Better late than never!

So, my muddled brain thought that I had no Halloween pictures from this year. I was right that I didn't get any from Boo at the Zoo, Treat Street or the Harvest Fest. BUT - when I turned on my camera to take a couple pictures this last weekend (I know, I really need to step up the pictre taking, lol) I found a bunch of cute pictures of the kids at Shanna's work! They had a little "trick or treat" time the friday before Halloween for their workers kids, and Shanna invited us. So here are my "better late than never" Halloween Pictures!

A General Update

So it was pointed out to me that it's been a while - again. I guess when there's not a lot going on I find it hard to find "exciting" things to blog about. I should probably get over that, huh? :-) So, what has been going on with us lately?

Mika can now count to 10 and do most of her ABC's! Such a smart girl. :-) She still is completely in love with animals. We haven't started potty training yet because she is just not ready. We may do a "crash course" to see if we can get going on that before Christmas, though.

Urijah is now 1!! Big guy! As Halloween was his birthday, and Zarik was gone, we didn't to a traditional party. We just did all the "Halloween-y" things like going to Treat Street at the High School and the Harvest Festival at a local church. (Can I say how grateful I am for indoor Halloween activities here in Colorado? I can? Good. I am very grateful for them.) I don't know if I ever mentioned, but he started crawling about 2 and a half months ago and is now all over the place, up the stairs, and into the dog food. He also cruises along furniture VERY well and we are encouraging his walking skills. His favorite thing in the world is DOORS. Yes, you read that right. DOORS. He could open and close doors all day long. We don't usually have to worry about him going into a room we don't want him because he stops at the entrance and plays with the door!

Zarik has been working a lot. Last month I saw him a total of 6 days, and the 6th he wasn't actually supposed to be here, so it was a blessing! Some of that was other trips, but it was really hard. He's going to be here a lot more this month, and I'm grateful for that. The kids and I have been busy with MOPS, Bible Study, and just general day to day living. I also had Munchkin Market though my MOPS group last month, which is a HUGE consignment sale/kids rummage sale. As a steering member, I am there the entire time, so my mom came out to watch the kids for me. A million thanks, again, Mom! You Rock!!

That's pretty much it for now. I've been really bad about taking pictures, but I'll try to put some up soon.

Random Wanderings

*NOTE* This is the third post I've done today on activities we've done this summer. So don't forget to scroll down and check the others out!

Lately we've discovered that one of our favorite things to do is take random road trips. Just in the last two weeks we drove out to Buena Vista just to see the river and get some coffee, to the Denver Aquarium, and finally on a loop from Woodland Park through St. George to Tarryall Rd, then took Tarryall to the Reservoir, then up to the 285, then down Pine Valley Rd to Deckers, over to 67, and back to WP. Ok, ok, just look HERE to see where we went. Anyways, here are some videos and pictures from our trip to Tarryall:

Walkin' around the shore of Tarryall Reservoir


Throwing Rocks in Tarryall Reservoir


Aren't they cute?


Mika in front of the Reservoir


Urijah found some things to play with on the shore


Pretty Girl


On the Road Again...


Self Portrait (hey, I gotta get myself in here somehow!)


Pit Stop!


Mmmm...Ice Cream!


Adventures in Feeding...


...on the Road

Fishies!

One of the things we really wanted to do this summer was visit the Denver Aquarium. Although it doesn't compare to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (really, what aquarium does?), it's very cute, has a good amount of sharks, TONS of fish (Dori was in almost every other tank - a real crowd pleaser, lol), and you can pet sting rays!

Mika wasn't quite as excited as we thought she'd be - I think the bigger fish and some of the dark "tunnels" scared her - she did LOVE finding all the Dori's, haha!

A video of Zarik and the kids in front of one of the big tanks


This video is dark, but I think the effect with the sharks is cool


Our friend Sean joined us. Group shot!


A random trout


Look! Dori!


We see you! (this was a bubble where you can look out of the bottom of the tank.)


Hi Mika! (ditto)


See Dori behind her?

The 5 Days That Became 3 Weeks

We had an extended vacation to visit our families this summer! Although, it wasn't planned to be as long as it turned out...

We planned on staying for five days. I had to tell my mom that we were going to be spending most of the time with the Brost family, since we hadn't had a lot of time with them since Christmas. She understood, but was bummed, of course. The reason we "had" to leave was because Zarik had to be at work. So after our five days were up, we go to the airport. We went later in the day because the loads looked decent. Well, unfortunately, a flight was delayed and screwed everything up. So we were stuck for that night. On the way home we decided that the kids and I should stay for another 3 days to a week while Zarik went to work, and then he'd come get us. When he came back, we went wakeboarding with his brother, and Zarik broke his face.

Do I have your attention now? Hehe!

What happened was Zarik fell hard - on the handle or just the water, we're not sure - but didn't know he'd really hurt himself. Later on he went to equalize the pressure in his ears (you know - plug your nose and blow) and all the air escaped his sinuses and went under his eye!!!



After calling around to Stara and Flene (who are both into medicine - Stara has her EMT licence and is looking at Physical Therapy while Flene is a Physicians Assistant), my mom's eye doctor, and Kaiser, we determined that what had happened was his eye was tramatized, but it displaced the trama to the bones around his eye. This cracked the ethmoid bone which allowed air to escape the sinuses. We decided it would be best to go to Urgent Care because it probably wouldn't be good to fly with this injury and Zarik would need a note for work. Sure 'nough, he was grounded for at least another week! Since he had about five days off after he was cleared to fly again, we just stayed for a week after that, too! It was a total God thing that Zarik got the injury he got, with no complications (his sister was all "I'm glad the air bubble didn't go to your brain!"). We couldn't think of any other injury that would totally trap in California, and yet not really limit his fun.

So here are some snippits from our trip:

We all drew "tattoos" on eachother


I keep trying to convince Zarik he needs a real one


Swinging on the Rope Swing at Kidd Lake


Hanging on my parents' pontoon boat


Mika swimming with Mommy


Urijah swimming with Daddy


Sleepy Boy


Sophie!


Cute couple, if I do say so myself. :-)


Lion Towel


Mika turned 2! Mommy made her cake!


Hanging with Mommy


Janis, Jackie, and Kailah dancing on the pontoon boat


We got lots of Grandma time in

Splish Splash I was taking a bath swim

We've been enjoying time out on our deck in our splash pools this summer.

Fun With Family

A couple of weeks ago we went to Breckenridge with my family. It was a ton of fun! Here is our trip in pictures:

When we got there it was Kingdom Days which is Breck's celebration of their heritage. We got these fun old time pictures of everyone but Zarik. Zarik unfortunately had to work, so he wasn't with us for the first 3 days.



Mom and Jon played a little plastic horseshoes.....



While Mika played in the sand.



Shanna and Bobby were lookin' cute...



As was Brittany who was playing with Sophie.



Oh, and did I mention we watched Outhouse Races? But we never found out who won because we had to leave early due to rain.



We waited out the rain at (where else?) Starbucks, where Mika got a chocolate rush.



Back at our condo, we discovered a family of foxes lived under one of the decks!



A couple days later, Shanna and Bobby had to leave us, and I had to come back for a meeting, so Jon and Brittany joined us and we went to the Zoo! Jon had fun rockclimbing...



As did Bobby.



Brittany fed the giraffes...



As did Jon.



Near the end of the week we drove through Rocky Mountain National Forest. Jon and Zarik pose at the highest point in the road.



Wow! Zarik and I got a good picture of the two of us!



This is what Mika thought of all the driving this day...



But Urijah was cool about it all.



And we got to enjoy some wildlife along with the view!