Rock Park

We had a beautiful day here, although chilly, so we headed to the 'Rock Park' this afternoon for some fun. This neighborhood park, hidden in Boulder, has an amazing work of masonry, a many leveled cave structure of tunnels for kids to explore inside and out. We love it.

Ruthie climbing:

Heading into the unknown! Where she comes out, nobody knows!

Anna in her hiding spot:Josie, about to disappear into a dark tunnel:

Three girls peaking down at Mommy inside the tunnel. This structure was definitely made for kids, not adults. I barely fit through some of the openings and had to wiggle snake like along some of the tunnels. The girls could just crawl along.

Queen of the mountain!

Despite the chilly temperatures (my hands were numb from the cold by the time we went home), Anna wanted to be barefoot most of the time we were here.

Snack time! These girls only stop for food. Anna perched on her lookout eating a granola bar:

The larger perspective:

This playground also has a good old fashioned merry go round, of the kind that you don't find at newer playgrounds because I'm sure they've been deemed unsafe. The girls couldn't stop laughing the whole time they were playing on it:)

Check out some of our videos from the park!

Vacation is Over

And summer has begun.

At least it feels that way to me.

Which is better? Vacation or summer? I love them both. They seem mostly synonymous this time of year. Vacation, in this family, meant Mitch not working or schooling (and me not blogging). Summer means sunshine. I like it best when they both go together.

For those of you who have wondered where we have been and what we have been spending our time doing:

We have been doing

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Well, that's not really true. It can't be true in a house where three active little ones live. But we haven't gone anywhere and haven't done a lot of things that we normally count as normal in the daily rhythm of our hectic 'dad's in school' lives.
We HAVE been on lots of bike rides, spent lots of time in the garden now that we're finally past our frost date and can plant all the warmer weather crops!, gone to bed at a decent hour and gotten up at a decent hour, felt well rested!, played, laughed together all through our dinner meal, sat in the sunshine together, had a few normal bumps in the road that go with being in a time of transition between a crazy schedule and a normal, healthy, daily rhythm, had lots of family around, celebrated a graduation, said good-bye to a good friend who graduated and left the area, started a new summer job, enjoyed our morning coffee sitting on the couch together with both of us fully awake!, finished a ballet class...
And basically have fully embraced and enjoyed switching to a healthier rhythm of life for our family.

Congratulations, Mitch, on graduating with honors!

Hooray for Daddy'O!

Mitch with his brothers Chad and Jeb:

(Thanks for the pictures, Chad!)

Meeting my niece, little Maia Sage, for the first time:Windy bike rides with Jeanette, Michael, and Maia:

(Thanks for those pictures, Jeanette!)

See, we are still alive and quite well! Enjoying our days, laughing lots. Hooray for doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Swinging

Anna has been wanting to show you all how she pumps on the swings now. It seems to me that pumping is something kids have to feel the rhythm of in their bodies before they can really master it. I'm not sure how you could teach it before then. I guess it's that way with most things a kid learns: all in their own good time when they are developmentally ready to learn the skill, each kid at their own pace. Here's a little video I took of Anna pumping right before my camera batteries died. It cuts off pretty quick because there wasn't enough juice in the batteries for any more, but you can see her doing it. She has some other playground tricks to show you too, but those will have to wait until we get new batteries.

And not to leave out little Ruthie, here she is swinging too. She loves it as long as you don't push her too high:

For Cousin Jack

Jack was disappointed not to have seen any new pictures for a few days, so I figured I had better upload a few from our day at the park today. The girls played hard all morning at the park with their friends Kaatje and Brody while Rachel and I had a great time talking. We left Mitch at home to study for his exams. (He had one internship interview today, too, which he said went well. One more Thursday. Both would be great internships, but Thursday's is much closer, less commute, more time at home with us!)

Here the girls are digging in the pebbles making popcorn and a cake that they eventually put 4 shovel candles on:

There must exist some sort of magnetic attraction between little kiddos and muddy creeks. It seems to me that if there's a creek and mud nearby the Clement girls are sure to find it! The water and mud must be calling their names to be sloshed around in. (I hear the same is true of a certain Jackson and Caroline Fike! Hoses on a rainy day? There just wasn't enough mud!) Here the girls are mucking around with Kaatje and Brody:

Anna wanted to show everyone her HUGE wormy squirmy that she found among the decaying mucky leaves. It rates up there as one of the biggest earthworms I have ever seen:

Josie's fishing:

A big grin on a little girl. Who wouldn't be happy with their toes in that kind of mud:

Josie in her kitchen with Brody coming to check out what she is concocting:

Anna slid down "that spiral thing" (as she called it) I can't tell you how many times. Josie's about to shoot down the slide in the background:
Here she comes! As she told Mitch later: "I want you to come next time, Daddy so you can watch me go so fast down the big green slide!"

Good friends. Good times.