last school Halloween parade

And this was bittersweet... even more so since I didn't even grab a favorite photo. She moved so quickly and really had no interested in looking for me and the camera!

 You can barely see her in this photo - she is smooched between the boy with the devil horns and her friend, Ariadna.

 And then she flies past me without even a flash of a smile... likely she didn't even look for me which makes it all the more bittersweet - gone the days when she would turn and wave frantically at me!

 I did then quickly run to the front of school where I knew she would be lining up with her class, grabbed this last parade shot only to discover the shadow of the light pole is almost directly in the way! Ergggh!

This one is better but still not my favorite as I cut off their feet... double ergggh! Well, this bittersweet last Halloween school parade will go down with bad photos! lol!

annual halloween parade...

I love our annual Halloween parade. Every year we go because seriously, the costumes and creative talent is amazing! Luckily, I had two cute girls to take along so I don't look like a strange adult on my own because Dennis and Jaiden were at a Boy Scout all day event.

 Alyssa is 5th grade pun... see if you can guess what she is!

Sophie (literally my 3rd child) is a Water Goddess!

 Can you guess what Alyssa is?

A candy rapper!

 We arrived just in time for the start of the parade...

Terror at the parade! is what I texted Dennis to share with Jaiden...

 The only clown I saw in the entire parade! Jaiden has been obsessed with the news about clowns and the banning of clown costumes so I had to grab that shot!

My all time favorite... the Chinese dragon!

Good weather + lots of families are out + creative costumes galore 

= totally fun people watching parade! 

Frankenstein family...

 Fruity Flutists...

 Ghost buster family...

And then some downtown trick or treating... 

 I found a treat of my own...

 It's true, and you can eat 3!

Last photo I promise...

... I want to remember these special times with the girls... one day, they will decide they are too old and then I will be that freaky, single adult to come people watch!

the poop emoji ...

And then there is this one...

who went to our church's Halloween party dressed as...

... Super Swanky Poop!

He wore his Poop emoji hat, brown shirt and pants, and a cape that said "super swanky". As part of the Mid-Fly (middle school youth) group, they host a Halloween party with games and candy for the younger kids at church so there he was in all his glory as Super Swanky Poop!

Thank goodness our Youth Directors aren't uptight and have a good sense of humor!

cheeto skeletons...

Yes, a couple more Halloween posts. This one is one of those that I want to remember. 

I want to remember how little Alyssa feels even though she is approaching 5 ft tall and her feet are bigger than mine in this photo.

I want to remember how cute she was at 10.

I want to remember how much she learns and shares.

I want to remember how focused she becomes on funny little ideas like this.

I want to remember how sweet this cheeto skeleton of hers is!

Love this girl with all my heart! 

boo bowl 2016

Bare with me as I catch this blog back up. It's actually quite fun to sort through and organize photos from a year ago and have the memories flood back or see how much they change in just 1 year?! How is that even possible? but it definitely is. 

These photos are from our annual Girl Scout Boo Bowl - a super fun event in October. We bowl in black lights so photo taking isn't the best but I still love these photos - graininess and all!

Alyssa's stance in this reminds me of a mummy ... not a candy rapper! 

 My costume this year was the mineral - Fe Chef aka Iron Chef! I threw this costume together in like 10 minutes by wearing a chef hat, my red apron with a sign printed on it that had the periodic table square of Fe, and I carried a whisk ready to cook!

It was a super fun costume as it was about 50/50 split on who figured out who I was! 

 And the sweet girls that came with us!

Alyssa, Aurora, Charlotte and Trinity! 

The cool thing about these 4 that I wouldn't have known then is that these are the 4 who stayed with Girl Scouting in 6th grade, these are the 4 who have super awesome ideas and work incredibly well together and now I know how close these 4 are! Love these Girl Scouts!! 

hanging lake

More photos from our weekend trip to Glenwood Springs but this was on the way home, not far from Glenwood Springs. This actually was a hike I have been wanting to do for years. I saw the exit on our drive home from Arizona about 14 years ago. It is called Hanging Lake and it really does have its own exit off I-70. The name and location intrigued me so we told the kids this was a must do - no buts, ifs, whats or whining! Somehow they agreed!

The hike was pretty intense and a steady climb - it was short at about 1.6 miles but an elevation gain of over 1000 ft. I didn't take any photos going up, but when we finally reached Hanging Lake, it was breathtaking!

You can't see it in the photo above but Hanging Lake sits on the edge of a cliff inside the deep Glenwood canyon.  Apparently, the lake is located on a fault line and was formed when roughly an acre of the valley floor sheared off from the fault and dropped to what is now Hanging Lake. 

The water was amazing - beautiful green and vibrant turquoise colors! This photo doesn't do it justice but it's an example of the vibrant green and turquoise.

We took a short rest break on one of the benches on the other side of the lake and of course, had a snack (there is a theme to hiking with kids!)

 This is the view of the lake from the bench we rested on.

There is a very short hike just above and behind Hanging Lake called Spouting Rock.  This is photo below is Spouting Rock. It was just as beautiful and serene. The kids were even able to walk behind Spouting Rock in a sort of cave like cavern.

Another theme with hiking with kids is finding rocks to climb up on and look down on us!

The photo below is from the downstream of Spouting Rock or the upper part of Hanging Lake. It was so lush and beautiful, very different from the arid Colorado climate we are used to seeing.

 Then it was back down the canyon. This part of the hike is walking from Hanging Lake to this crazy staircase.

And this is the crazy staircase! It was so incredibly steep, it's hard to imagine someone building this just so we can hike it! Alyssa did pretty well despite her fear of heights! 

This is a view of Glenwood Canyon, just below the crazy staircase and Hanging Lake! 

 We joked that they stopped at a Starbucks on the hike down!

One of the many pretty views of the Dead Horse Creek along the hiking path. 

Another big rock found! 

 The river you see is the Colorado River and more of Glenwood Canyon, and the trail!

 The kids and I had a chuckle at the bear proof vending machines! We joked they were even people proof!

And then it was homeward bound!

frost points... 0, zilch, nada...

Cleaning up the big mess that I made in September and October when I would just data dump my photos - it is a lot of work but man, it is pretty awesome to get on track and get organized so I can actually find things. This is another one of those past posts that didn't make it to the blog on time but I am still recording it because I know in the future I will be happy I did.

Jaiden recruited a new friend to Boy Scouts to his mother's dismay and delight. Dismay because she had been trying for years, delight because Jaiden convinced Matthew in about a 5-10 minute conversation. Since then the two have been busy catching Matthew up so he can start earning his ranks. It's pretty cool actually.

This particular weekend, they decided to do a camp out in our backyard. And this particular weekend, the night time temperatures dropped which leads us to frost points. Frost points are acquired when a Boy Scout sleeps outside and earns one point for each degree below freezing. Jaiden was excited that they might earn frost points, Matthew (I think) was just excited to sleep in a tent outside. I am not sure if he has ever done that and if he has, it definitely is not often!

They set up the tent by themselves, very little help with the cots from me but I did pile them high with a sleeping bag inside a bivy bag and blankets on top!

I went out just before I went to bed to check on them and they were still smiling!

Morning time I convinced them to make pancakes inside - it was too chilly for me outside!

And the pancakes were interesting enough... Matthew almost missed the flip on this one...

But they had a blast! And took a selfie with my phone when I wasn't looking!

Silly boys! 

Jaiden asked if they could try to collect 100 frost points and sleep in our backyard every change they could get! Will see if their motivation holds up when it really does get cold!