up....
Alas, Sunday... we did nothing. Just stayed home pretty much all day. Rob and Jack couldn't really be out in the sun unless they wanted to worsen those sunburns. So we had a chill day at home. In the evening Rob was out on the front porch grilling burgers for dinner, and the boys were playing some basketball. They had their stuffed dogs outside with them, and were somehow inspired to use the dogs as basketballs. Here is Numbutts, attempting to get in the basket. So close! It was pretty comical to watch.
We headed over to HR (Highlands Ranch for you people not from Colorado!) today to play at an awesome park called Civic Green. We happened to be living right across the street from this park (with my mom) when it was built, and I have fond memories of going there almost daily with Jack when he was a little over a year old. It's a bit of a hike to get there now, but we still love it, and headed over there to play with Grandma this morning. As always the boys enjoyed it immensely. Brayden was particularly willing to let me take pictures of him today, he kept coming up to me and smiling for the camera... which usually meant squinty eyes and a big cheesey smile, but every once in awhile I caught a nice one. ;-) The attractions at this park are a little wading river (which the boys enjoying taking off their sandals to float them down the river) and ground fountains. The fountains are always a hit... even though they are some pretty aggressive fountains! The boys always run around and around the fountains and get close... until the water turns on and they get a small splash... then they run away. Next time they'll probably dive right in. :)
Today we had a playdate with the Martin cousins at Chris and Sarah's house. Pam goes back to work (end of maternity leave) next week so we wanted one last chance to hang out with Mr. Carter. :) Despite a slightly uncooperative Brayden and Kate, I managed to get a semi-cute first picture of the four Martin cousins together. This was only the 2nd time they have all been together at the same time - hard to believe! The kids got along pretty well (Brayden being kind of a monkey as usual - in particular beating up on the cat, Thomas)... played inside, filled up the little pool, splashed around, had lunch, and played some more. Hard to believe that in a couple of months there will be a Martin cousin #5!
Credit to Rob for the first time in awhile for taking today's photo. He says... "Sorry I suck at taking pictures." I think this one is good! He says he was trying to be creative. I think it worked, don't you? Anyway, today was library day. We headed to the Parker library to return a batch of books we have had for literally months. I don't think the boys were tired of all of them, but I was. As usual, we probably could have left the library with twice as many books as we did, and we came home with at least 20. All that damage done in probably 15 mins or less! I can literally say that after we got home, I spent most of the rest of the day (that the boys were awake and not eating or watching a show) reading the new books to them. Especially Jack - he wanted to read them ALL - over and over - he just soaks them up.
We spent most of the afternoon on Father's Day at the Gumm's house. First was Ashlee's 4th birthday party, then we had a low key post-party BBQ just for our two families. The afternoon together ended with a jeep ride. Jaxon and Ashlee have motorized jeeps and have been dying to take Jack and Brayden on a jeep ride for some time now. So the dad's chaperoned a jeep ride around the neighborhood while the mom's headed inside to do some clean up from the party and just chat. The boys of course LOVED the jeep ride.
There's no better way to tucker the boys out than a trip to the pool. It's almost a guarantee that on pool days they will come home exhausted and crash hard. Today we took our first trip to the pool of the summer, since the outside pool at the gym has been open. The boys were so excited, and had a great time. And sure enough, by the time we got home they were completely wiped out and did indeed crash hard. I had to wake both of them up, and Brayden especially did not want to wake up. He was so cute, fully tuckered out in his bed. The only bad part... I didn't take a nap too, and I am still exhausted!
This is my entourage. They follow me everywhere. If I go upstairs to get dressed, they come too. They hop up on my bed, turn on some cartoons, make themselves comfortable, and wait for me to finish. When I'm done, the follow me back downstairs again. And ask for a snack. Followed by, "where are we going today, Mommy?"
Saturday morning was Jack's first baseball game. The whole thing was pretty chaotic since these 4-6 year olds had only had two semi-organized practices up to this point, and didn't quite have any idea what they were doing. There was essentially one-on-one coaching... each child's parent close by telling them what to do, where to go, etc etc. A parent was stationed on every base (one from each team!) directing their respective teams what to do. Parents were scattered throughout the infield and outfield. The kids who didn't have parents standing near them telling them what to do just kind of stood around, aimlessly looking around, sometimes running after a ball, trying hard to pay attention to the game, but generally being distracted, as 4-6 years olds are. This was Jack when his team was in the outfield until I finally went and joined him and gave him some direction about what to do... for instance... if the ball is hit waaaayyyy over to your right or left, you don't have to try and get that one. The kids over there can get it. If it comes toward you, that's when you run for it. It was so funny watching 10 kids run after the same ball every time there was a hit. I managed eventually to get Jack only to run after the balls hit his way, and he did a great job fielding three balls during his team's time in the outfield! Overall, the way it was set up was great... each of the kids had a turn at bat in each "inning." They each took at most three pitches from the coach, and if they couldn't hit those, the tee came out. So every kid got a hit. And then even if they were "out" at first base (which was rare because few of the kids were together enough to field the ball and get it to first base before the runner made it there) they stayed on base and ran the bases as each next batter hit. The rules of the game weren't exactly followed, obviously, but the set up was great for teaching the actual flow of a game and what you are supposed to do, where you are supposed to go, and when. Jack enjoyed himself immensely, and I think he learned a lot.
So I was just about to shut down and head upstairs for bed when I realized... I had today's pic all ready to go but forgot to blog it! I wasn't happy with my pictures from earlier in the day so out of desperation I grabbed my camera and hoped for a good bathtime picture. I got a couple, when Brayden announced, "I need to poop!" Ahhhhhh... that makes me so happy! I think I can safely say that Brayden is 100% potty-trained. Okay maybe 99%. He has the occasional "oops" moment when he's just too busy to stop and get to the bathroom. But basically he's always dry, has the pooping thing down, and is even staying dry during naps and all night long. It was a whole year before Jack did that! I can't help but be grateful for how EASY potty training was with Brayden. He gave us a little bit of a run for our money but big picture, it was a snap, and I'm so glad we jumped on it when we did! Now we can enjoy the summer without worrying about it! As for the picture... I just love his little potty feet... he can still barely reach the step (although in this shot he was showing me his toes!). So little, but such a big boy! And you all should know by now I'm a sucker for baby (or my baby's!) feet! 
We played outside this morning and this afternoon... ahhhh... summer vacation. Granted, I'm already over the whole summer vacation after being asked 30 times in 45 minutes if it was snack time yet, and then 100 times in 30 mins if we could go outside yet. But I digress. The boys brought the bubbles out on the front porch this afternoon. Brayden's line at the moment is that he needs a big chair to blow bubbles. Like he can't blow bubbles UNLESS he's in a big chair. I tried to talk him into using a Brayden-sized chair this afternoon, and he relented, especially when he realized he COULD blow big bubbles on a small chair. Of course then Jack needed a chair for bubble blowing, too. So there they sat, on their matching chairs, blowing bubbles. Couple of goofs! Especially in their matching firetruck shirts - which they picked out.
Tuesday was Rob's last day off work for my trip. He was home starting last Thursday, the day I skipped town. We decided to close out his mini-vacation with a family trip to the park. It's always interesting to see what the boys will want to do at the park from one trip to the next, especially when we haven't been to a certain park for awhile. Brayden's thing on this trip was climbing. Climbing up every ladder and wall available. Here he was actually happy to pose for me at the top of one of the smaller ladders. Little monkey. Like his outfit? He picked it out himself. :)
As I mentioned, my best friend's dad passed away just before my trip - on June 11, 2009. The circumstances of his death are unpleasant at best. There are no words, just tremendous sadness for a life which ended too soon. He was a very sad man, and finally the sadness won. My hope and prayer for him - and the hope and prayer of his family - is that he is finally at peace now. The memorial service was Monday. It was a beautiful service, and I'm grateful I was able to attend. Thank you again to Grandma for babysitting. My prayers for peace, strength and comfort continue for the family.
Rob had a poker party. I think he was more excited for his poker party than I was for his trip to Vegas. In attendance were his brothers, one of my brothers, and a few other friends. Apparently there was a scheme to play a joke on him leading up to the party. At least Kelly was involved, but he will not reveal his co-conspirators. Rob has his guesses.
This is all of us together on Day 2 - Friday (my birthday!) - at the Bellagio gardens. On top (left to right) is Carrielyn and Robin, and on the bottom (left to right) is me, Shawn, Kristi, and teeny tiny Amy in the front. :) (Side note - the girls in the back aren't that much TALLER than the rest... they are on a step). 
So Vegas. June 11-14. Since I'm not a gambler, nor did I have the money available to shop, my big plan was to hang out by the pool. We made sure to pick a hotel with a decent pool area. On the cheap end of the hotel spectrum, that's the Flamingo. Which suited our needs perfectly! Of course lots of people had the same "plan" as us to the pool was packed (unless you got up at 6am and threw towels on some chairs then went back to bed). The first day we ended up just sitting on the edge of the pool with no chairs, and that worked out just fine. The second day only Shawn and I hit the pool, and it was even more crowded than the day before. At first we couldn't find a spot to sit AT ALL. Finally we found a tiny little peice of pavement on the edge of the pool, so we set up camp. No sooner did we sit down than some people across the pool from us started packing up to leave, so Shawn ran over and took over their spot - which just happened to be our spot the day before. Again, just as soon as we set up, some people sitting near us IN CHAIRS got my attention and asked if we wanted their chairs, they were leaving. Heck yes! So once again we moved, but we scored great seats and thus spent a lot more time at the pool that day than we originally planned! We were under a perfect shady tree, right on the edge of the water, not too hot of a day... bliss. (Shawn's feet are on the left, mine on the right). :)There are a ton more stories I could tell from Vegas, but I'll leave it at that for now. I will post the REST of the pictures on Facebook. So if you want to see more, and we're not facebook friends, we should be. :)
In any case the two are super adorable, so Kendra's Nana and I had the kids pose together for a picture before the end of school. We also traded info so that maybe the lovebirds can have a playdate over the summer sometime. :)
All that said, the last day of school was a day I was not looking forward to. I've found myself wishing and hoping that I could just package up the group of people we've spent the past 10 months with and bring them with us next year to kindergarten. Since that can't happen, we had to say goodbye. I wasn't the only one who had tissue on hand. I think we all felt so blessed to be a part of such an awesome group. I thought I was holding together okay until I saw Ms. Joyce, Jack's main teacher, crying. Then I basically lost it - and I'm not, as a rule, a big crier. A couple of the other parents spotted me and shook their heads as if to say "Nooo! If you start I'll start!" And so it went. I very easily could have dissolved into sobs, but managed to pull myself together and say those difficult goodbyes. I will NEVER forget this year. Jack was not at his home school for preschool this year so we had a bit of a drive (10-15 mins) every morning and at first I was resentful and annoyed by this inconvenience. But looking back, I would be inconvenienced over and over again if it would guarantee such an amazing experience and group of teachers and kids and parents in school years to come. Ms. Joyce, Ms. Heidi, Ms. Padma, Ms. Stephanie, Ms. Sarah, Ms. Barbara, and Ms. Megan - we will miss you all so much - and thank you for EVERYTHING!
At school, one of Jack's teachers, Ms. Heidi, will ocassionally sprinkle some little gemstones or bags of confetti around the playground for recess, and send the kids on a "treasure hunt." The first time she did this was way back in October I think, and Jack still regularly comes home with pockets full of treasure. She did it again recently, thus re-igniting the boys' interest in treasure hunting. On nice days we play on the playground after school and Brayden gets in on the treasure hunting, too. Over the course of the year we've collected two small plastic bags full of treasure which the boys play with regularly.
Yesterday was Jack's end of the school year picnic at a cool park in Aurora. Unfortunately, it was kind of a windy and slightly gloomy and cool day, so it wasn't the BEST time. We still enjoyed oursevles though. Jack got to play with all his school buddies, and we got pictures with his teachers and girlfriend. (That's a whole other story!) One of the features of this park was a water fountain area for playing in. Most of the MOMS agreed that it was too cold for playing in the water, but the kids were not deterred! I told Jack and Brayden that if they wanted to play in the water, that was the last thing we'd be doing, then we'd head home. I knew they'd be freezing their tails off and would need to get into the hot (from the sun) car to warm up. Well they were good with that, and had a fantastic time playing in the water for quite awhile, until the cold caught up with them. We can't wait to go back on a warmer day!
Saturday morning was Jack's first baseball practice. We're signed up for a summer kinder-league, 4-6 year olds. Jack has been sooooooo excited. His best bud Jaxon (and his sister Ashlee) is on the team too, as are 20 other kiddos. It was pretty much chaos, a lot of little kids having a hard time following directions... but mostly it was a lot of fun! Jack had a great time. When I asked him what his favorite part was, he said batting. So in honor of his favorite part, here's Jack up to bat. Check out that follow through!!! :)
Later in the day Saturday we had an open house potluck BBQ at our house to celebrate Rob's graduation with our families (and a couple of close friends). A few weeks back I saw someone post a link to a recipe on their facebook page for these adorable little graduation caps made of reese's peanut butter cups and square chocolates. She was going to make them for her son's preschool graduation. Well I just had to make them too! They turned out super cute, and were super yummy too! I'd like to say they were super easy to make... well let's just say, the steps were easy, but it was a time-consuming process. So worth it though. I wish I had better backdrops for photographing this kind of thing... and that my up close photos of these bad boys turned out better! A side note - our little party was great! We enjoyed spending time with everyone, playing with all the kiddos, and eating yummy food! And of course celebrating Rob's graduation and his birthday! :)
Last Thursday Rob participated in (and I attended, with my mom and his parents) his graduate hooding ceremony. At this ceremony, all of the Master's candidates at the Daniels College of Business (at the University of Denver) received their masters hoods (to wear with their cap and gown during the graduation ceremony to follow the next day... and all graduation ceremonies they ever participate in from here on out). It was kind of long and drawn out, but it was still cool and exciting for Rob to get his hood. Before and after the ceremony, I took some pictures of him - corporate head shots was the idea. Got some good ones, some funny ones, and this is our favorite "serious" one. Congrats Hunny! And since this is several days after the fact, and today just HAPPENS to be your birthday too... happy birthday Hunny!
Our family has also developed a new tradition... Friday night movie night. I'm not sure what the boys like more... the movies, or the fact that we let them have lollipops. We've rented a few movies we'd never seen before (by rent, I mean, checked out from the library), and we've watched old favorites too. Pretty much doesn't matter what we watch, they want to change into their jammies, have lollipops, and watch a movie. And maybe they'll get through half of the movie before losing interest, but they want to do it every week anyway. Usually Rob and I sit and watch with them, but last week I got wrapped up in sweeping/hosing out our garage, so I missed the movie. Which is okay. Because it was Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas... which we've seen a million times before. :)
Yesterday Jack brought home a painting from school, which he painted for Rob for Father's day. So he hid the picture as soon as he got home to save for Daddy's special day. Of course, when Brayden learned of the special painting and especially HIDING the special painting, HE needed to paint Daddy a secret Father's Day picture, too. Now waiting till after naptime to paint this picture was nearly unbearable... in fact he basically didn't nap in anticipation of painting later. So here's the little man painting his secret picture for Daddy. He had a little bit of a harder time with the secret hiding part though... he gave it to Daddy as soon as he was home from work. :)
two firemen in line behind us. And after riding the horse and leisurely making our way out, the firemen were right behind us again as we hit the parking lot, and had to stop for Brayden to stare at the firetruck. Lucky Brayden... one of the firemen invited him to come check out the firetruck even closer. Brayden was just beside himself - shy and excited! Then the firemen let him "drive" the firetruck! A little boy's dream! Thanks to my new big purse, I had my camera with me... and when I said to the firemen that I DID have my camera, would they mind if I snapped a photo... they got a good laugh at the monster I whipped out of my purse. :) The captain also had me climb up and took a picture of me with Brayden. It was great! The sad part of the whole thing being that I hadn't changed the white balance on my camera from the pictures I was taking last night, so all the pictures turned out blue. ACK! I put in some photoshop practice to try and get the blue out and this is the best I could do with my limited experience! Better... but still not great.
Every morning when we get to school, the first thing the kids do is head for the coat hallway to hang up their coats and jackets. Their class is in a temp building, and the hallway is a small little path between the two classrooms in the building, which has been converted in a coat room. It's tight and crazy and full of kids and parents all of the time! I try and stay out if I can, but today we were one of the first to school so getting in and snapping a picture was easier than anticipated!
