Titanic

We were watching Titanic tonight. When it got to the part where the back of the ship was upright, floating in the water, getting ready to make its final plunge into the North Atlantic, Kaitlyn said:

"That does not look like a very safe ship!"

Ah, the wisdom of youth. . .

Vacation 2010: Day 1

This was our first family vacation in a couple of years. As excited as we were to get going, we still managed to leave about 3 hours later than we had planned--par for the course for the Parrs! We headed out highway 24 from Colorado Springs into the mountains. We passed Mount Massive and Mount Elbert, the 2 highest peaks in Colorado. The pictures below are of our stop at the top of Independence pass, the highest pass in Colorado. And I was not the only one white-knuckling it up that steep highway!

We got into Glenwood Springs that evening and checked into our hotel. After dinner, we all went down to the indoor pool (which was actually in the sister hotel next-door). We started in and about froze! It wasn't heated at all and none of us could stand to stay in it for very long (I admit it, I was the first one to bail to the hot tub). Then off to bed--we had an early morning planned and wanted to get a good night's rest!

Castlewood Canyon

Hike number 2 this summer was a test. For our vacation, Doug and I were hoping to take the kids hiking at the Maroon Bells near Aspen, Colorado. But we weren't sure if Lindsay and Kaitlyn would be up to the task. So, when my friend Rachael invited us to join her and her family on a hike through Castlewood Canyon near Castle Rock, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to let the girls practice and see if they could handle something a bit more ambitious a few weeks later.

Jessica wasn't with us, she went ice skating with another friend that afternoon, but the rest of us had a great time! Lindsay and Kaitlyn loved splashing around in the little waterfall and Stephen had fun scrambling on the boulders and discovering caves with the Aragon boys. Another great summer adventure!

Doug Goes To England

This June, Doug took his first business trip for Honeywell, the company he now works for. After a couple of days in New Hampshire, the trip took him across the pond to England for 5 days. Because he was there over a weekend, he had a bit of time for sight seeing and saw some of London and some of the countryside in Southern England. His favorite part was getting his pocket picked in London on his first day in the country. Yeah! We had quite an ordeal cancelling credit cards and getting replacements for him as well as getting him some emergency cash for the rest of the trip! Next time I need to go with him to keep him safe!

Here he is in Portsmouth on Spinnaker Tower. He is 170 meters in the air (that's about 500 plus feet for us Yanks) on a glass (yes, glass) floor! He said it was pretty freaky. I think I will skip that adventure when I go with him!


Still in Portsmouth, at the Victory--a centuries-old ship that he toured.

Stonehenge!!

The Tower Bridge in London. This goes to the Tower of London, the famous fortress where Anne Bolyn was executed. Also, the famous fortress where Doug got his pocket picked!

Needless to say, Doug has mixed feelings about this trip. But, I look forward to going with him someday and changing his mind about the Land of Eng. . .

Tke me out to the ball game. . .

Here is Stephen's first hit of the season. He's turning into a pretty good left-handed first baseman and should be a pretty solid power-hitter if he keeps it up--just like Grandpa Smith!

Recital

Stephen and Jessica had a piano and voice recital on June 5th. They have both been taking lessons from their Aunt Janet. They are having a lot of fun with it.

They both did a great job. The video here is not great. Kaitlyn kept pulling on my arm and trying to climb on my lap while I was trying to record. But the audio is good (except for the so-so microphone they used), which is what really matters anyway! Jessica had 2 voice pieces and 2 piano pieces. Stephen had 1 piano piece.

Kaitlyn makes me laugh

Kaitlyn: "Girls are pretty. Boys are lame."
Mommy:"What does lame mean, Bug?"
Kaitlyn: "It means horrible. But not you Daddy, you're not lame."
Daddy: "Well, that's good to know. Thanks, Kaitlyn. What about Stephen?"
Kaitlyn: "No, he's lame."

As funny as what she said was the way she said it. She just makes us laugh!!

. . . Summer

With just 9 weeks of summer break, it seems to just fly by too fast. Every year I have these grand plans of all of the fun things I'm going to do with my kids while I have them home: trips to the zoo and museums, weekly library visits, lots of reading and gardening and making crafts together--you get the idea. But every year I also have this list of things that have to be accomplished before the fun can begin. Things like organizing my file cabinet, painting the bathrooms and cleaning up the basement. And, every year, the list never gets done, the fun never starts and my kids spend most of their summer playing video games (at least Stephen does!).

Well, this year I've decided to take a different approach. I decided to set the fun in stone and fit the list in around the edges. Week one is over and we did pretty well! Doug and Stephen and Jessica went fishing, I signed the kids up for the library summer reading program (and they are furiously filling in their "water drops" on the tracking form) and on Friday we went for a hike!

I did learn a few things from this first summer hike:

1. When the high is forcast to be 90 degrees, 10:00 am is too late to get started on the hike.
2. Plan to bring at least 1 liter of water per person (Jess and I both ran out).
3. Plan to carry Kaitlyn's water.
4. Plan to carry Kaitlyn at least 1/2 way on the way back to the car.
5. Prince may be 13 (pretty old for a dog), but he's still not to old for a 2 mile hike!

As we were heading out the door in our walking shoes with water bottles in hand, Prince suddenly stood in front of us and would not stop barking. When Stephen finally said "you want to go for a walk?" he stopped barking and jumped into the air several times as if to say "yes! yes! you guessed it!" He was not so thrilled when he found out that he had to get in the car before we could go on the walk (he hates the car!).

We went up north to Fox Run Regional Park and took the trail from the trail head down to the twin lakes. It was really beautiful and not too difficult for the little ones, for the most part. But it got really hot and I had to keep reminding Lindsay to take drinks of water. Her little cheeks got so red! So here are some photos from our little trek.

Here we are starting out. Everyone was really excited and full of energy. Kaitlyn was literally running down the trail!

By the time we got to the lakes, Prince just waded right into the water and started lapping it up. It was really funny. He didn't seem to want to get out and went right back in anytime we got close to it!

Lindsay and Kaitlyn posing by the water

All of the kids together by the lakes--such cute kids I have!

This is Kaitlyn shortly before we headed back up the trail

And this is Kaitlyn after we started back up the trail! She just begged me and begged me to carry her. At one point she was crying so loudly that I told her if she didn't calm down that a bear was going to come and eat us (great parenting skills, huh?). That seemed to help for a little while. But eventually I had to bite the bullet and carry her for quite a while. Stephen and I took turns with her on our shoulders. She was happy then.

This is the crew at the end of the adventure. By this time it was noon and really hot, but they were real troopers and in pretty good spirits still. They were even asking if we can do this again every week this summer (provided we go earlier in the day!). I guess it was a success!

Hopefully I can stick to my resolution and post a bunch more fun things that we do this summer--and maybe post about some things I've accomplished on my list too! Wish me luck. . .