One Long Day

We had a long drive home from Colorado, so Ted and I woke up at 4am, loaded up the luggage and kids, and were on the road by 5am.

Hang in there Madeline--only 7 hours to go!

Caleb and Sierra standing grimly in a Texas dustbowl still wearing their pajamas

Biddulph Reunion

Another highlight of our vacation was seeing Ted's family before his parents leave for an 18-month mission in Santiago, Chile. Seven of the eight siblings met in Colorado, and it was great to get caught up with everyone.

Reading with Papa and Grammy

Sierra horseback riding with Uncle Geoff's help--he said she's a natural

Ted and his six brothers all grew beards prior to the reunion and participated in a Biddulph Beard-Off contest

Rocky Mountain National Park

Madeline and I enjoyed tossing yellow flowers into the stream and waving bye-bye as they floated away. Sierra sat in the grass plucking petals from flowers and querying, "He loves me, he love me not."

Thunderstorm moving into the meadow

Stopping for a quick snowball fight

Steamboat Springs

Our family had a marvelous time on our vacation to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. We spent our days almost entirely outdoors soaking in the beauty of the deep blue skies and rich green mountains. Our first morning there, Ted thought it would be fun to hike to a nearby restaurant called Freshies for breakfast. We started out around 8:30am and soon found out the place was a little further than we'd anticipated. With all our stops along the way for rest, fun, and exploration, we didn't get home until 1pm from breakfast! Other favorite memories were the botanic garden wildflowers, riding a chairlift up Howlsen Hill and descending on the Alpine Slide, and swimming in the hot springs. Posing in front of the resort where we stayedInside our place--we loved the mountain views from the balcony where we continued our vacation tradition of drinking hot cocoa together each night. Ted and I enjoyed evenings by the fire, and the kids had plenty of room inside for hike-and seek. View from upstairs

Walking to Freshies along the Yampa River Trail

Playing at a local park--the kids loved this merry-go-round

The children at the botanic gardens

Sierra in the wildflowers

Madeline gravitated toward rocks and dirt

Who says dirt is disgusting?

Caleb blowing a wish on a giant dandelion

Our family at Fish Creek Falls

Caleb wanted more than anything to see what it was like at the top of the mountains. Here he is on Howlsen Hill after his wish came true.

Daddy and Sierra enjoying the horses

Hiking at Steamboat Lake

Mommy's sweet little friend

Shoeless Caleb

When getting ready for our family vacation, I packed an extra pair of shoes for everyone but Caleb. I reasoned that he was old enough to keep his feet out of puddles and that he didn't have any fashion requirements beyond tennis shoes. Before leaving, I told him three times to get his shoes on, and I thought he'd surely done as I'd asked by the time we left. When we made our first stop at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing, Caleb hopped out of the car in his socks. I asked him where his shoes were, and he gave me a totally blank look and said they must be in his suitcase, which of course they weren't. He ended up having to put on Sierra's pink clogs, which were so small that his feet hung over two inches in the back. As you can see from the picture, he wasn't terribly happy about the arrangement, and Sierra was totally distraught as well. What an unfortunate beginning to our vacation! Wanting to teach him some accountability for ignoring my instructions, I told him that he needed to wear the pink shoes for 24 hours, and the next day we went to the store and used his pet sitting money to purchase a fun pair of bright green crocs.

Aftermath

As you may remember, the kids and I were involved in a minor car accident about a month ago. Everyone is feeling put together again, but I can't believe how much time has been consumed at chiropractor's appointments three times week for Caleb and me (the girls fortunately didn't have any related soreness); researching, purchasing, and installing new car seats; speaking to insurance representatives and filling out paperwork; and we still need to have our body work done on the car. Fortunately, Caleb just had his last chiropractor visit, and mine will be winding down to twice a week. And, we are now the proud owners of three very safe, comfy, lovely car seats that are even better than the originals. After a very long evening of trial and error, Ted did a fabulous job installing the car seats. Don't Sierra and Madeline look sweet in their matching pink seats? The kids had plenty of time to wear them in on our family road trip last week.

Parts of Speech

When I came into the kitchen this morning, Caleb was giving Sierra lessons on the parts of speech. He is a very strict teacher. I wish I could capture his professorial voice, but he tends to tone things down when he's being recorded. He really does explain things well, but now about an hour into lessons, I think Sierra is wilting. When she sneezed, she asked if she could get a tissue, and he told her that first she needed to finish ten more pages of Mad Libs and take a test. A minute later, she told him her sneeze was running down her face, and he still wouldn't let her get up! (I intervened on her behalf.) They've just gone head-to-head on whether princess is an adjective or noun when used to describe a lovely princess room. I finally suggested that even the public school system allows for recess and meal breaks, and so Caleb is taking his pupil down for a timed breakfast.

After a long morning of instruction

Getting started with grammar lessons