Happy Father's Day

As always lots going on here. My sister Toni has been here for the last 10 days with her son Jack. It has been great to see them and visit. She was able to be here to participate in Relay last weekend and We hung out a few times this week. We took the kids up to Estes Park on Tuesday which was a lot of fun. Thanks for suggesting that Toner! It is a mountain town so while it was over 90 degrees here in town it was high 70s up there and beautiful. We went out to eat, rode the aerial tramway, and had ice cream. Olivia got to sit in the back seat with Jack, her new best friend. She was so cute. Talking and playing with him the whole time. The tramway was an experience. It was fun but a little stressful. First off they take you up in these pretty small gondola like cars that have been there since they opened in 1955. It is a pretty steep climb up the cable and with the wind blowing through the cars it rocked back and forth. I was frightened, I am not going to lie. Plus Toni and I are both scared of heights. Not deathly afraid though. Acrophobia is the word Toni. We were trying to think of the actual "phobia" it was but neither of us could remember. So here we are at the bottom, looking up the cable to the top. You can't actual see the station at the top, but basically it is on top of the mountain.

Then here is the kids all excited to being starting up the cable. Remember to pause the music on my blog before hitting play.

Here is the top looking back down at the parking lot which is that black area in the center of the picture.

Here is the famous Stanley Hotel that you can see from the top of the mountain. This is the hotel that Stephen King stayed in and got the inspiration for the movie "The Shining". It wasn't filmed here, just inspired. Also it was on the movie Dumb and Dumber. It is a really beautiful property that you should take time to visit if you are ever in the area.So at the top of the mountain they have these trails to hike around on and then you can buy peanuts to feed the chipmunks. Of course the kids were totally into this. They are so tame from everyone being up there and feeding them. Here is a film of Cody feeding them which was too funny to not share. Cody is the chipmunk-whisperer. (my video isn't uploading right...check back tomorrow to see if it is on here then)


Of course everyone had a good time up there feeding them and were bummed when they ran out. It was a bit stressful for me because they wanted to run all over the place and there were drop off edges. Cody fell down at least twice. I will know for next time that I need to have an extra pair of hands to do this. Jack also was fascinated with the little chipmunks, but it was time to eat so we headed back down.
Afterwards we stopped at Dairy Queen and tried to eat some ice cream before it melted all over us. It was a really fun afternoon. Cody even fell asleep in the car on the way home, which never happens anymore. Thanks for spending it with us Toni.

On Thursday I started the task of getting out all the kids next size clothes since they were lacking in some summer clothes. We have all sorts of stuff crammed into our storage area in the basement since we are continually working on finishing the basement so I have been avoiding getting in there to dig it all out. Afterwards I was glad I did it. I had forgotten about all the stuff I bought on the clearance racks from last year and also found at least 4 pairs of hand me down shoes I really needed for Cody. We got together for dinner at my parents house with Toni, my brother Ethan's family, my sister Heather's family, and my grandma. My mom and Toni made burritos with the knock off recipe from Costa Vida sweet pork and chicken. They are so yummy. Here is a picture of my kids, Heather and her kids, and Toni and Jack. The kids all had a fun time seeing their cousins.

Friday was my busy day at work, so I was working most of the day and also finishing laundry from all the clothes brought up from the basement. I put Jon to work painting Olivia's new room downstairs. I had seen this idea online for painting and really wanted to try it out so after we picked out a bed set for Olivia I went and bought paint for her room. Poor Jon was the one that actually had to put the idea on the wall. He is such a good husband. I love it, but he thinks it looks like a circus tent. I think after her furniture and stuff is in there it will tone it down some. Don't you think he did a great job?

Friday night I went to another one of the dinners we organize every few months for ladies I went through treatment with and have met that are also dealing with breast cancer. I was able to bring Heather, a woman I was recently introduced to that was just diagnosed. It was fun to be able to get to know her better and introduce her to other woman dealing with breast cancer. Not to mention that she is a riot and is going to fit right into our group. There was also a gal there that joined us that I believe is a research nurse. She is following one of the ladies in our group that is doing a clinical trial. She was able to answer a lot of questions we had about clinical trials and just different chemotherapies. It was really an informative evening and as always really enjoy the company of my fellow survivors. They are truly an inspirational group of gals. We had the dinner at my friend Claude's home and her daughter Chloe was as funny. She was instantly my best friend and just wanted to be a part of the grown up group. It was fun.

Yesterday we were able to relax and have some fun with the kids. We took the Jet Ski out to Boyd for the first time of the season. It was almost 90 yesterday so it was a good day to be out but the water was still pretty cold. My friend Heather and her daughter Jaycee were able to come out for the afternoon and hang out which was fun. I just wish the beach were more sandy and not muddy.

Last night Jon and I took his parents down to LoDo in Denver to eat at Maggiano's. It is a yummy Italian restaurant. I was so tired from being out in the sun all day and just having a string of really late nights, but it was a lot of fun. We walked up and down the 16th street mall fo a bit. I stopped at Barnes and Nobel and bought the Twilight series books so I had my own copies. I was telling Jon's mom about how good they were and thought since we were there I might as well purchase them. I am actually going to read them....again. My friend Wendy was just telling me that she was reading them again and they were better the 2nd time. So I am going to read them again. I am a dork, but they were seriously SO good. We were in a really bad traffic jam on the way home that was stop and go for an hour due to a bad accident so it took us almost 2 hours to get home. I started reading the first book again in the car during the traffic jam.

Still on edge about my 6 month follow up testing but wish that it would just be over and done with already. The MRI is this Tuesday and my blood work is next week. I just found out last week that there are some movie theatres in the area doing free and $1 movies in the morning for the kids so I thought we would check that out this week. The cinema savers here in Fort Collins has free movies on Wednesday and Thursday. Their summer schedule can be found here. The Cinemark has $1 movies on Tuesday and Wednesday. Their summer schedule can be found here. Always nice to find cheap and free activities for the kids!