Colorado Family Reunion

We spent a week in Colorado in August at Brant's family reunion. We had so much fun and it was great getting to know Brant's family better, many of whom we haven't seen in 5 years. Most had never met Gavin or Tyler. We stayed in cabins and spent most of the day enjoying the beautiful Colorado mountains. 

Here is a creek that was really close to our cabins. Just a few feet down there were some hot springs. 

We spent a lot of time at the swimming pool. The pools were all naturally heated by the hot springs so they were nice and warm. The boys loved the 400 foot water slide and went down over and over again. 

The boys were champs on the 7 mile hike we went on. It was definitely too much for a 4 year old, but Gavin toughed it out and only had to be carried a little bit. He was all smiles once we were done. 

Jay and Amy brought a slack line that everyone got to have some fun with. I think it would be impossible to walk on that thing without holding on to something. 

One of our favorite things was kayaking. Gavin kept wanting to go out all by himself. 

Spencer was brave and did some rock climbing. He was fine until he was rappelling down and hit his back on part of the rock. He had a good battle wound to show for it. 

Since it was a 16 hour drive to Colorado (it takes us 10 hours just to get out of Texas), we stayed at a hotel on the way there. We all love staying in a hotel, though we usually try to get one with an extra room so we can actually sleep. It's hard to sleep with Tyler in the same room. On the way home we decided to drive straight through. We were so glad when we made it home safely. 

Smart chart

Gavin fell asleep during the boys' computer time today. They can play on the computer if they do the things listed on their 'Smart chart'. Well, usually just Spencer does the things while Gavin runs around. Spencer always chooses to go to YouTube to watch videos on how to assemble different Lego creations. The other day Spencer went into my bathroom with a Lego set, closed the door and I could hear him talking. Gavin opened the door a few minutes later and Spencer said, "Gav, I'm reporting!" He loves to pretend to teach other people how to assemble Legos. Maybe he'll get his own YouTube channel someday. 

Legos

Legos have officially taken over our entire house, but they sure keep these boys entertained for hours everyday. Spencer and Gavin are up at 6 each morning and the first thing they do is start on a new lego creation. By the time we eat breakfast at 7 they always have something new to show us. I love how creative they are and how well they play together. Tyler tries to get in on the action and gets frustrated that he can't put them together yet. 

We love minivans!

I have never appreciated having a van as much as I did the week we drove Brant's little Camry around since our van died. The kids are usually separated by an aisle or a row, but being so close together they couldn't help but constantly poke/touch each other and complain that the other person was poking/touching them. We did stop and get donuts one day which helped things since they had to hold on to the the bags. 

Snacks and Swimming

The first Tuesday of every month is dollar day at the Brazos County Natural History Museum so we headed over. The museum is really tiny, but there are some cool things to see. 

Our friends, the Giffords, joined us to tour the George Bush Library on the Fourth of July. We had a little BBQ afterwards, but the kids were all in bed by 8 so no fireworks for us this year. 

The kids almost made the 10-o-clock news here in College Station, but didn't make the cut. 

Tyler loves to wear Brant's glasses and loves when I take a picture of him. He usually doesn't sit still long enough for me to take a picture because he gets up to look at himself on my phone. He likes the selfie so he can see himself the whole time. 

Brant made me breakfast in bed last week and Spencer asked why he never got breakfast in bed. One reason would be because he wakes up at 6 everyday... but Brant is a great dad and made the boys a picnic breakfast. They felt so special and even got to watch a movie.  

When I was putting Gavin down for a nap Spencer surprised me with a snack picnic! It was complete with 2 cups of peanuts, craisins, triscuits, and an oatmeal square. Tyler woke up right before we started our picnic and wanted to share. I love how much Spencer thinks of other people. 

Gavin did swimming lessons for the first time this year. When he was actually paying attention to his teacher he did a great job. He can put his head in the water and loves to kick his legs and splash as much as possible. Brant took the boys to lessons every night for two weeks while I stayed home with Tyler. We all went the last night, though. Tyler had a really hard time when his brothers and Dad left without him so often. 

We were so proud of Spencer at swimming lessons this year! He did such a great job swimming without touching the bottom. He has progressed so much since his first set of swimming lessons when he was afraid to even get in the water.  

Gavin was so happy that he got a coloring page after being done with swimming lessons. Right after I took this picture I gave him my pen and he started coloring all the frogs. 

School and Summer

Spencer's last day of Kindergarten. He loved his teacher, Ms. Hubble, so much and cried that night because he missed her so much. We were so grateful he had such a good teacher. He got an award for being the best builder in class because he can pretty much build anything out of LEGOs. Now he wants to be an architect. Well, that or a police officer. 

We spent a fun few days at the beach down in Galveston. We've lived here for 3 years and this was our first trip to the beach. It's only 2 1/2 hours away so we'll definitely go back before we move next year. 

We went with Brant's parents which was really fun. The kids love to spend time with them. 

This was Tyler's expression pretty much the whole time we spent on the beach. He wasn't a fan of the combination of sand, sunblock, and wind.

I love this picture of Gavin because he looks like such a nerd. Our hotel was right on the beach so we'd go back and forth between the sand and our hotel pool. 

This is Brant's favorite picture of the trip. I like to call it 'Childhood Realized'.

We survived our first week of summer break with lots of activities. The library has a day each year when they have firetrucks and construction trucks come that the kids can get in. It usually takes Gavin a while to warm up to new places and is really grumpy. This is his reaction when I asked him to look at me and smile. Spencer has the smile down, but it's hard to smile and look at me at the same time. :)

Spencer did a week of soccer camp for 2 hours every night. It was exhausting and Brant or I just had to sit there. The humidity here is crazy. Spencer really likes soccer and is pretty good at it so hopefully he keep liking it. 

Brant and I went to our friend's, Paul's, wedding up in Dallas while our kids stayed in College Station with some friends. It was a beautiful wedding and nice to be without kids. 

We stayed with some friends in Houston and Gavin fell in love with the tire swing. We need to get one of those. 

Ice cream and s'mores

Since Brant was out of town for a few days I took the boys to Jason's Deli for dinner one night. They all share a mac and cheese and we load up on the free mini muffins and ice cream, of course. This was Tyler's very first ice cream cone. He wasn't sure what to do with it at first, but quickly figured it out. 

Brant brought home a ball for each of the boys from his trip to Kansas. Tyler would not let them out of his sight. The only word he can say is 'throw' and he throws everything. I'm glad he has some soft balls to throw now. 

We were all glad when Brant got home. Tyler gets so excited when he sees his daddy walk through the door. He runs up to him and gives him a hug. 

Spencer and Gavin went on the father and sons campout with Brant. I'm looking forward to Tyler being potty trained so he can tag along too. Then it will be a fun weekend for me. :)

S'mores are the BEST part of camping...

In this picture you can see the beginning of Gavin's black eye. He had just fallen face first on the wooden steps by the cabin. 

Going down the slide with my boys. You can tell they're thrilled. 

Our first time geocaching. We went with friends who do it all the time. After finding a box full of giant ants, we did end up finding a couple of cool boxes with little trinkets inside.