Iowa

After loading up the car....

the boys and I headed out to Iowa. They were great travelers the whole way. Probably because I make them do this a lot. We only stopped twice for food, gas, and bathrooms and made it the whole way in 11 hours.

While in Iowa we got to spend some time with great people. 

We spent a morning with Great Grandpa Linden and Verdel.

They boys and Dad went to the Science Center with Grandma and Grandpa Weldon for the afternoon while Patrick napped. Luckily, Dad sent me photos. They looked like they were having fun.

We also made it over for a family wedding. It was a great party.

This guy spent the entire night on the dance floor. He is a dancing fool.

The boys also had a blast at Grandma and Grandpa Strutt's. 

They got to climb the ladder...

(Even the little guy. He is fearless)

...they played games....

....and had Grandpa read stories (which entails Grandpa making up a story and Daniel correcting him to make it the way he wants it).

Josh also found some friends in the neighborhood. He was out playing with a couple boys from the surrounding houses almost every day. He loved it.

Now, off to our next adventure.

Comi-con

Every year in June, the Van Wyk family comes out for a visit and for the Denver Comic Convention. They stayed at our house first and we enjoyed some quality time with the family. Unfortunately it also coincided with a crazy baseball schedule, but I think they still enjoyed it. 

The kids got to help make some really good pies. Jeni always has such fun ideas and the kids love helping in the kitchen. 

We made a trip to the mall and only brought one stroller. Poor little boys.

And of course, we spent lots of time downtown at the convention. 

The boys had fun walking around the convention a little. They liked all the cars. 

But mostly they liked the kid zone area where they got to do a lot of crafts. Like making capes...

...coloring balloons...

...making cuffs (these were genius. They are made out of toilet paper rolls)....

...and making masks.

The Van Wyks moved to a hotel on Thursday and were nice enough to offer taking the boys on a sleepover. They each got to spent the night one night while they were in town. We also went swimming a few times. Hotels are so fun.

The adults had fun too. Look! Its the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Van!

This convention always has the best costumes and this year did not disappoint. 

This is a fun event we look forward to all year.

Thanks Van Wyks!

Warriors night at the Rockies

Every year, the baseball league Josh is in has a night at the Rockies where they wear their uniforms and get to walk around the field. Josh and I had planned to go together but the day of, I got whatever Daniel had been sick with the previous two days so I couldn't attend. Luckily, one of the Dads from his team agreed to take him down for me. They sent pictures. 

Here are some of Josh walking on the field. (Doesn't he look thrilled?)

Some friends from the team.

Watching the game.

Rally caps. It didn't help, but I think they had fun anyway.

Go Rockies!

Free day at the museum

The Weldons stuck around for an extra week to help me out with Jury Duty. So, we all loaded up on Monday and went to the free day at the Science Museum. 

The boys love playing in the astronaut play area.

They had a new Maya exhibit (which we didn't pay to see) that had some fun photo ops.

Even Grandma and Grandpa joined in the fun. 

The boys' favorite place in the museum is the dinosaur exhibit. They love walking through all the dinosaur bones and replicas.

Patrick kept running around saying "Saurs, saurs". He was fascinated.

We ended the day showing Grandma and Grandpa all the fun animal dioramas they have. 

Thanks for joining us at the museum!

Patrick's 2nd Birthday (part two)

Today was Patrick's actual birthday. For a 2 year old, it's pretty much a typical day. Take brother to school, go to the doctor, go grocery shopping, meet Dad for lunch, take a nap, and pick up brother from school. Then, we went out dinner to celebrate his birthday. We went to Red Robin.

I think everyone enjoyed dinner.

This is his new photo face whenever I saw "smile". 

He was very excited about the ice cream, but not so sure about them singing to him.

Happy Birthday, Patrick! I can't believe your are two. You are turning into such a fun, sweet boy. Can't wait to see what you do next.

Bolder Boulder

Back at Christmas, Rob and Whitney were talking about races they had ran. Joe and I foolishly brought up that we were thinking about doing the Bolder Boulder 10K over Memorial Day weekend and they should come out and join us. So, come February we all four signed up. Joe and I found an eight week training program online and got running in April. It was hard to find the time. Most of my runs were pushing a stroller with the two little ones while Josh was in school. I discovered there are a lot of hills in our neighborhood. Joe split his training between Denver and Alabama and discovered running at sea level is much easier. 

Well, after "training", the day finally arrived. We woke up nice and early Memorial Day and headed out to Boulder. The boys stayed with Grandma and Grandpa (thankfully). 

Here we are before we joined our running waves. All smiles (for now). 

Right before we started. It was pretty cool how they started. Each wave got a trumpet call to the line and a gun shot. Then we were off. We were serenaded by bands along the entire route. People who live in houses on the route come out and sit in their yards. Some just watched but most had their garden hoses out spraying people or offering food (like Doritos and cupcakes). There were a few fun outfits including a body suit that was the human muscular system (gross). I did okay for the first half but really struggled the rest. Joe was great and stayed with me the whole time. And....

we finished! (no photo of me at the end) We had a goal of 68 minutes and beat it by over a minute with an end time of 66:41.









Then we walked around Boulder, had a nice healthy lunch and came home to take a nap. Thanks Rob and Whitney for pushing us to do this. It was great doing it with you. I think that will tide me over on races for a while.