Video from the backpacking trip

Ben told me how much the kids just loved their adventures.  They were so happy and just talked and talked and talked.  Ben just said it was so funny to listen to these boys and hear them talk.

Here is Jonas telling how to make a graham s'more.  Inspired by a scene from "The Sandlot."

The little boys' First Backpacking trip

It was a success!  Upon returning Ben said, "It was great!"  Yay!

If Ben had time, I would have him blog about this - since I wasn't there, of course.  But since Ben doesn't even have time to do what he's suppose to do, you'll just have to listen to me blog about this adventure from what I was told . . .

 The group made it to the trail-head Thursday evening a little before 8pm.  Here they are:  Miles, Peyton, Mason, and Jonas.

They hiked for about 45 minutes.  I think they were hoping to make it to the open, flat meadow section we had read about in the trail description, but it was getting dark and so they needed to stop.  Luckily they found a slightly level place and made camp there.  This picture was taken Friday morning.

Here is the meadow section.  Ben said the trail was really beautiful.  They headed out nice and early (Ben said everyone was up by 5:30!) to Powederhorn lake.

Bones!  They found bones on the trail and that was super exciting.  Ben guesses they are probably deer or elk bones.

On the trail; cute little backpackers.

This is a section of beaver ponds and some streams.

Here is lower Powderhorn lake - their destination for Friday.  They made it up in a few hours.  The total distance from the trail-head to this lake is 4 miles.  It's really pretty!

 They tried fishing in the lake but didn't have any success.  So then they went down to the beaver ponds and had great success there.

Miles and Jonas each caught a couple.  The Euer boys got like 1/2 a dozen each or so.  Awesome.  They did cook them up and my boys said they were really yummy.

It's hard to see in this photo, but Ben thought it was funny:  the boys all wanted to go fishing and they are all fishing in this photo.  Standing next to each other shoulder-to-shoulder.  Funny boys.

Ben, Miles, Jonas and Mason went to hike to the upper Powederhorn lake on Friday in the late afternoon.  Jonas tired out and Mason did, too, so they turned around and went back down the trail.  It turned out they were only about 8 or so minutes from the lake.  Bummer.

But Ben and Miles made it - and loved it!  It was a really big lake and just really beautiful and neat.

Back at camp . . . fire-starting time!  Always a highlight for boys.

I sent up some firework "snakes" with our boys.  They loved lighting them at the fire.

This is a pretty cool "panoramic" shot (all pictures were taken from Ben's ipod).  It's cool, but check out Miles. . . :)

Here they are heading back down the trail on Saturday morning.  Oh, one more thing.  They saw a moose at the lake - so cool!  This was a first moose for the boys and a first moose for Ben in Colorado.

It was a great adventure with some great friends!

Our 4th of July

So we girls had a good fourth!  I tried to keep it low-keyed and low-scheduled so we could be more free in what we felt like doing, etc.  I had to turn down some invites so we could just stay relaxed.  I think it worked out great.  

 I spent the morning doing yard work and then went in to do the girls' hair for the day.  I love this picture:  Emmy taking a picture of Lucy's hair.  :)

The rest of the Euer gang (the dad and 2 boys went backpacking with our boys) - which includes mom Jashel, Damon, and baby Ashly - came over around 9:30 to walk to the parade.  A cute picture of Emmy, Lucy, and Damon.  I love all the red, white and blue!

Waiting for the parade to start . . .

 Such cute sisters.

We walked around Main Street for a bit and had to get the firecracker popsicles.  Patriotic and yummy.

The girls got to do the slide a few times.  (On a sad note:  I think this is where Lucy left/lost her boo.  I'm not sure we'll be able to find it!  Lucy is sad.  I am too.)

We came back from the downtown activities and ate lunch.  Then we headed to the pool.  The girls had a fun time swimming!  When we got back I read a few books to the girls and that got them sleepy and they took a nap - a late nap, from like 4-6.  It was perfect - so they would be able to stay up for fireworks!

I got them up and we ate dinner, including our patriotic fruit and marshmallow salad:

 Then we rode downtown to try and find Lucy's boo.  Looked.  Went in stores.  Asked a police officer.  No such luck.  Bummer.

We got back and the girls swirled up these cookies:

 Fun.  And the girls watched a movie.  Then we headed over to watch the fireworks.

This was Lucy's first time - so exciting!

There was lots of gymnastics happening while we were waiting.

Cartwheel!

Headstand!

A Lucy straddle headstand!

 Finally (close to around 9:45?) the fireworks started!  The girls loved them!

I heard lots of wow's!  :)

My fireworks pictures turned out funny.  Awesome.  I had them on a fireworks setting, but I didn't have a tripod, which you pretty much need.  :)

So I had to ride my bike everywhere - with the girls in the trailer.  We rode to the library on Thursday.  To the swimming pool.  To downtown.  And to the fireworks show.  It's a good thing we're fairly close to everything.  The ride home in the dark was not my favorite, but we made it!

Good times for sure.

Jump-in-to-summer-June!

It was a fun and crazy month!  And July is starting out the same.  :)

Ben's 20th HS Reunion

We went to Littleton this past weekend - for Ben's 20th HS Reunion.  And I got no pictures.  Super lame.  But it's okay.  :)

The whole reunion was kind of lame . . . there weren't that many people there and Ben really didn't know many who were there anyways.  I guess he knew them, but didn't have any sort of friendship/relationship with them from HS and so it wasn't super grand.  We didn't stay too long.  I guess there was something Friday night at a bar that we didn't go to - but more people were there.

But Ben's highlight was a little seminary reunion he helped plan and organize.  He did this on Saturday morning at his old church building.  There were about 8-9 seminary students, plus the beloved seminary teacher and his perhaps more-beloved wife, plus spouses and kids.  We had a pancake, sausage, and hash-brown breakfast and it was fun.  One of Ben's best-friends was in town from Texas and so just having him there made it worth it for Ben.  It was fun.  Here's a picture I stole from someone's FB:

Alan (a best-friend), Ben, Camille, another Camille I think, and Frank Okoren - the seminary teacher.  There were a few other people that didn't make it in this photo I guess.

Ben's parents were nice to watch our kids while we went reunioning.  :)

That night we watched "The Gods Must Be Crazy" as a family.  It's great and my kids were really in to it.  Funny.  Lucy was asking me today why the kids were all naked.  :)

On Sunday Ben and I again left our kids (!) and went to Fort Collins.  We had some good friends in Montrose that moved there and they were blessing their little babe.  So we went up for that.  It was great seeing them and their newest cutie, Anders.  It was fun to go up there.  Our kids were taken to church by Grandma and Grandpa and were supposedly "great."  :)

We headed out Monday morning.  It's never fun saying bye, but we'll see each other soon at the Maxwell Reunion in August.

 Grandpa Max and Grandma Diana - such fine folk.  :)  We sure do love them!

Apparently we don't let our windows down when traveling 70 MPH - because it was a huge highlight for the kids!  

 They loved it!  :)

We drove until we came to the Hanging Lake trailhead and parked there (along with 100 other cars!) and headed out to hike Hanging Lake.

The kids look happy, but going up was kind of not.  Miles got in trouble and wasn't happy that he had to stay in the back, Jonas couldn't think about anything other than lunch, etc., etc.  Lucy was happy.  I think that was it.  Maybe Ben was, too.  :)

 The look cute, though, even when not happy.

A cool spot.

So Lucy.

And we made it - and, oh no, Lucy is not happy now.  I hadn't gotten mad at her because we just wanted everyone to stand in the corner so we could get a picture.  It was pretty difficult, but we kind of succeeded.

The lake was awesome!  Emmy had the perfect "OOOOOHHHHHHHH" expression when she saw it.

The kids climbed up to see the falls.

Then they climbed a little in to be by the falls.  Fun for them.

Miles took this picture and it turned out great.  The lake is so beautiful and the kids really were impressed.

A cool spot on the way down.

We let the kids cool off in the stream.  It was cold!  But the kids enjoyed it anyways.

Just having fun.
 

 It took her about 2 minutes to get filthy dirty on our hike.  That's my Emmy-girl.

Another great way to cool off was to dip their hats in the water and then put them on.  Awesome.

We then drove to Glenwood Springs and stopped off for some ice-cream:

 Yummy and fun!

Lucy loved her cotton candy ice cream.  :)

Our amigo Jonas (the "J" is silent in this case of course) had fun with his ice cream.  :)

It was a fun hike, even though all of it wasn't super enjoyable.  But the overall and end results were great and I guess that's what really counts.