4-40 Air Conditioning

Just when I was feeling like this:

Thanks for this Kendra!!

 

As I was saying, just when I was feeling the need to take a timeout from the kids, I had a day planned away. I was taking my mom out for a belated Mother's Day gift (life got busy for us moms), and the kids were taking my dad out (in his car, on my dime) for a Frosty Date... their annual Father's Day gift to him. That would be Wendy's Frostys and french fries.

When I got home I was asked if I heard of Grandpa's 4-40 air conditioning in his car? Um, no, never heard of that. For some reason GP Skip decided to take the old Explorer and showed the kids what the good ol' days were like. He said, "Have you heard of 4-40 air conditioning? No? I'll show you when we get going." He has them roll down their windows and then when he hit 40 mph he said, "That's 4-40 air conditioning." Four windows down at 40 mph, feel the air kids, feel the air!! I roared.

Then of course there is the 4-40 R air conditioning... that happens when he opens the sunroof... a little extra air flow! I heard they were quite sweaty in that style of a/c. Gotta love time with Grandpa!

Amazing Race

Tennison and I entered the Mother Son Amazing Race through our city. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon! We went in with one goal in mind... to crush the competition (kidding) and to have a blast. Little did we know just how fun it would be, right down to the Road Block, Intersection and Detour. We even had a little pre-race smack talk between us moms!!

Pre-race warm ups!

We even did some arm wrestling...

never know what will happen at an Amazing Race!!

We are officially ready, team shirts and all.

We got stickers after each event.

~ Here are some events from the Race ~

TP throw!

Ten was moving so fast at this road block he was blurry -

shaking his hands holding pedometers.

Building a Lego car.

Part of the obstacle course.

We hustled so fast and ran hard! We didn't win but we worked hard as a team!

Between the mystery food marked dog food and the baby pool

full of green slimy oatmeal that we had to dig out pennies from,

we couldn't have had more fun.

Our competition, I mean our friends!!

~ Ten & I, Brady & Laurie, and Braden & Vicky ~

Hopefully this is one of many Mother Son Amazing Races!!

It Happened

I read an article from a woman who writes on all things girls. She talked about being sad when her 12 year old wanted to put up her American Girl dolls. At the time I thought, That will be sad, good thing I'm not there yet. But it happened the other day. Reagan said, "I want to put my American Girl dolls away. Where should they go?" Where should they go? Displayed with joy in your room wearing those cute little outfits. Wait, never mind. She's 13... yes, they should go in your closet to be saved for your daughter one day. Ok, that is going to make me cry! It happened too fast.

Sky Corral Lodge

Our friends Greg & Vicky were telling us about an awesome camp they heard about not far from Fort Collins. I didn't really listen much, thinking only of our days of FCA camp at the YMCA... good times, but no need to repeat. Until I spoke with Avis, the owner of the camp. The "camp" is Sky Corral Lodge. Once she told me about all of the things you can do I was hooked... she had me at horse! Then she mentioned going with other families, the family camp idea. My mind started wandering as I thought of our Potluck Group - 8 families we've been potlucking with for 4 summers now. I put out an email to see who was interested and we got 4 families to join us. We went from Friday to Sunday and all decided we should have gone the recommended Thursday - Sunday. Here are some of our highlights!

I told you they had me at horse! They were surrounding us!

This one was my favorite!

They even had us at jack... donkey!



Our first night we went fishing after dinner.

One stinker of a fish took Whitney for a ride...

bit 3 times hard, but never got to reel it in.

Our view in the morning.

After breakfast the kids did archery...

And horseback riding.

The staff told us, You've heard of the high ropes course and the low ropes...

we have the no ropes course, it's the new thing!

It was all about team work!!

We had to get half of the the group from one side to the other

(a mirror image) and vice versa...

I had to get to the opposite end without falling and Trena had to follow, etc.

The kicker for us adults (the kids went first) was that we couldn't speak!

Smart to put the big guys in the middle,

they just threw us girls around like rag dolls.

Girls vs. Boys on this one.

No pictures were allowed on horseback, this is our best shot.

We took an amazing 2 hour mountainous ride on some great horses.

Wait, mostly great horses. Mine was given to me because I've ridden and she was ADHD... she proved it a few times over by kicking a few times and rearing up. Crazy!! Scott got the one who didn't want to move, poor Scott.

At night the staff organized Minute to Win It games...

and S'mores.

We took time to get to know our friends better!!

We keep waking up on our anniversary in the strangest places.

Our friends helped make it special with a banner on our door when we woke up!!

Even celebrated a 5th birthday, Batman below!

The kids! Aren't they cute?!

The whole group - The Friehauf family, Dix family, Woodalls and Kissels.

Happy trails from Sky Corral.



This may become a family tradition, it was such a great time. Check out their website if you are interested in an amazing mountain experience. http://www.skycorral.net/

Trail Ridge

We took a trek to the top of the world, Trail Ridge Road. At 12,090 feet the views were amazing in every direction!!

We carved Kissel into the snow... very touristy of us!

This was the kid's first time on Trail Ridge Road, so glad it was open.

Making memories is my favorite thing to do, especially with these 3.

And of course with this one!!

Right at this point it started to rain, so awesome.

It was a spectacular day in the mountains. We kept telling the kids, you are so lucky to live here!! They are really starting to get it.