We Love when Daddy comes home. We can play and release our wiggles and get fed again and have someone with new energy play with us. Some kids get soo lucky.

Some things just never change..

How cute are they??

Sneaky Cart-Dawg

Here is our little escapey.. he is pretty smooth and has also taught Tatum and Linc to get in and out of the pack n plays. What a disaster. But he loves his manta y perrito so that keeps him calm and in his bed most of the time...

Labor Day at Spring Haven

We were lucky enough to be invited to Spring Haven, Springville, UT with our McDowell family here in CO. They are always a pleasure to be around and definitely make living in Colorado a lot more enjoyable. I also got the pleasure of meeting Ben's grandparents for the first time and introducing the "jiglets" to them. Apparently there were only a few great grandkids that they have not met, and grandma was determined and anxious to see them. She has been sick for a few months and was close to the end- I'm so glad we made it out and only wish we could have gone sooner. She wasn't very responsive, but did smile when they kissed her and we got an eye open when we were singing. She got to meet our kids! I'm glad she held out for us so I could also meet her, she happened to pass away this afternoon so the timing is what it is. But here are some pictures from our Labor Day getaway...

The McDowell boys.. (well, the boys there at that moment) with Grandpa

The swans that we loved to use to distract the babes..

Our fam at the moment..

The playground inside. This place is amazing- but especially to take kids to. They have places to run around, friends to run around with, things to explore- they had a blast!

Linc is testing out his strength on the firepole... pretty good huh?

And they've mastered climbing the slide, thanks to the examples of the older cousins.

More ants,

then races down the driveway,

playing ball,

kisses for Daddy,

driving cars to each other,driving cars down the driveway...

it was a lot of fun. I wish we were still there! Thanks again Megan and Jason, for letting us tag along!

Don't quit

So I've been reading again.. "I am a Mother" (thanks again Chrissy for the recommendation) It is supposed to motivate me to be a better mother and appreciate the stage of life I am in. This time reading this poem stuck out to me so I thought I'd share it.

DON’T QUIT

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest if you must, but don’t you quit…

Success is failure turned inside out.

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far,

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit.

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

~Author Unkown

Take it as you like, but hope you enjoyed! Have a good day!

Our Rocky Mtn hikes..

We had a blast getting one more outing in before Ben starts school. We went camping for a few days up in Rocky Mtn National Park. We had some extra hands join us (Ben's Dad and wife Paula) so we could actually do some hiking. Here is our campground

And the kids picking some flowers..

Playing in the dirt...

Linc climbing in the trees...

Let the games begin..

Nymph lake - the first of many that we would come across in the 3 days.

Start of day 2.. we planned on seeing a few lakes and waterfalls and to spend the whole day outside hoping the kids would take a good nap in the carriers. It ended up pretty darn good. The naps weren't the best, but the kids Loved the carriers and being outside.

We made it to Loch Lake and decided to skip out on Sky Pond. It was beautiful and a perfect place to take a lunch break and let the kids throw rocks in the lake. We could see the Waterfall you'd have to climb up to get to sky pond and figured that was good enough.

Our company- Jim (Ben's Dad) and Paula

"Why are we just standing here Grandpa . . . can't you move it?" says Tatum. Any time she wanted him to go faster she would just start kicking him in the back - kind of funny.

Mills lake view.

Long's Peak is in the background, Ben and Jim were so proud everytime they could see the Peak since they hiked up to it 2 years ago.

Day 3, Sprague Lake.. just an easy 1 mile walk around that we took our time on.

We love feeding the ducks...

Now back to real life, Ben starts school tomorrow and I am back to being on my own throughout the days. I have been spoiled with the help at home for the past two months- we'll see how I can manage. Good Luck to Ben!! He is such a good student and husband and Father, and pretty good at multi-tasking, but I can't wait for him to be done with school. Almost there...