We went to one of the most beautiful places on earth for our 4th of July Weekend, COLORADO! We haven't had a 4th of July weekend in Colorado for 3 years! It was definitely a great weekend! My whole side of the family was there except one sister. We really missed her this past weekend. It was a mini family reunion.
On the 4th we went to the parade in the morning. Not everyone went because they were being fun suckers, so my parents, Colby and I, Felicia (one of my sisters), and our youngest 3 siblings went and enjoyed the parade. The parade had lots of fun floats and groups. We saw lamas, corvettes, classic cars, Beatles and politicians, school cheerleaders, fire department and the Mormon missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day saints! There were over 100 missionaries in the parade it was so fun to see. I even saw pictures from friends that the parade had Elephants!! Unfortunately, we were too late to see the elephants, but overall we all had a great time and the kids really enjoyed it too, but they mostly liked the candy.
Dad rubbing ice on Jonathan's back!
I wish I had a chair and so did Katie, so she used me as her chair! It was not very comfortable.
The boys waiting for candy
Katie's Gma glasses
After the parade we went home and hung around and some of the kids and Colby played soccer in the front yard. Then we cleaned out the kiddie pool for the kids play in it and set it all up again, but by the time we were done the thunder clouds rolled in and while we did not get much rain we still had lightning and thunder, so we skipped playing outside for a bit. By then, it was BBQ time! My sister made some amazing pulled pork and we all sat outside on the deck and enjoyed the perfect weather, mountains, cool breeze, and bug free Colorado!
Unfortunately, since Colorado has had some really bad fires last year all fireworks have been banned. There may have been a couple shows in all of Colorado with some heavy regulations, but they were too far to travel to see. And our little neighborhood had banned all little fireworks like sparklers! So instead we put the little kids to bed and then played games the rest of the night! It was the best way to celebrate. We did however saw 4 big fireworks outside our windows and really enjoyed them, but hope no one go in trouble. :) This is also the trip that the rest of the family was able to meet baby John!
Baby John and his Mommy!
The next day,Saturday, we had a very full day! It started out with a some of us going up mount Herman to do some shooting, which is always fun! My dad stills proves to have great aim every time! And even my little brother, Jonathan (with some help of course) shot the shotgun as well.
After spending the morning in the mountains, we all packed into the cars to do some intense laser tagging! We found this place called battlefield Colorado where the laser tag is outside on 3 acres of land and we split off into teams and play a series of different scenarios games with the laser guns. It was a blast. I was on team alpha and Colby on team Bravo. Needless to say, Alpha of course won overall!
Laser tag crew!
Once we got home from laser tagging we had dinner and then got ready for a paint war! I bought some washable paint from Wal-mart and it worked so well! I wanted to play capture the flag and split off in teams, but the paint ended up being a free-for-all and we gained up on each other. The little kiddos had fun too! After the paint mess, the boys played soccer for a while and then we all gradually washed up. Once clean we broke off into teams again and played settlers of catan. It was a good way to end the day.
Getting ready for war!
Before the mayhem!
Let the fight begin!
Tackle Colby!
Even John and the videographer joined in the fun!
After chaos!
Then on Sunday we all said goodbye. Colby and I drove back to Texas. My sister, her husband, their baby and my other sister drove to Las Vegas. The weekend was too short and I wish we could have all stayed a bit longer. But it was worth seeing everyone!
Saying goodbye to the beautiful mountains on our way out! We will meet again!
A few weeks ago Colby had his birthday and turned 28 years old! Time sure does fly on by. To celebrate this blessed occasion we drove to Carlsbad, New Mexico and did some camping and visited Carlsbad Caverns. The caverns were absolutely amazing! They were huge! I can't even describe how big they were. If you want to know more, click here. While in Carlsbad we happened across a rock and mineral show, so we took a long look around and Colby bought some little rocks for his growing geologist collection. He is very happy about it. I just know that one day when we have the funds he will be purchasing bigger and better rocks, but for now he is satisfied :) While camping we also were in an amazing thunderstorm, it was right over our heads and the rain was very hard! However, we were lucky to escape to the car. We did not set up our sleeping bags in the tent, so most of our stuff was not drenched. Which was very good, but we had some very nice neighboring campers that came over and offered to give us food and blankets, but luckily we did not need it.
Since it was a short one night camping trip we celebrated Colby's birthday with cake and ice cream the next day with the family we live with. The family has five girls and they are all so very sweet and have given me much needed company while Colby works during the day. They are very fun and have treated us like family! For Colby's birthday they made him cards and decorated his chair with balloons! Unfortunately, the family is gone for a long vacation with their own family which leaves me and Colby here alone in Texas for a month! We are definitely going to miss them!
Carlsbad Thunderstorm heading right towards us!
Entrance to the cave
Still at the entrance. The hole at the top right is where we came in. We still have not reached the bottom. When we do reach the bottom it is 800 ft down!
800 ft below ground! We took an elevator back to the top. If we hiked out it would have estimated to take about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Colby and all the girls!
About 2 weeks after Colby's birthday and the caverns we went to OK to visit cousins! We went for walks and to a creek to do some swimming and jumping out of a tree!
Colby leaping over poison ivy! I think he made it!
Rock-n-slide!
This is Griffin jumping out of the tree!
Little G is actually very happy in this picture! Just look closer :)
