July 2021

We started July in southern Colorado with our dear friends the Farmers.

Where we caught butterflies...

And hiked with friends.

The gang (minus Lori who stayed home with baby Everett)

There's a law of the universe -- when in a small Colorado town in the summer, you must eat ice cream.

We went into Cuchara for an old timey fourth of July parade.

Small towns are the best.

Sarah making sure everyone got their share of snuggles.

More hiking -- Annika learned the hard way that waterproof hiking boots aren't waterproof if fully submerged.

And then my amazing niece Abby came to visit for a couple weeks and I did my best not to take a million pictures, but she's so fun and the girls did so much with her that I took not quite a million pictures.

They spent an afternoon playing in the (not warm) river in Lyons.

And made potstickers with Aunt Val one afternoon.

Return of the Harry Potter birthday dinner (complete with snitch napkins and Annika as Fleur).

The ceiling of the Great Hall and butterbeer.

Sarah as Dobby served us dinner made from a Harry Potter cookbook.

HBD, HP.

We're old enough now that we are going to friends' kid's weddings which seems pretty unbelievable. We just became the old people on the dance floor.

But so fun to have a reason to get dressed up and celebrate with good friends!

We hiked to Brainard Lake with Abby.

The payoff for the hike is this incredible view.

Can't miss slurpees on 7-11.

We saw an 80s version of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Boulder which was incredible. It used the original script from Shakespeare but the costumes and acting was adapted to the 80s. It was a really fun interpretation.

In addition to all the planned activities, there was much spontaneous silliness.

Like this. Sarah's got no doubts she could lift anyone (and so far has been able to). Abby's not so sure.

Naomi got a baby tooth pulled so her adult tooth would stop growing in all the wrong places. Lidocaine blew her mind.

The girls did a Taylor Swift tea party, and I will refrain from showing you all the pics of all the food but it was elaborate. And all made from scratch.

And then each of them dressed as one of Taylor's album covers. Oh yes they did.

And somehow Luna got pulled into this with cat ears because Taylor Swift has cats named Meredith Gray and Benjamin Button. #themoreyouknow

A trip with the cousins to Estes Park

It's so cool to watch your niece grow into this amazing adult who you love to be around.

I mean, neither of us are getting younger, but I think I could make a compelling case that she has aged more than I have in the past 15 years.

We had a few days with the five of us in this cute little lake house in OK.

This may have been the best part.

Though this was pretty great too.

And occasionally I had to show them who was in charge on the lily pad.

No complaints about the hot tub either -- the whole thing was just what we needed.

Grandma Clyde and JD came to visit and brought us dinner from Dinks, our favorite BBQ place in Bartlesville.

Summer is for root beer floats...

...and smores.

I was explaining zinc to the kids so they decided they should create the same effect.

We did lots of paddleboarding

Sometimes just tooling around.

Slide dismounts got more elaborate as the week went on.

And then we had to add in back flips off of paddleboards (Naomi).

Annika and Sarah figured out if they both went at the same time in opposite directions, the board would stay (more) still to help as they pushed off.

And here's me trying to keep up with my kids to prove I can, which I feel like is going to just be the story of my life for the next fifteen years or so before I admit that I can't. The back doesn't arch the way it used to.

From there we drove to Arkansas to spend a few days with the Railsback side of the family and hit Hot Springs National Park.

In addition to the typical national park things to do like hiking, the town is part of the park and there are these really cool historic bath houses built around the hot springs.

The girls did the junior park ranger program.

We found some of the hot springs

And did one incredibly sweat inducing hike.

It's good for them to learn what humidity is, right? 

We had a house on a lake with a little cove and had so much family fun time in the water.

Lori and Grace

Uncle Jan rented a boat and took us all tubing one afternoon.

He even found his gear from his days in the Navy.

When the kids had their fill, the big kids took a turn.

When the big kids had their fill the biggest kids went out for a sunset cruise.

When I married Clifton, I got this amazing woman as a sister. So grateful for that.

The girls with their captain.

More dock skills -- flipping to land sitting in the tube

Some of the best parts of these trips is the storytelling of childhood memories.

So much good stuff there moving from one generation to the next.

Especially when old letters and photos start coming out. I'm so grateful to be a part of this family.