First day(s) of school!

Charlie has attended the International School of Indiana for the past two years, in their French immersion program.  While we LOVE the school (and it is amazing that this 5 year old is functionally fluent in French), we also live 2 blocks from the Center for Inquiry, the IPS (aka free) magnet program that is also an IB curriculum.  Charlie was waitlisted for kindergarten so we enrolled him at ISI.

Tuesday August 5th, two days after IPS had begun, we received a call that the school had a spot for Charlie.  While we were so excited to be into the school, we were nervous and unsure about the change.  We sat Charlie down and told him he would begin school the next day at CFI.  He was teary, but excited at the chance to ride his bike to school.

After three days at his new school, he reported that he definitely wanted to stay at CFI.  We are excited for this year and the future, and have loved walking to school and being at school with so many neighbors!

All summer we have talked to Sam about how much fun it is going to be when he attends ISI with Charlie.  Poor thing didn't know what hit him when Charlie started at a different school and, two weeks later, Sam started at ISI on his own!  Thus far he has enjoyed it, although the French immersion is wearing him out and he comes home exhausted (we went through the same thing with Charlie).  We debated whether or not to keep Sam at ISI without Charlie, but we have LOVED Charlie's past 2 years at the school and wanted to give the same opportunity to Sam.  So Sam goes M/W/F in the 3 year old class this year.  
 

Poor Julia does not have a picture of her first day at nursery school.  The sign was removed from outside of the building so my plans got scrapped!  She walked right into her class (with mommy teaching next door) and had a great day despite a class full of first-timers (and criers).  No tears from this tough girl!

Colorado hiking

Our family did our fair share of hiking this trip--the boys are now big enough to hike a few miles without being in a backpack.  We can't go much longer than that now that we have 3 kiddos and only two adult backs :) 

We hiked Second Creek up to Broome Hut for the first time this year--a trail that is basically 1 mile straight uphill to some of the best views in the area!  There is a "Hut" (pretty nice modern shelter with plumbing) that you can rent and stay the night--would be fun to try when the kids get a little older!  All the pictures are from my phone as we had enough to carry without bringing a camera too!

 

 

  Winter Park has free concerts in the park throughout the summer--we took the kids down one night and they loved running around, listening to music, playing with frisbees and beach balls.  Charlie got in on a game of frisbee with a group of adults (young adults) and he had a blast!  Sam met a few friends and kicked the beach ball around for a few hours.  We packed dinner and beer and enjoyed the scene!

 Sunset on the drive home...incredible.

  One day we went over to Winter Park Resort and took the kids on the ski lift for the first time!  We had to split up into two different ones.  Julia really wanted out of her carrier but I was terrified that she would fall so she stayed strapped to me :)  The boys sat nicely with Scott and managed to snap a few pictures!

 

 Once at the top we hiked a trail the whole way back down--2 miles downhill is actually harder than uphill so we had a bit of whining (from everyone) but still managed to enjoy it!  Family "selfie"

Another day we packed a picnic lunch and hiked back in the woods behind the house--in the Arapaho National Forest.  The kids enjoyed the hike and especially throwing rocks in the water in the meadow where we ate lunch.  Beautiful!

On top of the world

Towards the end of July we drove out to Colorado for a 2 week stay (Scott had to fly back and work a bit).  Two solid weeks of relaxation, hiking, Colorado brews, biking, bonfires, and enjoying God's beautiful creations. One day we decided to drive up Corona Pass to the top of the Continental Divide. The sky was threatening but we managed to make it to the top, go for a small hike, and check out some of the snow.  We were AMAZED to look up on some of the snow and see skiers coming down! They hike up with skis on their backs and then ski back down-incredible.  

The kids loved seeing the snow and while it made me a little nervous, it looks steeper in pictures than it actually was!

 

 

We saw Mr Fox from the car!