Cinderella Play

With Stepmother Wynonna

Yakity Yak song-playing guitar :)

trying on the glass slipper-tricky cat!

part of the cast

Zona, Mona, Rona & Dinah

Caitlin wanted to spread her wings a bit and try out for the Prairie Fire Theater's Cinderella play.  She did great and ended up with a pretty big role as the step sisters cat, Dina.  She must have wowed the directors with her meow's and hisses.  It's a one-week camp where you come on monday morning for tryouts, find out what your part is and then have 4 days to rehearse.  The first two day's were 2hr practice and the last 2 days were 4hr practices.  She had a blast and loved every minute of it.  I'm so proud of her to try something new and not know hardly anyone that was there.  She met new friends and had a good time doing it.

Iowa fun

Because of our construction mess, we weren't able to make it to Iowa to celebrate our niece Abby's bday in February and the Landwehrs weren't able to make it in May to our house.  So we decided to get together this summer for some fun.  The girls love going down and exploring the creek in winter but got a different kind of adventure in the summer.  They still had fun didn't matter the season.  Mike had a few "cobra" fireworks (these little black nuggets that grow into a snake like thing after you light them up) and sparklers for the kids to enjoy.  Sharon got a pinata which is always filled with the best treats.  The pinata is almost as fun as the creek adventure.  In the evening we watched an awesome firefly show in the fields behind their home. The next day we went to a water park that was so fun!  The kids had a great time.  Even though there were a ton of people you didn't feel like people were on top of you.  Caitlin ended up getting really bad stomach cramps which we thought was from this one waterslide that has a 5ft drop off at the end but found out later that it was a stomach bug and ended up going thru our family-Rachel and I, the tough girls didn't get it!  We had an awesome time in Iowa!!

July 4th

Our friends persuaded us to have our 4th of July party despite the house not being done and the backyard looking very scary.  We're so glad we did.  It turned out to be such a fun time, lots of good food, great conversation and even though it was very humid that day, the evening was tolerable.  We did start out the day walking to our friends, the Yosts who live where the parade begins.  They have a nice shade tree to sit under and we didn't have to stake out a spot the day before!  The kids got plenty of candy too.  As tradition, we eat Godfather's pizza after the parade.  Usually we have my parents or Brian's parents here too but this year it was just us. So Brian ordered and picked it up and we enjoyed it in our lovely air conditioned house.  After naps and just plain chilling out in the afternoon, the party was underway.  Caitlin and I made a couple games for the kids to play using swim noodles.  Brian and the other girls blew up over 200 water balloons.  Everyone brought fantastic food.  JoAnna brought sparklers for the kids.  At the end of the evening some friends went to another friends to watch the fireworks but Brian and I and the girls went down to the fair grounds and watched the awesome show there.  I think it may have been one of the best years for fireworks.   

our crew

making sure it's divided up fair and square

that's alot of tootsie rolls!

kids having a water balloon toss

mr. Eli Yost

So cute...Dominic Yost

grace.katie.kylie.caitlin.abby.emily.ella

miss cutie pie - Lydia

beautiful blue eyed babe

javolin toss or human ring toss?

water balloon toss - rachel/elli - luke/kael

mr. jared gleisner

Beckham who really got into the dirt/mud.  Looks like goth makeup!

the kids before the fight

the parents before the fight

the fight...parents blew them out of the water!

the retreat...

Catching Up

After finally locating my camera I realized that there are alot of events that I haven't blogged about yet.  So today's a good day to catch up on the past months activity.

Natalie was the first one with an activity and she was so excited!  She has wanted to do gymnastics for a while now only because she sees her sisters doing it.  She had 2 weeks this summer and she loved every minute of it.  She was pretty proud of herself and if you ask her what is her favorite she'll tell you "high beam".  Its scary to watch a little kid her size on the high beam!

Caitlin and Emily wanted to take Tennis lessons so we found an awesome teen to teach them one-on-one, which is the way to go.  They loved it and actually do pretty good at it.  A few days it was too hot and humid, even at 9am to play.  They were able to get quite a few lessons in and can't wait to take on Brian and I!

On a very hot humid Sunday, Brian took Caitlin, Emily and Rachel out on the canoe for their first fishing outing on Lake Emily.  Despite the disgusting heat, they had a good time and caught a few little ones.  They really just like hanging out with their fun Dad.:)

At the end of June, our friends from Ohio, James & Rhonda and their kids Ella, Jada and Crist stopped by for a fun visit.  The last time the kids saw each other was a couple years ago, but it didn't take but 5 minutes for them to warm up to each other again.  It was nice to catch up and wish they lived closer.

Headed Home

So sad that we had to head home.  Brian and I could've stayed another week, but the girls were ready to get back home.  We packed up pretty efficiently and left the cabin around 11am.  Before going home though we made a quick stop in Manitou to pick up a t-shirt for Natalie and Rachel.  We had ice cream one more time at Colorado Custard-yummy and cheap!  Then we headed east.  Our trip home was a little eventful.  We did have to take back roads rather than the freeway because our car felt like acting up if we went over 75mph.  It really wasn't a big deal because we were going less miles cutting cross country and still able to go 65-70mph.   I was running a temp and wasn't feeling the best.  Caitlin and Emily said there lungs hurt but we figured out later the pain was actually sore muscles from horseback riding and white water rafting.  Somewhere in Nebraska I believe, we hit a mini storm-with HAIL.  ugh.  No damage luckily but it was very noisy and I thought for sure we'd have little divits all over the car.  Caitlin slept through the whole thing.  I don't know how she did it.  Around 11:00pm we were lucky enough to get pulled over by a very nice officer in Nebraska when we were running on gas fumes.  The stop woke the girls up and they were a little concerned when the officer asked Brian to go back to the squad car.  It seemed like forever and I thought for sure there would be no gas to get to the town that was 4 miles away.  But all went well and we were able to get gas and keep on driving.  We pulled into St. Peter around 4:30am.  It was thee best family vacation we've had!

Side note:  2 days after we left, Denver had 6 tornado touchdowns and hail that covered the ground that looked like snow and Colorado Springs had flash flooding.  2 weeks after we left, the Colorado Springs area had the devastating wild fires.  The cabin that we stayed in was fine, but they were on the line of the evacuation area.  All the attractions that we went to in the area were closed for a couple days.  Amazing.

Colorado - Day 7

Our last full day in Colorado was going to be a full one in deed!  We started out the morning by leaving the house around 7:30am to get to the horse stables by 9am.  Caitlin, Emily, Rachel and I would be the lucky ones to ride for 2 hours in the mountains of Canon City/Royal Gorge area.  I have only been on a horse once and it wasn't for 2 hrs, so needless to say, I was quite shocked after only an hour how uncomfortable this really was.  The girls each got a horse that almost mimicked their personalities.  Rachel got a young Arabian who wanted to trot all the time!  Emily got a black horse with blue saddle (which she wanted as soon as she spotted it) and I can't remember what breed it was.  But it was pretty laid back and every once and a while it would be stubborn and wouldn't go when Emily wanted it to.  Caitlin got a mustang, a slow, steady horse.  It gave her troubles every once in a while but for the most part was a cooperative horse.  I got the 'ol mare.  Her name was Lakota.  She was the only horse that could pee and walk at the same time.  Sounds like a mom, right? :)  About an hour into the ride, Emily's nose started bleeding and Rachel was crying because she had leg cramps.  I had to pee something fierce and I was also very hot.  So I offered to go back with the two while Caitlin continued on but the trail guide insisted I enjoy the rest of the ride with Caitlin and she would take Em & Rach back to Brian.  Ok...I guess.  I figured out a way to sit that didn't make me feel like I had to pee.  Both Caitlin and I were dirty and hot by the time we got back, but it was at least a memorable time!

After our ride we were scheduled for lunch at the rafting outfitters so Brian decided to show us a "scenic" route to the place.  It was a one lane NARROW road that was built on a ridge so no matter which side you looked out of it was a major drop off.  Scary!  Thank goodness it wasn't a long road and we made it safe and sound.  Come to find out later that a truck wasn't as lucky and went off the side.  Not sure what the happened to the driver but if he escaped death he was lucky.

So once we made it safely down the road we made our way to the rafting place and had lunch.  Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad.  Grilled burgers with all the fixings or hot dogs with chips, salad and cookies.  Next up we got in our gear.  Too funny really.  Natalie and I were to go on a family float ride-really no need for a helmet.  Brian and the other 3 girls went on a ride with class 2 & 3 rapids.  There ride was much more exciting than ours.  Natalie fell asleep about 3/4 of the way so it was me and the guide-how romantic.  Brian said the rapids they went on weren't too exciting but enough to get the girls excited a bit and want to do more challenging rapids next time.

The ice cream shop we voted our favorite.  Over 30 different flavors to choose from!

the girls killing fire ants.  nice.

Our last stop of this fun filled day was the Royal Gorge.  We got there close to when the rides closed down so we got on as many as we could.  My favorite was the gondola ride over the gorge.  It was neat to see and it was a little freaky looking down all that way.  Natalie and Rachel were a little scared of the "cracks" in the bridge.  A few times Natalie wouldn't walk but would rather me carry her.  Emily didn't want to go over the bridge so she decided to stay back while we walked over and back.  When we got back we couldn't find her.  She was "spying" on us.  NOT funny!  After a quick reprimand we got in the car and headed home.  We did stop at Sonic to eat.  Through the whole 9 day trip we only ate out 4 times.  Not too bad!

this guy was crazy.  the ride catapults you over the gorge and then back.  I would have peed my pants!

looking up at the bridge