Gavin's Kindergarden Graduation...

Oh, the pride a mama feels on these momentous occasions!  Given the emotion I felt on that day, I can only imagine how I'll feel during future graduations.  Gavin looked PRECIOUS during his Kindergarten graduation--so handsome and dignified in his pin-striped shirt and khakis.  And just look how proud he was of himself!

He received his diploma ;) from his wonderful Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Ryan.  It was so cute to watch each student walk across the stage to receive their diploma when their names were called.  (Evidently, this was something that the class practiced quite a bit beforehand.)

Oh, and I forgot about the belt!  I can't remember another single time in Gavin's history when he wore a belt.  Now that I'm writing this, I'm remembering that the whole thing--nice button-down shirt tucked in with a belt on--was pretty foreign to him, and he kept tugging at his pants or his shirt during the graduation. 

I think that Gavin's Kindergarten graduation had even more meaning for him because Daddy's Master's graduation had taken place only a few weeks earlier.  He kept telling me that he was getting to wear a "real" graduation cap, too.  It was fun to watch them share in these accomplishments together.

Afternoon Ride

One of the things I have enjoyed the most about finishing my MBA is having more time to ride this year.  I have enjoyed getting back into things and am constantly reminded how beautiful Colorado is.  This picture above was taken on one of my favorite rides at the base of Flagstaff mountain with my trusty Ipod camera.  It was an amazing day to get a three hour ride in.  I also was lucky to be able to ride the climb before closed shortly thereafter to cyclists for the remainder of the year as they try to repave the road after the destruction from last year's flood.

Colorado Springs - Part 3 of 3

Although not well documented by the pictures we had, we spent the night in a Marriot hotel.  I think it was the first hotel stay I have had with the little men, though I am not quite sure if Tara has stayed with them in a hotel before.  They were notably excited.  Our room had two Queen beds in a single room.  The first choice would have been a room with two separate sleeping rooms, but these were all booked for the night.  These guys slept fairly well, though once they go to bed it apparently is bed time for everybody because you are all in the same room.

We woke up in the morning and headed to a friend's house that lived on the North side of Colorado Springs for a big breakfast.  It was great to see them, but I guess I forgot to take any pictures of the adventure.  Following a few hours catching up there, we headed back to the South side of Colorado Springs to visit the Colorado Springs Zoo.  Tara has been there before, but I had not been.  The zoo is situated on the side of the mountain basically so it runs fairly up and down with quite a bit of hiking.  We took a ski lift to the top of the zoo and we found this Yurt that was complete with a climbing wall on the inside.  You can see Gavin knew exactly what to do with this area and wanted to have evidence of his success in reaching the top.

Gage also jumped on, but many of the hand holds were spaced fairly far apart and he had a bit more trouble making the transitions from one hold to another.  It started to sprinkle as we were up there, so we quickly headed back down the lift to start seeing some of the animals.

About the time we got down to the bottom, rain just started to pour down on us.  We had some rain jackets, umbrellas and ponchos, but they were no match for the amount of rain we were dealing with.  It also got quite windy and dropped about 20 degrees to make us chilly and wet.  We hid underneath the giraffe bungalow for a bit, but even the giraffe's seemed to be more interested in staying dry than eating.  It is amazing to be this close to these great animals.  Too bad they are stuck in a zoo, but we enjoyed seeing them and being able to pet them.

One last pictures of the patterns on this giraffe.  They appeared to be very healthy and had a steady stream of people buying some food to feed them.  Shortly after this we ran up the mountain a bit to some lion enclosures and tried to wait out the storm.  After another 30 minutes of continued rain we decided to call it a day.  We had only been there about an hour, but there was even more rain coming and lightning as well.  Tara decided she couldn't stand to only have that short of a visit to the zoo and worked her magic to get us a "rain check" to visit again.  I have to admit it was a fairly bold effort, but she got it done and the kids were able to go on a different day while I worked to have a full day there without the rain.

This was the last stop on our adventure for the weekend and we headed back home.  I think we all had a great time and hopefully it was the first of many longer trips and vacations we can take together.

Colorado Springs - Part 2 of 3

Further down the hike we found these rocks.  I can't remember the actual names, though each of the different formations had them, but it was a beautiful day and everyone seemed to be enjoying their time in the outdoors.

Some of these formations looked amazing, so I tried to get several pictures as backdrops.  Here are Tara, Gavin, and Gage in front of some pretty cool rocks.  I love the reds with the green moss mixed in and the texture of the sandstone behind them.

I also love this picture I got of Tara taking it all in.  You can also just barely make out Gavin in the background once again trying to climb anything and everything.

We stopped a park ranger to take a picture of the four of us together.  I am not quite sure what Gage is doing, but I assure you that he was having a good time.  The park ranger did notice the kids had some grass or flowers in their hands and reminded them that it would be best if we left it all in the ground so others could enjoy the same beautiful things that we have.  I think they took it to heart and we did a better job of not picking things for the remainder of the trip.

We completed the above loop and actually drove down the road a fair amount to a different section of the park.  We wanted to get to a place with a giant leaning rock.  Here you can see Gavin and Gage doing their best to hold up this giant rock to make sure it doesn't fall over.  This was our last stop at the park and we decided to head to the hotel to check in for the night.

Colorado Springs - Part 1 of 3

We have been wanting to take some trips as a family over the summer and we decided to head down to Colorado Springs for two days and one night.  The first activity that was planned was to spend the afternoon in the Garden of the Gods.  It is an amazing place with these gorgeous red rock formations to hike and walk around.

Although many of the rocks were fenced in and required permits and rock climbing equipment to climb on, they had several places that you could boulder around on or walk up on.  Gavin and Gage seized the first opportunity they could and jumped right on while putting their previous rock climbing class skills to work.

This was actually quick high and although it looked fun, it made me a bit nervous.  I, Brent, climbed up there to spot them a bit and make sure nobody actually fell.  They quickly found that getting down was quite a bit harder than climbing up, but after some coaching they were able to make it back down.  They likely would have stayed up there all afternoon if we had let them.

Here is Gage with me as he climbs down.  As you can see, he is quite happy.

Gavin was not satisfied with the normal bouldering rock that most of the kids were playing on so he had to locate one that was a bit more dangerous and high up to climb on.  Here he is on top of this rock and is actually is leaning across a bit of a gap to a different rock.  This made us quite nervous but we managed to move on without any falls. 

Yard Work

After the previous effort in the front yard, we attempted to regain control over the garden in the back which somewhat resembled a jungle due to the lack of attention we had been paying to it.  Tara and the boys helped clear some weeds and tried to find any flowers that were identifiable to put some mulch around.  Once again, they certainly love to get their hands dirty even when it means gardening and outdoor chores.

Masters Graduation at CCU

The graduation ceremony was held in this huge church sanctuary in Cherry Creek.  Tara, they boys, and the rest of the family sat up in the balcony seating so they could make a quick exit if the little men got a bit too wild.  It turned out to be quite a long ceremony that lasted around two and a half hours.  I believe this is a picture of me receiving my diploma as I walked across the stage.  Thankfully, the masters candidates were first, as the undergraduate names took almost an hour to get through later.  Soon after I was through, everyone departed to meet up later at Jackie's house for a post ceremony celebration.

Here are the cousins enjoying their meals at the party, although Sarah looks a bit hidden.

Later on, Gage decided to challenge Grandpa Bruce to a race around the house.  I think if you look closely you can see Gage coming in slightly before Grandpa and winning the race to claim the title!  He was definitely all smiles.

Masters Hooding Ceremony

After three long years, I am happy to say that I finally completed my MBA program!  There were many sacrifices along the way but I also learned an amazing amount and am happy that I went through the program.  There were two formal ceremonies for the graduation: a masters hooding ceremony and the formal graduation celebration.  The hooding ceremony was held the night before the graduation ceremony.  Several of my class mates from my cohort met before the ceremony to finally meet each other for the first time in person which was a great experience and time of sharing.  The above picture is right after I have been hooded.

This is a picture of my mom and Bob with me after the ceremony.  I was also thankful that my dad was able to fly in for the weekend to celebrate the graduation as well.

This is a picture of me with two of my classmates Stephanie and Eric.  We had a great time together before the ceremonies and I hope that we all can stay in touch and hang out a bit now that we have completed our program and seemed to connect fairly well.

Planting Flowers

After I (Brent) had finally finished my MBA, I was hoping to catch up on a bit of yard work.  I bought some mulch and a few new tools that I had either been missing or had previously broken and started to get to work.  While I was dealing with the front flower bed, these guys wanted to get to work on the flower bed that is right off of the front porch.  I guess in their mind it was an excuse to get dirty and play all at the same time.

In the end, these guys did an awesome job working as a team and did a fairly solid job of spreading out all the mulch themselves.  Nobody was even injured on the job which makes for a win all around.  I enjoy that they like to get involved in yard work and we all have fun while taking care of the outdoor house chores.

More U6 Soccer

Gavin also saw amazing growth within the Broomfield Soccer Club season.  Here he is running with the ball in pre-game warm ups.

He enjoyed being a part of the team and he just looks the part in all his gear doing team drills.

Gavin embraced the competitive part of the game and was always an active challenger when the time came.  Here he is working on stealing the ball.

After making a steal he often charged up the field to try to finish strong with a goal.  It was great to see him enjoy playing so much and seeing success on the field.  I (Brent) look forward to his next year in U7 when he gets to play on a slightly larger field and with an extra player on each side to add a bit more challenge to the equation.

More U4 Soccer

Gage continued to get more and more into soccer as the season progressed which was awesome to see.  Gavin usually helped Gage get ready for his games with some added soccer practice as witnessed above.  He always was a pretty good sport about taking it easy on the little man to make sure everyone was having fun.

Here is Gage working in a live game.  He is driving up the field with the ball looking for a score.  He really got pretty good at taking the ball and being more aggressive once he learned that it was alright to do that in the game.

His tongue always seemed to make an appearance during game time.

Here he is after scoring another goal.  He almost doesn't know what to do with himself after scoring.  He gets kind of shy and has this funny look in his face.  It was a joy to watch him develop so much and have so much fun during the season.