Celebrating the 4th with:
David’s family!
A noon parade in Nederland
Corn on the cob and steak on the grill
Apple pie
Banana pudding with fresh berries–made especially for Grandpa
Fireworks in Black Hawk later tonight.
Happy Independence Day!
We went hiking yesterday–David, his brother Rich, and I–before the kids woke up. Grandma, Grandpa, and Caleb stayed to watch them, so we scampered out of there happy and free. Woo-hoo!
It took us about an hour to reach the top. There was a little meadow about halfway up where we stopped to call home and see how the babysitting grandparents were faring.
They were fine, of course. They are good at this grandparent thing.
Yo from Rich, everybody.
The columbines are out, and so are the Indian paintbrush and a ton of other mountain flowers. None can compare to the columbine, though. She is the queen of the Rockies. 🙂
From the meadow, we had a clear view of our house–just to the right of the center of this photo.
Spying on the grandparents. Too bad they weren’t out on the deck. 🙁
David has this new thing where he sticks his chin out for a more flattering picture–learned from a guy friend, LOL. It cracks me up that guys know that–or even care. Somehow that girl secret leaked, haha. It’s pretty cute to see his chin fly out now when I snap a picture of him.
We had a great hike–it was a good mix of gentle upgrades and steep inclines. We didn’t exactly have a trail, but it wasn’t hard to find our way–just go up. Richard did awesome for being unaccustomed to the elevation. I think the top might have been around 10,000 ft.
Sir Richard, Explorer Extraordinaire.
Oops…David forgot to stick out his chin. He looks amazing anyway.
Here we are at the top. We could see everything for miles.
The Continental Divide–less snowy than usual for this time of year, thanks to the crazy amount of rain we had in May and early June.
ROARRRRRR.
This berry bush was growing right out of the rock!
It felt so great to go hiking. David’s parents and Caleb were amazing, and when we got home after two and a half hours, the kids were happy, fed, and busy with beads and wire. Grandma and Grandpa even cleaned the house while we were gone. Everyone should have their in-laws stay with them for a week and a half. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Or–maybe that would depend on the in-laws.
In my book, scrambling up a mountain with David is the ultimate date–chaperoned, of course (we sure need it). 😉
Hey, y’all. We are having one wild weekend! David’s family came from Santa Fe on Friday evening to hang out with us, and we now have a whole houseful of Luceros.
Here are Uncle Richardo and Grandpa. Uncle Rich went fishing with Caleb this morning and caught a rainbow trout!
Dinna’.
On Friday morning, Cash and I were waiting for them all to come and decided to bake something. He was really excited and super silly, but he did a good job of stirring the batter.
Cake pops!
The cake pops bombed slightly–actually, massively. They broke apart right out of the pan (I forgot to flour it, LOL) so I glued them back together with chocolate.
They were mighty lopsided, but everyone seemed happy to eat them anyway. :))))))
Cousin Makayla and Cash.
Makayla’s friend Kaylee came along, too. She is super nice and we are all glad to have her!
We had a full day yesterday–I taught a kids’ jewelry class in the morning, then we went out for lunch and supplies (including beds! LOL). We were driving through Central City on our way home when Rich’s car broke down. A belt had broken and we had to wait for a tow. 🙁
Oh, brother.
Thankfully, it happened in a pretty good place–a parking lot–and the kids had fun darting around after a ball and giving us heart attacks when they got too close to the street.
My in-laws are super nice and I’m so glad they are here. We are looking forward to several more days with them–most of which I am sure will be even more fun than waiting for tow trucks. 😉
Well, we’re waiting for Dadda…again. And this time, for Zia and Caleb, too. They all took off just before 4 am for Santa Fe, to pick up David’s ’66 Mustang, which has been in storage…aaahhhh! The milk for my yogurt just boiled over. I don’t want to admit how I know this, but boiling your milk way over the pan makes THE most amazing, thick, creamy yogurt.
So David’s Mustang is coming home, for the first time since we left Kansas City. We’ll see how mountain-worthy it is!
Even more exciting, my in-laws are coming back with him from Santa Fe! They have never been to our house (or any of the other three places we’ve lived since we got married), so we are really excited to have them.
Cash and I are home just having some Mama & Boy time. It is strangely quiet and peaceful, with Cash playing with a lump of silly putty he found on Zia’s desk (sorry, Zia). He keeps molding it into his “newest invention,” mostly robots. He was plastering it over and over against the front of the oven (obviously a successful art-making strategy) and then yelled, “a BUNNY!!!!”
Lo and behold, it was a bunny! He immediately took a picture of it. Life is never boring with this boy. 🙂
He’s home, and we’re all so happy. He came in last night, and after two and a half weeks of being Commander-in-Chief Mama, I was more than happy to hand over the reins and snuggle up in his arms. He brought us sweet presents from Seattle, we ate dinner, he opened our little Father’s Day gifts, and the day ended feeling so right. Welcome home, Dadda!
