I Love These Girls!

 Doesn't this picture make you want to curl up on the couch with a cup of hot coffee and have some fun on your computer?  That's what I thought at least.  But I love these girls!  They were so excited to ride to school in the rain today!  You can tell that doesn't happen very often around here.  As for Ruthie and I, we're enjoying an inside morning and I thought I would share a few (fairly) recent pictures with you, since I've been a little lax in that regard lately:)

 

First, you'd better check out these cute first day of school pictures.

Here's Josie, heading off to Kindergarten!  On the bike ride home that first day she told me fifty times if she told me once-literally- that she LOVES LOVES LOVES Kindergarten!

And Anna, all ready for first grade (which she has been absolutely loving so far, too, I might add):

Ruthie and I came with them that first day for the Opening Ceremony/Rose Ceremony.

Thank you Mema and Papa for the fun dresses, the girls love them!

 

 What better tradition to have than ice cream on the first day of school in the heat of August?

 Anna lost her first tooth!  Look at that great grin!

 We are enjoying our new house.  For those of you that I haven't kept in touch with very well lately, we moved into a house here in Boulder right before school began.  We are loving our backyard, back porch (we've had dinner out there every night), new climbing trees, and this Mama is especially enjoying the normal size kitchen with a dishwasher and having a washer/dryer!

 

Three good friends in their climbing clothes eating peaches on the back porch on a sunnier day:

 I designated some climbing clothes for them after they were destroying all their school clothes getting them covered with sap while climbing the 50 foot tall Spruce tree in our backyard.  Anybody have a remedy for sap in hair?  I've learned that the alcohol in hand sanitizer will take sap off hands beautifully (thanks Rob and Michelle!), but I've yet to find a remedy for hair. 

 

One of my favorite recent pics of these three sisters.  Classic.  A moment to remember and treasure.

 Friends over for dinner!  The Kennedy's came to celebrate our new house with us.  Little Ally and Ruthie are fast friends.

Anna, Isaac and Ruthie reading on the couch.  I'm loving this new step into reading with my big first grader.  Way to go, Anna!

 Anna found a way to climb onto the roof of our house.  Whose kid is this???  She was quite proud of herself.

 Ruthie and I love our mornings together while big sisters are at school.  I'm also loving all the space and light in this wonderful kitchen.  Put the two together and you can find Ruthie and Mommy working in the kitchen together on many a morning!

 Anna and Josie are wonderful kitchen helpers.  They're making Daddy's lunch in this photo.  Pancake sandwiches! (Daddy'O Update:  Mitch has 3 more weeks until he's done with his masters!!!  THEN we can truly celebrate!  But it still feels like a big push to get through these next 3 weeks.  Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, we need extra doses of patience and grace in this house.)

 Ruthie climbing the Russian Olive tree in our backyard while I'm hanging laundry.  It's hard to find a time when at least one of these girls is not in a tree.

 Last but not least, I thought I would share our most recent family photo.  It was actually taken in June on Father's Day. 

Climbing and Running

Ruthie and I went for a walk along the creek path this afternoon and ended up at the camel tree. You can't end up at the camel tree without climbing the camel tree.

Can you tell why we call it the camel tree?


It's a huge Cottonwood that's growing laying over on it side so it bumps up like a camel. It's branches stick straight up in the air. Perfect for a three year old to climb.

Higher than Mommy's head!

From her lookout in the crow's nest Captain Nancy Ruth of the pirate ship Amazon is watching for her sisters and Daddy to return along the creek path.

Pretty cute for a pirate, if you ask me.

Here they come! Anna, Josie and Daddy'O went out for a run.

Ruthie and I were the cheering squad.

Ever since Anna and Josie watched Uncle Chad and Daddy'O run in the Bolder Boulder last year they have wanted to run in it again this year themselves. They say they are training for it and keep talking us into taking them out for runs. They ran 1 and 3/4 miles on this run. The Bolder Boulder is a 10k, 6 miles. They've got a ways to go in their training if they truly want to do it this year, but the running has been fun and good for all of us in the meantime, whether or not they actually run in the Bolder Boulder. What do you say, Uncle Chad, are you coming out again this year to run with your nieces?

Celebrating Mitch

We sure do love this Daddy'O of ours.Josie had been making and collecting and wrapping gifts for him for at least a month and a half:
You are one well loved father.
I love the cries of "Daddy!" when you walk through the door each evening and Ruthie running as fast as her little legs will carry her to be swooped up in a hug by her Daddy'O.
I love when we meet up with you on the creek path as you're riding between work and classes and we're on our way to or from picking Anna up at school. I love how fast Josie's legs start spinning on her bike as soon as she catches a glimpse of you through the trees.
I love the laughter that fills our house as you chase three little girls around and tickle them to cries of "Don't tickle me!...Tickle me!...Don't tickle me!...Tickle me!"

I love the smile on your face that you always have for us, no matter how stressful your day has been or how tired you are because you were up late the previous night getting work done.

Celebrating Mitch means spending a day doing what he likes best. We got serenaded in the morning with guitar music. Some of us joined in:

We went for a family bike ride, Anna in the lead, then Mitch, Josie, and Ruthie and I bringing up the rear. Yes, I am taking pictures while riding:)

Birthday dessert was my own creation of berries, peaches, and thickened, sweetened cream all baked in the oven for a while per the birthday boy's request:

We love you, Mitch, and we loved celebrating you on your birthday!

Snowshoeing

This was a first for Anna and Josie, snowshoeing! We rented snowshoes for them and hit the trail. They had a blast.Anna during our lunch break:

Cool Jo:

Silly Ruthie on Mama's back:

We had the sled with us for whoever might need a break, we had no idea how the girls would do. Ruthie was the only one who took a turn in it today, the other two just wanted to keep snowshoeing. Here we are trekking down the trail:

Ruthie along for the ride:

Me!

This next picture was actually the next day, when we headed out first thing in the morning to get one more snowshoeing expedition in before we had to return the girls' snowshoes. Our favorite thing about this trail was all the animal tracks we saw, rabbit, squirrel, coyote (sometimes chasing the other two), and some mystery tracks (Josie swears they were skunk). Winter in Rocky Mountain National Park means all the animals are hiding, hibernating, or have headed down to lower elevations, so it was fun to see evidence that a few of them were still around.

Josie wanted to show you a video of how she hopped on her snowshoes:

What wintertime expedition is complete without a little hot chocolate afterwards to warm you up? The girls loved the snowshoeing and are ready to buy their own snowshoes so we can head out more often. Watch out, Grandpa and Nona, they're already working on their birthday and Christmas lists! You've trained them well. We ended up snowshoeing three times and I think they never would have stopped.

Grand Lake

Since this is Mitch's Spring break we are taking a little vacation to Grand Lake, CO. We rented a cabin for a couple of nights and are enjoying lots of family time and winter play up here in the mountains.

The girls brought their beads and string and settled into the cabin immediately stringing beads on their hide-a-bed.
But it wasn't long before we headed out to play!

The huge snow pile in front of our door was the first attraction.

Queen of the Mountain!

We made some stairs up it so even Ruthie could climb it (that's Josie in the picture).

Here are two little videos of the fun we had with that pile of snow!




There's a bench swing in the little courtyard outside our door.
Beautiful and relaxing for this mama.


More places these climbing girls found to play outside our cabin:

Three sisters sticking their tongues out at you swinging on the bench swing:

Dinner inside the cabin.

With a full kitchen stocked with pots and pans and utensils we are able to cook our own food while we're here. This kitchen is bigger than our kitchen at home! All right, that's not saying much, but it still is nice for us. We are enjoying our stay.


Today we took a little hike out to Adam's Falls at the eastern edge of Grand Lake.

Anna, leading the way, and Josie being pulled by her Daddy'O in the sled:

Josie was hiking until she fell through the snow up to her waist. The trail itself was packed, but you had to stay on it. If you stepped off onto the side, down you went. We have snowshoes, but didn't wear them, since the trail was packed enough.


At the end of the trail, at the lookout by the falls, Josie is waving goodbye in the traditional Miller way:)

Goodbye for now! We'll post more pictures of our adventures at Grand Lake soon!