Haircut

This morning I decided to trim Serena's hair to make the ends more even. She did very well, and when she's a little older she'll get to go to a real hair salon!

Relaxing with Cosmo

We love Cosmo, except when he does something like eat an entire box of dog biscuits. Yes, our pet drama never seems to end. I'm not sure how Cosmo broke into the lidded container, but he had HORRENDOUS gas the next day!

First Day of School!

Today Shilah had her first day of school! She is in her second year of preschool at the Little White School House. She will go Tuesday & Thursday afternoons (same as last year), and will also go on Friday mornings. This extra day is an enrichment day for kids who will be going to kindergarten next year, so Shilah will get to go on field trips, do some cooking, and other extra activities.

Shilah is so excited for another school year! Her teacher from last year said Shilah has grown the most (both physically and socially) out of all the kids she has seen. Good job, Shilah!
And Serena has fun at home while Shilah is at school. When she's not napping, she's lining up her toys and just playing!

Camping!

Yesterday we met up with Gabe & Andrea and went camping at Kenosha Pass. Unfortunately we couldn't bring the van since it has a big hole in the back windshield (from a rock), but we brought the new Subaru and had a great time!
Shilah, Serena, & Emory enjoyed playing in the tents. Emory is not pictured here... he sure is hard to capture on film!
Serena REALLY loves her Uncle Gabe (pronounced umple gake) and Aunt Andrea!
Lily was a trooper...
Shilah & Emory helping Shanti gather some wood (or rather a large tree) for the fire...
It was fun staying up after dark, but then we were on the edge of a pretty big lightning storm and everyone went to bed before expected. The back seats of our Subaru fold down, so I slept there with Serena and Shilah slept in our tent with Shanti. And Gabe & family were very cozy all sleeping in their big tent!
The next morning was gorgeous at Kenosha Pass.
We all stopped on the way home at one of our favorite breakfast places: the Cutthroat Cafe in Bailey. What a great time!

A New (Used) Car!

A few months ago we bought Shanti's mom's 2006 Subaru from her with our tax money. Once we realized that our 1996 Subaru (with 300,000 miles on it) was pretty much on life support, we knew we had to get the newer Subie to Colorado quickly. So Shanti flew to Massachusetts last Friday, then started driving it back Saturday morning, and was home late Sunday night.
We LOVE it! I had no idea what I was missing. This newer car is clean (no Goldfish stuck in the seats), has an uncracked windshield, has cupholders, and has keys that lock/unlock with a remote, as well as a remote starter. And you can barely hear the engine! We are very happy to have a new family car that is not on its last leg.
Thank you, Evie!

Catching up

It seems like this whole summer I've been playing catchup! Serena has been out of her crib for almost 2 months now, and is sleeping on a crib mattress on the floor until we can get her a bed. She has been doing great, and loves to run & dive onto her mattress. Shilah had her first real dentist appointment, and the dentist says her teeth look great! She brushes them herself in the morning, and we help out before bed. Shanti & I finally went to see a movie (it's been a LONG time since we've seen the inside of a movie theater). We went to see Harry Potter, and it was awesome as expected! Thanks to Gabe & Andrea for watching the girls! Here are a couple of cute pics of Shilah & Serena riding on a tricycle...

Junior Jazzercise

This week I finished up 6 sessions of Junior Jazzercise for ages 4-8. Each session was an hour long, and we did crafts, games, dance technique, and fitness/health education. We also worked on a performance routine to Kung Fu Fighting. There were 7 kids, including Shilah who had a blast!


The videos are clips from one of the practice sessions... they are a little shaky since I was coaching the kids along as I was video-ing. Shilah is second from the left in the back row. It was neat to have parents, siblings, and even grandparents come to see the final performance, where kids showed off some dance technique, types of muscles, and the routine! This was so much fun and a learning experience for me as well.

Life is Good

Westy is doing purrrfect after his ordeal. When he is not climbing trees, he loves to just relax...
Jungle kitty
Sunbathing with Cosmo

Cat Drama

So I got home from Jazzercise mid-morning, and my neighbor asks if I have a gray & white cat. This is Westy of course, and apparently he snuck outside this morning, made his way into the neighbor's yard, got chased by their dogs, and climbed 30 feet up their tree. At first I thought it was amusing and took a couple of pictures, but then I got worried and called Animal Control & the Fire Department, and they said they "don't do cats" & he would come down on his own. (someone should probably update all those kids books with pictures of firemen rescuing cats).
If you look between the power lines, you can see Westy WAY up there. I would keep going out every 15 minutes or so, he would try to figure out how to get down, then give up. Shanti got home (I had to leave for a meeting), and he tried to climb up a ladder against the tree to coax the cat down, to no avail. Later, Westy (in the dark) started climbing down to Shanti, fell & hit a branch, then hit the ground on all fours. He hid under the bed, then when I got home was drinking water & seemed fine, and is now ironically perched on the top level of our cat condo and back to normal. Good thing cats have 9 lives! Last summer Cosmo jumped 20 feet off our top deck to try to catch a chipmunk, and was totally fine. Apparently we are the owners of super-pets.
Shilah & Serena were great during this ordeal. Whenever I would go outside to check on Westy, they played great together inside (I could hear them since our windows were open). Apparently Shilah played with our camera, because there were a few pics I did not take myself during this time. I love the pouty look on Serena that Shilah captured so wonderfully!

Conifer Mountain Music Festival

Last weekend we went to the Conifer Moutain Music Festival, just 10 minutes from our house. There were 3 stages and lots of vendors. It was a beautiful day, especially in light of the fact that we had a week of rainy days preceding. They had school buses to shuttle us to the festival, and the girls were so excited to ride the bus!
We set up a blanket to listen to one of the headliners, a funk-rock local band called Opie Gone Bad. They were awesome!
Field of Greens... all the rain we've been having definitely paid off, creating lush foliage to walk through.


One of the things I love about living in Conifer is you see someone you know most everywhere you go. We ran into a few of Shilah's friends, including one of her best friends named Sadie. One of the area groups sponsored a nature scavenger hunt where kids had to walk down a short trail and answer questions about their surroundings.
Shilah & Serena couldn't keep their eyes off the buses! Here we are waiting for ours to pull up.