And so it begins

I decided since we're less than two weeks from Halloween, I'd better post about the kids' first days of school so I'm not as far behind.

This year, Simon started first grade. He loves his teacher, Miss Pollack and still loves his school. We are so thankful he gets to go to a great school. That's something I have remind myself often when we're driving across town at 7:30 a.m. in a blizzard rather than putting him on a bus at 8:20 a.m. to go one mile to the neighborhood school. It's worth it... it's worth it... it's worth it.

Simon continues to love piano and is now a green belt in karate. WAHOO! I feel much safer knowing this kid has my back.

This year was momentous as my baby started preschool. I can't believe she's old enough for school, even if it is only 5 hours a week. She loves it and had no problem saying good-bye on the first day. In fact, I took her to the school for orientation the night before school began and after she said, "Alright Mom. See you tomorrow morning!" She was very upset when I told her she had to come home with me and she'd come back the next morning.

Lucy also started ballet with her BFF, Scarlette. She loves to dance so this is perfect for her. We even got to go to her first recital last week.

Even with all the school, piano, karate and ballet, we still try to make time to have fun together as a family. We decided to make it a yearly tradition to go to a Rockies game around the time school starts. Since the Rockies are terrible, it's usually pretty easy to get tickets without spending a lot of money. And since the kids don't care how badly the Rockies play as long as they get candy and to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," we always have a good time. This year, the Friday after school started was "Star Wars Night with the Rockies." No wasn't even an option. We all dressed up (kids, remember that if I ever need a kidney), marched across the ball field (which was really awesome) and ate until we were sick. That's the basic recipe for a perfect night.

 

Summer Vacation #2: Mt. Rushmore, etc.

A few years ago, we decided it was important to take a yearly vacation with just our little family of four. In years past, it's been Disneyland, but since we can't sell enough organs to make the yearly pilgrimage to Disneyland, we've had to mix it up a little.
This year we went to Mount Rushmore. We realized it's only a 7 hour drive, which made it the perfect get-away. I made this trip with my family when I was 16 but Jacob, the American History buff, had never been to Mt. Rushmore which made it even more excited.
On day 1 we visited Devil's Tower. I was so excited for this and it didn't disappoint. It's HUGE! We took a hike around the tower, bought our customary vacation Christmas tree ornament and got ice cream. Then we were on the road to Spearfish, SD.

The next morning, we spent some time in Spearfish before heading to Mt. Rushmore. We decided to find free things to do, since our kids are so little and may not appreciate spending $70 to go to a petting zoo and pet a goat. The Spearfish Fish Hatchery was a great way to spend the morning. The kids got to tour the grounds, feed fish, and walk a short nature trail. All for FREE!!!

That afternoon we headed to Mt. Rushmore for the rest of the day. It is such a cool place, it's hard to describe. We made sure we were there on the 4th of July, even though it's their busiest day of the year. We're glad we did as we felt very patriotic.

Our visit included a nature walk around the mountain, tour of the sculptor's studio, visits to the museums and of course, ice cream. We timed dinner perfectly as there was a flash-flood/lightning storm as we were eating, which resulted in Thomas Jefferson looking like he had a terrible cold. Luckily, we had a great view and stayed dry. After dinner, we sat in the outdoor auditorium eating salt-water taffy and playing games while we waited for the evening lighting show to begin. The show was awesome. The best part was when all the soldiers in the audience were invited on stage. It felt so cool to be at Mt. Rushmore on the 4th of July, and cheering for the men and women who fight to protect our freedoms. I can't imagine any fireworks topping that, even though we didn't get back to our hotel until 11 p.m.

See! Thomas Jefferson with a cold.

The next day we visited Crazy Horse. This is a mountain sculpture of a Native American/American Indian (I don't know what is PC these days) which is still under construction. It was very cool to see, but I'm wondering when exactly it will be done...

After Crazy Horse, we took a tour of the Rushmore Cave. This is always included when the kids talk about their favorite parts of our trip. It was an hour-long tour of a gorgeous cave in the Black Hills. The pictures don't do it justice.

We hit another free stop on our trip that night at the dinosaur park. This is really old and semi-lame, but the kids LOVED it. Huge, ceramic, green dinosaurs to climb on. It was the perfect end to a busy day.

The next day was Sunday, so we kept our activities to a minimum and tried not to spend any money. We started out by going to church in Rapid City. I don't say this to pat ourselves on the back, but when our kids grow up, I want them to remember that we always go to church on Sundays. When we're on vacation, we find a building and go. Vacation isn't an excuse to forget the most important things in life. Okay, soap box over.  After church, we went to another FREE!!! place, Storybook Park. This is one of the coolest parks I've ever been to. It's kind of like a not-as-cool, more all-encompassing version of Toon Town in Disneyland. The park had the houses and statues of many famous characters from children's books and movies. The kids loved it. Then to keep with our "not-spending-money" theme, we ate a picnic near the creek in the park.

That afternoon, we drove through the Black Hills and took a walk/hike near Horse thief Lake. It was BEAUTIFUL! That night we drove to Torrington, WY and swam in the hotel pool. It was the perfect end to a great vacation.

Monday morning, we made the trip back to Colorado, driving through the most uninhabited portions of Wyoming I've ever seen. Though this allowed Lucy to go to the bathroom in a sagebrush field, which may have been the highlight of the trip for her.
I'm so thankful for my wonderful family and the time I got to spend with them on this memorable trip.