From the Jungles of Borneo

A few days after Emm's birthday her baby orangutan finally arrived!

I wish I could get the video to load of her finding the Ashton Drake box on her bed.  So cute!

 For now she will be known as Little Enu (the name she came with). 

I think it's safe to say it was love at first sight.

Fall Field Day

Eyestone switched things up a bit and decided to hold Field Day in the fall this year instead of Spring. Because I am on the PTO board I spent the majority of the day helping out.

Shana, Me, Lisa, Amanda, Jen

For the most part, Field Day is put on by the PE teacher. This year PTO played a bigger role and provided bounce houses which were a huge hit.

 I spent the day at the Tailgate Party which PTO was also in charge of. We had music, pizza and some parking lot games like Ladder Toss and Cornhole 

(in my world this was known as bean bag toss ... until now;)

The theme was "Kicking Off a Great Year" and the kids were encouraged to wear favorite sports team gear. Since we aren't big on pro sports around here, we didn't have any Broncos attire .. .. unbelievable right? Go Pokes!!

Classmates: Sophie, Emm, Trey, Tania, Raigan, Kaydence, Liliana

 I did get to sneak over and catch Emmrey's class at a couple of stations that were nearby. 

This one was a Game Day shopping relay.

I believe this was called Playoff. The PE teacher had to get creative to incorporate some of the equipment she has to fit the football theme. These two are so nice they did not want to hit each other with those pillows ... it was a little painful to watch;)

 The day was beautiful after a chilly start. Part of the reason the PE teacher tried fall was that spring often has unpredictable weather. We heard mixed reviews from parents and staff about having it this early in the year. I was just happy to sneak in some time with my girl!

turning 10

Little Emmrey crossed the threshold into double digits this week. This benchmark has been really hard for me with all three girls. There is just something about a single digit that makes them seem littler and then overnight it feels different. I'm not ready for this girl to grow up. Luckily she isn't ready either! Emmrey loves her a Mickey D breakfast sandwich so she was thrilled to eat this in bed while she opened her card from Gpa & Gma Smith.

Then it was off to church. Not really the most exciting place for a birthday, but this girl was pretty excited that they would read her name in Primary:) AND she got to wear the new dress/jacket 

Gpa & Gma Fortie sent her .... adorable!!

When I was talking to her about food plans for her birthday, she was very decisive in her lunch choice. Gib's Bagels it was!

We didn't do a friend party this year so I had read about this "Fairy Trail" in Red Feather and thought it would be a perfect activity for Emm's birthday.

It's kinda hard to explain or appreciate unless you go there, but essentially it is a mile trail that is filled with hidden and not so hidden mythical creatures ... mostly Gnomes.

The wind chimes were a good affect.

We came across all sorts of unique creations that people had added to the trail.

Some were downright creepy!

Kars especially related to this one .... LEAVE!

Bailee in the middle of a Gnome garden

There was way more to it than I had expected. We stopped counting after 100+ and that was just the Gnomes. There were many other creatures all over the place 

(some that didn't add anything to the experience)

It turned out to be super fun and it was the perfect thing for Emmrey! 

Besides the area is pretty magical on it's own.

 

When we got home, Emmrey was ready to open gifts. Our funny girl really wanted footie PJ's so she was pretty excited about that. She also got a new outfit for Gorden, a super set of sidewalk chalk from Bailee, and some rain boots which she has been requesting for years. She was hoping to get a Guinea Pig (she didn't) OR a Monkey. She would love a real pet monkey, but Ashton Drake will have to do. The sad thing is that it didn't make it on time (got delayed on the boat coming from the jungles of Borneo according to Mark;) She was still ecstatic and is impatiently waiting the arrival of her baby orangutan.

She requested Pasta Roni (from the box) of all things for her birthday dinner. I wasn't complaining. It made it real simple. I did add some bread sticks and salad just to complicate things a little.

This girl would eat ice cream every single day if we let her. She probably asks for it almost every single day. So it made perfect sense that her birthday treat would be banana splits with extra ice cream 

(we also took ice cream sandwiches into school to share with her class).

Man I love this girl of mine and I hope all her wishes come true. Happy 10th Emmy Boo! 

Love you the most:)

this little light of mine

Some thoughts on my little Alise turning 10. This baby of mine has been a light in my life since the moment she was born. Of course all three of my girls are the light of my life, but Emmrey really did bring me light during an extremely difficult time.

I often think about how as much as she needed and relied on me I needed her even more.

 From that day forward she has continued to be a light. Within a year, that dark little head changed to a flaming mane of white!

 Emmrey is just happy by nature. She is excited about life and it rubs off on the rest of us!

 She LOVES all critters (alive or of the stuffed kind) and the girl loves a good celebration of anything or nothing at all.

 She is extremely thoughtful in her view of the world and is perceptive in a way that is beyond her years.

 She is also full of a whole lot of spunk and never met a bar (of the swinging kind;) that doesn't call her name. Emmrey is determined! If she wants to learn something she will research and practice. She doesn't always master it, but darn if she doesn't try!

 She is a super good sport and is usually up for anything. Of course she has her likes and dislikes but she is pretty good about going with the flow. She is also a pretty talented girl on the water!

I mean it when I say I don't know what I would do without her. She really does light up my life!

Aunt Ashlee came to visit

Over Labor Day weekend we had a visitor. It's always a good time when Ashlee comes to town. We picked her up at the airport Friday afternoon while the girls were still in school {they were not so happy with that}. We got stuck in accident traffic on the way there and weekend/holiday traffic on the way back. When we finally made it home it was well past dinner time. 

We had a BBQ on the deck and just relaxed the rest of the night.

even Stewy joined us for a while

Wellington just got a new Mexican restaurant downtown. I'm telling ya it has been the talk of the town for months!! We decided we better go try it out for lunch. It was decent, but I don't think any of us were blown away. It will be nice to have another choice for date nights when we want to stay local.

That night Ashlee and Bailee went on a Ghost Tour in Fort Collins. They have done one of these together in Salt Lake. It is kinda their thing! The tour takes you around an under Old Town. Most of the tour was too dark for photos (or so I was told;) I did get this one sent to me of Bay in solitary. They seemed to really like the tour and had all sorts of stories to share about the encounters they had around Old Town Square. That can be an interesting place during the day time so on a Friday night I imagine there are some colorful characters!

Sunday we took off for Estes Park with a plan to do a short hike to Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park but were forced to alter the plan. RMNP is always "busy" but I had never seen anything like this before. They were literally turning cars back because the road and parking areas were over capacity. After waiting in lines of cars for what seemed like forever, I was fine to go to a quieter part of the park. We picnicked and then went on a little hike around Wind River instead. 

 It was a lot of uphill at first and I was not so sure I liked it .. ..

 .. .. but then the view  ... ... beautiful!

We hung around for a while chatting and were treated to some elk bugling while we sat.

 Of course a silly face photo is a must for Emmrey these days:)

 We got a peak at a couple of cows nearby and knew the bull had to be close but we couldn't see him. As we headed back down off the top. We literally walked into a sea of cows with babies. It was like nothing I had ever seen or experienced before. They were everywhere on both sides of us.

 It was amazing!!

 We made our way back to Estes and stopped in at The Stanley Hotel to look around.

 We walked through the Hedge Maze inspired by the movie

 This photo (not mine) gives you a better appreciation for it

We then went inside. Access to the rooms upstairs is limited to guests staying at the hotel. We did get on the elevator to go down. It felt a little unsettling for sure! Notice anything abnormal?:0

Downstairs was a museum of photos and memorabilia. There was also this dollhouse version of the Stanley which was used for exterior snow scenes in the Stephen King TV version of The Shining.

It was worth checking out. It almost makes me want to watch The Shining again.

Funny how this girl was getting into it and she doesn't even know what The Shining is. Not sure the one above really does either for that matter;)

  After The Stanley we were hungry. We stopped in at one of our favorite joints in Estes for some Chicago style pizza.

 Then we walked around the shops and eventually had some ice cream.

Our last day with Ashlee was spent at Water World. The girls have been talking this up with her ever since we went for the first time in 2013. It is kinda spendy so it's definitely a treat! 

It is also huge and this time was even more fun than the first.

awesome photo taken in full motion as we turned at the light ;0

There really isn't a way to take pics at the slides (unless of course you aren't actually riding them). It was non stop action from the time we got there until closing time .... literally! This was the last day of the season and they played Closing Time as we all packed up to leave. It was awesome! Trust me ... it was a super fun day. I hope it lived up to all the hype the girls created:)

 We had dinner and then drove Ashlee to DIA to catch her flight that night. It seemed like she had barely got here and it was already time for her to leave. We had a great time with her over the weekend and hope she can come back soon!