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.

Happy Birthday Meredith

(We needed a little "deco" so I stayed up way too late last night making this cute banner)

Today Meredith turned 9 years old. She's getting old and so are we. It also happened to be the last day of school today. We celebrated with friends, presents, and way too much Ice cream. Mer started off the morning with a french toast "cake" topped with a little fruit and a candle. She also opened presents from Max (a webkin) and Jack ( a purse). Then it was off to the last day of school.Jack and I did a little last minute shopping and then met Mer and Max for lunch where they handed out birthday treats to their classmates...ice cream sandwiches. This was the view from my car as I picked them up from school. Goodbye, 1st and 3rd grades, 2nd and 4th here we come. They are standing with Max's teacher.
After school, to celebrate the last day of school, we met some friends at Ben & Jerry's for our second Ice cream treat of the day. We even indulged in chocolated dipped cones with sprinkles.
We had a nice family dinner of hotdogs and watermelon,

And then got down to the business of opening presents.


They played Heavy Heavy Hangover and even Luke caught on.Thank you Grandmas for the cute clothes, Mer loved them.
Then she blew out the candles on the third ice cream treat of the day, mint ice cream pie (she helped make it yesterday, mint oreos and andes mints in vanilla ice cream)
Yes Luke ate Ice cream 3 times today as well, and loved every bite. As he put the last chocolate chunk in his mouth he said "mmmm"
All in all it was a great celebration. We are so glad to have our little mommy, Mer, in our family. She's so helpful and good and tries real hard to get along with all these brothers. She's growing up too fast. We love you Meredith.

Happy Birthday!!

Tasty Tomatoes and Frosties

I have a ton to say but here are just a few things. It's been raining and raining all week long. I'm currently waiting for some stripper to work on my cabinets in the bathroom so I can stain them tomorrow. We plan on finally tiling it this weekend. But anyway, here are some pictures from today and yesterday. Today Jack picked his first cherry tomato from his tomato plant. He has been taking good care of it, watering it and checking on it and he finally got one ripe enough to pick. He ate it and said it was good. It must have been good because later...

...when we were out taking this picture he told me he was just going to pick some more to eat. Too bad there aren't any more ripe yet. I told him to give it a few more days. We are also growing cucumbers (Max's) and Mer planted a cabbage she got from school.
When Doug and Jack were walking outside to pick his tomato, they spied a Hawk, we think, sitting on our back fence. One more bit of wildlife we can add to the list that we've seen in our yard or neighborhood. (along with an armadillo, opossom, turtles, sandhill cranes, bunnies, raccoons, skinks outside and in our bathroom, lizards and snakes, just to name a few)
And finally... yesterday evening Doug was so excited that mutual got cancelled that he took the whole family out for Frosties. Everyone got their own including Luke with his very own tiny size. Of course he's at the age that he wants to do it all by himself and he screams if you are even touching the cup, so we let him have a go at serving himself. He did fairly well until...
...until I looked back and saw that he was shoving his whole hand down into the cup. I hollered "no no no" at him and he started crying.
He recovered quickly with another bite and I think thoroughly enjoyed his first very own Frosty.

Meet Lucy

Max and Mer played their last soccer Game today. It was the first game day in the real heat, with a game at 10 am and one at 11:30 (the car read 100 outside when we got into it but I think it was . Max's game was so fun to watch, the kids seemed to finally turn the power on and they tied at 7-7. No goals for Max but that wasn't for a lack of trying. He played his heart out. Mer's game was rough. It was so hot outside that they kept stopping the game entirely for water breaks. They won, 2-1 and Mer played great as well. Max's team had a little pizza party afterward and he got his trophy.A couple of pictures from the week... Mer has been throwing parties again. She checked out a kids party book from the library and came home and threw a Jungle party for dinner. She made sandwich kabobs, green jungle juice, and decorated with stuffed animals.

And for dessert she made "bug" jello cups. (if you're wondering, those are Chocolate chips on peach jello, yummy.)And finally... introducing "Lucy" our new little sister, compliments of Mer. She's bound and determined to get a little sister.