Giggles

Lucy absolutely LOVES her brother. This is my favorite video ever because of her adorable giggles!

Pikes Peak Cog Railway

The biggest thing on our Colorado Bucket List was to ride the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. We finally made that happen on Monday. The kids were good on the almost two hour drive down to Colorado Springs. They even played a little on the train!

 This is the waterfall our conductor told us to prepare for because it is "higher" than Niagara Falls. (I wasn't fooled.)

...And our beautiful view from the top... 

 I liked Grandma Diney's comment on Instagram that it should be called Pikes Peak Fog Railway! Yes, that would be accurate.

 

 We didn't want to wait in line for a picture with this "summit" sign, so you can view it with these lovely people in front. At least you know what the sign looks like.

 Luckily, the fog went away just a few feet below the summit leading to some beautiful views.

 And if you look closely, big horn sheep!

My favorite view: 

 

Crazy kids before and after.

Cheers!

Last Saturday night, I threw my friend Breanne a Mocktail Party Baby Shower. We had it at our friends the Vincent's beautiful new home. Besides mixing fun drinks and eating delicious desserts, we played baby-themed charades and had a great time visiting!

Me and Brea

I bought these great paper lanterns from the dollar store!

  

Pre-mixed drinks

Arizona Sunrise Recipe

Ice

~2 Tbsp grenadine syrup

Half glass orange juice

Half glass Sprite

Garnish with maraschino cherry or orange wedge

Pina Colada Recipe

4oz coconut creame

4oz pineapple juice

2 cups ice

Mix in blender and garnish with maraschino cherry or pineapple.

The pitcher below had club soda so guests could use it to make their own Virgin Mint Mojitoes or Itallian sodas.

 

Mint Mojito Recipe

Fill glass with club soda

Squeeze 2-3 lime wedges in

Add ~3 mint leaves

Sweeten with agave or sugar to taste

Mint Mojito

 Itallian Soda Recipe

Fill glass with club soda and ice

~1-2 Tbsp flavoring (Grenadine, Toriani Strawberry, etc)

~1 Tbsp Half and half

Itallian Soda Station

 

 The party: 

 

Summer

It's been a different summer this year. We have two kids, so things are much more difficult to plan, and we're in the process of moving, so everything seems a bit more overwhelming to me right now. Even so, we've managed to get out a little bit. 

I signed Ty up for swim lessons at the YMCA and regretted it every day I took him. The first few days the weather was in the 60's (one day even got cancelled), there were only two instructors for 10+ kids, and Ty hated almost every minute of it. Next time, I think I'll just go for private lessons. I was glad he could see other kids in the water, though.

 One of the biggest things I'll miss about Colorado are all of the trails and parks. We seriously go on walks in the stroller several times a week, and there are very few sidewalks, let alone trails, from our house in Nashville. We've definitely been taking advantage of every minute we have left here.

 Our library held a "drive-in" movie where the kids made boxes into cars and watched a quick 15 minute movie in them. Ty is too busy to go to story time at the library now days, so this was a perfect activity for him!

 This little beauty is sure growing up fast.

 Some days we just end up in diapers.

Best outtake ever...

One last stop at the Donut Shop. This time was the first time both Mommy and Daddy went!

America

 We celebrated hard this year for the Fourth of July. Our ward picnic was a blast. Ty enjoyed the games (and got all wet!), Tim was a judge for the pie baking contest, and I was glad to hand Lucy off to people offering to hold her. We'll sure miss this ward when we move.

Later in the day, we watched The Sandlot while eating dinner and popcorn, then watched the city fireworks on top of Davidson Mesa, where we could see six different cities shows at once. It was amazing!

Patriotic outfits courtesy of Grandma Diney!

 Lisa Rice holding Lucy, Natalie Peck playing with Ty.

Below: Playing with the bows on her socks.

A sweet family from the MEND program I helped with at the YMCA gave me this adorable bow and matching socks for Lucy. We needed to get as much use out of them as possible.