Sydney's Ear Piercing

Ok, this happened way back on June 29th but as I was going through our digital camera videos (if that makes any sense), I found this short of Sydney getting her ears pierced. She was really excited about doing it but then was acting all weird once we got there. We threatened to leave a few times but she said she wanted it done. Here is the video:



She was sitting pretty calmly until they actually pierced her ears. She calmed down soon after that and I think a sucker was all it took to put on a smile again. We did the 3 times a day routine of washing them to prevent infection and now she could remove them if she wants. They have been in there since June 29th in order to get the holes to "set". She wants to get hoops like her Oma but I think we'll stick with studs for a while. :-)

First Day of School

Well today was Sydney's first day of Kindergarden. We attended the open house on Monday night where she got to meet her teacher but today was the first day. We woke up bright and early at 6:45 to both kids in our bed (but fortunately the dogs had moved on to the guest room bed). School starts at 7:45 around here and the first bell rings at 7:40 so it's fairly early. Sydney was pretty excited and once we got everyone ready we headed out.


Here we are walking to school which is right across the big park from our house. As you can see, Bryce wasn't as pumped to be going to school as Sydney was.


Here is Sydney and Melissa outside the school: Arapahoe Ridge, home of the Timberwolves.


Sydney had to line up and get a name tag and she was really excited about it and waved happily as her mom tried to keep it together. Meanwhile, Bryce disappeared and starting playing on the playground equipment which entertained the kids as I chased him down.


Here's the kindergarden lineup which continues off the right side of the photo. I think there are 23 kids in her class and I have no idea how the teacher does it.


Sydney was still smiling as they were about to go in. That kid to her right is looking kind of bummed out though. I'm sure he cheered up later when he found out he got to sit next to Sydney. :-)

At this point they all marched in and Melissa finally teared up a little but overall she did really well. Sydney was more than ready to go and we were surprised none of the kids cried. Melissa said that was a good thing or she would have lost it. After school started Melissa had some of the other moms over for mimosas, food, and fellowship. They ended up staying until 10:45 which is when the first shortened day ended.


Here is Bryce walking back to pick Sydney up with his girlfriend Kayla. Kayla is Emma's sister who is in Sydney's class so Bryce is already picking up dates using his big sister.


This is Sydney and Emma after Kindergarden. Bryce is in the bottom right corner of the picture, probably busy picking up rocks.


Sydney and Aiden after Kindergarden. If you look closely you can see Melissa taking their picture in the reflection of the window.


This is Sydney and her teacher Mrs Robbins. She said she had a great time at Kindergarden and even had Melissa call me at work so she could tell me about it. Mrs Robbins says Sydney is one of her favorites which I'm sure she has never said to any other parent before. :-)

Week in Breck

We just got back Friday morning from a week in Breckenridge with Opa, Oma, Brian, Katie, and Carson. We stayed at a less than 5 start condo but it did have a hot tub. We enjoyed just walking around town and didn't really do much more other than shopping at the Dillan outlet stores. Sydney and Bryce enjoyed their little cousin Carson tremendously and Sydney especially loved doing her crazy dance for him to get him to smile and laugh. Bryce would usually join in with his own crazy dance. He liked giving Carson hugs although he was a little rough at times. "Bryce! Carson's ears are not handles for hugging!" Either that or he would hug him from behind and grab Carson's face. Carson is probably enjoying his peace and quiet in Alaska right about now.

Hopefully I'll get around to posting some pictures soon but it's 11:15 and I'm tired from playing a few rounds of Settlers of Catan online. Check it out here if you want to play an awesome game: Catan Online World.

Bryce and Reid camping

This is what happens when you let two 2 year olds play at a camp site for a few minutes without close supervision. This is Bryce and Reid playing at Golden Gate State Park during a camping outing with Melissa's Mothers of PreSchoolers (MOPS) group. We camped Friday and Saturday night and even brought our dogs along. They got to swim in the lake and go on a short hike with us but otherwise they pretty much just hung out at the campsite. Sydney and Bryce had a blast playing with all the other kids and climbing around on the rocks.

Bryce's Boo Boo (Blue Dog)

So this is Bryce's Blue which he calls Boo Boo. A few days ago as Sydney and I (and I thought Bryce) were watching a movie, he snuck outside with Blue to play. When I noticed he had gone, I checked outside and he had decided to pull down one of our Tiki Torches which was half full with the fluid. He managed to get that stuff all over himself and Blue and we even called poison control because we didn't know if he had swallowed it. Poison Control said to give him some milk and watch him which we did. The next day as Melissa talked with another of her nursing friends, she was told how dangerous this Tiki Torch fluid really is. So rather than trying to clean Blue we bought a new one. We were worried Bryce wouldn't take to the new Blue, but he loved it. The real problem arose when Sydney saw the new Blue because then she wanted a new Lamby which she's had since birth (thanks Heather!). We managed to delay long enough and convince her how special Lamby is so I think we're over that. I guess some (most?) kids will only take they're grubby old toy they've grown up with, but not ours ... out with the old and in with the new!

Yellowstone (Part 2)

This is the second (and final) batch of Yellowstone photos. These were taken in the Mammoth and Canyon area. We really enjoyed the Mammoth area and how unique its "thermal features" are (to quote the brochure). We also enjoyed the little cabin we stayed in, even though it didn't have a bathroom. Unfortunately the next day we found out the road from Tower Falls to Canyon was closed due to snow! We still went that direction in order to visit Tower Falls and even saw a huge herd of Bison right next to, and ON, the road. We then backtracked through Mammoth to get to Canyon where we found they had received 10 inches of snow the previous day. In fact, it was still snowing as we were there. Luckily we were able to get some decent pictures of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and managed to stay warm. It was an awesome trip and a must see, especially for Denverites who only live about 8 or 9 hours away.

Yellowstone (Part 1)

This is the first batch of Yellowstone photos. These were all taken in the vicinity of Old Faithful. There are a few neat ones from the Old Faithful lodge which was built in the 1800s. The elaborate wooden beams were awesome and rather difficult to photograph. We got some good ones of Old Faithful and another huge geyser which we waited for over an hour to erupt. Another one of my favorites is next to Grand Prismatic Spring where you can see all the little terraces.

Teton National Park

Here is a slideshow of Teton National Park. I'm doing it as a slideshow because I've got a whole bunch more Yellowstone pictures and if I try to write about each one I'll never get them posted. You'll notice quite a bit of snow in these pictures and it was pretty cold when we were there on June 3rd and 4th. We had a lot of fun taking the Jenny Lake boat ride and then hiking to Hidden Falls, even though it snowed on us while we did it. Sydney was a trooper though and made the 1 mile round trip without much complaining. Bryce rode in the backpack but he didn't really enjoy the trip. We didn't get much sun but enjoyed the scenery all the same. What an awesome place to visit.

Clouds

I took these pictures of some awesome clouds in our area right before we left for Yellowstone.






This last one looks like a mushroom cloud. Unfortunately I was a little late with this one because the sun wasn't hitting the whole thing anymore. The clouds really were surreal and I saw numerous people taking pictures of the sky with their cell phones.

Birthdays and Stuff

This is a collection of news worthy things that happened between Sydney's Birthday and our Yellowstone trip.


Sydney's Friend Parish had his birthday recently and his uncle landed right at their house. They have a house on a private airstrip so the kids were all excited to see the plane pull up.


They also had horse riding there so Sydney took old Thunder (name changed to protect his identity and also because I don't know what it is) around the yard.


They have awesome views of the mountains as well.


Seriously?! Seriously?! You're giving a bunch of 5 year olds cupcakes this big?!


Opa and Oma came out to visit for Memorial Day so Melissa and I could run the Bolder Boulder. We were in different waves to allow Melissa to run ahead while I enjoyed reading the backs of thousands of people's shirts.


People say Sydney looks like me but photos like this show the Melissa in her bursting out.


Sydney and her friend Sarah.


Sydney and Bryce hanging out at the kiddy pool in our neighborhood.


This is Bryce and his friend Dillan trying out the water in the big pool. The pool opened with freezing cold water but I think they finally fixed the heater so stop on by!


This picture was taken at Sydney's friend Sarah's birthday party. Bryce is licking the frosting off part of the cake decoration while Sydney is cleaning off the frosting on her hands. It was a proud moment for me so I had to document it.

Sydney's 5th Birthday

Sydney's 5th Birthday was back on the 23rd but we recently got back from Yellowstone so I haven't been able to post any pictures yet. We were blessed to have Melissa's dad Sandy here during her party at a local Bear building place. It was a pretty small party compared to last year's bouncy castle extravaganza, but she had a great time.


Sydney giving a few of her friends a squeeze.


They all waited in line to name their animals. I was trying to convince Jack in front to name his duck something like Donald or Quackers or something but he insisted on naming it the same as Sydney's whale: Kalee


Sydney getting ready to blow out the candles with Sandy in the background armed with cupcakes.


It took her a few blows but she got out all 5 candles. Bryce looked on proudly at his big sister.


Here is the group picture after they had all been hopped up on frosted cupcakes.


This is my boy Bryce, leading his "girlfriend" Kayla off to show her the "woo" which in this instance was a police car around the side of the building. Sandy kept taking him out to see the police car because he is obsessed with anything that has lights and a siren. Eventually two young female police officers came out of the substation and let him sit in the car and turned on the lights and siren for him. They did this THREE times as he convinced Sandy to walk him out to see the police car.


Here is Sandy trying to explain to Bryce that we aren't going to go see the police car for the 10th time. It may be hard to see but at this point he was all red and absolutely freezing cold going out to see that police car.


We were mean and didn't get Bryce an animal (he already has his blue dog) but here is Sarah with her rabbit, Sydney and her whale, and Aiden and his dolphin (who is also apparently a police officer).

Dan Crow

Dan Crow came to visit Cross of Christ Preschool back in April and here he is, live in concert. The kids just loved him and he was very entertaining. This one minute video doesn't fully do him justice but hopefully you can get a taste for what he's like.

Random things we've been up to

Here are some random pictures from the past few weeks that are too good to just sit in my iPhoto library.

Sydney has been in soccer since March and last weekend was her last game. I'll post a few more pictures of this later but here are some from earlier in the season.


I'm not sure what kind of pose she's trying to strike here but the coach was busy telling her to "watch the ball!"


This is a classic shot of Sydney playing soccer. Both feet off the ground, grinning from ear to ear, not watching the ball (notice the other kids looking ahead to the ball). If you look closely you can see me hard at work assistant coaching on the sideline.


This is Sydney's (and probably most of the kids) favorite part of Soccer ... the snack after the game. Bryce didn't make it in this photo but he's usually not far from the snacks. That is if he's not trying to run out on the field to play.


After soccer we sometimes head to the nearby park. Melissa appears to be super excited to be spotting Bryce on the climbing wall.


Sydney and I like to play Carcassonne which is actually a really fun game for adults but it's basically a big puzzle so if you don't play by the rules you can have fun with kids too. Bryce sometimes like to "help" us play by stealing the pieces.


Sydney had this picture taken with all her Barbies for her "All about me" poster at preschool. Ironically she was also wearing her Barbie PJs when we took this picture.


This is Sydney and her Lamby which she's had since birth when Heather Spitzner gave it to Melissa for a baby shower present. We liked it so much we got Bryce something similar except it is a blue dog which we have originally named "Blue Dog".


Recently Ball had a bring your kids to work day and they always do a big liquid nitrogen demonstration for the kids. Here the guy is breaking apart a head of lettuce to make a salad after freezing it in the dewar next to him (dewar is a fancy name for a liquid nitrogen thermos).


Sydney's last swimming lesson they got suited up in life jackets and jumped off the diving board in the deep end. We were really proud of her because she jumped off right away on the first try. Most of the kids really had to be encouraged although unfortunately no one had to be thrown off the end (boring!).


This picture was taken at kindergarden orientation at Arapahoe Ridge Elementary where she will be going to all day kindergarden next year. Please join us in praying for the sanity of her teacher.

Melissa's Working Out

Melissa's been working out a lot lately and got a glamor shot taken. Check it out!

Denver Zoo

We recently went to the Denver Zoo and we got a lot of good pictures of the animals with our 10x zoom. Enjoy!

Slideshow Test

Apparently you can create Flickr slideshows right in your blog. Here is one of Carson's baptism:

Dan Crow

Dan Crow came to visit the Cross of Christ Preschool and you would've thought it was American Idol or something. All the kids knew his songs and were singing bits and pieces before the show. They even had a pot luck before the show which Dan ate at (I'm not sure if that was part of his official compensation or not). Sydney told me Dan is the funniest person in the world although I'm second.


Dan even ate at the kids table which they all enjoyed.


Sydney sat enthralled as Dan delivered his message of hope ... no, wait, it was actually a song about kissing a cow.


Dan the man warming up the crowd.


Sydney, Dan, Meredith, and Maggie all posed for a picture. For once, Sydney was the only one without her mouth open.

Sydney Swimming

We're trying to get Sydney to learn how to swim before our neighborhood pool opens up on Memorial Day because we'll probably be spending most of the time trying to prevent Bryce from drowning himself. She just finished a round of lessons at Broomfield and graduated to the next class which is hopefully entitled "Learning how to actually swim."


Here she is practicing her "big arms".


Here she is practicing her back float with her instructor which we at first mistook for another kid in the class. I'm not sure if he lost a bet or what but he has since changed his haircut.


She loves the water!