May 2016

Puddles, Mother's Day, school ending and fun vacations.  It was a good month!

It's always the simplest things that bring the most joy.  Muddy puddles after a rain storm, a car in each hand, and brother close by.

These chubby feet crammed into flip flops.  Love them.

On Mother's Day we went to the Compassion experience.  Such a neat experience for all of us, but especially for Kai. Kai helps us write to our Compassion child, but this made the experience more real.
How fitting that we were able to go on Mother's Day.  There are many things I want to pass on to our kids, but one of them is a love for those less fortunate.

We carried on to Lyons and spent some time by the river before dinner.
Kai's getting so big!  I love being his mom.

This one brings a lot of laughter wherever he goes.

We love this restaurant, and Anders loves trying to say this word :)

Celebrating Bryon's mom too!

One last spring skiing day at A-Basin. It was really fun to come back and BBQ in the parking lot after a great morning of skiing.

Papa's a great ski assistant.

 

A weekend in Estes park with family.

This is a pretty accurate portrayal of how these two felt about the Vintage Market Fair :)
They were good sports though!

Fun to have a cousin visit!

Kai learned the song "Do the Right Thing" at school and sung it incessantly at home, so Bryon learned it on the guitar and we had many family sing-alongs.  It may still be stuck in my head months later :)

Their evening ritual.  The crib may not last as long as it should, but I'm okay with that.

Kai had a lemonade stand at our friends'/neighbors' garage sale, to raise money for the little guy they're adopting from China.  I love his heart for others. 

Garden season!

These plants started off so small, but ended up being huge and giving us lots of delicious tomatoes and herbs.

This guy is the best little garden helper.

Last day of school games and t-shirt signing.  Kai had such a great class.  I'm thankful for all of the great friends he made and the great teachers learned from.

All done!!

The day after school finished we drove up to South Dakota for a camping trip.

Mt. Rushmore, here we come!

Kai was so excited!  He had studied these four presidents in Kindergarten and then put Mt. Rushmore on his bucket list of places to visit, including the St. Louis Arch, Hawaii and Myanmar.  Those other three might have to wait a bit longer to materialize!



Every time we see a statue of Abraham Lincoln Kai wants to take a picture.  Apparently Abe is a relative on my dad's side :)

Afternoon at the lake.

On Sunday it was hot and sunny so we lived it up at our KOA.

Evening hike.  I don't take these sweet moments for granted, since they are sometimes interspersed with whinier and rougher moments. :)  

He likes his marshmallows charred I guess. ;)

Bryon is the best at making our favourite camping breakfast - blueberry pancakes.

Big brothers are the best entertainers.



After we checked out of the campground on Monday morning, we headed up to Custer State Park.