April Flew By

April began with the celebration of David's 8th birthday and we continued the partying with two more birthdays that month. Our foster boys turned 6 and my husband, stayed the same age he thought he was last year. His old age is a making him forget how old he really is.

Our Easter was pretty low key. We arrived to church earlier than normal to help with the pancake breakfast. Then the younger children hunted for Easter eggs and my husband preached a wonderful sermon. Later that evening we had a smaller crowd over and enjoyed supper and dessert with the Clemmers and Sampers!  
To close out the evening our children performed my favorite song from The Sound of Music. Enjoy! It's so sweet.


Our church softball team went out with a bang! By the end of the season I'm pretty sure the last team we played was a little shocked at how well we kept up with them.

At the end of April our friends, the Fienes, came out for a visit. Katie was a real trooper and listened to my girls read to her at the same time, attended baseball games, and even went to speech therapy with me and one of my foster boys. We did make it out to do a little shopping and hit up Starbucks. The last day of their visit we took them to Estes Park and we had dinner at Hans', now favorite Estes Park restaurant, Cheesy Lee's.

For as long as I can remember we've constantly been searching the MLS or Zillow for houses. My husband has flipped a few, and we've always been interested in a home with a bigger lot. Back in March we saw a home that we were interested in buying. By the end of April we decided to put our home on the market and start wheelin' and dealin' on the home we looked at back in March, thus begins the crazy that has become our life recently. Stay tuned for how it all went down. 

Exploring Higher Altitude

Last week my Lutheran Stud spent a few days in Estes Park for some continuing ed. We met up with him on Tuesday to do what we love to do the most-explore by way of geocaching. However, first, after hearing that Noah's Ark was located in town, I had to find it. Here it is. You had no idea Noah's Ark was in Estes Park, CO did you?

If you go to the Geocaching website or have the app on your phone you can find nearby caches, and see how large the cache is, and/or find out the terrain difficulty. My lovely husband thought a more challenging terrain would be fun. Anna and I didn't end up making it up the steep terrain on this cache, but that didn't stop the rest of our clan.

They found the cache hidden in this huge boulder. Can you see it peeking out?

The next cache was a little easier to find. 

Again, it was hidden under a rock. This time, though, there was a little rabbit next to it. The name of this cache was Thumper. Often times the title of a cache can be a clue to finding it.

Our next find took us on this road that was more like a jeeping trail. Actually, if you don't have a 4-wheel drive vehicle you probably wouldn't make too far on this road.

The Giving Tree was quite giving to our children.

It was full of goodies.

Every once in awhile I make my family pose for photos. Can you see the excitement on their faces?

We had to park and hike 1/2 a mile for our last cache. 

It was a beautiful hike with random cacti along the way.

The higher we went the more spectacular the view became.

Wild flowers were also dispersed randomly on our trail.

We finally made it up some steep rocks and found this ammo can filled with treasures inside.

Well, maybe treasures for some and junk for others?

After a long hike we headed back down the mountain for a little treat at the Munchin' House.

Ice cream was a welcomed snack to cool everyone down.

Then it was off to dinner with friends at Poppy's. The pizza was fabulous and since the children filled up on ice cream there was more pizza for us. Try it out if you're ever in Estes Park!

Activities

After getting lost exploring the YMCA campus a little we ended up finding the game room. 

This little girl was a little grumpy, probably because she didn't bet much sleep the night before.

There were several ping pong tables and Thomas certainly enjoyed learning how to play.

In the corner was a unique table for Quad Pong? I think that's what it was called, but now I can remember. There were all sorts of rules to this game, but we just kept it simple.

Later that morning we signed the kids up for a knot tying class. 

It was actually pretty interesting.

The class was for older children, but David whined his way into the class, and he could not have been happier.

The little ones were kept occupied with suckers.

I have no idea what that knot is called or for what it is to be used, but it looks cool.

David became good buddies with the instructor who was so patient and willing to teach him. They learned how to tie 6 different knots and David says he can still remember how to tie 3 of them. Not bad for a 5 year-old. This is pretty much where our adventure ends. While there were a ton of other activities our family was pretty wiped out, so we headed home. This YMCA of the Rockies is a fabulous family getaway place. There are so many things to do and learn there. Check it out if you're ever in Colorado. 

Adventure in Rocky Mountain National Park

A few weeks ago Jared's cousin, Rick, his wife Katie, and their little girl, Lydia came to town to visit. We had so much fun with them and hopefully didn't wear them out too much. We thought it would be fun to take them to none other than Rocky Mountain National Park since it's one of our favorite places. 

We rolled into Estes Park right at lunch time, so we decided to refuel with a little pizza. It was quite delicious.

Next to the pizza place was a quaint little bakery. Katie thought we all needed a little dessert. The children all agreed. The cookies were wonderful and huge.

After filling up our bellies we drove into Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). We took in the beautiful view along with all of the elk hanging around nearby.

We thought it would be fun to do a little hiking. We didn't know that the trail we chose wasn't really stroller friendly.

We decided to ditch the strollers.

Mountains.

Rocks.

A stream.

And more rocks. It's a win win.

We finally made it to our destination: The Pool. It wasn't quite what we expected, but it was a great resting area. I love how Rick is trying to photograph Katie and Lydia while our family is scattered everywhere. It's too funny.

Of course I attempted a photo with all of my children that didn't end up too well.

This is why the area is called The Pool. I think it's because of the stream that runs through the area.

Does this make you think of the movie A River Runs Through It?

We finally made it back to our vehicles and decided to drive to the peak of RMNP. 

It's a slow and scenic drive.

We stopped at a few places to take in the view.

Once you're above a certain altitude things don't grow as well anymore.

We hit up the Trail Ridge Cafe which sits at 11,796 feet above sea level. 

It's hard to find a tree growing at this altitude.

We found a small trail to hike again. The temperature at this point was 53 degrees at about 6pm. Our previous hike was in the 80s.

We drove along that road.

On our drive back down the mountain we spotted some more elk. They're used to people and it doesn't bother them when people stop and gawk at them. They don't run or attack. They just go about their business. Once we made it back down the mountain the temperature was 72 degrees at 7:30. Crazy right? 

It was long past dinner time, so we popped into Penelope's for some grub. They have world famous food.

This was Katie's patti melt that I snitched. It was fabulous.

My Lutheran Stud is a sweet talker. He managed to get a discount on our kids' meals. That's what happens when you buy in bulk.

I loved all the vintage on the walls of this place. It was a fun restaurant with fantastic food. Check it out if you're in Estes Park.