Sarah had her 6th grade graduation a couple of days before school let out for the summer. Each of the kids got to say what they liked most about 6th grade after they received their diploma. She said she liked helping in the special ed class. She earned the sterling scholar award each term in 4 different areas. Little over achiever.
Her friend Kaitey Stephenson. Kaitey is her last friend in the neighborhood as everyone else has moved over the years.
Friday was their last day of school. Here are their last v first day pictures.
Speaking of James, he thinks wearing my headband around his neck and arm makes him a ninja. I asked him if his armpit gets sore. He said no but his neck does. He has a tan line from it.
He is a pro at his new bike. It took a week of practicing only 5 minutes at a time. One day it all just clicked when he was practicing with Henry and he has been up and down the street all the time ever since. After the kids left for school, he hopped back on.
He wanted to ride it so badly but would get scared so easily. I didn't pressure him to practice at all--just helped him until he had enough then went back inside.
This is after school on Friday at 12:30. Henry is already bored. It's going to be a long summer.
The boys fell asleep with the lamp on so I snapped this picture. They are nutso getting ready for bed each night so I'm looking forward to them not sharing a room when we move but this is so sweet.
Saturday we visited Spanish Fork Cemetary with my mom. The kids like to hear the same stories from my mom about her grandparents, aunts, uncles and her parents. I do too. I think the cemetery is just a wonderful place of history, family, and beautiful flowers. I think this is such an important tradition. I love seeing other families gathered doing the same thing.
Sunday morning we left for Colorado Springs and the Great Wolf Lodge. We wanted to treat the kids to a fun trip since they have been such troopers this school year wearing masks. Ironically the resort required us to wear masks so that kind of was lame but we still had fun. They had heard of this place from gameshows as the grand prize so they were super excited.
The drive is super boring until you get into the Rockies and then it's mind blowing.
The weather turned stormy so we really felt like we were going through a mountain pass.
Snow on the last day of May is pretty trippy.
This is the Eisenhower Tunnel. It's 1.693 miles long but we didn't know that. We just couldn't believe it kept going and going. The Dye kids love tunnels.
"You've had this extra pair of gloves this entire time?" "Yeah. We're in the Rockies."
This is as close as we made it to downtown Denver.
We grabbed dinner at a drive-through chicken place then went to our hotel. The kids had 2 beds and a sofa and we had our own room so that was nice. The sink was outside the bathroom next to the kids' beds which is just the dumbest place ever for trying to not wake the kids. Our complimentary breakfast was sacks of prepackaged pastries, a cup of fruit cocktail and a juice box. So lame.
But the kids didn't seem to care.
We checked out of our luxury accommodations behind the 7-11 and visited the Garden of the Gods. I wasn't too excited to go see red rock formations since Utah has the corner on that market but it was actually a cool place. The weather was cool and misty--Alaska weather.
This is my second favorite video of the trip.
This is my first favorite video of the trip. I've never seen him do this before.
From there we drove to Pikes Peak. I had been once before when I was 10 years old and all I remembered is everyone getting headaches at the top and all the warning signs to not ride your brakes on the way down. I was looking worard to driving it again. The summit was closed to tourists becasue they were doing construction on the parking lot and visitors center. That was a bummer. And we could only get to marker 13 or something becasue there was ice on the road. Also a bummer. But we decided to do it anyway since we didn't have time to come back a differnt day. It was still awesome, just a different experience.
As we got higher, the weather got thinner, the fog got thicker and things got a little creepier.
There she is.
We got hot chocolate at a gift shop on the way up. If you can play in the snow and drink hoto chocolate on the last day of May, you should.
From there we could only go a few more miles but it was the switchback part hugging the edge of the mountain. The clouds were so thick we couldn't see anything.
Nothing makes you feel like you're up really high than being in the clouds. Well, I guess the view below could make you feel like you're up high but this was all we had.
Ever the steady driver.
Erica did not like it.
Until we switched directions and the cliff wasn't on her side.
I don't remember how high we got but they had us turn around in a muddy parking lot with lots of equipment. My head started to hurt. Sarah got out for a minute but it wasn't exactly a scenic spot so we turned around after a few minutes. A ways down Justin stopped and let the kids draw their name in the snow because why not?
We drove one of the scenic roads farther down and past this lake.
Here's one of the few views of Colorado Springs. Overall it was not the drive we were expecting but still cool. We'll have to come back and experience the traditional way.
Then it was time to check into The Great Wolf Lodge. Well, actually we were still several hours early but we knew we could swim and play in the resort before our room was ready.
Mini golf and bowling. Henry had a love/hate relationship with mini-golf. He played it a ton but complained, complained, complained.
The bowling was candlepin bowling which we had never done. It was fun because the bowl is easy to chuck down the lane.
Then our room was ready so we went up to change and headed to the pool. We swam for a few hours then changed and ate dinner then went to bed.
The kids had a cool bed space. There were only 3 beds so we dragged the couch cushions over for a fourth bed.
Tuesday morning we had cereal for breakfast in the room. Justin and Henry were admiring the view of Air Force's football field.
The kids wanted to try the climbing wall and ropes course so we did that first.
Sarah got the second higheset climbing time that day.
Then we went swimming for several hours.
We got some doughnuts because Dyes like doughnuts. James chose a Bostom cream doughnut and loved it. He only knew of them from the Go Nuts for Donuts game and told us he didn't know Bostom creams were a real thing.
Wednesday morning we ate breakfast at the lodge restaurant. The pancakes and waffles were not very good but Justin and I are pro pancake and waffle makers so the bar is pretty high. The rest of the food was good, even the ginormous plate of cinnamon rolls.
We had to check out of our room after breakfast so the kids put their swimming suits on under their clothes and did dry activities first. Erica was pretty obsessed with the rock wall. She did it like 80 times, she said. I believe her. They told her to come back in 10 minutes so someone else could have a turn.
And some of the kids wanted to try the ropes course again.
I tried helping James the day before but it didn't work so Justin helped him today. He liked it.
Erica didn't want to do the ropes course again. She was on the climbing wall.
After that, we went back to the pool. I had my camera this time so here are some pictures.
And then we said goodbye to the lodge.
And then we drove to Rifle Colorado because it's half-wayish home.
The drive was so cool. We took a more scenic route through some mountain towns, over Divide and through Breckinridge (which looks like Park City) before connecting to I-70 again.
I feel disloyal to say this because Utah mountains are so near and dear to my heart but Colorado mountains are prettier. It's the trees. They have more trees so it's just more scenic.
We got a good laugh at James who kept his headphones on while getting out to use the restroom.
We checked into our hotel at 9:30 that night--just enough time to get the kids settled on a queen mattress to share. It was Sarah's turn to sleep on the floor. I went down to the front desk to ask for some extra bedding and observed the weirdest people and conversations. I felt like I was on a stage as people took turns coming in, asking about the most random stuff and then leaving and then another person would come by. The man waiting near me said, "Excuse me ma'am. Ma'am? Are you a nurse?" Once I realized he was talking to me I turned around and said no. "Oh, I thought maybe you were because of your pants. I have friends that are nurses." I turned back around. I was wearing these blue pants. When I relayed the story back upstairs, the kids thought it was hilarious. Justin could understand the possibility.
The next morning we checked out of our hotel and visited Rifle Falls. We didn't know what to expect and it was much more impressive than I imagined. The parking lot is super close and it's a short walk and suddenly, here's some waterfalls.
We hiked up a little path and surprise! You can go behind the falls.
There were a lot of caves for exploring and climbing.
It actually smelled pretty bad. Just a weird minerally water smell. The young lady there too did not like the smell at all and kept spraying perfume on herself.
And then we drove the rest of the way home and marveled that it was 90+ degrees when the last time we drove that route, we encountered snow and freezing temperatures just 4 days prior.
The following things are 15 years old. (And I don't keep stuff I don't use on the regular so these are all going strong.)
These cooking utensils.
This rice cooker.
This waffle iron. The world may be on the Belgian style wagon but we are traditional square waffle eaters here.
This food storage set. I've lost oneof the tiny sized ones but I have 2 others.
Flour and sugar containers.
This cutting board.
These Pyrex bowls. One more in is the fridge. Plus I have a larger one from this set.
This mixing bowl. No mixing bowl gets more used than this mixing bowl.
This clear baking dish. (Fun fact: the green one is 19 years old from when I went to college.)
These measuring cups and spoons.
This game of Settlers.
This hymnal
*Not pictured: Our camp chairs. They are up at the new house. A push broom that's also in the garage at the new house. A framed quote from the Proclamation on the Family because it's boxed up somewhere. Some bath rugs also in a box in the garage. And a cooler and colander I just remembered about but don't feel like snapping a picture of and other stuff that I forgot about.
I know this because they were all wedding presents!
Plus there's this hoodie that we bought on our honeymoon in Park City. It was freakishly cold that weekend.
These baker's racks we used to hold decorations at our reception.
This marriage is also 15 years old!
We celebrated by couch shopping but ended up at the restaurant supply store because that's more fun. We bought a new ice cream scoop because hey, ours is 15 years old. And a hamburger press because that's fun.
Crazy May continues. We have been working on the house every spare moment. James and I go up after the kids go to school and I work until I get hungry or James gets unbearably bored.
And when James gets bored, I get these on my tablet.
Oh wait, there's more.
Here's a little view of what the cabinets look like in our new house. I scraped and scrubbed and scraped some more. For 2 days I cleaned out drawers and cabinets. Combine that with removing 1,000 staples and now I have carpal tunnel syndrome.
There is progress being made on the house. We now have beautiful new floors!
And the kitchen countertops and kitchen windowsills (which is my favorite thing so far)
Love me a pretty shiny sink.
Last week the painters started on the kitchen cabinets. Even a coat of primer makes them look 100x better. And the addition of crown molding makes my heart happy. (But the more we improve stuff, the angrier the striped wall makes me.)
Onto the kids! We are in our final week of school. Erica made this cute story about her and Madison. She decided it was too big to keep so she wanted a picture of it instead.
James didn't believe me that he has a dark spot on the back of his head like a puppy spot so I took a picture of it so he can see it. And how knows if someday it will fade away.
I found a bunch of pictures like this on my phone. Always a treat.
This one is going to make it into his wedding video.
"Mom, will you pass me my Power Gatorade?" Someone must have corrected him because he doesn't call it that anymore. :(
I will be forever sad when James grows out of this cute stage of singing to himself while playing legos with a headlamp on.
"Mom, do I look cool?"
Sarah got braces last week. Here's the before...
And after. She had a rough couple of first days and I could tell she was wishing she wasn't in such a hurry to get them. She told me last night she wishes she could take them off for a few minutes, just for a break. I never had braces but I totally get that feeling with a big pregnant belly.
This week is Sarah's elementary school graduation, our 15th anniversary on Wednesday, the kids have their last day of school on Friday and then we leave for Colorado on Sunday. Oh, and we have some drywall to replace and baseboards to finish up before the painters move onto the house. Busy, busy, busy!
And then we said goodbye to the lodge.
