work weekend

warning: A lot of photos!

This was such a fun weekend. Alyssa and I signed up for the work weekend at Tomahawk Ranch. It's free - we stay for free, eat for free and work for free... pretty sweet deal if you ask me! Joan and Jade joined us so the 4 of us drove up together. It was kind of a push to get out  of town and up to TR by dinner time but we made it.

The photos begin with Saturday morning and end Saturday night. I will try to keep it brief!

 Breakfast in the main lodge started our day and wow! Ninja (the cook) fed us well!

 We were assigned to the farm yard so it involved lots of clean up work, changing water...

 cleaning water buckets...

 cleaning out the barn and all the old hay...

 and the chicken coops! Here Alyssa is getting ready for some serious scrapping and cleaning!

 I was the supervisor... lol! The girls really got in there and scrapped!

 While the chickens stood in their food...

 ... or talked amongst themselves.

Almost clean! 

 And then we filled with fresh hay...

 and immediately lost a chicken!

 Or grabbed one to hold!

 Such a beautiful view of the farm

 Just after dinner

 And then over to the fire pit for songs and s'mores

You can't really see what Alyssa was doing but she was holding up her glow ring to match the moon. Such a funny little girl!

We left Sunday morning after breakfast so we really only put in a few good hours on Saturday. It was a great way to spend the time with my little Girl Scout and my dear friend and her Girl Scout!

knitting

We had a lovely visit with Tutu this weekend. The kids had various activities but the one thing I asked Tutu to do was to teach Alyssa and I how to knit. The three of us went to the yarn store so I could get some needles for myself similar to what Alyssa had in her kit. We went home and spent the afternoon learning while Jaiden was off somewhere!

 This is my favorite photo that I took while learning to knit.

last official day of summer...

The last day of swimming outdoors always feels like the official end of summer to me. The weather was warm but overcast and we were able to squeeze in our last day at the pool. 

Sniff, sniff... until next summer!

sand sledding

A few more photos from Dennis and Jaiden's trip to the sand dunes... 

 Ben and Jaiden attempting sand sledding or boarding

 Hiking in the sand dunes

And the two of them at the top of the dunes.

Yep, I am pretty certain Alyssa and I need to go next year and check it out even though we had a relaxing weekend and some girl down time!

paint or sand dunes?

While Alyssa and I did this...

 The boys went here...

 And did this... 

I think maybe Alyssa and I should have gone!

rock the boat?

Two years ago, I did this field trip to RMNP with Jaiden's class and when Alyssa's class announced they were doing the same field trip, I knew I had to go. 

The super cool thing about going the second time is we went to a completely different part in the park. I also love this field trip because we get to go off the trail and learn a lot about the geography, weather, plant and animal biology. 

 Taking notes about the habitat around them.

Measuring the temperature of the soil.

Measuring the wind.

We did end up wrapping up sooner than planned and having to eat our lunch on the bus when a thunderstorm approached rather quickly. We saw wild turkeys and elk - the kids loved that!

On the way home on the bus, Alyssa and another little girl were singing camp songs. It was hilarious. They kept asking me if I wanted to rock the boat and I would say "NO!" and they would giggle like crazy, then they would ask someone else who would say I'll try yes so they could start singing the entire song ... 

Hey, Alyssa, do you want to the rock boat?

I'll try.

Will you rock the boat?

Alright.

She slides, she glides, she get on the donkey ride

Goes from you to you to rock the boat too.

Rock the boat, don't tip it over.

Rock the boat, don't tip it over.

And then it would start all over again!

oh say can you see...

I want to remember this...

 I want to remember the sweetness of our conversations while walking to school and the fact that she still holds my hand. Dennis wants me to remember when her shadow and her were still shorter than me, but seriously the sweetness of her is sometimes too much for me to describe and I really want to remember this especially in the upcoming years!

As for Jaiden, I want to remember the cool things he does and one is this...

... singing the National Anthem at the Rockies baseball game. This was his 2nd year performing and it was just as awesome as last year. We decided the seats still stink and next year when Alyssa sings, we are buying ourselves some nicer seats where we can really watch the game!