Visit with Cousins in September

We packed a lot of activity into one week while we had so many cousins in town. Last Monday we took the kids to Colorado Springs to enjoy time with Beccy's best friend Lindy and her new baby Lorien. We took all of the kids to the visitors center at Focus on the Family. The kids loved it. On Tuesday while we were waiting for Rachel's kids to come into town we took the kids to an indoor bounce house warehouse. Beccy planned a really fun Mexican Fiesta on Wednesday for Cousin Camp. On Thursday, Grandma Pookie took the Hoff family to Garden of the Gods. Grandma Pookie then took the Thompsons on the Georgetown loop on Friday. Saturday was a day of family. We had brunch with our cousin Debra. In the evening we went to a cook out at our cousin Todd's house. We really enjoyed the whole week spending time with so much family.

This is the inside of an airplane inside of Focus. Audrey and Hannah spend about 15 minutes running back and forth in here yelling "Go, Go, Go!" and giggling the whole time.

Here is a picture of Lindy holding Lorien. Seth and Isaac are on the step above. Hannah is climbing up to join them.

Here is a picture of Gavin, Hannah, Seth, Isaac, and Audrey.

Beccy and Grandma Pookie are dancing a Mexican Hat dance with Seth, Katie and Ben. The kids really loved Cousin Camp.

Cousin Comedy Club

Last week Rachel and Beccy both came to visit with their kids. The kids really had us laughing much of the time. Here are a few of our favorite stories.

Beccy and I took our children to a bounce house place while Rachel stayed at home last Tuesday. The kids were very tired by the time we arrived home for lunch. Audrey and Hannah had fallen asleep in the car. Seth got out of the car and Beccy asked him to go inside and wait with Aunt Rachel while we got the other kids out of the car and inside the house. Then we unbuckled Isaac and Gavin and also told them to go inside. While we were pulling out the sleeping girls from the car the garage door started to go down and then back up again. When we headed into the house we found all three boys standing on the steps in the garage with the door to the house closed. Beccy asked Seth why he didn't obey her and go inside to stay with Aunt Rachel. Seth explained, "Aunt Rachel isn't home. I rang the doorbell, but she didn't answer the door!"

Greg recently bought a used car that had the engine die after a week and a half. While the kids were playing the other day, Isaac decided to "go to work." When he came back into the room, I asked him if he was home from work. Isaac said "Yes, but my Stinkin' car blew up!" in his most grumpy tone of voice.

Grandma Pookie took the Hoffs down to Garden of the Gods last week and ended up driving behind a red BMW sports car that was going significantly below the speed limit. Grandma Pookie says to the car "You are a sports car, you are supposed to want to go fast!" Later when they were leaving the Garden of the Gods they were following a red car and Rachel hears Ben in the back seat say, "You are a sports car, you are supposed to want to go fast!"

It was really entertaining to have all seven cousins together last week and we will miss them greatly.

Lots of fun

This week before David left we took the kids to the museum with a couple of Isaac's friends. It was fun to spend time with friends.

Audrey and Hannah are no longer content to stay in the stroller and watch Isaac and his friends play. Here the girls discovered they could push the stroller around. Emily had to look out so that she wasn't hit by the girls.

Here is a picture of Hannah, Greg, Audrey, and David before David had to leave. All three of our kids loved having their Uncle David here. They were very sad to have him leave.

Audrey and Hannah were really tired, but still decided to ham for the camera when Greg tried to get a picture of the two of them laying down on the floor before bed.

Hiking at Mount Falcon

Greg's brother David came to visit us and we all had a lot of fun while he was here. The kids and I went hiking with David in the foothills on Mount Falcon. It was a really beautiful. We had wonderful views of the mountains and the plains. Also, there are the ruins of a castle that burned to the ground almost one hundred years ago. Parts of the trail were a little steep for pushing a stroller with three kids in it. However, the kids loved the whole trip and really enjoyed climbing on the rocks. We started with a picnic and ended with the hike. We really loved the park.

The kids started their hike right after the picnic. Isaac even found a walking stick that he kept for the entire hike.

Here is part of the ruins. We let the kids roam free around the ruins for a while. Here, David and Isaac are looking at the walls.

Isaac, Hannah, and Audrey loved climbing on this rock. The view was beautiful from here.

Here is a picture of the girls climbing the rock. As you can see, they both fell on their bottoms quite a lot. It was funny seeing Hannah try to get up on the ground without getting her hands in the dirt. She really preferred the rock to the dirt. Audrey really loved getting dirty and was picking up handfuls of dirt to give to me. It is so fun to see what all of my kids enjoy together as well as to see how different each of them are.

Fun in Seattle

We just returned from our trip to Seattle. We really had a lot of fun visiting Grandma. Unfortunately, we were having so much fun we didn't take very many pictures of the fun we had. Isaac really loved being with his Great Grandma. He was willing to stay there while the rest of the family left. All three of the kids did a great job in the car on the way there and on the way back. The kids loved exploring around the house and playing with Great Grandma, Aunt Ruth, Uncle David and my cousins Daniel and Luke. Isaac has discovered a love of ping pong and golf. He also loved playing cards. The girls loved to play with water on the deck and they loved to get into EVERYTHING! Mom and Dad loved having an unexpected date night. We really enjoyed our trip and we are so thankful that we were made so welcome in Seattle.

Here is a picture of Grandma, the girls and me. The girls were drying off after soaking themselves on the deck.

Audrey and Hannah are playing in a bucket of water they found. They would have done this for hours if we would have allowed them and we weren't worried about the cold.

Hannah loved drinking the water. (we don't let ourselves think about what is in the water.) Audrey loved watering the plants.

Audrey is standing in the bucket of water. This bucket made a great pool. Our kids just loved being at Grandma, Aunt Ruth, and Uncle David's house.

Favorite pictures from the summer

This has been a busy summer and I have been terrible about posting pictures to this blog. We had a lot of fun having so much of our family come to visit. Here are a few of my favorite pictures we took this summer.

Isaac was able to fly this remote control airplane with the help of this pilot and co-pilot. He really loved being able to move the controller.

One of the men at the miniature airplane show let Isaac borrow his aviator hat for this photo.

Isaac drives a helicopter at the county fair.

Audrey, Isaac, and Hannah goof around on the couch.

Anna, Hannah, and Audrey all coordinate!

Beth, Isaac, and Leah are all ready to go to the library.

Audrey, Isaac, and Hannah are ready to swim.

Audrey and Isaac at the condo.