{Cole turns 4}

I can't believe he's 4 already!!!  Cole's birthday happened to fall on a day he went to preschool, so I surprised him by bringing in balloons and cupcakes. He loved it, made him feel special all day in class.



He loves his new preschool this year, he's one of the oldest ones in there because of his late birthday.  But that's ok, he gets to really enjoy it for another year.



I made his basketball cake this year with Reese's Pieces.... yummo!

I absolutely LOVE Cole's face here, he was SO EXCITED to open his HUGE bag of presents.

The loot included: PaperJamz guitar, squirt guns, clothes, candy, spiderman lunchbox, transformer mask, magnifying scope for bugs, and a booster car-seat.

Ella and Cole had a blast the next day trying out his presents....
Cole had to wear his new transformers mask.

Nana and Papa are always good about sending bday packages a week before their bday.  They sent him a huge box of gifts as well, (I can't find pics of him opening)  he loves those monster trucks, transformers ball/bat and clothes.  Thanks so much, we love you!

We also got a pkg today from Grandma & Grandpa Thompson. They loved it, how thoughtful!



TOFW : Denver

 This past weekend we went to Denver because Scott could attend a conference on implants, but more importantly so I could go to Time Out For Women with some friends.  IT WAS AMAZING!  I'm so glad I went to hear the spiritual and inspiring talks and music.  Totally something I needed right now.

 Valerie Ann, Me, Tiffany Jo

 Mercy River was the musical act on the 2nd day, and their harmony was amazing. They told the best inspiring stories which related to their songs.  My friend knew the General Director so we were able to get 3RD ROW seats!  By sitting so close we were able to meet Mercy River and take a quick pic.

 Julie De Azevedo Hanks was also an amazing. She is a therapist and gave great insight to seek the good within us, and she's also an amazing performer who plays the piano and sings beautifully.

 My friend (Mimi Crisenberry) who I met while living in El Dorado Hills, CA just moved to Parker, CO the same town my sister lives.  In fact, she lives in the subdivision next to my sisters, only 4 minutes away.  It was so fun to be able to visit and see her, and catch up after not seeing each other for 5 years!!  She invited us over for lunch on Friday, and it was so fun to have our kids play together.  We both have 3 kids exactly the same age.

We also went to church with them on Sunday before we headed back to Santa Fe.  Such a fun weekend, we'll have to come down again and visit soon.

Promises

 Scott promised to take the kids camping during Labor Day weekend, but because of one thing after another, it didn't happen.  So, the kids bugged him enough and he had to give in.  He set up the tent in our backyard with the kiddos.  Totally my kind of camping (Scott & kiddos outside, while baby and me inside).

 They totally loved it, Scott deserves the "Father of the Year" award for keeping his promise to these kids!

The next weekend he was able to take them camping at Valles Calderas, more pics to come on that!



Aquarium & Botanical Gardens

 Last weekend we went to Albq to visit the Aquarium & Botanical Gardens; it was part of our Zoo pass we got.

 First we went to the Aquarium...

 The kids loved seeing the sea animals.

 Especially the sharks!

Botanical Gardens

 Next door to the Aquarium were the Botanical Gardens, which we actually liked better! 

 It was huge, and didn't even get to see it all.  We saw the Sasebo Japanese Garden, the Mediterranean Conservatory, Rio Grande Heritage Farm, and Desert Conservatory... 

 Brock did well staying in the stroller all day,

he even kicked his leg up for a nap.

 Ella & Cole's favorite part of the gardens were the Children's Fantasy Gardens

 I felt like we were on the set of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" with everything being so gargantuous!

 

 They had fun running around the

ginormous carrots, beets, onion, and sliding down the tree slide.

The kids were sad we didn't get to see it all,

 but there's always next time!

End of Summer, Back to School, & Lost Teeth

 The week before school started it was pretty hot (high 90's is rare for Santa Fe) and so I was brave enough to take 3 kids by myself to the local community pool. My kids absolutely LOVED the froggy water  slide that dropped them right into shallow water in the kiddy pool. It was great. Wish I would've taken pics of Brocky there, he loves to play in water.

 Ella also started school here , and has to wear uniforms. I thought it was annoying having to spend a ton on a whole wardrobe after she was already set for summer.  But now it's not a fight on what to wear to school. Everything matches with navy and khaki. I also thought she'd be worn out going to school all day (catches bus at 7am and dropped off at 3:41p), but she came home saying,
" I thought it was going to be a long day!?" 
These pictures were taken at Back to School Night this week.  Above she is sitting at her desk.
  She has Mrs. Daniels and Miss Rose. 

That night as we were getting out of the car going to her school for Back to School Night, her other front tooth fell out while sitting in the car.  It's hard to see in the pictures, but now she is truly missing three on top, and looking so old to me.
This little girl of mine is growing up too fast!

Valles Caldera

 A few weeks ago we went up just past Los Alamos to Valles Caldera to visit our last missionary serving in our Greenwood 2nd ward, Elder Chris Luster.  He invited us to his homecoming talk and luncheon back at his beautiful home.  His parent's property actually sits right on the edge of this valley, which is actually the tip of an old ancient volcano!  There's actually been a couple movies filmed here, and actually one on his property using his barn. "The Missing" with Tommy Lee Jones was filmed here. (Valles Caldera is a National Preserve, and a 12 mi wide volcanic caldera in the Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico. It is one of only six known land-based supervolcanoes.)

His family cooked us up an amazing feast with bbq's and smokers.  The tri tip was delish.  My kids loved playing on thier trampoline and visiting their horses.

 

 We took a little walk in the middle of the ancient volcano surface, where our kids enjoyed running in the high meadow.

Family Reunion: Park City, UT

 My family has met up in the Bear Hollow cabins in Park City, UT for the past 7-8 years now.  It's just a good meeting place for everyone and there's always lots of fun things to do there. There's a community pool, hot tub and workout room, which we took full advantage of.  Scott wasn't able to come the entire time since he had to work, but he was able to fly up for the weekend!

 We took a couple different trips and rides on the ski lifts and gandolas with my brother's unlimited free passes.

My mom took my kids to the alpine slides and kiddie rides for some quality "nanna" time.

 We all went bowling the night before Scott flew in, sad he missed out.  My kids LOVE to bowl and it's such a fun thing to do with the entire family.

 There's always a competition between us all, and my mom raised the stakes this year to $20 for the winner. My little bro took home the gold!

 On Saturday we headed down to Heber to ride the Heber Valley Historic Railroad, or the "Heber Creeper" as my mom calls it.

 They do this little act where the train is getting robbed by some gangsters.  My kids were honestly scared out of their minds. They were told to stick their hands up and they kept them up for like 5 minutes after the gangsters left our car to go on to the next. 

So entertaining!

We also had some other fun times like ladies-only shopping trip to the Park City outlets, and shopping at the new City Creek Mall in downtown SLC.  We had such a great time all together, but really missed our one sibling Jenna and her family (who had just moved to Shanghi, China).  Next year maybe we'll all go to China to visit them :)  But thanks to everyone else for making the effort to all get together, we love you all so much and wish the week didn't have to go so fast!