Fall in Estes Park (one of our favorite family vacations!)

This Fall Break we took our first trip to the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park.  It turned out to be one of our favorite family vacations!  We stayed in a cabin in the mountains at this incredible rec center.  Or, as the boys called it, "their happy place".  They wore ear to ear grins the whole time!

I warn you, we really enjoyed ourselves.  So there's lots of pictures.

Just under two hour drive away, easy in the new Outback.

Yeah, that bag fell on Hershey's spot.  She paid us back by vomiting on it. 

Our two bedroom cabin with a fully furnished kitchen.

Oreos, milk, and lots of laughs.

Sunrise view from the front door.

The wildlife was incredible!!

Our visit coincided with the annual elk rut, herds walked among us the whole trip.

When I opened the cabin door to let Hershey do her business, we had some company.

Ethan made friends with all of the animals, including this bird of prey (hawk?).

After five minutes of standing a foot apart, the bird flew above him.

A flock of wild turkeys gobbled in our backyard.  Alas, Hershey didn't fetch us dinner.

The only animal we spotted without grabbing a picture was a coyote.  Needless to say, he looked well fed.

The boys even investigated a mouse skeleton they found.  

Beyond the wildlife, the boys were in heaven with limitless (FREE!) activities.  We didn't get to half of them!

Unlimited mini-golf- Gavin's version of heaven!

I told you the elk walked amongst us!

And my version of heaven- an art center!

Ethan painted a wooden snake.

Gavin a wooden alligator.

And I painted a wooden cabin, to use as an ornament to remember our trip every year.

Chris taught the boys how to play pool, and he and Ethan handily beat Gavin and I.

Their biggest obsession? Tennis!!  Who knew?!  Ethan has been begging for lessons for at least a year, but I need more days in a week with gymnastics, soccer, cub scouts, and his seasonal swim and parkour.  Apparently, I need to find a time because he LOVED it!

Of course they had playgrounds, and Gavin crossed the monkey bars for the first time on his own!

Not to be outdone...

We finally left the site to explore the Rocky Mountain National Park and drove up the Trail Ridge Road Summit.  

We climbed a couple hundred steps in the windy cold weather of the tundra to see the view!  (We were so high it's apparently a different ecosystem and qualifies as a tundra with glacial snow).  

Boy it was worth it!

Thanks for sticking with me to the end!  Needless to say, we promised the boys we will be back!

Ethan's New Soccer Team- The Bulldogs!

It took three seasons to get off the waiting list.  

Ethan finally got a spot on a neighborhood soccer team, the Bulldogs! 

He lucked out with a great group of friends, as did I!  

This week was Ethan's turn to try his hand at being a goalie, a first!

Here's some warm up shots:

Then the pressure was on, game time!  

For a boy who can sometimes get distracted ;), he was focused on the ball the whole time he manned the net.  He had a bunch of saves!

He was particularly proud of this in air catch.

Jumping for joy at a team goal, of which there were many!

Team celebration of our first win, go Bulldogs!

Back to School Haircuts

The boys spent almost an hour perusing Google Images of "2016 cool men haircuts".

"Men."  Because when they looked at "boys", the haircuts weren't "cool" enough.

Finally they picked a current trendy cut with a hard part.  Gavin was the most confident about the choice.  He walked up to the barber, "I want the line!"

I told Gavin I thought his haircut looked good.  He sternly corrected me. 

"It looks COOL Mommy!  My haircut is INTENSE!"

Turned out a lot better than the last time I let them pick their cuts!

Olympic Inspiration

It's Olympics season.

Ethan usually is asleep around 7:30pm.

Tonight he's up well past 9.

Up watching the games?  No, I haven't let on that they are still on after bedtime (even though I'm trying to rush the process to watch myself! ;)

He's up reading, grade appropriate but challenging books that he didn't want to try a couple of weeks ago.

I try to tuck him in again as he debates with me how many more books can he read first.  Then he makes me smile.

"Mommy, it's like the Olympics.  Listen... they said that gymnast [Simone] practices 32 hours a week and I only practice 1 hour.  That's like ALLLL day.  MORE than a day! If I want to be a super fast reader I have to be like an Olympian and stay up later and read more."

He continued, "If I do that then I can become an Olympian.  Not like the sports, like a scientist or something.  That kind."

Needless to say, I let him read another book.