Fall Soccer

 Emm played fall soccer again this year. She moved to the highest age group 10-12. We seem to have much better luck with weather in the fall than in the spring. 

Some brisk evening practices and Saturday morning games, but nothing soggy.

 Last year she wasn't quite 10 when we registered, so she was one of the oldest in her bracket. This year she played against kids who were in Middle School. It was fun to watch their games. 

She had a coach that actually "coached" and the kids played hard!

 She isn't super aggressive, but gets a bit more competitive when her friends are on the other team;)

Addie and Emmrey

Much to her relief, she didn't have to play Goalie once ... she was pretty worried about that! She didn't score any goals but she has a great attitude and is always excited about going to her games.

 Even though her little team didn't have a name (coach was nice, but pretty serious), they played well together!

(L-R) Back: Emm, Travis, Tallan, Coach Tad, Hannah, Jacob, Andrew S, Andrew S
Front: Leah, Asiel, Izzy, Grace

3 weeks feels like forever

Bailee has lived away from us for 3 weeks now. She is doing great .... which makes it so much easier for me. Although, there is this strange hole and "differentness" in our home that I don't know I will ever get used to. I talk to her in one form or another everyday and we made a deal that she would send me a picture a day. She has followed through with that and has only missed a day or two. Our girl has been busy! She has been occupied with studying, athletic events, "Foam Parties", movies, Honors Club socials, Pre-Med Club, hiking, Zumba, Institute, Bio/Chem labs, and meeting new friends (Tatiana, Amanda, Daphne, Kelsey and Tiana are a few she hangs out with regularly), and running into old friends from Cody. I love that one day her picture was of the Pumpkin Treats that they served in the dining hall. She was so thrilled and knew I would be equally excited about that type of thing;) 

The transition has been smoother for her than I expected .... which makes me so happy, 

but I miss her like crazy!!

Golden Birthday

I knew there was something to turning your age on the date you were born, but I didn't know it was your Golden Birthday until Kars told me. Aside from Mark and I , Emmrey is the first in our family to have her "Golden" ... turning 11 on the 11th. It was a school day ... even a Monday! Luckily her breakfast in bead choice was simple. Months ago she tried a sample of Naked Green Machine at Costco and she decided right then that is what she wanted for her birthday breakfast. 

It is really a meal in itself, but she added bread with Nutella.

That little smoothie turned out to be harder to get than I expected! I tried a couple of big grocery stores with no luck and ended up finding it at our corner gas station:/ 

She was thrilled  ... and now wants one all the time.

She was so excited to wear this adorable jumpsuit Gpa Wayne & Gma Cheryl sent her 

along with another cute outfit:)

We sent her off to school with some Snickerdoodles from Eileen's Cookies {can't take homemade stuff here} and a little note for her lunch. I was working that day at her school so I got to see her throughout the day and cheer when they said her name on the morning announcements.

It was her first day of after school Choir and Dance in the evening and she wanted to go to both ... which was fine but only left us a small window to celebrate. 

Kars helped me jazz things up for our Golden theme (so clever with the #11)

 She chose "Uncle Scott's Mac-n-Cheese" for dinner. We added some corn and strawberries from our garden.

We wrapped up dinner and had just enough time to let her open gifts. 

Bailee had sent her a surprise all the way from Laramie!

She's all ready to cheer on the POKES!

Kars gave her a PopSocket with a super cute sea turtle on it.

Mark and I gave her some new shoes and surprised her with those{crazy priced} American Girl Bitty Twins she has been saving for. She was so happy! And will now be using her savings toward 5th grade Eco week;)

We kissed her and sent her on her way to dance.

When she returned we had Banana Splits with Malted Moo Shake ice cream ... 

It's almost always golden with this little ray of sunshine around. She truly lights up our life with the joy she brings to our family and the happiness she exudes!

Love you the most Boo!

DINOS!

We spent the Sunday before Emm's birthday at the zoo. Partly as a celebration and partly to see the Dinos! exhibit that they have right now. In addition to the Dinos, we got to watch the zookeeper interact (scratch) Ralph the Emu. Normally you hardly even notice guys like this, so it was a treat.

We also caught the Elephant show with Groucho

It was fun to wander and find the Dinos around the zoo 

(although we all wished they were a little more interactive/animated)

In honor of the upcoming birthday, we bought this girl some Dippin' Dots since she always reminds us that unlike her sisters, she has never had them. She picked Chocolate Mint.

It was strange not having Bay with us. We are still trying to adjust to that!

These two also rode the train (only because we had some passes;). Pretty unimpressive Denver Zoo. At least Hogle Zoo gives you a little more of a tour (or at least they used to)

We had a crazy experience in the Lorikeet Adventure. After spending a while in there feeding them nectar .... they all swarmed through us to one side of the enclosure, knocking cups out of hands and scratching the side of Emm's eyelid as they flew by.

Then they all just sat there on the branches like nothing happened ... it was nuts!!

We also got quite a show from the Orangutans, Eirina and Berani. 

It was funny to watch Emm introduce them to Rose:)

On the way home we stopped at Good Times for burgers and Blackberry custard ...YUM! 

Ice-cream twice in one day was a birthday gift in itself for the little one.

Labor Day Lost Lake

A post by Karsyn .....

Dad and I went on our very first backpacking trip together over the Labor Day weekend. 

Lost Lake Trailhead

I was a little nervous that he was going to pick a "short and easy hike" that would turn out to be long and strenuous like they often are. Luckily, the hike was as promised. It was about 2-3 miles each way with not too much uphill. 

We didn't know exactly what lake we wanted to hike to so we just walked until we saw one we liked. We decided on Lost Lake. 

Snowy Range Green Quartz

We got to the lake, found a camp spot and quickly set up camp. Then, we set out to do some fishing before dinner. The fishing was surprisingly good but the lake was hard to navigate around. 

After catching some fish, we headed back to the campsite to make dinner. I wasn't expecting too much because we were taking backpacking food. The chili that we had brought turned out to be pretty nasty. I'm so glad that we also brought some mashed potatoes that were good. Otherwise we would've been pretty hungry. 

The next morning we hiked a little bit further to a different lake. This lake didn't have great fishing like the lake we camped by. 

So after eating some lunch at the lake, we headed back to clean up camp. The hike back seemed to be much easier. Maybe it was just the motivation to get home to shower and eat some real food. 

On the way home, we stopped in Laramie to see Bailee for a bit and eat some dinner. After saying our goodbyes, we headed home and ended our trip.

This and That ... June-August

An assortment of random photos from the last three months .... 

We had an impromptu piano recital in the basement. The program consisted of furry friends and dolls, but Emmrey and Karsyn did treat us to a City of Stars duet.

Emmrey talked on the phone to Gpa & Gma numerous times ... this day she couldn't interupt her jumping!

Kars participated in a few basketball tournaments in CO and WY to sharpen her skills

Emmrey finally got her own Wellington Library card. She was not digin' the strict policy of having to be 10 and have a parent vouch for your responsibility:) It doesn't really change a thing except for she has a separate card with her name on it.

Kars and I attended a Quinceanera for her friend Eliana ....

We took Emmrey to a traveling puppet show put on by a church from Tennessee. 

They sang all sorts of catchy Jesus songs

There were some sleep outs on the deck

and lots of good book reading {this one was a favorite this summer}

Always lots of pool time (even for the kids that think they are too big;)

Bay cruised on her new bike to work one day and I met her for lunch at the Bakery

They had just added sandwiches to the menu and we were excited to try them out ... {not as good as we had hoped} Regardless, it was a beautiful afternoon to sit on a bench downtown with my girl.

These two took a day-trip to Denver for a wild time at Elitch Gardens with friends

We had a refresher course on using bear spray before we left for our Yellowstone trip

 {training canisters were used}

Karsyn was part of a basement jam session with her guitar teacher and some other students. It was so fun to watch them play. Trust me ... she loved it ;)

Emmrey started having regular veggie sales in front of the house. She wants some ridiculously expensive American Girl twins really bad and we told her she had to earn some money to help buy them. 

This was one of her ideas to do that ....

It's not all work for this girl ... the pool was occupied a lot this summer!

Mark and I finally got around to trying Big City Burrito ... it lived up to the hype:)

Emm went to a few days of VBS at Life Church with a friend. She loved the songs they taught them and was really intrigued by the church's involvement with Life for the Innocent and how they help kids.

Got Skype set up again so we can see Gpa & Gma when we talk to them:)

Gorden colored her very own picture ..

An afternoon of lunch and school shopping with each of the girls . 

One girl had more than 1 trip with all she needed to get ready:0

Date night on the river trail

Lots of rain ...  followed by beautiful rainbows

 Mark had a few fish outings

Kars got her first paycheck as a Peer Leader at the Boys & Girls Club

And we have a class of 2021 Poke!

she's somewhere on the right of the W