Fall Has come

After my parents left it took that next week for us to get back into the grove of life. Trying to do school again can be quite the challenge when you haven't done it for five days. Just yesterday, after just the weekend Kaleb said it was so hard to get back into school after having two days off. 

But we're starting to get back into things I think. This past week had plenty of fun sprinkled in. Evie's birthday was last Tuesday, she went out for breakfast with Nathan, we ordered some Chinese for dinner and had this ice cream cake: 

It had a chocolate chip cooking crumble base (without chocolate chips), vanilla ice cream, a chocolate mousse middle, strawberry ice cream and mangos. Yum!

Instead of youth group this past Thursday the kids all went to a local high school football game. 

It was a beautiful evening for it, a bit windy at first which made it cold, but the wind died down and we all enjoyed the game. 

We've also had amazing fall colors the past two weeks! It's been gorgeous and sunny!

The last of the roses are blooming.

On the 20th the younger three kids went to a friends hockey game and had a lot of fun watching the game and listening to the drama from the stands (some of the parents got very out of line). The boys also had the opportunity to go to a friends house this past Saturday. The kids have some real friends now, which is great!

I've been working on trying to build relationships as well. I've done a few walks with people, which is wonderful when you have such nice weather! Today I took Charlie to the open space off leash dog park and we walked for an hour plus, I think it may have been a bit too much for her, as she's been super calm/tired the rest of the day. But she did love it while we were out there. This afternoon I went for a walk with someone from church and I have another meet up tomorrow.

I've also been working towards establishing medical professions. One of my least favorite parts of moving. We have the dentist all set, Hannah and Nathan have already had appointments, the boys have appointments on Thursday and Evie and I have ours on Monday. Next will be doctors. 

Yesterday Evie interviewed for and got a lifeguarding job that's from noon-4:15 pm, which are great hours for the time being and will be an easy start, with not many people in the pool. She's waiting on HR to get her the paperwork, but it sounds like she'll be starting in two weeks. 

A busy week

 My parents arrived in town last Thursday and left today. The kids had their first worship at youth group on Thursday as well. They did great for the first time with no practice together. And they are psyched to do it again this week! The youth pastor also dropped off an electric drum set for Kaleb to use yesterday. He is loving it and has been enjoying playing again, as he had attempted to put his drum kit together on his own and broke some of it and it got kind of stalled at that point. 

On Friday afternoon the younger three, my parents, Nathan and I went to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was spectacular. 

Here's Evie at 12,000 feet 

This is my favorite picture ever!!! It was taken accidently by Evie. The kids enjoyed riding in the bed of the truck, except when I was going "too fast" close to the edge that was a drop off. 😁

We didn't do much hiking, but we got to see lots of the park, which was great. 

On Sunday evening we went to a huge jack o-lantern display. There were over 7,000 carved pumpkins. It was pretty spectacular. 

My parents also enjoyed spending some one on one time with the kids taking them out for breakfast. On Saturday the guys went to a men's breakfast at our church. Damen and Kaleb were thrilled to be included in the men. 

Saturday, Sunday and Monday Evie had a lifeguarding course from 9-5 which added some crazy to the weekend. But she did great and is now a certified lifeguard. 

On Monday we enjoyed a slower day, and then watched the Bills/Jets game in the evening. Evie and the boys have really gotten into following football and enjoyed the opportunity to watch the game. Even in mountain time it went a little late for some of us who had to be up at 5:30 this morning to head to the airport, but it was good. 

My parents made it safely back home before I was done with all my running around for the the morning, which was kind of crazy to think of. It's great that there are so many direct flights from Denver! 

 This week our family went to a high school performance of Our Town. The kids weren't too impressed by it, but Nathan and I enjoyed it. Hannah ended up leaving halfway through because she had been at school, walked in the door and I was like "we need to leave now" since she wasn't really enjoying the show that much and we had taken two cars we let her leave. We still are working off of the truck and corolla, so going places as a family normally involves two vehicles because the truck is really tight for all six of us. We want to get rid of the truck, but need to keep it until the RV sells....that is only on consignment for another week, then we have to figure out what to do with it, which is probably put it in storage for the winter and try consigning it or sell it ourselves in the spring. But our prayer right now is that it will sell in the next week! 

On Saturday we had a family over who had just moved her from Oregon in August, Nathan and I enjoyed getting to know the adults while the girls played monopoly and went to the park and the boys played music and spent some time at the park as well. It was really nice to have some interaction with people other than family. We are still eating off of folding tables, because we gave our kitchen table away before moving, it was pretty well loved, and I've always wanted a larger table. No one seemed to mind that there wasn't a "real" table. I think the important thing is opening your house and showing the love of Christ. But, if you were wondering how unpacked, or put together our house is at this point....well.....it's pretty unpacked, but definitely not put together. But life goes on. 

The kids had their second class of theater today, they said it went better than last week, so that was good. They are trying to figure out what show they are going to do still, as they had less people sign up for the class than they were expecting. Originally it was going to be Oliver Twist, now they are looking at either Treasure Island or King Author type story. 

Since their theater class is about half an hour away and only two hours long I'm working on figuring out how best to use the time. Today we brought Charli with us and I took to her two dog parks. One was an off leash open space, so think several acres of field with trails through it. She loved it and did super well! I wasn't sure how she'd do since it was huge, but she walked about 20 feet in front of me and would stop every once in awhile to look back and see if I was still there. When we came across other dogs she'd say hi to them, and some times walk a little bit with them, but would always come when I called her. The other one was just a fenced in area, but it was actually grass instead of sand/gravel that a lot of the ones are around her. 

This evening, while I was picking up Nathan from work, the boys decided to get in a fight...as boys do....and we came back to Damen thinking he broke his finger. Now we have to figure out a doctor to go get that checked out. 

That's it for the update from here. Until next week.....

a rough day

Today was a rough day.....the kids had their first day of theater....there are only 10 kids in the production. Evie had a good attitude about it, but the boys were less than thrilled. I think it will be a good experience, as it's a straight show and they've never done one before, but Kaleb is saying he's done with theater and won't do it after this. They did say the people were all really nice though, so that's good. Every where they have been the people have been nice, which is great, it definitely makes this easier.

Hannah had a super rough day, first the dog day care told her they decided they wanted someone with more experience who could work more hours, so they weren't going to continue her employment. Next, the Bible study she's been doing (which she had told us on several occasions was a cult, some what as a joke, but I think also some what because something was off, she just couldn't figure it out), told her there is only one denomination, that her parents have been lying to her and she couldn't be saved by praying, and that her baptism didn't count because it was too long after she was saved, even though she wasn't really saved then and that she's going to hell. She also didn't do well on a biology test. All in all, no fun. She has started the job hunt again and we'll see where she ends up. 

One good thing from this past week is that the youth group is going to start doing worship at youth group, Damen will be playing guitar, Kaleb cajon, and Evie will be singing. They are super pumped about that. 

This week there is no youth group, but there is a high school play that one of the kids from youth group is in, so we'll be going to that. We're also having some people over on Saturday. So that is also something everyone is looking forward to. 

The boys have been enjoying throwing a football around.....they decided yesterday doing this in the house was a good thing.

This was the result, so they now have some wall repair to do 

This past week Nathan and I also got our Colorado licenses! You can't just walk into the DMV, you have to make an appointment and they have specific locations just for licenses, it's kind of crazy. Nathan and I were talking about licenses and I mentioned something about when it expired, and he said "Licenses expire? I don't think I knew that, I mean, it makes sense, I just hadn't thought about it" The only place we have lived long enough to have to renew our license is Texas, and that was quite awhile ago. But I thought it was super funny that he hadn't processed licenses expiring because we just haven't had to deal with it, I guess that a benefit of moving a lot? 😀