We Girls in Midway

While the boys were off adventuring (and Ben was home-alone), the girls and I headed out to Midway. We had fun hiking, going to the County Fair, swimming at the pool, attending my nephew's baptism, etc. Midway is hard to beat!

 On Friday morning we headed off to Stewart Falls. It's an awesome hike - unless you're my mother. Then you would have hated it! Ha.

 My mom did great - it was just a bumpy trail and she tripped quite a few times and fell once. :( But she made it super close to the water-fall - at least she could see it from the trail. :)

 So beautiful! The misty spray was refreshing!

 A rainbow!

 The girls loved the pool!

 I took them to the ridiculously-priced county fair. The swings are always a safe, but enjoyable, ride.

 The girls went on this - the scrambler, or something like that. At first they were both all smiles.

 I think they are still smiling here. But then it started going so fast and Emmy was soooo scared. It was actually hilarious. I was laughing too hard to take a picture. :) Emmy had a love-hate relationship with it.

 The girls and I entered the hula-hoop contest. We all totally lost in our age-divisions, but it was fun! The hula-hoopers were insane - I mean, I can stand there and hula-hoop as long as anyone. What I can't do it hula-hoop and walk in circles, bend down to my knees and back up, spin the hula-hoop up around my neck and back down, etc. Ha! Those winners were amazing.

 Emmy bought her and Lucy some deliciously messy cotton-candy! And look- they match their hats!

 How Lucy traveled to and from the pool.

My sister was in town with her husband's family, having a Huband reunion. Since most of her family was there, my sister had her son, Ollie, baptized. It was a great baptism! (Upload photos Erin so I can post some!) Afterwards everyone was invited over to my parents' home for gigantic cinnamon-rolls. Yummy!

This was about 1/4 of what the cinnamon roll was . . . :)

That afternoon after all the Hubands left, my sister, mom and I went shopping for the next part of our trip: Yellowstone. The boys got back from their high-adventure Saturday afternoon and then after a shower, headed up to Midway and got there around 11.

Sunday morning we all went to church and then headed up to Mack's Inn, Idaho . . .

Miles' and Jonas' High-Adventure!

The boys met early on Thursday morning to being their high-adventure. They hiked in 12 miles that day - mostly in the rain and thunderstorms! What a way to start an adventure. :) The next day the boys hiked a 14-er, Uncompahgre Peak. 14,321. That was another 12-mile day, but at least they didn't have their heavy packs to carry. Then they hiked out the last day. So about 36 miles in all. Wow. The boys had a great time and we're grateful to their leaders for taking them on such a grand high-adventure!

Here are pictures I took from the facebook post. Miles took some - when we download them, maybe I'll post them, too.

Gorgeous!

Maxwell Reunion

Well I have a lot to catch up on! We ended our summer break with a bang! Bang = three family reunions, travels to Littleton, Midway, Mack's Inn/Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, plus throw in a 36-mile high-adventure for the boys. 2,500 miles in two weeks. It was a lot! But a lot of fun, too!

Ben headed out on a Saturday with the girls. I was busy helping run Youth Conference and my boys were there, too, so we couldn't leave until the next day. But by Sunday evening most of the Jim and Diana Maxwell clan had gathered at their home. We were missing two of Laura's kids (along with their wives and children) and Sam, Joe and Britt's son serving a mission. But everyone else was there - which came to 28 of us, I think.

We enjoyed being together, doing get-to-know-you-games, going on different outings, eating dinners together, etc. We sure wished we lived closer and saw each other more often!

 Ben took the girls to the Littleton Historic Museume - a favorite activity of his! There were some adorable baby pigs there - they reminded me of Bella. :)

 Ben giving a morning devotional.

 We took a stroll on the beloved Highline Canal.

 Jonas with his cousin Nicholas.

 Our family + Nicholas got up bring and early one morning to hike to Devil's Head - an old fire look-out tower. It was so awesome!

 The dogs had to be leashed, but that was okay. Brigham helped pull up the boys. :)

 We made it to the stairs - 143 steps. Brigham did not like going up! He was shaking. But he did fine going down.

 The tower - the view up here was awesome!

 There's one of the many view-points.

 Lucy really wanted a picture with Smokey. :)

 This was a train-ride at a local park. Ben's grandpa was the train's "conductor" for a time during Ben's childhood.

 We took Denver's light-rail to a Colorado Rockies baseball game. This picture was taken before a slightly sketchy situation: we were at a stop and a man hops in right behind the boys and crosses to the other side's door. Apparently he had grabbed a bag belonging to a lady - she began yelling at and screaming at him for stealing her food, etc. He didn't get on the bus, so we aren't sure how it was all resolved. Emmy was in shock for the rest of the ride. :)

 Baseball game! Jim came, as well as most of Debbie's family. It was a lot of fun - especially for Emmy! Emmy loved it and was totally bummed that we left with half an inning to go. :)

 It was a beautiful night for it!

 Casa Bonita - always quite the experience. The kids loved it.

 This is one of our niece's girls - Elena. What a doll! Emily (our niece) had two adorable girls that my girls had a blast playing with.

 My girls with their cousin Grace. Grace works at her gym during "open-night" and so my girls got to go and had a wonderful time! So fun.

The boys left Wednesday late-afternoon to get back to Montrose for Miles' and Jonas' high-adventure. . .  The girls and I headed out to Utah on Thursday morning. . .

Dear Lucy,

Happy birthday Lucy! You still get so excited for your special day - I hope you always will, too! It's sweet and innocent (okay, maybe not so innocent - you know birthday = presents . . .:) ). Your brothers just surprised you tonight with their special gift to you and Emmy - a day at Banana's Fun Park tomorrow. Whoppee. Now if only Miles could drive you all up there on his own, that would be a gift to me. :)

Another year . . . older and wiser, that's for sure. You're learning well in school and continue to love school. You have good friends there and are excited to go back soon and see them all. You like all subjects - although you don't think you are good at math (but you are). Whenever I would go in to your classroom and help out, I would notice how quickly and how well you did your work. You would finish up and then go help your classmates finish up. You're a great student and I know that 3rd grade will be an awesome year for you!

You continue to love gymnastics and playing with friends. Your two favorite past-times. You competed this past year for your first time and it was great watching you! You're an adorable gymnast - and good, too! You make friends easily. For your first gym meet up in Aspen you were competing alone (since your other teammates were competing on Sunday - you got a special allowance). You joined up with another small team of gymnasts and by the end you were chatting it up with them and they were cheering your name as you competed.

Your best-friend at school is a girl named Maddy. She's a twin and her twin's name is Addy. :) (Madison and Addison) She's like you in a lot of ways - cute, smart, active, happy, etc. But there is one difference - a big difference. Maddy is almost as tall as me! A total Mutt and Jeff friendship, for sure.

You continue to live up to being the "baby" of the family (I can say that as I was one, too!). You tend to cry a bit more than we (your family) would like . . . But I can't remember if your siblings were like this at your age, too? I think Miles was more obstinate, Jonas whined a bunch, and Emmy just got mad. So crying is your thing - we all have a "thing." But crying is something I think you will outgrow and so I am not too worried . . . I just hope it happens sooner than later.

You have a ton of other qualities about you that are amazing. Your kindness. Your thoughtfulness. Your friendliness. Your love for others. Your creativity. Your intelligence. Your empathy. Your desire to do good and be good. You are great at being YOU.

And I love YOU.

Happy birthday. I love you more than all the birthdays everyone has ever had . . .

love,
mom

Emmy's BYU Gymnastics Camp 2019

Emmy has been super busy these past few weeks! Every since going to Young Women's Camp 2 1/2 weeks ago, Emmy has slept three times in her own bed! She did YW camp, then our backpacking trip, then up to Littleton, then up to Provo for BYU Camp!

Emmy saved money all year for this camp. We were hoping to get in to the overnight housing, but it was full in the first two days of registration! Bummer! But Emmy did save up her half and so we thought she should go anyways. She's been to camp the previous two years, but this one was a step-up - 5 days and all-day long (as opposed to 3 half-days)! Cool!

Ben and Emmy headed over on Sunday to my parents' home. I'm really glad Ben got the opportunity to go - he had a ton of fun on campus with Emmy:

 All campers (from the many camps happening that week) checked in at the Marriott Center on Monday.

 Cosmo the Cougar was hanging around and meeting the campers!

 Cardboard Studio C cast members were there, too. :)

 They got lunch and treats at the BYU store.

 Truffles - yum!

 Ben took Emmy to orientation and then it was "goodbye"!

My parents picked Emmy up the  next few days . . . until Lucy and I arrived in Provo on Wednesday afternoon. We got there a bit early and watched all the campers. There were quite a lot of girls there, and there was quite the range of abilities - from girls just beginning their competition-level gymnastics, all the way to level 10 gymnasts. It was super fun to watch.

Emmy was trying to do her fly-away from the bar on her own, but she just wouldn't do it! Coach Guard Young (the BYU head coach) saw Emmy and told her she had a great swing and should just do it! He took her to the low bar and spotted her on one. But she still just wouldn't do it on her own. She was really frustrated at the end of that day . . . but on Friday (her last day), she got another chance on bars. She tried again, but, again, wouldn't let go. She came over (Lucy and I were there a bit early to watch the final dance performances) and told me she just wanted to do it on the regular high bar with Coach Guard spotting her. So I told her to ask him - and she did and he did! And Emmy did a wonderful fly-away - yay! It was a great way to end her week. Plus, she also started working on back handsprings on the low-beam (with mats up on the side . . . :) ). She was super excited about that, too.

All in all, it was a great experience for her. They ate lunch on campus, had nutrition classes, physical therapy classes, etc. The coaches included the BYU head coach Guard Young and his BYU gymnasts. Awesome.

 Emmy just waiting her turn . . . This was on Wednesday when Lucy and I just arrived in Provo.

 Guard Young took time to individually help out Emmy. He was just awesome.

 Coach Young telling Emmy to go and do it on the other bar now! :)

 My mom is in charge of her ward's help with the Swiss Day baking. So on Wednesday night (after we had gotten home, the girls had gone for a little swim, and we had eaten some yummy Grandpa-made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches . . .) we went over to help out. The girls had fun scooping up cookie-dough balls!

 On our way down to Provo on Thursday morning to drop off Emmy at camp, I dropped off Lucy at the baking shop again. My mom was already there - that day they were actually going to be baking those little balls of dough. The cookies are bratzelis and you bake them one at a time on a little waffle-like thing. I took Emmy, dropped her off, spent some time at a running store trying to find the perfect running shoe, and then came back. Three-hours later and Lucy was still having a great time - even doing the dishes. :) She got lots of compliments from the ladies there that morning. What an awesome helper Lucy was!

 I took Lucy to 7-11 for her free slurpee (it was 7-11 day!). There are no 7-11s in Montrose, so that was a fun treat for Lucy!

 That night my mom took us girls to Midway's outdoor theater production of Cinderalla. It was fun and the girls really loved it! (My mom - not so much!).

 My running view on Friday morning - so beautiful!!!

And it's a wrap - Emmy finished up on Friday afternoon and then we headed back to Montrose. We had thought about staying until Saturday, but the girls wanted to make it back for their Saturday gym practice. :)

A video compilation: Emmy not doing her fly-away, Emmy finally doing a great fly-away, Emmy doing a back handspring on the beam, and Emmy's dance routine.

I love it all!

Lucy

Here are just a few things that Lucy and I did last week while Emmy was gone. (Lucy was really bummed that Emmy was going to be away at BYU camp all week long . . . but, luckily, we were able to head over on Wednesday to Utah, so it wasn't that bad!)

 We did a very last-minute Activity Day, but ended up with eight girls! (During the summer we just meet up once - for a "bigger" activity. But we had to cancel June and I was just wanting to get these girls together, so we added an "extra" little activity to this month. Later in the month we'll be going on a hike.) We rode our bikes from the church, on a little path, down to the middle school's playground.

How many girls can you fit on a swing?!

 Biker babes biking back.

 What an awesome group of girls! We have Bentley, Miryam, Elizabeth, Genevieve (Lucy's friend and our neighbor who we invited), Esther (brand new to the ward!), Lucy, Tahlia, and Gracie.

 We ended with frozen go-gurts and hummus. :)

Our good friends are moving away - sniff, sniff. Lucy and I took out Cassidy (the mom) and Ellie to lunch on Tuesday. Lucy was just laughing at silly and funny Ellie the whole time. They are such cute and fun friends.

 Ellie is dealing with some alopecia issues - but that doesn't do anything to her adorableness, except maybe accentuate it!

I took Lucy to buy some craft supplies on Monday and she loved it. She made a bunch of clay beads and made a necklace for herself and Ellie. Cute, cute.

 Miles' battery had died (a door was left slightly ajar, we think) and so he jumped it one day. So we hopped in the car and took it for a spin. Lucy looks good sitting in all that blue. :)