Super Angie...Girl's Morning Out

YOU'RE INVITED TO MY GIRL'S MORNING OUT!

I'm inviting all my friends out in blog land to come to my Girl's Morning Out. Come rock climb with me and have fun. There is a cafe at the gym, where I love to hang out afterwards and drink hot chocolates or Italian Sodas.

WHEN: next Wednesday, August 6th.

TIME: 10am

WHERE: Momentum Indoor Climbing in Sandy--in the South Towne Mall parking lot, near Dillards and next to REI.

I talked to the owner of the gym and he is letting me bring my friends for only $10 each which includes the cost of renting a harness! Thats 50% off the normal cost!!! I will teach everyone a brief intro to climbing and then we can all rock climb together. Fun Fun Fun!

Please let me know if you can come. :) I would love to chat, climb and hang out.

--Super Angie

Super Angie...Denver Aquarium

Sitting outside. There was a bubble machine right by this bench, so the kids were having a good time climbing this bench and chasing bubbles.

SHARKS!!!

Tanith loved when Daddy lifted her up to get a closer (and wetter) look in some of the tanks. She particularly liked the turtles, which is her new word!

Rick flew back home today. We already miss him. But before he got on the plane, we all went to the Denver Aquarium. This place ROCKS! We also ate lunch there and just had a lovely time being together. It was 103 degrees in Denver, so we were happy to be inside!

--Super Angie

Super Angie...boating day

Again we went to the Adventure Center and this time we rented a paddle boat. Rick took Tanith on a walk around the lake, while the boys and I took the boat out. We fed the fish, ducks and geese. A few times, a duck actually joined us in the boat!

Dallin steered us under the two fountains in the middle of the lake, so we got pretty wet. Tanith enjoyed waving and calling for us. 

A good time was had by all!

-_Super Angie

Super Angie...Tan's first polish

Today I painted Tanith's toe nails for the first time. I was surprised with how patient she was. She didn't mind sitting still and was good about letting them dry. My big problem was when I left the polish sitting where she could get it with the lid slightly off. She painted her finger and her toes! AND...I am out of nail polish remover...gonna have to make a trip to the store tonight. lol

Now she is running through the house, showing her brother's how lovely she looks. They think her toes look ugly. Poor girl...

--Super Angie

Super Angie...July 24th.. part two

This afternoon, we learned to pan for Gold and how to make fudge--two very important skills for any pioneer to know, right? 

Keystone Adventure Center offers such fun activities, and we just HAD to participate in Panning for Gold. Tanith was in the Kelty backpack (on my back) while the boys played the part of the miners. It didn't take Dallin long to learn all the tricks and secrets to panning for Gold. He was the first one in the group to

 find some. YEA DALLIN! I am proud of you 

for paying attention to the directions and sticking to it.  I helped Brennan and it took us a long time before we found the Gold, but we did it. 

Great work partner! 

After we found all the Gold that we could handle, we went to Pizza on the Plaza and enjoyed a nice meal overlooking the lake. There were lots of boaters out, which the kids had fun watching  and making comments about. 

Brennan tried on my hat--

Lookin' good Mister! 

And Tanith just liked to yell "HI!" at everyone. She is so social!

We fed the fish and the ducks, did a bit of shopping for Dad (always have to get something for Rick!) and then went to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and waited for 7pm...thats when the fudge making was to start. But at 6:55, the rain started instead.

 We were standing outside the store, since its pretty small inside. The rain came on SO FAST and SO HARD...it was crazy. Thunder, Lighting...the works! I sent the boys inside to watch the demo, and sat outside under the eves of the building with Tanith. 

The boys had fun watching the fudge making demo. After a while, I moved Tanith inside and I entertained her with a sucker--her face got SOOO messy!  She also enjoyed talking on the phone with Daddy... she got SOOO mad when I told her she would have to wait a second to talk to him. DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL!

Dallin really enjoyed the demo. He ran up to me and said, "MAMA! This takes so much math and science!!!!"  What a great kid he is. I guess we will have to make some fudge at home, so we can see about all this math and science involved.

The walk home was fun. The rain had stopped, the skies were beautiful and the light was just gorgeous...should have taken some pictures.  As is custom, the boys wanted to go feel the river, so I allowed them to go the same spot they always do. "Its PITCH COLD!" Dallin yelled out. LOL I think this is so cute...

Well, Happy Pioneer Day everyone!

 We had a wonderful day of history, math, science and love.  I sure do love my kids!

--Super Angie

Super Angie...July 24th.. part one

For pioneer day, we went to the historic park in Frisco. They are actually now on the National historic list. Anyway...think, This is the place", only smaller, and only with cabin buildings and one school. 

The school house is the visitors office. They had a model train and town built up from 1890. Talk about cute. The kids discovered so many things on the model...the man having a 

picnic by the mine, the covered wagon that had fallen into the stream, the stage coach driving through town, by the saloon. It was very cute and I'm sure we spent a good 15 minutes just looking closely at the model.

The lady who runs the place, Simone, was very friendly to the kids. She said Tanith looked like a little German girl..I agree! *GRIN*  

Anyway, Simone showed the boys a box full of fur and had them guess which fur was from which animal. They LOVED it. Tanith got really excited about the furs. I made the skunk fur stink on Brennan, which he thought was so funny. 

Dallin was wide eyed and full 

of amazement as we walked around looking at everything. I loved the old school house desks..I have fond memories of going to a museum in Seattle and sitting at such an exhibit. Neat to see how life turns so your kids experience similar things.

We explored all the different cabins and briefly read the histories, although Brennan and Tanith didn't care that much about those details. 

Both boys say their favorite cabin was the Trapper cabin...so many furs and they got to touch more of them. 

What a great way to start out Pioneer day by seeing some pioneer history from Summit County.

--Super Angie

Super Angie...dancing in the rain

Last night the rain just wouldn't stop, so, being from Seattle and all, I took the kids and off we went to River Run. We missed the Family Fun Festival--I had the wrong times written down--but that didn't stop us from have a wonderful evening. I was the only one who had a rain coat, so the boys wore their Adidas warm up coats and baseball caps, and Tanith wore her sun hat and a sweatshirt. Once we got down there, I bought her a zip up sweatshirt so she would be warmer. 

Since it was raining and the Family event was finished, there weren't many people down in the village, which was perfect! I let the kids loose (picture someone with a ton of dogs letting them off their leases at the same time) and off they went. Every single puddle was fair game. They jumped. They danced. They slid. They slipped. Over here, over there...jump splash repeat!

We found a small wooden playhouse tucked into one of the side courtyards, so we played in there for a while. There was the Keystone kid's mascot picture all over

 the place. The kids had fun playing pretend.

After a while, we got hungry, so we went to Parrot Eyes (say it fast "Paradise")...its a margarita place in Keystone. Usually this is a place I would avoid because its full of young college ski bums and bunnies over flowing with hormones after a day on the slopes. But because of the rain, and the family event having just gotten over, it was empty. PERFECT! The kids all had chocolate milk shakes and I had a virgin strawberry daiquiri. The kids weren't all impressed or amazed with the glass it came in...I guess we have gone to Red Robin too many times so they are used to fancy glasses. We ordered a side of chicken 

wings with dip and happily ate up. The kids had a blast. The place is colorful, full of parrot statues and the waitress gave them drink umbrellas and plastic swords...what else can you wish for?

After that, more puddle jumping and a quick trip to Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory (twice in one day!!!).

It was a wonderfully wet evening...

--Super Angie

Super Angie...oh what do you do on vacation?

Shout HOORAY when you find a math work book! --Well, that's what Dallin does anyway. This kid LOVES math. He actually gave his work book a big hug. I am so proud of him. He is so smart and really enjoys doing math. 

Besides doing math, we did some outlet mall shopping (HOORAY--that's me saying it this time), played at the cool park in Dillon again and went swimming. Tonight we will go to the Family Fun Festival at River Run village--bounce houses, carnival games and entertainment.-- although, I just noticed its raining...we'll have to see how long the rain lasts. Maybe we'll just have a movie night instead.

The park was a lot of fun. We got there at 9:30 am and the

 park was empty except two sisters, their kids and their puppy--whom Tan just LOVED. We all used our imagination and the boys sold us french fries, ketchup, oatmeal, milk sh

akes and lots of other tasty goods. The lake was gorgeous...so calm. The weather was perfect... it was just a lovely morning and a fun day. 

--Super Angie... PS...Eddie Bauer outlet had some great stuff today and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory didn't disappoint. I had chocolate covered strawberries and the boys had chocolate and Carmel covered rice krispie treats. I thought of you Jenny when I saw the carmel apples.

Super Angie... Hello Kitty, a rattle snake and a sword

What do they have in common? Well, they all pop when they hit the hot cement!

Yesterday we went to a fun kids program in Keystone. It was free, and had a free pizza lunch. There was a program by a clown (Dallin thought it was "stupid" although I did see him smiling during it and same with Brennan). Tanith enjoyed parts of it, but much perferred looking around yelling, "BABY!"--even when the kid she saw was older then her!

Anyway, after the program, there was free pizza (which we ate outside by the flowers), crafts and your choice of face painting or balloon animals. We chose the animals. The crafts were fun for the boys--making book marks and coloring American Flags--Dallin was very serious about his coloring and got many compliments on his flag. Brennan loved sticking the stickers on his bookmark. 

Brennan wanted a rattle snake, and I have to say, it was the COOLEST snake I have ever seen. Dallin got a sword complete with a belt to hook it into and Tanith got a Hello Kitty. The clown warned us not to let it touch the ground. Good enough...off we went to look around the village. 

We got this picture taken and then 5 minutes later, Brennan's was poped! 10 minutes after that, Tanith tripped and fell onto of Hello Kitty--only the head survived. And then, while doing absolutely nothing, Dallin's sword popped--very strange.

After all that popping, we enjoyed a chocolate chip banana muffin and a root beer under another umbrella (like we had with Rick)--except this umbrella was blue. Very peaceful!

--Super Angie

Super Angie....my Keystone place

Some of you have asked, so heres some pictures from our place in Keystone. 

Cute bathroom! This is the guest bathroom.

Here's Brennan's bed. Dallin's is right next to it, but he hadn't made his bed yet, so its not in the picture. :)  Notice I put his name above his bed. Notice the purple wall?!

This is our guest room. I LOVE this room...notice, no purple at all! I got the bedding at Target. The walls have fly fishing signs on it..very cute even though I don't fish.

Our kitchen rocks. Its very spacious and well organized. I found cute towels at IKEA that actually make purple look COOL. lol

I LOVE my fireplace. The white sign says, "Brrr... baby its cold outside" and the red sign says, "Let it Snow". My friend Emily makes signs and I had her make me one for the mantle that says KEYSTONE on it...can you see it infront of the angels? There are snowmen, and a nutcracker on the mantle as well. The red blanket on the chair was a Christmas gift from Tiff and Tyler-THANKS! It says, "Happiness is a nice crack and a large rack"  HEY! Get your mind out of the gutter...its a rock climbing slang!

The boys love to climb on the spiral staircase that leads to their room. Tan can easily climb up the stairs. We fondly remember the first time she went all the way up. Now its no big deal, but back then, she would scoot up a few steps, turn and dare you to come chase her up. We used to set up a road block in front of the stairs, so she couldn't go up them, but we have since given up...whats the point when she climbs over the roadblock?

Snow shoes on the wall in our eating area.

I love my sign!

Wall quilt in our family room. 

Most places for sale in Keystone and Breckenridge come fully decorated and fully furnished--including all your kitchen plates etc. Of course, once you buy it, you can do whatever you want, after all, it is your place now. The previous owner must have loved purple, because there are quite a few walls in the house that are painted purple. Don't get me wrong--GO KANGS!--I like purple, but its not my first choice for a bedroom wall, or a family room. But, like Tim Gunn says on Project Runway--MAKE IT WORK!

Some things we changed instantly, while others we have left--I don't want to paint, so the purple walls are staying. We have added our own pictures, new bedding and some new wall decorations. I am sure that through the years, we will do other updates...maybe even paint!

--Super Angie

Super Angie...picnics, space chimps and a rainy day

everyone is enjoying our sandwhiches and the great outdoors!

Tan grazed off everyone's lunch!

Yesterday, before Rick left, we enjoyed a family picnic in River Run. We got sandwhiches at InkSpot (REALLY YUMMY!) and enjoyed sitting under a bright yellow umbrella. Our log chairs were very comfy and we really could have stayed there all day had we not had a schedule! :( The wild flowers were gorgeous--so many vivid colors. It was just nice to be together, relax and have fun as a family. River Run is such a cute little village...

Everyone was very sad to see Rick leave though. Dallin hugged him a million times and started crying as he left. Tanith pitched a fit when she woke from her nap and found daddy missing. Poor Tan. 

This morning, the kids and I took a walk to the lake, played at the playground and enjoyed walking home a different route. The air here smells so good...forest and berries mixed together. Its just lovely. The kids played at the playground by the lake and had fun pretending one play set was a pirate ship. The other set looks like an old stage coach which of course was fun too. Tanith enjoyed the swings a lot. I enjoyed being their mom! The lake had some boaters on it already, which was fun to watch. I carried Tan in the backpack and got a good little workout from it.

After Tan's nap, we went swimming. She didn't like the pool, but had fun on the lounge chairs, which was fine. Brennan felt more secure in his life vest, and so did I! Poor kid has had too many close calls in the pool. We both were able to enjoy it more this way! Dallin loved his inner tube.

Suddenly the skies got VERY dark and it started raining, so we went back inside and ate some lunch. Tanith didn't want to sleep, so we ran some errands, including to Target to get some new lawn chairs for the deck..LOVE 'EM! :) 

Finally, in the evening, we went to see Space Chimps. Well, I should say, the boys watched Space Chimps, and I watched Tanith run around in the lobby of the theater. Everyone had a good time though, which is all that matters. :) It was a pretty good day--even with the rain!

--Super Angie

Super Angie...Colorado Rocky Mountain High

So, after a horrible start to the week and being very sick, we took off for Keystone on Friday and BOY OH BOY am I glad we came. It is just so peaceful and beautiful out here. Why did I stay in Utah for June and July? I should have been out here the whole time!

Friday evening, we took a walk to Keystone lake to feed the fish,

enjoy the exercise and be together.  Saturday morning, we went to River Run to show Tristan the cute Keystone village. They were setting up for Frontier Days, so the boys had fun posing for pictures. 

We took Tristan to Denver yesterday so he could fly back to Montana. 

While in Denver, we ate at Hard Rock Cafe (Tristan's first time!) and went to the large REI there. I think its even better then the REI in down town Seattle--GASP!

Lounging around on a lazy Sunday morning

.... enjoying our deck and smelling the fresh mountain air.

 Listening to the squirrels and the birds. 

Taking walks to the lake, swimming in the pool and relaxing in the hot tub.... I think John Denver had it right when he talked about Colorado Rocky Mountain High....nothing comes close!  I feel so blessed that we have this place out here. I love it!

--Super Angie

Super Angie...my feet are covered in puke!

Tanith has been sick for the past little while, and frequently throws up. We have been trying different formulas--we are pretty sure its an allergy. 

Anyway, this morning, we went to check if she had thrown up. I was supposed to leave this morning to go to our other house in Colorado--ahh...vacation, relaxing in the mountain air, swimming.... so much to look forward to. But if she had thrown up, I was gonna cancel my plans. I don't want her throwing up on the drive there! YUCK!

We found she had thrown up, so I started stripping her sheets as Rick changed her. She wanted me to take off her under shirt, so I sat on the ground and she walked over to me, sat on my lap and let me take off the shirt. She had a fever, we could feel it. Poor girl. --This picture is from a few weeks ago, when she wasn't sick...just cute! ;)

Suddenly, she fell off my lap--stiff as a board, and started having a seizure. Brennan had two seizures when he was this age, so I knew all about this.

Anyway, long story short...trip is canceled, she threw up two more times through out the day (one of them was on my feet--thanks! I appreciate that!). She is very happy though and is acting "normal". I feel like a trapped prisoner in my house...can't go anywhere because she will throw up on everything! 

Ugh...

--Super Angie..

PS...I have done a TON of blogging the past few days, so feel free to catch up, scroll down and check them out. Although I have blogged so much that some of my "new" posts are already considered "older" and are listed at the side.

Super Angie...my son Dallin

My heart is over flowing with love for my son Dallin. He has been looking forward to attending a baptism party for his friend Bridget. We even re-scheduled a trip so he could go. But Tanith got sick this weekend and is still sick today--throwing up  UGH!-- so I was unable to go with him to the party. But he went alone and is so grown up. He just came home to ask if I wanted a muffin (cupcake) or a cookie. He told me about the food he is eating (chicken and a hot dog) and about the game of tag he is playing with his friends. He is being polite and grown up and very nice. I am so proud of how he has matured through out the years. I can't believe he turns 8 at the end of this year. 

He just came home with the "muffins". One for me and one for Brennan. So sweet. 

Dallin is such a good brother. He genuinely cares for his brother and sister. He is eager to please and help everyone in our family. He loves Rick and enjoys hanging out with him. He is quite the perfectionist, so sometimes we have problems with him getting down on himself. He is an excellent student and is very concerned about the needs of those around him. He is sensitive to the spirit and loves learning about Christ and His gospel. He has so much faith and often asks for blessings. 

I just can't say enough about my dear sweet Dallin. I love you buddy!

--Super Angie

Super Angie... 4th of July weekend..The great animals of Yellowstone

ELK! We were in aw of these creatures.

What a darling baby...look at those spots!

On the move...

We saw this strange creature...who could it be?

Yes, traffic did stop for the Elk.

And lucky for us, we were the second car in line!

The Bison were amazing to see.

Of course, seeing the many natural animals in Yellowstone was exciting. The kids were screaming for joy in the car, each time we saw something.