Addams Family

 Wesley has taken an interest in singing in his school choir. This lead to an interest in trying out for the high school play. This year they did the Addams Family broadway version play. He's a freshman so we weren't thinking he would get a main role but he did end up getting one. He played Mal which was the dad to Lucas (Wednesday Addams love interest). He put so much work into that role, not missing a single practice. 

He had many lines and even a solo. I was one nervous mom but he did fabulous! Not sure where he got the acting gene from as both his parents are rather introverted. Anyways, super proud of him for trying something new. He's excited for next years play. 

Alex was also in the play as an Ancestor.

Jessica had the privilege to orchestrate the decorating of the entryway. She also did this fabulous painting.

Halloween

 Halloween was a little different this year. As the kids age they seem to outgrow certain activities and Wesley has aged out of Halloween. He opted to hang out with Alex, who lives in town, and give out candy to the youngsters. They had a fun time with lots of food and candy so I don't think he felt like he was missing out on anything. 

Greta on the other hand loves Halloween more than any other holiday. She starts decorating in September and completely soaks up the fun of this time of the year. I don't tend to decorate for Halloween so Greta made sure to decorate her room fully. 

We did go trick or treating with Jessica like normal and can't see that stopping anytime soon. Greta said she'll go trick or treating forever.....we'll see. 

They insisted on carving pumpkins this year. It was hard to find any, I had to go to several stores and finally found some at the feed store. It's nice because they are at an age where I just toss some carving kits on the table and say "have fun!". Older kids are so much easier than young ones! 

No idea what Wesley carved, something from YouTube perhaps?

This and That

Greta's favorite class is art. They have been doing some really fun projects in class. Latest project was for them to make a ceramic pumpkin. Everyone did these cute little orange pumpkins. Greta wanted to make a rotten jack-o-lantern. I think it turned out pretty cool.

These kids crack me up. They sat in front of a mirror and perfected the "angry face". It's harder than you think to make your smile turn upside down intentionally. Greta perfected it several years ago (perhaps unintentionally) and Wesley figured it out recently.

Do you know what "shark teeth" are in humans? It's when your adult teeth come in above your baby teeth and you end up with two rows of teeth. Poor Greta had six adult teeth coming in above the baby teeth. It was painful to eat and the dentist said she'd be happy to remove the pesky baby teeth. So that's what they did. Poor kid!

 

 

The middle school has teamed up with the public library to offer fun events for the kids once a month. This months project was to decorate a wooden pumpkin. They had cute cutouts and stencils to decorate your pumpkin but Greta had a more gruesome idea. Blood splatters and an eye ball hanging out were painted on their pumpkin. Oh and can't forget about the brains. lol  

 

 

The fall parade proceeded even though it was raining and Wesley got to walk alongside the float for the high school play The Addams Family that he was playing in. 

Birthday Celebrations!

 Greta and my Dad share a birthday so we got together to celebrate. It was a beautiful day. We were cleaning up the deck so we could have it outside and disturbed a large hornet nest under the deck boards. I got the hornet spray and must have killed 25 of them before it was said and done. My Dad is pretty allergic to their stings so we decided to move everything away from that side of the deck and have the little party in the yard. 

It was a fun afternoon full of pizza, candy and soda....a middle school kids dream. Greta got some great stuff, she was super excited about the ukulele and rock tumbler. Happy Birthday Dad and Greta!

 

Gravel

 We've lived in this house for 17 years now. It's got a nice long driveway which is part of the reason we liked it so much. It also has the power lines hanging right above that nice long driveway which has prevented a dump truck from easily spreading new gravel every few years. In fact we've not had new gravel since moving in here. When we get pot holes I go get a gravel scoop dumped in the back of the truck and I fill the holes as they arise....for the most part. It never really fixes the problem and I don't keep up on filling those pot holes very well. Which has led to a bumpy ride when coming down our driveway. It's been an ongoing problem for years. 

So my Dad said "how about I come over with a tractor and regrade your driveway and put down new gravel". I said sure! So we called the quarry and had two truckloads of gravel delivered in two big piles near the house. The kids thought these were great! Sean even went out there with them and raced the RC cars over and around the gravel piles. There were some epic jumps happening. 

My Dad rented a tractor with a box blade and fixed the potholes in the driveway and spread all the new gravel on top and in the car port which was a muddy mess. It looks awesome! It's so nice having a nice base of gravel on that driveway. Thanks Dad!

Hummingbird Moth

 I was out in the garden the other day and saw something that resembled a hummingbird flying near the zinnias. Upon further inspection I saw it was a Hummingbird Moth. I love bugs and flowers and together this was pretty fun to see. Hummingbird Moths can beat their wings up to 70 beats per second and hover over the flower much like a hummingbird.  I got my nicer camera and used the zoom to get a few shots. I enjoy seeing all the pollinators that this big swatch of zinnias bring in. 

First Day of School

First day of school for my 9th grader (High School!!) and my 6th grader.

Breckenridge

 We wanted to go somewhere this summer since last years vacation was cancelled due to the pandemic. I really wanted to go to Hawaii since it's our 20th wedding anniversary but there were still too many unknowns to travel that far in my opinion. We decided to head to Colorado instead since it's within driving distance. I looked at several different cities and we decided on Breckenridge. We wanted to try a city we haven't ever been to and one with several fun things to do. I also was looking for a town full of good restaurants. Breckenridge did not disappoint! 

We met Sean's folks there, they stayed out at Dillon Lake in their camper while we reserved an Air B&B in town. We met the first day and hiked up to the Breckenridge Troll. It's an art installment that was so popular they decided to make it a permanent installment up on a trail. It was super cool!

The town was beautiful. I can't get over the flowers everywhere! It was a popular destination, I knew it would be but I'm not sure I was prepared for the sheer number of people. We talked to a few natives and they said this year was nothing like last year which surprised me. Apparently last summer was even busier because of the pandemic people decided to go live in condos and Zoom school their kids in the mountains. 

We had some great food and wonderful company. I researched all the restaurants and keep tabs of the ones offering plant based options (which were quite a few). It was well worth the few pounds put on! We got pretty good at using the public transportation. Parking options weren't plentiful so on most days we parked at the free ice skating rink lot and rode the bus all over the place.

Celebrated 20 years married!

Got to see some of the antique train snow removal systems that were used to keep the tracks open in the winter. Then we made our way to Dillon Lake to see Randi and Rich's new camper. Made it just in time for the daily afternoon rain shower. Greta, our little rock hound, had a ball finding rocks for her collection. 

We took a ride up the mountain on the free gondola. We were all able to fit into one but it was quite warm. The area at the top of the mountain is were all the winter snow activities happen. From there you can ride chair lifts up to the different mountains to ski down. Summer is their off season but it was still packed, I can only imagine it in the winter.

Randi and Rich had to head out so we used our last full day there to go hiking on trails around our condo. We found one that followed the stream and offered endless rock hounding. We took an empty backpack for the all the wonderful rocks that the kids found. It was a wonderful hike that opened up on the reservoir above town.

We said goodbye to Breckenridge and our cute little condo and headed south to Colorado Springs to meet my parents for the day. We drove through the Garden of the Gods to see the magnificent rock formations but it was also packed full (didn't even see open parking spots) so we just drove through. It was quite beautiful!

In Colorado Springs we met up with my folks to see Magic Town by Michael Garman. It's a place downtown where an artist has created a miniature town that you get to walk through. It was beautifully done and so many things to see. Greta said it was her favorite part of the whole vacation. If you ever find yourself in Colorado Springs with a couple of hours to spare make sure you stop by, it was well worth it.