October 2015: Rachel turns 5, pumpkins and Halloween

Highlights from October 2015

Rachel learns to get on and off her bike all by herself.  This means she is a totally independent bike rider!!  She has worked very hard on this (and we made it harder by buying a bike that was too big).  Super proud parents.

Grandma came out to visit for Rachel's 5th birthday.  She had a small party with friends at the pumpkin patch.  Then some local cousins hosted a larger party/family gathering fire pit night.  Grandma also got to see some fall colors in the mountains while she was here.

Jason continues to have fun coaching the Centaurus cross country team.

Rachel is doing an outstanding job learning to read.  It's the coolest thing as a parent to hear your child get words and recognize things.  We'll be driving along in the car and Rachel will read signs like 'Burger King' and then follow with some kind of question: "Is there really a king named Burger?"

Aunt Karen came out for Halloween.  We had a great time trick or treating!  We also showed Karen our condo in Breckenridge.  Rachel's favorite part of the visit was the special day Rachel and Karen had together all by themselves.  They went to the aquarium and children's museum in Denver and had lots of fun adventures together.  Thanks again, super aunt!!

Rachel is copying lots of pictures and writing around her. 

Jason joined Rachel's class field trip to the fire station.

Family gathering for a fire pit night.

The hot air balloons go right over our house most days May-Sept

Aunt Karen visits for Halloween

Grandma visited for Rachel's 5th birthday

Rachel is reading to Ava

I'm finally FIVE!!!

We grew 11 pumpkins in our garden

The biggest pumpkin from our garden

The girls created this front door welcome

August and September 2015

So it's been a while... mostly because I haven't been able to sort through new technology of phone updates and getting photos on to the computer.  But that is finally solved, so here we are.  Here's all the highlights of our fall, since our last blog update when we went to BC in August.

August/September highlights:
- having fun with our garden
- hiking Mt. Massive 14er and getting in some more segments of the Colorado Trail
- Rachel starting her year at Pioneer preschool
- camping with friends and hiking La Plata 14er and getting in another small section of the CO trail
- Jason coaching the Centaurus cross country team
- girls starting at a new bilingual in-home, small daycare
- fixing our condo in Breckenridge up and getting in a larger segment of the CO trail with friends
- Meggan busy with work as the clinical manager at Ability PT
- Rachel playing soccer, swimming, riding bike, and coloring
- Ava taking swim lessons, riding Strider bike, and talking a lot

passport photo

passport photo - don't smile!

Rachel took a few tumbles and got a few bruises on her head

La Plata summit, with smoke all around from wildfires

Preschool starts again!

Rachel runs her first 5km race

The size of the beans from our garden

Summit of La Plata (14er)