Colorado 2020

We went to Colorado for a week in August of 2020. Both of my sisters were able to be there for some of the week as well, so we had a great time and made sure to not get over booked. The best part of the trip was spending time with baby Charlotte. 

The plane ride there went well.

Grandpa put up a HUGE slide to go with the tree house. The boys took their first turns on it as soon as we arrived. I did too. It was really fast!

The boys did such a great job playing with Charlotte each day.

She loved Jeremy's beard.

Painting bird houses with Grandma Nana was fun.

Golfing on the farm almost every day!

I got to have some great alone time with Stacy Lynn. We had brunch at a super delicious historic house that served New Orleans food.

We also got to have our whole families play together at the mansion.

Grandma is always up early getting breakfast for the grand kiddies!!

We got to enjoy a day on Boyd Lake with Uncle Dave and Aunt Tina! My cousins Ellen and Jeff and Jeff's family were there, too. This is Ellen, me, Desha, and Jeff. 

Tanner and Dallin got to enjoy my Dad's jet ski and they got to try tubing for the first time! Dallin loved it right away. Tanner was having a hard time deciding if he liked it. They went out several times with little groups of cousins, and Tanner got more into it. Very fun day!

Tanner and Dallin were so excited to find a Phillips gas station so that Grandpa could get a picture next to his name on their sign.

We played on the slip and slide one day. Charlotte loves the water and had so much fun watching the boys play. She tried too!

I enjoyed laying in the shade to watch.

We left the 3 kids with the grandparents and went to try an escape room together. It was Tanya and Clay's first time doing this type of thing. This room was really fun. We all were confused at first, but figured out how to divide and conquer the puzzles. It was a lot of fun, especially because we got out with time to spare!

Also, during this week, we were able to have a family talk about plans if any of us die. It was a really great discussion and helped us make sure we are taking steps to get things in order in case the worst happens. Also comforting to know that my parents have figured out a lot of their plans for when they die, it will make things much easier for us left behind. I highly encourage every family to have these talks regularly.

Fun with Fireworks!!

My four people and Papa went to the Niwot Park together.

That afternoon we got to enjoy the community pool. Papa had to reserve the time two months prior, in compliance with the Covid rules they had. Tanner took awhile to adjust. Both boys ended up going down the slides. Jeremy and I went down the slides too, and Jeremy went off the diving board. Tanner surprised me by jumping off the diving boards. I was sure that Dallin was going to do that with no problem, but he got tired and scared. 

We decided to try some photo remakes of us three sisters. We managed to get two really fun ones recreated!!

It took the whole family to get the bubbles and posing and lighting for the swimsuit pictures. We came pretty close!

There was lots of down time to just sit and visit and enjoy the pretty farm. 

Dallin had a goal to learn how to make raspberry jam with Papa. So he worked hard and helped with every step!

On our last day there, I decided to get the lines and bucket ready for crawdad fishing. Everyone came out to fish and we had a good collection of crawfish after about 30 minutes. It was so much fun watching the boys wait and wait and then catch something, and then all working together to get the catch into the bucket. This activity was one of my favorites of the whole week!!

I wanted to make sure I have a picture of this piano because it's the piano I learned how to play on!

We also did a family photo shoot. I have a very hard time with these for a lot of reasons, but I did really well at staying mostly calm and not freaking out about stuff. Here are my favorites:

Lazy Summer Days 2020

Our first two weeks in August 2020 were low-key and relatively relaxing. This post is short because we really didn't do a whole lot other than relax and send the boys to Zoo Camp. 

Things were still closed down quite a bit due to Covid. (No church, no museums, and no sports.) We passed the time by playing card games like Uno and Exploding Kittens on the front lawn...

Letting the kids make comics with their neighbor friend (we are so blessed to have such great neighbors!) ...

watching YouTube videos...

making cake just because...

and taking selfies for no reason.

I wore lots of moo-moo dresses because the weather was perfect, a little warmer than usual. We also enjoyed the pool, too.

Jeremy was excited to see this product on the shelf because he had a lot to do with the behind-the-scenes development for this. 

 

I remember being so sad about church being closed. I missed it A LOT. It was getting harder and harder to keep the boys interested in taking the sacrament at home. I really needed the sense of community and strength that I get from going to church every week. Simple things like singing with people and having a moment of quiet to ponder about the Savior. And hugging people.

Thank goodness for Grandma Z's awesome primary lessons that she made for the grandkids on YouTube every week. She was able to keep it going for 5+ months. They were really entertaining and had great messages about the gospel that related to our Book of Mormon study each week. And thank goodness for the Friend magazine, which our church makes specifically for kids. It was a major lifesaver for us. Often we would find Dallin reading the articles out loud to Tanner.

We managed to have a playdate with our friends from basketball at the Y. I'm so grateful we've been able to stay connected even through the pandemic. This time, we met up at a community college campus to bike ride on their wide sidewalks. It was the perfect space to ride! It felt wierd taking over the sidewalks and riding all around places that bikes normally wouldn't be, haha. The four boys had a ton of fun together and I got to visit with Ashanti.

Jeremy took these pictures to make a maintanence report to our landlord. They took care of it right away. We love having a good landlord and we are really enjoying the break from being homeowners!!

The boys went to Zoo camp and I taught Songwriting camp. It was such a fun and rewarding music camp to teach.

At Zoo camp, the boys ended up in the same group of kids. They had to do that to keep household exposure down with Covid, and I don't think they had enough kids enrolled to make a full class for each grade. My kids had a LOT of fun and had lots to tell me after each day. They did mention some differences from last year because of Covid rules which were annoying, but overall they got to do most things as normal, which was so great! I can't say enough about how great this camp is.

On the way home from camp one day, Jeremy got them pizza.

Tanner made some important documents for Fort TOD like this one.

Smoothie mustache!!

We enjoyed a long Sunday afternoon at Silver Strand beach! Beautiful.

I guess I took Tanner to the dentist, haha. 

This was a crowning achievement for us. Tanner, Dallin and I made this beautiful mural. It took us about 3 days, and we were all really happy with the way it turned out. We named it The Jungle of Zavoral.