School's out- Summer's here!

School has been out for a week now and our summer is off to a busy start. We have already travelled to Indiana and will be on our way back home with 2/4 of our boys within 30-45 minutes or so.
Yes, summer is here and all the glory that comes with sibling rivalry and being together a bit too much. I am very glad that our summer is already planned out and we will be kept without too much room for the rivalry to take place.
I just hope that when school starts back up, our children will have had enough leisure time to realize their break was wonderful and not be full of wondering why they didn't get a break.
Yes, back to Colorado for Cameron's first year of overnight camping with the boy scouts. Caleb is now in cub scouts, and, as I am an assistant leader in the cub scouting program, he and I both have a fun few days of day camp coming up. Logan and Nathanael are staying at Gma and Gpa's house for another 10 days before I fly back to retrieve them.
Speaking of Logan, his 10th birthday was Wednesday, the third. We celebrated this morning with cake and his gift opening. I think I finally found a "toy" that will keep him entertained for a while, is constructive for him to work on his motor and reading skills, and holds his interest. It is the Leapfrog "TAG" reading pen with 3 of the books. I think it is beneficial so far in many ways and we can add to the collection of books for future gifting to him. Yah! Finding gifts to suit his special needs is always an interesting challenge, but I think I found a great gift for him this time! Grandma Sweezy gifted him a new Krazy Kar, Gma. Campbell a new keyboard, and Gma Friesen is going to give him money which I may ask Logan if he wants to use for a couple of new "Tag" reader books!
While we were at the Indianapolis Zoo yesterday (of all places to be when this occurred), Mike called and let me know that Hugo wasn't doing so well. He thinks he may have had a stroke. So, without wanting my mom to have to deal with his care over the weekend while Mike flew back out here and we are driving home, it was with a heavy heart that I gave Mike consent to have him euthanized before leaving for the airport last night. I didn't get to say my last goodbyes to Hugo, but he will be in my heart forever. I love you, Hugo! I can't wait to get on the road so that I can have a really good cry.
Mike is back from attending the memorial service of a friend of ours from church here in Greenwood. We visited him in the hospital after church last Sunday, and he passed away quietly on Tuesday morning. I loaded the van while Mike was at the service and we are about to hit the road. Until later...

Taking Our "Zooful" to the Zoo

On Friday, after Logan's Therapy, Serina & Michael and Jamie with Nicole, Alex & Ethan, met at our house for an outing to the zoo. Mike and I have also been shopping for a van as we are once again in the market. So Mike rented a full-size van for 24 hours that we used to take most of us to Denver. Jamie, her kids, my three youngest, and I piled into the van. Melanie, Serina, Cameron and Michael rode in Serina's car.
Overall it was a wonderful day. I must say the weather was practically perfect in every way for an outdoor excursion; not too hot or too cold. Most of the children did get hungry and a couple of mine got irritable and whiny. Did I say irritable? Maybe irritating (with the whining) would be more appropriate. To be fair, it was a later start than we had hoped for, we didn't want to spend zoo prices on food for that many, and it was way past lunch time by the time we got out of there. I also delayed the lunch by taking the time to apply for a family zoo membership. I am glad that I did so, though, because once the day's entrance fees were applied towards the membership fee, I ended up only having to pay an additional $31.00 for a family plus 1 annual membership. Woo Hoo!
And we got pictures of some real animals too! ;)









Okay, really, there were animals of the "other than human" variety too!























It was mostly a sleepy day for the animals!

The Ickies out- Into the World again; A Museum Outing

For the past two weeks, we have been battling some kind of a virus or strep throat in the house. I am hoping it is finally on it's last leg and on the way out of our home. Melanie (my MIL) arrived in Denver last Sunday evening and we didn't even get out of the house until Thursday.
On Thursday we took the kids to the Loveland Museum downtown. It was a very nice outing. There are childrens' art pieces from the R2-J school district on exhibit through the end of March. There is an area that describes beat farming and when the beat and sugar factories were in operation. Another section has a facsimile to the first jail room in Loveland and different stores, etc. set up how "it must have been back when".
There is an area upstairs with a topical map of Larimer County. There is another area upstairs dedicated to all the Miss Lovelands and the Valentine re-mailing program. They even have the stamps and scrap paper out to stamp the cancel verses from each year (unless they are missing) since the program started.
All four boys, Melanie, and I really enjoyed the time spent here.