Catching Up

We've had fun the last couple of weekends, mostly consisting of great times shared with friends and family. The laughter, the conversation, the relaxation...lovely summer evenings.

For a few months this summer, all of the Duvalls are living in Colorado, so we finally found an evening that worked for all of our schedules and got together Saturday night (thanks to Whit's blog for the pics :) ).

This BBQ was also the inaugural get-together for our new chiminea. Andrew was soooo excited to get one! This is obviously the first summer for us in this house, so everytime a plant or flower blooms, it's like opening a little gift. I'd never seen a daylily this color before, so here's a moment of zen for you:

Weekend Projects

This weekend, we were a House o' Projects. It's kind of sick, but Andrew & I both really enjoy doing projects around the house. It feels so darn good when a project is done; it totally makes me enjoy that little part of the house or yard just a little bit more!

Andrew replaced the weather-stripping on the door between the house and the garage. The old weather-stripping had entirely ripped off except for about 3 inches, so you stepped on it everytime you used the door, plus it didn't do a whole lot towards insulating the house from the garage. The new weather-stripping is kind of thick, and it doesn't adjust up any higher, so you kind of have to put some umph in the door, but I tell you, there's no unauthorized air exchange going on under that sucker now!

On Friday, I saw a spot on the news about a product, Guard-n-Edge, that goes on top of the metal edging that's all over our yard. I refer to it as the "guillotine" edging because I know of so many people and pets that have injured themselves on that stuff. I've wanted to do something about the edging since moving in, and voila, here was a great solution! So we bought ourselves some Guard-n-Edge and we spent several hours Saturday installing it. I feel much better about the kids and dog running around the yard with the metal edges covered. Ooooh, edging....And the other project was this mound in the backyard. It was previously covered entirely with wood-chips, and as is wont to happen on a hill, the wood-chips just kept sliding down the hill into the grass and our neighbor's yard. So I raked the wood-chips up the hill and hauled rocks from other parts of the yard to cover the slopey parts, creating a little mulch-island around the trees and plants. And whoever landscaped the yard totally upsold the homeowners on rocks, they're about 8 inches thick in some places, so I easily found enough rocks in the other beds around the yard to do the project withouth leaving bare spots. The boys had a lot of fun helping with this project - not a lot of things they like better than hauling rocks in their dump-trucks and little John Deere wheelbarrow.

Welcome!

Welcome to the world, little George Graeson Beach (goes by Graeson). Andrew's sister had a successful c-section (Graeson was breach) this morning in Virginia. Graeson weighed in at 6 lbs, 14 oz, measured 18 1/4 inches long, and has red hair. Max & Ben are so excited to have a new baby boy cousin! (No pics yet.)

Yeah!

So here's Benjamin,

and you know why he's enjoying that cookie? Because today is the first day he has gone all day without having an accident!!

Glory be.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

Great Faces. Great Places. South Dakota.

I've figured out the campground's WiFi (yeah!) and thought I'd post some pics while the boys are napping. (I'm actually posting this a day later. The signal at the campground was too weak to upload pics, so I typed this Sunday at the campsite, but loaded pics at home on Monday.)

Let me first say this is the biggest KOA I've ever seen. It is much emptier now than it was earlier this weekend, but the campground manager said there were about 5,000 people camping here at its fullest on the 3rd and 4th.

There are about a gazillion little things to do around here. The boys picked Jewel Cave first, where we took a tour that lasted about an hour and twenty minutes through part of the cave. We bought them these cool National Park Passport books. Each National Park (or monument or historical site, etc) has a unique rubber stamp and date cancellation stamp that the boys can stamp their passport book with - just like the stamps you get in a real passport when you travel abroad. So as they grow up , they can collect stamps on our trips and have this cool souvenir from each place with the date they visited stamped in it!

On the 4th, we watched fireworks in the town of Custer.
The next day we headed to: It's this wildlife park that you drive through and see lots of wild animals up close from the safety of your car. Elk: Reindeer and babies: Bears, bears, and more bears: Bears in places you don't expect, like in a little cave right next to the truck: This morning we headed to Mt. Rushmore. Max getting sworn in as a Junior Park Ranger at Mt. Rushmore: Ben was in tears, ready for lunch, so he didn't participate in the swearing in ceremony, but he got a badge and certificate too.

We spent some time yesterday and plan to spend more time this afternoon at the campground; there's a pool, water-slide (which the boys LOVE!), putt-putt, etc. The campsite: Sacked out from fun: The weather's been great. Last night we got a good ol' thunderstorm in the middle of the night and it rained for a long time (brought back memories of the last time I was in Custer; that was the first time I'd really experienced thunderstorms), and I couldn't believe the boys slept through it. Another camper (from Minnesota) was shocked when we said this was a little more humid and buggy compared to what we're used to :). She couldn't imagine anything drier and more free of bugs...

On the camping front, we decided that from now on, we are using paper plates. It feels so wasteful, but I was walking back from the bathroom last night and saw another campsite where they were just pitching their paper plates in the fire after dinner...I was so jealous! And since we're burning them, it's not like we're making a bunch of trash. It was funny because Andrew brought up the paper plates thing after he hand-washed dishes for one meal. We both arrived at the same conclusion independently. Hmmm.

We are even bigger fans of cooking in foil pockets directly in the campfire after this trip. We tried a new recipe this way and loved it!

*If You Happen To Be Near Lusk, WY*: The rest area just west of Lusk is fabulous! Large playground with equipment for big kids and little kids, lots of grass, trees, shaded picnic areas, a couple of pet walk areas...very nice pit-stop.

(Added Monday night): Now, we are home after a thankfully safe and smooth trip. Dishwasher's running, laundry's going, truck's unloaded, and Andrew's out fetching a pizza. This evening's plan: looooong showers and baths for the kids. All in all, a really fun trip.

Happy 4th!

(a few days early)

Backyard Fun

Well after visiting Steve and Kate last month and seeing their awesome backyard pool, we decided to take the plunge too:

Admittedly, our pool is a just a little bit smaller in scale, but the kids think this pool is THE DEAL...looking forward to many fun summertime hours relaxing under the umbrella while the kiddos play!

Reunion Party

On Sunday we went to a backyard party at Carol's house. Lots of folks that I haven't seen for years were there. These are people that I used to go to church camp or youth conferences with, and I've known most of them since I was about 14 or 15 (almost as long as I've lived in Colorado). Most of us still live around Colorado (several of us even live in Parker but don't get together as often as we should; we are going to make a concerted effort to get at least the Parker crew together regularly), some live out of state. It was a fun reunion afternoon! Look at us and all our kids...unbelievable...the next generation.
(Also there but not in the picture: Carol (obviously); Holley and husband; Drew (showed up later); Sarah and boyfriend; Scott, Jane and Matthew. I think that's it, sorry if I'm forgetting anyone.)

Shout out

All right, I have to give a shout out to Kelsyus for a positive customer service experience. Holla!

Last summer, I picked up one of their portable hammocks on clearance at the Bed, Bath and Beyond in West Jordan, UT. Well, this summer, one of the black caps on the frame broke, rendering it unusable. On a whim, I found a customer service e-mail for them on-line and sent them an e-mail basically explaining the situation, that of course we don't still have a receipt, we've moved to another state, we never exceeded the weight limit, etc, and was there anyway we might be able to get a replacement part? (And this is to take nothing away from BB&B, I just tried Kelsyus first because it saved me a trip to the store.) Anyways, I figured this e-mail would basically go into a Customer Service Black Hole, but I'd at least give it a shot.

Lo and behold, less than 24 hours later, I had an e-mail stating that they'd send me a new hammock frame at no charge. So now the test was whether or not a hammock frame would actually show up or if they were just kind of placating me. Well, an entirely new hammock, frame and canvas, showed up on our porch yesterday! And it's a better model portable hammock too! So thanks, Kelsyus!

A Camping We Will Go

We had such a fun time on our first camping trip in the tent trailer this weekend! We went with two other families from church. It was nice to start out close to home before our longer trip over the 4th. We camped in a national forest campground called Kelsey Campground, in southwest Douglas County, near Deckers and Pine. The kids basically had a fabulously filthy time: What more could a kid ask for? The dudes: Andrew's first ever s'more in his life: Cooking breakfast:Rich and Sarah (Sarah's due Sept 15th with their second girl): Hiking: The kids (Ben, Megan, Max, Mason and Sophie):Hanging out:
Hope you all had a great weekend too! And Happy Father's Day to all the dads!

Pop-up!

Here's the one we bought, an '03 Coleman Bayside. We don't actually pick it up until next Saturday (they're running it through their shop to make sure everything works, etc), but we're excited for some good ol' family fun! (Do I sound like Clark Griswold or what?)

May - Where did it go?

Hey all! All right, so I realize that I tend to blog in spurts. I've kept up reading everyone else's blogs regularly, but not so much on the writing. Let's see...this month we wrapped up soccer and school for Maxwell - both of which he had a lot of fun with this year.

Last weekend we flew to PA for Mike (Andrew's brother) and Caitlin's wedding. Both of the boys were junior groomsmen. The whole trip, they were a little sleep deprived (getting up earlier on eastern time and getting short to no naps), so on the day of the wedding, we wanted to make sure they got an opportunity for a good nap so as to minimize the likelihood of terrorist-like behavior at the wedding. Well, you know what happens to the best-laid plans. On the day of the wedding, the boys bounced off the walls of the hotel room for about 3 hours, getting absolutely zero nap. By the time the wedding rolled around, Ben was just downright surly. When the florist pinned his boutonniere on, he immediately ripped the head off the rose and threw it on the ground. Ahhh well, we did the best we could. Max hung in there fine and was brave enough to walk down the aisle like he was supposed to. Ben and I just hung out at the back of the courtyard. I consider it a victory that he didn't scream or cry during the ceremony. (You'll notice in some of the pictures that we had to put Ben in his more comfy tennies as soon as the ceremony was over.) The wedding was lovely - held at Washington Crossing Historic Inn right along the Delaware River. The weather was as perfect as we've had back there...mid-seventies, sunny, and low humidity. We also had a couple of days to let the kids play together at their cousins' house in their awesome new pool. It was fun to have the whole Shier side of the family together and catch up.

The boys were excellent little travellers - now we are home and I think the boys have been catching up on their sleep all week...they're taking loooooong naps (which is why I'm blogging right now :) ).

Other tidbits:

We got our sod rolled out and are nursing it along with lots of water on our little backyard project.

We're headed to Mt. Rushmore for the 4th of July! We reserved a camp-site at one of the KOAs there that has a water-park and all kinds of fun stuff. We decided it'd be tons of fun to buy a pop-up tent trailer. Some of my most vivid memories ("I'll run the heater just enough to take the chill off;" that awesome thunderstorm in the middle of the night camping in Corpus Christi; being a bonafide Jr. Park Ranger at Custer State Park) are from camping trips and I can't wait to take my own kids! So we've been researching and shopping pop-ups - probably going to buy one this weekend.

And here are some other pics from earlier this month: