Gavin's Sweet Tomato Drawing

Tara, Gavin, and Gage love Sweet Tomato.  It's a restaurant that reminds us all of the old Boulder Salad Company.  It has a large extended salad bar and then has another section that has pizza, pasta, soup, and of course a soft serve ice cream machine.  It's not my (Brent's) favorite, so I let these guys mostly go when I am out of town or somewhere else.  They neat thing is that they do have a drawing contest for kids at the restaurant.  Each month they select a drawing for each age group to win a free meal and Gavin won!  He was absolutely psyched.  He is pointing to his picture in the top right corner.  We have loved that Gavin enjoys coloring and drawing so much.  He is really getting quite good at it and is a great low-key activity for him in quiet times or just when he needs a break.

Estes Park (Part 3 of 3)

There is a little miniature golf course up there, too, and I remembered from last time how much the kids like to play there.

A little snow on the course never hurt anyone.

Again, not my best selfies, if there is such a thing, but the pictures remind me of the fun we had up there together, and I'm so grateful for that.

We'll just play like this photo is intentionally artistic.  See how only one of Gage's eyes is present and accounted for and how the sun is reflecting off of my hair while my other son's reflection is caught in the lens of my glasses?!  Not bad...

Estes Park (Part 2 of 3)

No mountain adventure is complete with Gavin and Gage unless some mountain (or at least some very tall rock) has been conquered.

It's fun to watch them climb and have these dare-devil adventures together, and the truth is that I long ago lost most of the terrified feelings you might expect from a parent when you see the stuff they pull.  Admittedly, the danger in this is that I often join them in their feelings of invincibility, and that's a more recent fear of mine.  Just because they're great climbers doesn't mean that they're invincible, and I do need to remember that from time to time.

A new discovery this trip was the beautiful, recently re-finished gym up at the YMCA, and the height of the basketball hoops didn't slow the boys down much at all.

We were joined--on nights #2 & #3--by one of Gage's best buddies, Dylan, and his older brother, Logan, and their mom, Brooke.  Dylan is the little blonde in the back of Gavin in the picture above.  Playing together on the courts is one of my favorite memories of time spent with Dylan's family.  The kids found an older boy practicing (a really talented basketball player), and sometimes they just sat on their balls to watch him. 

Brooke took this picture of us in Sweet Memorial, the central cabin where nature classes are held, questions are answered and people can sign up for fun things.  The boys especially enjoy looking at the stuffed animals, like the buffalo on the wall behind us.  

Estes Park (Part 1 of 3)

Some memories live in the hearts of the participants forever, and the memories that the boys and I have from our two trips up to Estes Park are some of those.  This time (another buy-two-nights-and-get-the-third-one-free deal) I rented us a proper cabin, and it was great!  The boys had their own room with bunk beds and a single bed, I had my own room (usually occupied by one of the boys at some point during the night, unfortunately), we had our own kitchen and then we had this great living space, which is where the above picture was taken.  I roped my dear friend, Amanda, into coming up for one night, and she brought her sweet daughter, Avenly, who is only a few months older than Gage.  I think the kids were watching Frozen when I took that picture, and the title just about sums about their posture while they watched before and after the meal we shared on our first night up there together.  The power of the screen never ceases to amaze me.

I'm not sure I'm in love with this selfie, but I love the memory of being up in the mountains with Amanda and our kids for a night.

Among the many amenities on the YMCA property, there is a ghetto roller rink with equally ghetto skates that, well, get the job done.  Gage and Avenly were more patient with this whole deal and didn't seem to expect instant mastery the way my eldest did.  It's easy to see the differences in children's demeanor when you take them to do something new and different.

Gavin felt so proud of himself if he got a few skates in before falling, and I was just proud of him for being patient with himself during those moments, which were few and far between.  What's interesting about him is that when I asked him if he wanted to quit (glad he tried but we weren't going to be entering the YMCA roller derby or anything), he was determined to experience some/more success before tossing in the towel, which is both admirable and exhausting as a parent, isn't it?  Sometimes it's hard to know how hard (if at all) to push your child or even to let him push himself. 

Soccer in the arctic tundra of Broomfield...

I guess the title of this one just about says it all.  There were several downright cold games during this spring soccer season, and we soon learned to wear lots of layers and bring lots of blankets to stay warm on the side lines.  We had to layer Gage up like a little marshmallow man, too, especially since he hardly moved on the field at first. It's so fun now to look back on his progress through that relatively short season.  He tells everyone that he made seven goals in his last game.  We were so proud of him!

Grandpa Bruce Visits!

The boys always love when Grandpa Bruce is able to make it to Colorado for a visit.  Here they are having some breakfast together at our house.  They keep him pretty busy with building legos, wrestling, and playing outside.  One of these days we will finally make the journey out to the east coast to visit Grandpa Bruce at his house and perhaps head to the beach.

Broomfield Soccer Club (Gavin)

Gavin really likes soccer!  I was really thrilled that he liked the outdoor stuff right away, considering that he hadn't really missed it when I asked him about playing more soccer in Boulder. 

The cold didn't bother Gavin, though in Gage's defense I will add that most of Gavin's games were later in the day when it had warmed up a bit in most cases.  An extra bonus for Gavin was that he had a classmate, Tommie, on his team.  Gavin was like the MVP on The Fire Dragons, and he quickly got used to the pattern of scoring and then immediately being asked to sit out for a bit to allow his teammates to score, too.  (I'm sure that there are technical terms for this, so I'm probably butchering this with my descriptions.  This is what we get for letting the less sports-minded person write the soccer entries.)

The grandparents were faithful attendees of the soccer games, even in frightfully cold conditions.  Here Pam ("Grandma Mike") is holding Gage to keep him warm, and Bob ("Grandpa Mike") is sitting behind them. 

Broomfield Soccer Club (Gage)

This was our first year to participate in the Broomfield Soccer Club, and now we're converts.  For so long we were driving to Boulder, which gave the boys a great soccer foundation, but it's so nice to have a great outdoor program just minutes from our house. 

Gage took a while to warm up this season, quite literally.  The poor guy froze for the first several games, which didn't really help him in his apprehension about the whole set-up.  Sometimes he just stood on the field like a popsicle, and we questioned if he remembered the objectives of the game.

It really was quite cold during several of the spring soccer games, and I'm sure that the temperature wasn't helping Gage's enthusiasm about the game. 

In these beginning games, Gage barely touched the ball, let alone made any goals.  Later on, we also realized that he was too sweet and polite to ever imagine taking the ball away from somebody else in order to make a goal for his team.  We've got him all squared away now, and he really grew in his skills and level of participation as the spring season progressed.