Jane's Perfect 10

Jane has finally hit double digits!

It's hard having a birthday around Christmas, but Jane decided to embrace the season.

She wanted an Elf party, complete with pasta and Pop Tarts and friends.

And this amazing Elf cake, made by her exhausted mother.

That's a lot of candles, Jane! And a lot of friends. I still don't know how I gave birth to an extrovert but I am learning to cope. 

Happy Birthday Jane!

Halloween 2018

This is Halloween... This is Halloween...

Mom and dad are out of the pumpkin carving game.

If you want pumpkins, you have to carve them yourself.

And that's how that looks:

They didn't turn out too badly.

I think this may be Emily's last year dressing up. 

Here they are at Trick or Treet Street at the high school. Emily wasn't very excited.

But she was more than happy to go trick or treating. They went with friends for awhile and then with each other til the porch lights were all turned off. They had quite the haul. 

Don't worry about all that candy. Jane always makes hers last til Christmas. Emily makes hers last til election day... eve... or maybe the day before that. 

Cross Country

This year Emily made family history and became the first of us to participate in organized sport. She ran cross country.

Sometimes the meets were big..

and sometimes they were small.

Sometimes the weather was burning hot...

and sometimes it was freezing cold.

Sometimes she ran in the middle of town...

and sometimes in the middle of nowhere.

The important thing is that she ran. At the beginning of the season, she was finishing almost last. By the end of the season, there were a handful of kids finishing behind her. We are super proud of her that she participated and that she improved. She's learned that when it comes to being healthy, you don't have to be the fastest, you just need to be consistent. She's already looking forward to track season in the spring. 

First Day of School 2018

This is the first year the kids haven't been in the same school. It was bittersweet.

Emily set off before dawn to ride the bus to junior high. She has been practicing cross country for the last couple of weeks so she already feels pretty comfortable with the school. It will be an exciting new adventure.

Jane went to 4th grade. She felt a little out of place going to school for the first time without her sister, but I am sure she will adjust. 

Only two more first days of elementary school and then Jane will head off to junior high too. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it...

Disneyland 2018

Disneyland never gets old! 

Every trip has its great highlights. Here are this trip's:

We got a theme park view room at the Grand Californian even though we paid for a standard. Yes!!! This was life altering.

Jane is finally going on some rollercoasters without complaint. Her favorite is Radiator Springs Racers (and also Big Thunder but she was going on that one without complaint last time). 

The Pixar fireworks show was AMAZING! It involved projection on the buildings on Main Street. We loved every second.

After Jane's Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique makeover, we ran into Gaston! Jane threw him plenty of shade. I was proud of her.

Chris talked me into getting ears for the first time.

The kids look cuter in them, though.

We got to go backwards on "It's a Small World". I know this is weird, but it was fun, as shown by the look on Emily's face. I think it was precipitated by some sort of breakdown or something. 

We can hardly wait to go back!

After all, it is the most magical place on earth!

Holy Hail

Guess what?! 

We're getting a new roof!!!

A Hike and Some Hail

Every year, we have a local holiday celebrating our town. 

Ironically, we usually leave town that day on account of the crazy, drunken cowboyness of it all.

We had planned to go to the Rockies, but we didn't wake up early enough and ended up hiking in the foothills instead.

It started off with a bad omen, when Emily saw a rattlesnake about a mile in. 

(Note Jane's ER bear)

But we continued hiking on, until we got to Horsetooth Falls, which was barely a trickle.

And that's where we took a wrong turn. I think we accidentally hiked somewhere around 9 miles. We only meant to hike 4 on account of Jane's recent head injury. 

Words were said. Fingers of blame were pointed. We were running out of water, after all, and the clouds were looking very dark and foreboding. Luckily they stayed just to the North of us. Late that afternoon we arrived back at the trail head with a tiny bit of water and even less patience.

Luckily, we were in the vicinity of Nordy's. 

All was forgiven. All was well... kind of.

Those clouds... the ones off to the North?

They were over our house. 

That's not snow. It's July. 

But we're used to it. It's been years since we went a whole summer without making a hail claim on our insurance. Luckily no serious damage was done... in this storm at least.