diane

It make me really sad when I somehow let a ton of time fly by without blogging about something I did. This is for sure the case when it comes to this dear friend's birthday. This Spring I had the great pleasure of heading to Petit Jean to celebrate Diane's 50th with a wonderful group of ladies. I actually slid my way into the party by being the official party photographer. We ate good food, told great stories, hiked, laughed, cried....it was a wonderful time celebrating a woman I truly love and admire, a woman who can do jumping moves on top of a log and look good doing it.

She is a mother to five and a friend to many and it was truly a JOY to be a part of her special day.

Breckenridge Family Photos

We had known for quite a while that we would be in Colorado for the first week of August and for almost that long I have been looking into having our family portraits made while we were there. My boys all spend a LOT of time in front of the camera, but for me it is a rare occasion and often a picture taken by our seven year old. I really believe in what I do and the importance of capturing the times in our lives because they are all gone in the blink of an eye. I wanted to capture Campbell now just before Kindergarten and Wilson before he is too cool and before he has lost all his baby teeth. SO on our last full day of vacation we meet up with the wonderful Kristy Rowe of Moodeous Photography. I found Kristy online and knew right away that our styles gelled perfectly. She was so easy to be with and as you can tell below the boys had a great time. I might have spent a ridiculous amount of time planning our clothes, but I think it was worth it....i love them and we even got to wear long sleeves....in August.

I took a few of these from Kristy's site, but please jump over there to see the rest and give her some love.

reading

Over the summer Pete and the boys have started reading chapter books. It is so cute and even though I am a little sad because it feels like we should be reading board books I do love it. As a bonus all the books so far have a  movie, a little treat waiting every time they finish a book. They have read the Hobbit, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and are currently on the third book of the Chronicles of Narnia. Pete is even working with the boys on reading comprehension. Every night before they read a new chapter the boys take turns telling what has happened so far in the story (that might be Wilson's favorite part.)

On Friday after school the boys all cuddled up on the couch to read another chapter and about 5 minutes in I looked over and saw this.

It's hard being a Kindergartner.

after school

Yesterday after school I picked up my two big boys and we headed to Starbucks to visit the daddy and grab a little after school treat. They were both excited to share about the highlights of the day which included recess, lunch, gingerbread hunts, new friends, new supplies, and the big kid desk you get in second grade.

They were all smiles and full of energy, that I am pretty sure was just a way to not fall asleep and maybe a little Frappuccino.

Today after school we headed to Orange Leaf and grabbed a little treat with Mimi and Papaw. Next week might be a reality check when we just come home after school instead of going out for a frozen treat.

back to school

Today, after the fastest summer ever, the boys started school. I am the mom to two elementary students. A second grader and a kindergartner. And i can not believe it. I had a restless night consumed with thoughts of how fast the last 7 1/2 years have gone and how i know that in a blink of the eye i will be having these same feelings about a middle schooler, high schooler..... When I finally got out of bed about 6, sure i could not stay in bed any longer, i saw that our neighbors had been rolled, a NLR tradition where seniors roll the juniors the night before school starts, and was stuck again by how soon that will be us. Do you think the boys will be as entertained by it then? They wanted to ask our neighbors if they could please try to pull it out of their trees.

To the delight of Wilson and Campbell our house got "mini-rolled." I am pretty sure they would have played with that toilet paper all day.

Instead their mean mom made them take pictures and lost in the moment I forgot to change my camera setting and ended up with some very washed out photos.

We were all so excited for our little Kindergartner. And though he put on a very brave face I can tell as I look through these that C has on his nervous smile.

Both boys really had a great day and after some tears shed I had a fine day too.

MP and a Lisa Leonard Giveaway

On Sunday we celebrated MP's birthday. It was a pie party with chicken pot pie for lunch and blackberry pie for dessert, both requested by the birthday girl. We love that girl and I cannot believe she is ELEVEN.

 In an effort to think about anything other than my BIG kiddos being at school I am going to spend some time with my google reader. I came across a wonderful giveaway on Lisa Leonards blog. She is giving away $100 for her site and $100 to Target. Could it get any better? I think not. Go check it out.

 This is the adorable Lisa Leonard necklace MP got for her birthday.

Copper Mountain, CO

The next day we headed to Copper Mountain to see what was going on there and scout out options for skiing this winter. Our day at the fun park had been fun, but both boys were sad to miss the big trampoline...it had a 1 hour line. This one at Copper had a very short wait and the people working there were wonderful.

Both boys LOVED it and did so many flips that I lost count.

For buying the the jump tickets we got 4 free lift rides so all 4 boys took the lift up to look around and do a little exploring, my mom and I explored the shops.

Peak 8 Fun Park Breckenridge, CO

i started getting picture togetherfor this post and quickly realized i had way too many. i really love these templates for moments like this because i can still put lots of pictures, but don't leave people scrolling for an hour to look at all the pics. this is from our first full day in Breckenridge. we had heard about this super cool summer fun park at Peak 8 and it was all it was promised to be. maybe a little Disney over Breckenridge (lots of people and lines) but it was worth the wait and for sure a highlight from our trip.

first up was the maze...pete and wilson were off and running, leaving c and i behind, but we held our own and got all our stamps.

then to rock climbing where wilson dominated. he made it to the top in a blink of the eye. 

ps. i spent a large portion of our trip just watching how big that kiddo is getting to be.
campbell gave it a go, but didn't make it and didn't mind.

a ride on the lift took us to the alpine slide, the main attraction. i think i loved this as much as the boys. it was SO fun!

and since you can not park on the mountain at the fun park we got to take the gondola back down to the car. this was my mom's first lift/gondola ride ever and we were all extremely proud of her, she is VERY afraid of heights and she did great.

as we finished up it started to rain and we stopped for lunch at Blue River Bistro. it was super yummy.

Breckenridge Colorado

We have know for a while that we would be in Colorado for a wedding the last weekend in July and decided sometime ago that after Pete and I finished our work we would stay a week for a family vacation. We were lucky to be joined by my parents who watched the boys while we did wedding things and really helped us have a great week.

The wedding was in Colorado Springs, where I had never been and was beautiful, and then we headed to Breckenridge. I have a longstanding love affair with Breckenridge....we skied there 3 years while I was in high school and Pete and I have been back a time or two. It is an adorable town with yummy food, fun shopping and the nicest people. We visited some old favorites and discovered some fun things I had never seen.

did I mention

 that we are in the mountains?

We have had the most wonderful week and are trying as hard as possible to soak up every minute of this 60 degree weather before returning home to 100+. I find myself thinking about the temperature a lot. I am hoping that next week when I am at home melting I can remember just a little of the glory of a Colorado summer. At this moment I am sitting in Starbucks drinking hot coffee next to a fireplace. I have on jeans and a summer scarf......IT IS GLORIOUS!!!!!