Breckenridge, Revisited...

We received a slew of fabulous pictures in the mail from Ryan's aunt, Paula, a while back.  These pictures from our horseback riding trip outside of Breckenridge in June are too good to not share...!

We had such a GREAT time on those horses - in fact, Quinn was just asking today when we are going back to Breckenridge.  And when we do, can we ride the horses again?!

Famous...

My good friend, Heather, is a fabulous web designer and blogger. She has an amazing talent that you can't teach and is super creative.  I love following her blog - she has a lot of great recipes, free printables, etc.  You can check out her blog at:  www.moritzfineblogdesigns.com

That said, about a year ago, shortly after moving into our house, Heather asked if she could "borrow" the girls for her blog.  She was doing a back-to-school blog and had created a free printable banner that people could use for the first day of school pictures.  Quinn and Sullivan posed as her models, and Heather soon after posted their pictures on her blog.

Fast forward to about a month or so ago... Heather contacted me to say an editor of a magazine had seen her post and wanted permission to use her blog name and possibly a picture for an article the magazine was doing about going back to school.  Heather wanted to know if it was okay if one of the girls' pictures was featured in the article IF they chose to use it.

I saw no problem with that - so I gave my okay!  

Well, the doorbell rang today and Heather had some news to share....

Miss Quinn made the COVER of the magazine!!  Not possibly in the article, but on the COVER!  Apparently this magazine goes into the Sunday papers for people across the country and has an audience of.... 10 million households!!!!   So Quinn was in 10 million houses this past Sunday.

You may want to ask for an autograph, because that is as close to famous as any of us is going to get anytime soon!  

Weekend Happenings...

On Friday, my friend Tabbatha had an appointment she had to be at and needed someone to watch her two kids.  Knowing that her kids were the same age as Quinn and Sullivan, I eagerly volunteered to watch them.  I not only wanted to help her out, but at this stage of summer the girls are on each other's last nerve.  So I knew that having Madeline and Truman over would be a welcomed distraction for us all.  

Truman and Sullivan were in class together and were pretty good buddies prior to now.  So they quickly picked up where they left off.  Quinn and Madeline had never met before.  But much like their mothers, they quickly became kindred spirits.  

We all went to the park and played Legos until we were blue in the face!  

On Saturday, the Sunshine Sweets gang had some baking to do to fulfill some orders they had received.  They worked their tails off baking and frosting and embellishing their cupcakes and cookies.  

I taught the girls how to use an icing bag to frost their cupcakes.  It didn't take long before they were pros!  

After baking and delivering some of their cupcakes, we sent the girls off to the YMCA for a kid's night out event.  Without kids, that gave us the opportunity to have a date night to celebrate our 14th anniversary.  

Hard to believe how fast those years went by...!

Sunday was a lazy day spent out in the yard and at the greenhouse.  It has almost become a weekly tradition to go have lunch on Sunday and then stop by a greenhouse to look for plants and trees for the yard. 

The girls HATE it.  Like DESPISE it. I think they get tired of walking around in the sun - wandering the aisles of trees and shrubs and bushes.  I guess I get it - but Ryan and I enjoy it, so we continue to go!  

This Sunday though, the greenhouse was offering free ice cream treats.  So that sort of made up for having to look at plants.  Plus the water features at the greenhouse also caught their attention!  

Neighborhood Friends...

I know that I have said it probably more times than anyone wants to hear, but we really do love our neighborhood.  It most definitely is suburbia with a capital S, but we have fabulous neighbors all around and are blessed to count them as great friends.

Here on this given night, we spontaneously gathered at the pool for friend time.  

The kids splashed around in the pool while the adults visited and had some great laughs.  Not always easy to get us all together - as sports, vacations, and life sometimes pull us in opposite directions.  But nonetheless, we cherish the time that we do get together!

This past week, our neighbors next door invited us over for dinner.  After we were done eating, the kids dreamed up a "Parents vs. Kids Kickball game."  They were super eager to play and were certain they were going to beat us!

After playing a fair amount of time, we were just about to call it quits for the night when our other neighbor friends moseyed down to see what we were up to.  Mr. Matt had seen us playing, laced up his tennis shoes and was ready to jump into the action.

So we happily obliged and played a few more innings!  We knew we were done when the kids starting doing cartwheels and splits in the outfield.  Game over.  Victory - parents!

We count our blessing to live in such a wonderful place, surrounded by so many wonderful people!

On the Water...

Some good friends of ours live on the reservoir in town.  It is a fairly good sized reservoir and a perfect venue for tubing, skiing, boating and more!  When our friends invited us over last weekend, and the weather was perfect outside,we jumped at the invitation.

The girls had never been tubing before - quite honestly hadn't been on a boat many times either - but were excited to give it a try.  Quinn surprisingly was more adventurous and was the one more willing to give it a whirl.

Here she is with Zander, our friends' oldest son (6 years old)...

With a bit of sweet-talking and a little bit of love, Sullivan gave tubing a try.  But she was insistent she go with Ryan.  So off they went...

While the kids and adults took turns on the tube, the others rode in the boat and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Here Hazel (3years) is helping her dad drive the boat, while Archer (7 months) is along for the ride!  Such sweet,amazingly kind kids they have!

Sullivan did get the courage up, after A LOT of sweet talking, to go tubing with Quinn.  Once out there, she (and Quinn) had a blast!

After getting back from the tubing/boating adventure, the kids played on the beach for awhile before retiring their swimsuits for some dry clothes!

After having a nice meal and allowing the kids to play for awhile, we headed home.  We were full of sunshine, wind, water, sand, food, and everything else in between!  But no complaints there - you can't argue with a great afternoon on the water with friends!

Better Than I...

Sullivan and Quinn had a sleepover with the neighbors the other night.  They were as pleased as punch to be able to have a sleepover with Jack and Carly.  They had been begging for quite some time. 

Quinn was in too much of a hurry to get next door to stop for a picture, but here is Sullivan before she headed next door....

My friend, Jen, texted me some pictures of the crazy crew.  Apparently the four of them had made a "party zone" downstairs.  This consisted of a blanket fort/tent/?? that they all slept in.

They drug every chair that Jen owns downstairs to help build the fort -   along with most of her blankets.  All of these items were secured with masking tape.  Crazy kids! 

All I could sat to Jen was, "Bless you. You are far better than I, my friend!"  

The kids had an absolute blast!  They are already asking to do it again.

SD Happenings...

Our Fourth of July was plum full of lots of excitement.  Aside from being able to spend that holiday with family and friends, we also packed our week in SD with as much fun as we could.  Here are the highlights from the week...

Swimming

With the weather being as nice as it was, we got plenty of opportunities to get outside and do some swimming.  One morning, Uncle blew up the swimming pool in the backyard and the cousins had fun splashing around...

On another afternoon, the girls desperately wanted to go to Wild Water West.  It is a HUGE water park complex with a wave pool, lazy river, lots of water slides, and so much more!  

So Auntie, Quinn, Sullivan and I headed to the water park and had ourselves a blast!  I wish that I would have taken more pictures, but my phone was all packed up and away from the water.  

Two Peas in a Pod

Crew and Sullivan are two peas in a pod.  Both love electronics and watching movies on the iphone.  They were caught on numerous occasions looking like this...

Or this...

They were super quiet and laser focused on whatever it was they were watching.  

Bouncy House and Car driving

Auntie and Uncle had the bouncy house rented for the whole weekend.  So the kids spent lots of time  playing in the bounce house.  Judson had asked me to go down the slide with him - so I happily obliged!  

The cars also got plenty of miles put on them while we were at Auntie and Uncle's house...

Zoo

Another great adventure was the zoo with Nana... 

We walked around, took in the sights, and fed the goats and cows! 

 It was a beautiful afternoon and a great way to spend the day with Nana.

Cooking

Quinn was a good helper on the Fourth of July.  She wanted to help get the food put together for the gathering.  Here she is with Grandma Jane, learning how to use a garlic press.  

Crew also wanted in on the action.  Here he is "making eggs" with his mom.  

What a great helper!

Movie

Sadly no pictures were taken, but Quinn, Sullivan and I went to the movie Inside Out with Nana.  It was a wonderfully cute movie for children.  If you haven't seen it, it is worth going!  

Slip 'N Slide

Anything with water fascinates Quinn and Sullivan.  So when Nana and Papa agreed to turn on the hose and hook up their Slip 'N Slide, the girls were all on board!  They had a great time sliding in the backyard and even had a furry friend join in on the action...!

Aside from Murphy, Uncle Eric also joined in on the fun!  

Scheels

On an afternoon when Judson and Elsa were at camp, and Auntie was off at work, Uncle Matt and I took the remaining little ones to Scheels to look around and have some fun.  The kids enjoyed bowling....

And after bowling, they wanted to ride the ferris wheel.  

It was never my intent to ride the ferris wheel.  I am not much more things that go high in the sky.  But because a little cutie needed an adult to ride with her, I got my arm twisted into accompanying her!  Sullivan (my six year old child) was super sweet - she was coaching me when it was okay to open my eyes and breath again!  

Shopping

Anyone who knows me really well knows that I am not much of a shopper.  The opposite is truw of my sister... and my oldest daughter, whom must have caught the shopping bug from her Auntie.  Sullivan is so-so about shopping, but never passes up the opportunity to get something new!  So one afternoon, Auntie, Crew, Quinn, Sullivan, Grandma Jane and I headed to the mall to shop our hearts out.  Judson and Elsa were gone at camp this day as well - so they were not able to join us.

While the girls were all about looking for clothes and earrings, and everything else girly, Crew was just as content to "ride" on the cars and different vehicles in the mall.  And when I say "ride" I really mean mostly sit on them!  But when all the shopping was done and he had done an excellent job shopping, he got to choose one of the vehicles to actually ride.  

All of the kids piled in - a packed car for sure!!!  

Fashion Show

After a day filled with shopping - the girls wanted to show off the new clothes that they got!  So late one night after the little ones had gone to bed, the basement turned into a live runway - with blankets serving as the runway and music in the background.

Uncle Matt was even entered into the fashion show - as he showed off the sport new watch that Auntie had gotten him!  

Dog Walking

We spent many afternoons walking Murphy to the park. Quinn and Sullivan LOVED throwing the ball to Murphy and watching him chase it.  Long gone are the days that Duff is able or willing to do that - so watching Murph do it was a real treat!

Friend Playing

We were able to spend an evening with our dear friends, the Hansbergers.  It is also so great to see them and catch up on life.  While there may be months that separate us physically, they are the type of friends that  you pick up with right where you left off.  We are blessed for the girls' amazing friendship.

Acting goofy together doesn't take long for the four of them to do!  

Challenge Courses

Each night when Elsa, Judson and Crew had made their way to bed, Auntie and Uncle would create "challenges" for the girls.  They consisted of doing cartwheels, bear crawls, burpees, lunges, etc while being timed.  The girls LOVED doing the 'challenges" and begged to do them each night.  

It was definitely a highlight of each night and something for the girls to look forward to - many memories made!  

This was a FABULOUS trip back to SD... a great way to spend time with the ones we love.  While are forever grateful for everyone allowing us to invade their lives for over a week, we are equally grateful for the many wonderful memories made for us all!