Our Summer Trip 2014 - Part II

While in Denver we were able to do 2 awesome things all in one day!  Craig works for a place called 1UP which is a bar/arcade.  They have old video games and pinball machines, like Donkey Kong, PacMan, Tetris, Galaga. They had a large PacMan machine that 4 people play.  Aunt Rebecca was the winner! I forgot to mention that Craig also has a Donkey Kong machine in his living room. Justin and Ryan think they have the coolest aunt and uncle ever!

 

Outside the bar they have a huge Jenka set up.  We ate some lunch there, typical bar food EXCEPT for the burger Justin got...It was a bacon cheeseburger served on a donut that had been split and fried.  He said it was good?! We headed to the Colorado Rockies baseball game afterwards.  It was fun to go to a major league game and you can't beat the view from inside the stadium!

You know I cant even remember but I think CO lost, but I do remember that it was good competitive game.

Our Summer Trip 2014 out West

Ok, it has been a long time since I have blogged, I got out of the habit...but here I am.  We took an incredible 10 day adventure this past summer to Denver, CO and drove through New Mexico to Arizona. We flew into Denver, CO and met my brother at the airport.  They moved here about a year ago.  This was the first time the boys have been on a plane.  Justin was on a plane I think he was 18 months old, but that doesn't count since he doesn't remember that. It was a beautiful morning to fly. Justin and Ryan were excited.  They were in charge of their suitcase and backpacks.  Security was a breeze we had pre-TSA check-in...score!! They did really well keeping up with their 'stuff'!

 

 

Ryan was sporting his aviators, the glare was bad! Once we arrived it was time to relax. Craig and Rebecca were awesome hosts! 

They have a great park right by their house that we took a leisurely walk around before they fed us dinner.

The next day it was off to tour the CO Rockies and Red Rocks Amphitheater.  We went at the end of June, let me tell you at the peak of the mountains the temperature was in the mid-50s. There we were in shorts and sweatshirts loving every minutes of it.

 

 There was still enough snow to snowboard; met two 20-somthing from MD that came for the end of season snowboarding.

 

 

Hello Blog, it's me Cara

Wow, summer has come and is almost gone....and what have I been doing...enjoying it and not blogging about...stay tuned! I will be back....

Trampoline Dare-Devil

I have a trampoline dare-devil, Ryan doesn't have much fear.  He loves to try new things however that doesnt include food! His 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Maddex, gave him an award called the Fearless Playground Award.  She said that Ryan and his buddy James would do all these tricks and flips that would make her heart skip a beat!  That's my boy!

He has been practicing front and back flips on the trampoline and can now do them on the grass as well. He couldn't quite get the back flip so he went on youtube.com and found a video that showed him how to do it correctly.  He is so smart!

We have a Teenager in the House

Justin's is now a teenager....13.  How did that happen? When people tell you time fly's and enjoy every minute...I now know what all that means!  They grow up so fast, right before your eyes. This birthday for me was teary...I cant believe when I stand next to my son who by the way is 5'7 and wears a 10 1/2 men's shoe and looks me straight in the eyes that my sweet boy is growing up.  I still see that same sweet look in his eyes (well most of the time). He heads into 8th grade, yes last year of middle school the coming school year.

We celebrated his 13th birthday on Tuesday.  I started off the morning in our tradition of pancakes and bacon, of course spelling out his name.

Justin, Ryan and I went to the movies and saw Heaven is for Real.  We read that book together years ago so it was great that we got to see the movie together. Some junk food and soda and we were set, smuggled in of course in my big purse. Afterwards Ryan had a track meet at the high school until 730p, so we went watched, cheered and congratulated Ryan and headed out for dinner with my mom.

 

A new Italian restaurant opened up by our house, I was surprised by the 15 minute wait on a Tuesday night at 730p.  We were seated and ordered right away however some issues in the kitchen and an hour later still no food.  The waitress comped our entire meal! And the boys were good as gold waiting, we did have lots of bread and olive oil tho!  Food was really good when it came. Justin's favorite is Boston cream pie, which I made for him. First attempt, I have made boston cream cupcakes before but not a whole cake.  Turned out really good!

And last but not least for this 13 year old, a smartphone, an iphone to be exact!  Life is good for this 13 year old!

Home on Leave!

Nick was home, Nick was home!  Nick had leave from the Army and was back in NC.  He is stationed in Colorado Spring, CO, the weather here was a nice change, no snow.  He was in Afghanistan for about 7-10 days on a mission. We got to spend 2 days with him. We had to pack a lot into those days.  We celebrated Nick's 19th birthday.

We had a friendly game or two of bowling and played in the arcade.

Had some fun messing around....

 

Went out to dinner and met my mom and Terry for some southern BBQ and just had a great visit!! And snapped a whole bunch of family pictures!

Celebrating Mom's Birthday

Mom has the last birthday in May of the family.  Terry cooked dinner for all of us on her birthday. A few gifts, cards and to top off the evening cake of course. It was a school night so we had to leave early so we wouldn't miss bedtime! Birthdays are always better when shared with family. Boys lite the candles and helped blow them out!

Field Day at Sandy Ridge

Field day at Sandy Ridge!  This is the first time in 6-7 years I didn't volunteer for field day.  I decided to volunteer for Earth Day in April, it was more low-key and I didn't get hit with a wet sponge or errand ball! And had just as much fun! But I did have to stop by and see Ryan.  It is one of the days the kids look forward to all year long! He and his buddy James love messing around.

 After all is said and done, slushies from the icee truck!  What could be better!