Back to Josh Ritter's Reality

Back to our rhythm!

Saying goodbye to the Miners was sad on Tuesday, but knowing we get to spend a week with them in May made it easier.  

Jet lag didn't seem to hit us so hard after this trip, which we're both really grateful for.

Westin loved baking lots of cookies for his youth activity this week. We have a big bake sale coming up to earn some money for camps.

That same night Bennett loved going on a nature walk with the Activity Day crew. They saw wild turkeys, deer, eagles, and even a bull snake, and they were all stoked about it.

I saw Meg and Olive in Shrek this week and Robin in Catch Me If You Can. These girls are talented. Young Womens is the best. I love being in YWs with such good friends.

Asher did soccer on Friday with Reece and he sure loves it. Camden loved it on Saturday, too. He always makes a break at some point to score a good goal and it's so fun to cheer him on. I need to get it on video but it's tricky to time! His little team is so cute. Those Hot Dog Rockets.

Saturday night was Josh Ritter with the Gregorys, which is just the best. We got Middle Eastern food first and then went to the beautiful church he was playing at. I love his concerts so much. Carrie said, "I forgot he was such a cherub of a person," and she's right. What a joyful man, and I love any chance we get to go hear him sing his songs.

View from the swing

Making cookies for our youth bake sale

Activity Days nature walk -- complete with eagles, snakes, turkeys, and deer!

Back to the Environmental Learning Center the day after the Activity Days walk to see if we could find the bull snake again. Success!

These boys loved watching this snake for a while.

I took Westin to piano and came home to these three rolling a ball to each other and laughing.
Pretty sweet kids.

Meg and Olive were great in Shrek at the middle school!

Asher has loved starting soccer this spring.

The boys built this teepee with friends.

Soccer Saturday!
Camden is a great sport. He usually gets a good goal in but his team has quite the losing streak,
and still he just loves the experience every Saturday.

Beautiful concert venue in Denver

Josh Ritter! In a church! With the Gregorys!
Saturday of my dreams.

Labor Day & Growing Up

 Coming home from Swiss Days was a big crash. That was a physically and emotionally exhausting weekend and I just came home feeling raw. I just can't believe what Kindal carries. We will probably do it next year. But we're grateful it's a year away. 

I made it home late Sunday and was so glad that Michael had Monday off. We had a good Labor Day with the boys and that night we had tickets to Red Rocks to see Gregory Alan Isakov. I love his music. He's kind of a mystery man though. My favorite part of concerts is getting to know the artist more and hearing their stories but he didn't share much at all. The night still was magical though, because Red Rocks just always will be. I feel extra in love with Michael at concerts :) We drove down with the Gregorys and I just love spending time with them. I would love to go to Red Rocks at least once a year -- it feels like if you live by such a magical place you really need to prioritize getting there, even though it takes some effort.

We took down our crib this week. I keep thinking about it. I love these growing boys so much and I just cannot believe there are no more babies or toddlers around here. We were so defined by that for so long. 

It's the last week of summer which means... Camden passed the swim test! I am so proud of that cute boy. He was so nervous to jump off the diving board for the first time, but he just took the time he needed and finally did it. Watching him work it out made me so happy.

We rescued some more squirrels this week with our neighbors. My boys just love helping them and they're so cute. I don't think they'll all make it this time but we tried.

This weekend we went to a new-to-us natural area and listened to a city volunteer talk about the evolution of wildlife in the area. Our boys are usually the only kiddos at these things and I just love them. They're such good sports and so fun to hang out with. Our Stake end-of-summer party was really fun, but my very favorite thing was at the end when it was time to leave. I walked around the different centers at the party (dunking booth, nine-square, face-painting, snow cones, etc.) to round up my boys. In the end I found all four of them in a little field away from the party, playing football with the four of them. They had almost endless friends and activities to choose from and I found all four of them with just each other and one ball. I just laughed because they'd looked forward to the party so much and when I saw how they spent their time there I didn't really see how it was different from our backyard. Which really just made me happy.

Snacky lunches at the pool. We loved pool days this summer so much.

Our diving board boy!
I'm so proud of how hard Camden has worked on swimming this summer.

Red Rocks night

His set really was captivating.

Bennett is loving his Let's Play Music program.
He's such a self-motivated hard worker. Bless him.

Goodbye, sweet crib. 
You held my heart for years.
I'll always perfectly remember unswaddling my babies and seeing them take their first morning stretch.
Or cute little standing toddlers waiting for me happily after their nap.
Life stages are incredible things.

We had a Lego night for YWs.
This pile of things somehow made it from someone else's Lego box home in my Lego box.
I texted my friend to ask him if it was his boys' things.
He said, "No, would love for you to keep them."
And I said, "Thank you, I have been wishing for more piles of things."
My life feels defined by piles of things. I swear I combat this constantly.

"Mom, take a picture of me up here!"
I love him so much.

A cute little scene from preschool.
He has grown to love it and I'm so proud of him.

Throwing that atlatl.
Harder than it looks.
Unless you're Michael.

The biggest be we ever did see.

My boys LOVED this bee. And a few other people from our nature talk stopped to admire it with us.
Later, someone emailed the coordinator from the city to send them some of the really nice photos of the bee that they took on their nice camera.
They asked if the pictures could be emailed out to the group because some of the boys there (our boys) really loved the bee.
And this is why I just love Fort Collins.

Another neighborhood squirrel rescue.
These guys lost their mom somehow and started to try to get down out of their nest once they were hungry enough. Some were successful and some weren't :( And we coaxed the rest down the tree to get some puppy formula and rest.

End of summer stake picnic.
My soul just brightens up when I get to see Diane.

Concert to Conference

 April is BUSY and we're ready for it. Lots of fun plans in store that we've been looking forward to!

Michael grabbed Bright Eyes tickets a while ago when he saw they were coming to Fort Collins. This is a nostalgic music moment for him and I can't say I share this one :) Haha that concert was quite the trip. Also a woman howled like a wolf next to me for the majority of the night? But feeling pretty good about pulling off a standing room only concert on a Tuesday night, no where near 40 over here!

Wednesday was happy with a soccer hour then a ramen lunch with Michael, Camden, Asher, and me. I feel summer coming up and I know that my days with the two little guys will soon turn into days with all four of the boys. That's fun in its own way and we'll love it, but we're soaking up these final days with Camden and Asher, because right after summer we'll have to share Camden with Kindergarten. Which is terribly heartbreaking but also the best (he's stoked).

Saturday I went with my friend Carrie to do one of our young women's hair for prom, and I loved that! I think my young women are just the coolest girls. I love watching them live this busy stage of life and just navigating so much with skills I never had to have. Then I chaperoned the dance with my friends Lindsey and Diane and we had such a blast. I completely lost my voice because we couldn't even HEAR each other in there but we chatted the whole night. I wanted to dance so badly, but I felt like that was not the kosher choice. But it drives me almost literally crazy to be in a room with music and not just dance.

Saturday the boys got ready for conference so quickly, all their cozy blankets and pillows out on the floor and three snack bowls with three words labeled on them. I wanted to stay cozy all day on the couch with that set up, but after an hour we hit the road because we wanted to see Rachel's crew! They had come to Colorado for the week to ski so we went down to Ryan's to hang with the cousins for the day. So many little boys+Brooklyn. The kids are so happy when they're together. We missed Katie and Jack but we can't wait to hear about their African adventure!

Leaned into Michael's emo listening days and went to a local Bright Eyes concert.
I love that Fort Collins has a music scene and I really love weeknight dates.
I sort of love Bright Eyes :)

Soccer with Coach Oliver! Camden loves this part of the week.

Let's Go!

Took the boys out to a new ramen place after soccer and before preschool,
everything is more fun when Michael is home on Wednesdays.
He found a mystery shop for this new place, of course :)

A wheelie!

I did one of my Young Women's hair for prom and this was so fun for me.
It also left me so sad.
It's hard to explain how much I love having my boys and how it feels to not have a daughter.

Chaperone time!
Mormon prom is something around here.

The chaperones had to test out the photo booth and gelato, of course.

The boys went and got all their cozy gear for conference,
and three snack bowls with three words on them. They know this drill!

Concert Week, Grandparents Weekend

We hit two concerts this week, which was very rare and very fun. The Head and the Heart played at Red Rocks on Monday, which made for a late Monday night date night, but I loved it so much. I play their music so much in our kitchen and I'd never seen them live before.

Tuesday we had a pool party for Young Womens, then Wednesday we had school supply drop off and an ice cream social at the boys' school. Then Thursday was the first day! I can't believe it already came. Fourth Grade, First Grade, Preschool round 2, and Asher at home with me still. They had a great first day, and I'm so glad they love their school so much.

Ed and Sally came into town Saturday so that Michael could fix Ed's tooth. We're so happy we got a little bonus visit with them! On Saturday we rode the trolley downtown and grabbed some ice cream. On Sunday Katie and Ryan's family came up for dinner and Katie made homemade ice cream. The boys played and played for hours. 

I am loving this slow transition from summer to fall.  

First time at Red Rocks for The Head and the Heart

Such a pretty view and nice night for a concert

I loved seeing them live for the first time.

Sometimes some cute little boys bring me deliveries while I'm working on my computer :)

Dancing boys.
I love a good kitchen dance party.

Haircuts before school!
They're as excited about that as they look haha.

I love that I have four little boys. 
They'll all play the same thing sometimes and it just makes me so happy.

Sometimes by the time bedtime ends we are just ready to go to bed.
But I get sad thinking of our night already being over, so we pull out a crossword set that my dad mails us from the newspaper. :)

First day for this big fourth grader!

My second grade Benny Boy

I love that they're at the same school

Another round of preschool for this cute guy!

Looking big and so fresh with their haircuts.

Everyone on foot or on wheels this year! Although Asher can't quite swing our 2 mile walk, so I bring the stroller and he hops in about halfway through.

Neighborhood parade to the first day of school.

Workouts with Asher make me so happy. He's such a cutie.

Trolley ride with Grandma and Grandpa!

The trolley stops right by Walrus Ice Cream, it's very convenient :)

Second concert this week, who are we!
We took a school bus up the canyon to see Joy Oladakun at the Mishawaka Theater.

Haha sorry Michael!
There was a LOT of weed smoked at this concert. But not by us, he just happened to blink during both of the pictures that I took that night.

Joy was hilarious and so talented.

Cousins for Sunday!

Boy crew. Aunt Katie made homemade ice cream and they were in heaven.

A successful toy repair. Westin was heartbroken about this, so it was happy that it came back together really well.