Goin' on a Vacay

Sooo, I'm taking the week off.

 

Yep, this is the page you'll be looking at until I get back.

The family's taking a little extended Labor Day vacation.

 

 

Be back soon!

The Stare Down

What is it with animals giving us the stink eye lately?

First it was the pony, now it's a peacock.

 

 

But leave it to Kyle to give him plenty of attitude right back!

Fashion Fabulous Friday (on Saturday)

Dinner napkins.

Because good taste never goes out of style.  (A bit of a stretch on the pun, but it's there!)

FINALLY!

The last week and a day might as well have been a year and a day.

Kyle and Reed have been fussing and complaining about JR getting to go school every. single. day.

 

Today could not have come fast enough for these two.

 

Pre K at last!

 

I'm sure you can't tell they're excited or anything.

They pranced inside their classroom like they owned the joint. 

By the time I signed them in, they were already busy washing their hands.

(First thing they're supposed to do when they come in the class.)

 

And as of today, I officially make three bicycling 1-mile round trips to school.

(drop JR in the morning, drop Kyle and Reed after lunch, pick-up everybody at the end of the day)

 

If there's a 5K bike race where everybody rides cruisers and has their baskets loaded down with backpacks, please let me know.  With all this 'training' I'm sure I could win!

Lunch with an Anteater

The other day Randi told me that one of her triathlete friends worked at the Denver Zoo, and would we want to go for a "behind the scenes tour"?

 

Um...let me think about that for a minute....

YES!!!!!

 

 

Randi's friend, Beth, heads up the educational department at the zoo, so we got to meet all the animals that travel around for demonstrations.  These animals are strictly for educational purposes and are never part of the public zoo displays.

 

And since I don't want to bore you with pictures of everything we saw, I thought I'd highlight the most 'intresting' ones. 

 

 

 

One of the first things I noticed was this.  This would not be the last time I shuttered.

And for those of you that don't get squeamish near a box of giant forest cockroaches, here's something else you might like.

We visited during lunchtime, so we got to see the food-prep areas.

Check out the fridge, I almost lost it when I noticed one of the "snacks".  Do you see?

And after I turned green, and had to look away, they decided to show me even more.

 UGH!

 

 

 

Things got better when they asked the kids if they wanted to feed the anteater.

 

 Anteaters like worms, which you can see really well in Reed's hand in this picture.

 

And as you can see by the smile, Anteater feeding was a big hit.

 

 

 

Even Randi was brave enough to hold the worms!

(I was good with just being the photographer.)

 

 

The other animals I was most scared of was the tri-colored squirrels.

Beth warned us that they were boy squirrels, and not to get too close or they might spray us.

 

Let me tell ya, I live in a house with all boys...you don't have to warn me twice about 'spraying'!

 I happily stayed clear of those guys.

 

 

 

Snakes, birds, an alligator, bunnies, and spraying squirrels...could any day be better?

Thank you, Miss Beth!

More of the Same

We went to the Rockies game yesterday, and it was pretty much the same as the last time we went.

(Except our seats were much higher up...which I actually loved because we were in the shade!)

Jason and Reed hung out.

I know, Reed has on a Broncos hat.  

But nobody seemed to care, I saw lots of Broncos gear at the game! 

(Actually, Broncos paraphernalia seems to be appropriate attire anywhere, anytime.)

JR cheered/booed/screamed like none other.

Kyle wasn't aware a game was being played.

He was seriously, serious about his peanuts, though.

And I wore a big hat.

So yeah, everything was just how you'd expect.

Piano Techy

JR started his piano lessons with his new teacher about 3 weeks ago.

I can not wait until recital time so I have a good excuse to take a picture of him.

He's a young guy, but looks exactly like 1980's Vince Neil from Motley Crue. 

Same hair, same build, and I'm pretty sure, the same clothes.

He told JR he needed to get a metronome.  Of course when JR told me, I was trying to figure out where the best place to go buy one would be. All of sudden JR said, "Oh no, JC (his teacher), told me to just download one to my iTouch."

And since the metronome app is free....well, we downloaded it to the iPad too.

This still blows my mind.  Here's technology for ya.

And in related piano news, Denver spruced up all their downtown pianos.

('Downtown pianos' as in: literal pianos in the middle of 16th Street to play.)

They're all really cute (I saw one done like an Animal Crackers box), but JR really liked this fish one.

Fashion Fabulous Friday-Color is In!

Last Saturday we were in Colorado Springs with Randi and her family to do the Color Run.

We thought it would be a fun, easy run that the kids would love.

And love it they did.

The premise of the Color Run is to wear all white, and then run through color stations where they throw colored powder on you along the 5K route.

Here are the before pictures with the boys all nice and white.

(They recommended wearing bandannas to cover your mouth from the powder. If you ever do a Color Run, skip the bandannas, but you'll want your sunglasses.)

Ingy boys plus Strand boys

Jason was supposed to run with us, but due to a glitch at our hotel, (we thought we could leave Hunter in the room; we couldn't) he took on the roll of spectator/picture taker/dog babysitter.

The run is great for little kids since they don't time it, and there's lots of fun music along the way.

Here we are getting ready to start.

Reed's busy doing a warm-up dance, and I'm explaining to Kyle that it's okay we walked up to the starting line and we'll have plenty of time to 'run'.

JR took off running with Randi and her family, so I never saw them on the race route.

As you can see, he had a really terrible and miserable time with them.

I told JR he must be really fast to be able to keep up with a Boston Marathoner!

I was super proud of Kyle and Reed.

3.1 miles is a long way for little 4 year old legs (even with the excitement of getting colorful).

They never complained, loved every minute of it, and got lots of encouragement and compliments from the other runners.

Reed

Kyle

Kyle's main concern was if he got to use a port-a-potty.
Reed was most worried what place we were in and how many people we were beating.

Coming across the finish!

After the finish is a big color toss.

So you wind up looking like this.

I know, I know, my shirt looks really white in this picture.

I promise I really did have color on me.

A color-rific day indeed!

School of Rock

When we were at Elitch Gardens the other day Kyle, Reed, and I sat down to watch one of the shows while the bigger kids were off riding.

During the show they asked for two back-up dancers, and mine were the first two with their hands in the air.

They got picked and happily strutted their stuff.

(And if you're wondering if they were really that sweaty...no, they're just soggy. 

We had just gotten off one of the water rides.)

Just like me, extreme concentration works best when your tongue hangs out of your mouth.

Look how high Reed is!

Doin' 'The Robot'

playin' a little air guitar

And the big finish.

If all else fails I'm thinking 'cheesy theme park performer' is definitely on the list.