June jubilee

June 1. Our ministering family, Br Gordon, has season tickets to the Rockies. There was a youth activity one night so he was unable to use them and offered them to us. The 4 of us go to go. They were AMAZING 2nd row seats. We filled my backpack with treats and stuffies and had a great time!

We got chicks again. This actually happened in late May but here's a shot of them all

And while we were at it.....because the family is still divided on furry pets we settled on a free rabbit.
At the end of June our friends, the Stamps, gave us the cute lionhead mix bunny. We named her Alice. We don't know how long she'll be with us because she enjoys her freedom. If the gate is left open she takes a run for it. We usually find her and catch her (or the neighbors do) and put her back into her cage that cannot contain this free one. So, it's kind of fun to see her frolicking around the backyard because it's like having a cat or dog....until she's something elses's dinner.

I took Jocelyn up to Loveland to help Heidi with her girls after having her new baby, Braiden! Jocelyn offered to help out. And Heidi/Dustin really appreciate it. I was proud of Jocelyn for thinking of the service.

I then took Landon down to our house for a little break. On the way we stopped at Colin's favorite restaurant, Pizza Ranch, an all-you-can-eat pizza/chicken type buffet. It was pretty good. Colin still asks when we can go back, lol.

Cecily swimming at Gma's pool.

Our next door neighbors had a garage sale. She had some cute stuff! They gave us their piano (an upgrade from our previous one that now belongs to Hannah/Sean) and this cute desk and I bought this green couch for $10, which fits perfectly in our kitchen. Cecily came free!

Girls Camp! Jocelyn's first year going! It was a blast. A separate post is coming.

Jocelyn was busy this month too! She had her first ballet recital. Jennie was able to come but we didn't capture a picture. Tyler went to the dress rehearsal because he left that night with the boys, and his dad to drive straight through to Lake Powell for a quick weekend fishing trip. Tyler loved this luxiouus boat, and we were tempted to buy into a timeshare because he missed Lake P so much. Maybe one of these years we'll go back regularly again. Anyway, they had a blast and caught a bunch of fish.

Back to the recital.....here are some pics. I was so touched watching Jocelyn perform. She takes ballet very seriously and lit up on stage. She is the tallest/oldest in her current class and stood out because of it. But also because she's one of the strongest in that level. Once summer sessions starts she'll move up to level 3. She just started last August in level 1 with very little experience. She had a 6-week tumbling/dance class when she was 5 and gymnastics which I think all helped her be prepared for ballet. Her goal is to be en pointe soon.  She also opted not to perform at the Sunday performance. Which was a tough decision. WE'll see what happens in the future should she continue to advance.

With her friend Aubrey

White swan

White swan

black crow

Taking a pic of the pro photographer taking pics.

Girls Camp 2019

Early in the year, Melissa R called me and said, "It's okay if you say no, but I wanted to say thank you for considering the position." I had no idea what she was talking about and I told her so. She then said, "you haven't been contacted by the stake yet?" And I replied, "No, I hadn't heard anything about any other callings or anything." She was so mortified and said the line of communication must have been confused and that she'd contact me later. So, for the next several days or maybe longer, I was sort of panicking. I knew she was called to be the Girls Camp director. But that's all I knew. Finally, after a week or two, a high councilor from the stake came over and "assigned" but not called me to the girls camp cook position, and asked if I'd accept. I was sort of relieved because I thought it would be assistant director or ward director or something. Though I discovered camp cook was a HUGE task it was more behind-the-scenes and I didn't have to deal with so much drama and activity planning. I was able to ask for some assistants. I had to beg to get 3. Sadly, one of them was unable to come up or help with the last month of planning because her husband was diagnosed with cancer. So, it was left to Sarah, Bev and I. Then, we had to switch camp locations completely, 2 weeks before camp. That was a stressful few days but there were miracles that occurred and camp ended up better than it would have. And it was very smooth year. But again, I only heard about some of the drama after camp....I was stuck in the kitchen so I didn't have to deal with much of it. But I also missed out on activities too. But...we got to see how the girls interacted around food! I really loved it.

Plus, it was a blessing to be up there with Jocelyn. She hardly spoke to me the 3 days we were there. She was so worried about the little things. I was shopping last minute for her toiletry and warm clothing type things. I was so consumed making sure I had my food stuff in order for the 120 people I was feeding I ended up leaving Jocelyn's last minute requests to the day of! She had an awesome time and it was nice to hear her bare her testimony on the last night at our ward meeting.

Last day, ready to go home!

Fortunately, though, the cooks didn't have to be up there until after lunch so we took our time getting packed up that morning.

Because this location was closer Sarah knew of a cute restaurant in a quaint town on the way up. We stopped for brunch. This is when my diet really went downhill, haha. 

Cafe Rio. We had DANG good food prepared for these girls!

Hawaiin Haystacks

We saw a black bear!

Bev with the big wooden spoon!

Overall, we had a blast. Surprisingly, the planning and preparation phase wasn't terrible. I had a fantastic committee. We really complimented each other well. Strengthening each other and helping each other out. It was pretty constantly busy, especially in May once all the paperwork was received from the girls. We had to work around several allergies and such. But it was overall an amazing and spiritual experience. I would do it again. It really helped that we were truly treated like queens. People were so willing to help us because they knew we would be working non-stop while at camp.  We didn't have to sleep in a tent. We got to use a real bathroom, and even shower!! We had a full kitchen with running water and a roof over our heads. We didn't have to use a fire to cook and had a single fridge plus a freezer. It was amazing!!

March Madness

Okay, I am going backwards because it's too much of a pain to rearrange the photos. 

For the last week of March we were in Utah, the kids and I, for Spring Break. We hung out in Mt Pleasant with Gma and Gpa Stum. Salt Lake City, visiting all of our friends. We were also able to attend my cousins baptism and catch up with my Knell side of the family. The kids were happy as clams spending the night at various friends homes. I stayed with Rose for some nights and then at my friend from my ward, Pam's house. She's a great hostess with comfortable home. I snapped a photo of this phrase she had on her wall. She's been through a lot of trials in her life and yet she's still a positive, strong woman in the Gospel and I love her example to me. 

And I was able to do some real estate while I was in Utah. It was awesome!

Colin eating his favorite meal: macaroni and cheese, at the Corner Bakery in SLC.

We celebrated my birthday at my parents house. Jennie made me an amazing ice cream cake, I think I requested cookie dough and peanut butter cups, my fave combo. I was also treated by some friends in SLC and Nora (see below).

 Can't go to SLC without a stop to the best cake donuts in town, Banbury Cross.

Mount Pleasant fire pit nights. My dad relocated his fire pit so this was the first time using it, at least he grandkids. Hot dogs and S'mores.

Each time I am in Utah I try to carve out several hours to go my fave salon so they can do their curly magic. Sadly, it's not realistic to keep up this habit and I need to find a local salon that I can trust here in Denver area. They introduced this new gel to me and it was amazing!!! Best part is...it's just as good as the other brand I had been using, but much much cheaper and easier to get (Target vs private salon stores via Steph).

I also got my nails done (see a few pics down)...and they match my pants almost perfectly.

Luckily, there was enough snow on the mountains and Sam got to ski, it had been a year since he'd gone for the fist time and learned. He was able to go skiing with 2 of his best friends (Ethan and Aaron) because my dad and Rose took them. But he needed some new snow pants because he outgrew his old ones. So I stopped at a couple of thrift stores in SLC and found a great pair for him. C&C also found some fun toys at the thrift store.

We stayed with Rose for a few days which was fun and helpful.....this is her cats butt.

I was able to go to the Denver Aquarium for the first time with Cecily's 3rd grade field trip. It was fun!

Felines are my favorite animal in the world!

I can't remember the name of this fish but I loved how its eyes bulged out of the water 

Beautiful and bright!!

Nora took me out to lunch and we got pedicures for my birthday. She's hardly been to Cafe Rio so I was happy to share it with her!

I took these to a movie....I think it was "The Secret Life of Pets 2"...the older kids didn't want to waste their time. It was an okay movie. Funny at times but redbox worthy.

We bought a $600 car from Stoehr's neighbor for Samuel. It's old and mostly functional. Well, Jocelyn is too mortified to be seen riding in it. This is her during one of the school drop offs or dance pickups. hahahaha.

St Patrick's Day fell on a Sunday this year so we had dinner with Tyler's fam. Corned beef and cabbage. Lori had some fun games planned for the kiddos.

This is one of the 1 cent horse rides at King Soopers. I rode the very same horse when I was a kid, and it only cost 1 cent. An employee told me they had just done some work on it. I am so happy they or someone maintains these little rides and that they haven't increased the price over the years.

Cecily and I went to another movie....but I can't remember which one! Lego ? Anyway, this was back when we had movie type passes and it was a lot cheaper to go to the theater.

Jocelyn was having some fun with herself! Look at that smolder.

One of the several snow days we had this month! One day they preemptively cancelled school and we woke up and it was just raining. But it quickly turned into an icy, snow, windy blizzard so I was glad they canceled. 

Jennie and I have this running joke....that neither of us (plus Grant) can't successfully make rolls. This was the first batch, in over 6 tries between us, that sorta worked. Since then (November I am writing this) she has successfully made them perfectly.

Cecily was reading to Colin one night in his little tented bed. She is so kind to read to him so frequently. It counts as reading for him and her! They are great pals, most of the time.

This is Cecily being awarded her Science fair honors.

We went to the Children's WOW museum in Lafayette with Heidi/Lori. This was clearly his favorite dress-up.