Polar Bear Club!

It's time for the polar bear run (a day early)! My kids are super-de-duper crazy! They have been waiting for a snow fall all winter so that they can run and play in it and then jump in the hot tub. Stan didn't mind me getting his nekkid bum on camera, but Simon wasn't about to let me. Stan took a run around the play-yard before jumping back in. Simon was the ultimate snow fighting machine took two laps around and then sat his bum in the snow before jumping in the relief of the tub. On his next run he went down the yellow slide! He is INSANE! Needless to say we are enjoying the first snow of the season.

Hims all growned up.

Here he is. All big. Playing in the leaves and letting his long flowing baby locks wisp back and forth in the warm fall breeze(this fall it was warm). His hair was so long I could put it in pony tails. A friend asked if I wanted to let her french braid it. :) I wasn't ready to give my baby his first hair cut. They look five years older the minute the baby locks are gone. I kept saying that he needed one, and that I was going to do it, but could never bring myself to make that first snip. Not even to clean it up around his ears. But I caved. I thought it was looking a little Donald Trumpish for my liking. It would fall to one side, and when he was dressed in his Sunday best with a little tie all I could think when I looked at him was not "oh, what a cute little baby", but the thought of him pointing his little finger at me and saying "your FIRED!". So I cut. I now have a toddler and not a baby. He walks, and has three teeth, and can say "do" or sometimes it sounds like "da" when he see any furry four legged animal. He may be growing up, but he'll always be my baby. My swishy wishy fishy baby. It's not the best cut a mother could give her son, but at least I didn't pay someone to give him a crappy first hair cut. The kid wouldn't sit still and is missing a chunk by his neck on the right side. But other that that, it doesn't look half bad.

All hims fine baby locks that I cut. All saved. I didn't let a piece fall on the floor. It is now safe in a zip lock baggie for me to "awww" at for years to come.

HALLOWEEN TIME!!!!!!!! They made out with more than 15 pounds of candy! Simon and Stan getting all dressed up and ready to go trick-or-treating. Simon was Jango Fett this year. I wonder when he will not want to be a Star Wars character fro Halloween? Next year isn't looking too good either. Thou he did say something about being the Joker next year, so we shall see.

Stan had the best costume for him that there ever was. He was "Max" from Where the Wild Things Are.

My little Fishy was a beautiful beta fish this year. He had a long flowing tail and wore it so cutely.

Steven and I like to get in on the fun too. We were wrestlers this year. Steven was a well known wrestler from our childhood "Macho Man Randy Savage" Me, I just threw something together that I would wear into the ring if I ever was to become a prowrestler. And I think I looked mighty awesome.

Again with the shoes!

He's at it again! Well, not really agian. He's never stopped. He loves my heels. Anytime I have them out he finds them and wears them around. Not just wears them, but just hangs out in them. This kid has some issues!

First things first. Sorry my blog looks like a big ol' pile of doo-doo right now. I have no idea how to fix it so bare with me till I figure it out.

Now for the good stuff.

The family went for a hike a couple of weeks ago. We went to a place up above Estes Park called Lily Mountain Trail. The kids really liked it. Stan was the bomb hiker. For his first ever hike he did really well. He kept up the pace and didn't complain or need to stop and rest. He was having a great time. Simon on the other hand seemed to hate ever minute of it. He wanted to turn back every five minutes and had to stop and rest just about the same. Steven was being himself and called to Simon, "Next time should be bring yer skirt?" And without skipping a beat Stanley added "Ya, yer pink princess skirt?" I know it wasn't nice, but it made me laugh. What a little smartbutt. We made it about 2 miles into the trail before we decided to stop and have lunch and then turn back. Fish loved where we stopped that he could walk around and play in the gravel and dirt. He even added some rocks to my water, very tasty. But the hike wore him out too and he passed out on the way down. So cute.

The boys started back to school last week. And what a mad house it was! They had all the kids, parents, teachers, grandparents, siblings, and dogs meet in the gym. It was not how I wanted to send my kindergartner off. It was so loud and jam packed with people that it was very over whelming. Stanny handled it just fine and didn't seem to mind the mess of chaos. Because it was such a disaster I didn't get my usual first day pictures. This is all I got. But they both looked so cute and were so excited to be back at school. Simon has two of his good friends in his class and Stanny has one little boy that he knows. He is at a disadvantage as he went to a different preschool then most of his classmates. But he makes friends so easily that he has no worries about not having friends at school. He loves when it is his school day. He goes three days a week and wishes it were everyday.

This has been a busy summer for us. The kids had karate two days a week all summer long. They both were able to test up to a yellow belt. They really enjoyed going.

I went on a hike last weekend with some good friends of ours. We went to RMNP and hiked from Bear Lake up to Emerld Lake. I'm thinking of taking the whole family and doing this same hike again this weekend. Here's me at Nymph Lake. So pretty with all the lilly pads

Up above Nymph Lake there is a great spot where you can see Longs peak. I'm gunna try and hike that someday. Someday...

Just a really pretty view looking down on Nymph Lake.

So many pretty flowers. I'm pretty sure, but not positive that these are Indian Paint Brushes.

So many beuatiful spots to stop and take pictures along the way to Emerld Lake.

Me and Kelly possing by a stream. I must have liked this picture alot, cuz I posted it twice. Enjoy. :)

A cute little fish in Dream Lake. Anyone know what kind it is? Steven says from this picture that it is either a brooky or a brown trout. But I should have gotten a picture of it's belly for him to be able to tell for sure he says. I'll remember that for next time.

Along this little meadow area there was a ton of wild raspberries. We picked and ate a couple. Oh so sweet!

At last we arrived at Emerld Lake. It was so windy up there! We sat on a big cliff/rock and ate our lunch before hiking back down. Such a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

Fish loves water! I got an idea to put the kids water wings on him and see if he could hold his own in the hot tub this evening. Not quite, but it was a nice try. (P.S. check out his monkey big toes! He grips the ground with them and it cracks me up!)

He was trying to drink the water. Gross!

Day 3 in South Dakota

Just because hims such a cute little baby. He has been so tired. And such a trouper too. We are going all day and he just gets quick naps in here and there. We started off our day at Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns. The Worlds Largest dog tooth spar formations are in this cave. Some are up to 10 inches in length.

Simon was a little scared. He cried all the way down the VERY steep and VERY narrow 10 stories of stairs that you have to take to get to the bottom of the cave. He was crying and asking to be let back up and never taken in another cave again. Once at the bottom he was fine. And going back up was cake.

Some more dog tooth spars and i can't remember what the ribbon od crystals are called. But so very cool looking.

Next stop was to the Cosmos Mystery Area. I wanted to vomit the whole time I was in the cabin. Here is a pic of the boys on two level surfaces. Level to each other.

Looks like when they switch places that Stanny grew and Simon shrank.

Me being o'so cool standing on the wall. I want to go home and try this.

On a level surface again, but we are all leaning. The pull in the place was amazing. Father you go away from it the better my tummy felt. Feels like you are in the "Graviton" ride at a carnival. So weird.

Next we went to Bear Country U.S.A. And here are just some of the pics that I took from our car of all the animals. Here is an Arctic Wolf.

Some big horn sheep.

This little guy was climbing a tree. He was so cute to watch. Sorry the pics are a little fuzzy. I had to keep my car windows closed.

And here this little guy was all tuckered out sleeping in a tree.

This black bear was seriously three feet from our car.


An albino Buffalo! He was neat to see.

A momma and her baby.

He was just too cute. Running and jumping. Babies have to be my favorite.

Fishy's favorite place was the baby black bear cubs. He loved the car ride, and would get made when a bear walked away from our car or we had to keep driving, but he screamed and got really pissed when I would move the stroller to a different part of these cubs play area. We have another animal lover. :)

So here is the pizza hut that we drove around for a half hour to find. We thought we had seen one but couldn't remember where. So while the kids fell asleep in the car we just drove up and down streets till we found one. At dinner we asked the kids to please video their vacations so we can compare our children's behavior to theirs. Simon said he is not going to have children, but Stanny said he is going to have 7 boys and 6 girls. when asked what he is going to name them he replied, "The girwls are going to be named Charwee, and the boys Astro Boy." Too cute. I can't wait for my 7 little grandbaby Astro Boys to show up. ;)

After dinner we drove to what I think is the highest point in Rapid City. They have some dinosaurs that the kids can climb on.

Here's a video of the baby black bear cubs. They were too super cute.