Parker Days

We love Parker Days, our community celebration and carnival. This year the girls got to march in the parade!

They waited diligently for their turn. It was HOT!

They marched with the ranch where they went to horse camp.

We had planned on going to the carnival right afterward but it was soooo hot we went home and came back closer to dinner time.

In years past we have bought tickets and when we ran out of tickets we went home. But we knew we couldn't get away with that forever! So this year we got the unlimited rides wristband. Taking that step meant spending a lot more time at the carnival!  But it was a lot of fun. And it brings back a lot of memories of the carnival we went to every year with the older kids.

 

Because the carnival takes place in our downtown area we didn't have to eat carnival food! Yea!  We were able to go into an air conditioned restaurant and eat a real meal. Afterward, Dan took Mia over to the grownup rides while Anna and I stayed in the kid section. We all went home exhausted!

Field Trip Friday #2

For our next Friday field trip I found a Groupon for a farm up in Fort Collins. It was further away than I thought, almost two hours! So I did a little research to find out what else we could do while we were up there. Here's what I came up with:

Yes, you read that right - we went to a landfill and learned about garbage. And they learned A LOT.

They were the only ones in there so they got the royal treatment!

They loved these trucks that hauled paper or metal down a road. The truck would stop at the screen and then a video of what happens when the items are dropped off at the recycling plant would run.

They learned what you can make with trash!

After the trash talk, we went to Chipotle for lunch and then headed to the farm.

Our guide was a very sweet woman who grew up on this farm. She and her husband came back to live on it and turn it in to a museum ten years ago.

The museum was in an old metal barn and it was stiflingly hot. I was regretting my Groupon purchase. Two hour drive for this???? Mia did love the cat, though.

But then we went outside and had a wonderful time. This cow was beautiful.

Milking them cows. Ingenious.

Backbreaking womens' work.

 We were also the only ones at farm so we got our own personal tour guide there as well. It was a very fun day!

Maciol Celebration Weekend

We were so happy to be part of Arek's graduation in early June! He graduated with a degree in Marketing from Colorado State University's Global Campus. All of his family came out for the graduation.

There were 2500 graduates, but only a fraction walked in the ceremony.



We almost missed cheering for Arek as they mispronounced his name so badly. This was even though he gave her a card with the phonetic spelling!

He graduated with Honors!

We had a party at the house afterward. At the party, we also celebrated this little guy's baptism which was the next day.

Baptism decorations...

...and graduation decorations.

We all went to Mass together at 11:00 the next morning and little Oli was baptized afterward.

Beth and Adrian were the godparents. I hope to get a few pictures of them to put in later.

We celebrated some more with brunch and then it was off to the airport for most of the group!

Sleep Study

Anna is still snoring one year post-op for her pharyngeal flap surgery. This surgery has a risk of children developing sleep apnea because it does partially block their little airways. But it makes their speech so much better! Of course, we have to make sure Anna does not have sleep apnea and so she needed to have a sleep study.

It started out really well. She was actually excited!

Then the nurse started connecting all the monitors. There were to be fifteen attachments on her head alone! We got through about 10 and she was D.O.N.E. done!  She just started screaming, crying, and hyperventilating. That's when I get sad that she has to go through all this. But...I told the nurse she sleeps pretty soundly and perhaps we could finish after she was asleep. The nurse said, "I'll listen to you. You know her." Really???  I'm not used to hearing that. 

So once I told Anna we were done and she was just going to sleep she calmed down and went to sleep pretty quickly. About 15 minutes later the nurse was able to attach all the rest of the monitoring devices. She would glance at the screen and see that Anna was in deep sleep.

Anna woke up once during the night to go to the bathroom. What a pain that was! But she went right back to sleep until the nurse woke us both up at 5:30 AM to tell us it was over. We get the results soon!

Horse Camp!

Mia went to horse day camp again this year and Anna was old enough to go too! And our neighbor, Rylee, also signed up for the same week.

On the last day there was a little ceremony. Anna was pretty exhausted.

Rylee says she is Mia and Anna's sister. So cute!

 Each girl got to read their goals for the week and talk about how they did or didn't meet them.

They got to sing a song with the partner with a microphone. I don't have a still picture of it but it went like this: Anna and her little friend held the microphone nicely together whilst they sang the song with cute little voices. Now, Mia and Rylee were partners, and both have strong personalities. So picture this, through the entire song they both held the microphone and tried to pull it closer to their own mouths. Their song was quite disjointed as they were in the midst of a microphone war!

Each camper got to show their horse to their parents.  Anna and Pichuco.

Rylee and Mia with Pepsi.

They are already talking about next year!

Just a Few Pics

Just a few pictures of Colorado livin'

and fire pit chillin'.

Every day of the summer I feel blessed to look out upon this.