacob wearing their super capes and cooling off a bit.
Eli, Jack, and Jacob had a ton of fun running around with each other. It is so fun to have cousins your same age.
While the kids played I helped around the house, kept track of Luke, cooked, went shopping, finished a couple of sewing projects, made jewelry, and hung out with my brothers and sisters. We went swimming a couple of times and had a work in the yard morning pulling weeds in flower beds and moving rocks. Mom has a ton of beautiful flowers in the yard. I wish I had taken more pictures of them all. I really liked how bright and pretty these poppies were behind Jacob.
Doug flew into town on Wednesday and we went into Boulder to get our favorite "green" pesto Pizza from Pizza Calore on Pearl St. We met up with the cousins at a big toy store and then went on a little hike.
Ahh the Mountains, something I really miss about living in CO. The fresh mountain air is my favorite.

Our trail crossed a little stream that we waded in.

A lot of time was spent playing Guitar Hero, thank you Jesse for bringing it.
We spent an afternoon at a lake in town and got to go canoeing.


Sunday was Fathers Day. We made breakfast for the Dads, and gifts were given. Followed by Church, where the kids sang with the primary for father's day and my mom taught sunday school, then family pictures. Here's my family all together.
And here's the whole gang. We were mostly all together for 10 days.
After pictures we had a Luau. Everyone was greeted with kisses and Leis.
Mom, Rachel, Breanne and Ben got it all ready and helped pull it off.


All the kids got a picture of themselves posing on a surf board and decorated a frame to put it in as a souvenir.

We played with a ton of small beach balls which Doug quickly turned into a game of pelting each other as hard as you can.

We played some other games, including the Limbo.
And we performed our Hula dance that we learned in years past. The men and boys also got a turn to do it.

And finally the volcano for the finish.Jesse and Jeremy's families left on Monday. Tob came with us for one last trip into Boulder for a little hiking and lunch on pearl street.

Tob and Doug left on Tuesday and we had one more day to hang out and play.
That evening we went to In to the Wind and the kids bought some little toys to take with them on the airplane. We finished off the evening with a trip to Dairy queen.

Goodbye Grandma and Grandpa, Ben and Brea, and Rachel. We had so much fun and will miss you tons. The flights home went smoothly. Doorstep to Doorstep only took about 8 or 9 hours this time which was very relieving for me. Sad to leave but good to be home. Back to the heat and the thick humid air. Ready for the rest of summer with swimming and beaching and friends.

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Only 2 days to go....

We are so excited to be going home to visit Grandma and Grandpa Newson next week and have been counting down the days. In anticipation, the kids have spent the last few days "packing" and planning what they are going to take with them on the airplane, and who's going to sit where. I can't tell you how many times I've heard Jack say, "come on guys, lets pack." Max and Jack are also back to playing "best buddies". Here they have constructed their own tables and are eating breakfast together.

Mer has been working on her Faith in God requirements lately. This week she passed off one where she was required to entertain young children with games and activities. She planned a little meeting where she invited a couple of Jack's friends to the house and "entertained" them. Her agenda included songs, matching games, puzzles, coloring, and a snack. She did a great job and had them mesmerized for about 45 minutes. She currently wants to be an art teacher when she grows up and this week she demonstrated that she just might be a great one.

We are still under construction here, working on our bathroom. We've got the tile done and it's painted. Doug worked on the baseboards, with a little help from Luke, on Saturday and is close to having them done. To keep Luke occupied Doug gave him his own baseboards to work on with his little saw. We may have a budding builder here.
I've stripped the cabinet fronts and they are awaiting the stain. Too bad I'm leaving town and it will all be put on hold for a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll get lucky and Doug will finish everything while I'm gone. Here's a picture of what it looks like now, minus the baseboards.

How We Pass the Time.

Summer is here and the kids are finally out of school and are enjoying every second of no commitments. The humidity has set in and we are really feeling the heat so we've been to the swimming pool and have been playing in our back yard splash pools. In addition to playing outside in the water and heat, creativity is thriving here as you can see from these pictures. Here's Mer in her element posing with her new stuffed animals and purse. As you can tell Luke loves playing along, though his attention span doesn't last too long.

Jack is learning his letters and showed off an "H" out of diving sticks. You might not be able to see too well but he has black eyes in this pic, He is recovering from a slip n slide collision with another little boy on Memorial Day. Thankfully it is all healed up now.

Max passes the time building things out of tinker toys like this "hyper-blaster". He even tried to buy a girl's set for Mer for her birthday so we would have more to build with.
And Luke is just happy to be toddling around from place to place to see what everyone is into. He jumps in on the wrestling pile, screams for fun when everyone else does, and courtesy laughs at the funny jokes. He has been adding to the mischief lately...climbing onto the couch and blue chairs all by himself and then tries to climb over the arms or the back. He has gone over head first a couple of times and it's a miracle he hasn't broken his neck. He is also working on his vocabulary. He hollers "da da" , and says "bebe" for baby, knows to say "eeee" when he sees the camera. I'm trying to get him to say mama but all that comes out is "ba ba" though he cries "ma ma" when he's sad. He is also really good at expressive sounds like "uh-oh" "whoa" "boo" and "roar"
I'm glad it's summer. I love having them all home reading and playing and am looking forward to many more days of mischief.