Sydney Fuller

I’m a Second Grader!

It’s that time of year again. No more sleeping in, swimming all day or just goofing off with your friends. Today Sydney heads back to school as a second grader. She once again has a really small class with only 12 of her best buds. So we expect another great year with tons of special attention from the teacher and lots of learning. I asked Syd what kids she wanted in her class again and she said, “I like everyone but I MUST have Madison with me.” Happy to say best buddy Madison will be partnering in crime with her again this year. Second grade focus seems to be on spelling and book reports, ugh! Her teacher, Mrs. Hoffman, is big on field trips so this year should be a blast.

Sydney got up early to her alarm and was dressed and ready to go all on her own. She was moaning over the last few days about going to school. But, this morning she couldn’t hide the excitement for school.

Oops, the crazies have set in already. Looks like we’re headed towards another year with “Silly Sydney” as her classmates call her. Hope Mrs. Hoffman can handle this…

Mommy is usually pretty excited about the kids heading back to school. But, no so much this year. I am losing my babysitters. Guess its time for Mom to get back to work too.

Long Lake

Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten a lot of family hikes in this summer. So today we had an open schedule and it was a perfect chance to drive up to Brainard Lake Recreation Area for an open ended hike. The parking lot was packed upon our arrival as expected so the majority of the start was walking down the road to get to the proper trails. However, once on the trail, they know how to find their way.

The girls enjoy being out and quickly find their groove. This mostly involves running 10 feet and finding the next cool tree, flower, rock, or sign. Sydney had her camera once again and made everyone pose by various natural features. When we would take a picture of her doing something, she would respond with, “Now take one with my camera!”. Not sure what she is going to do with all these pictures but she really enjoys taking them.

About 1/4 mile up the trail, Sydney made the first comment asking about how long this was going to be. I was waiting for the comment but figured I would at least get 1/2 mile in! Turns out she had a rock in her shoe and wondered if she should tough it out or not.

We made it over to Long Lake and Kayla started whimpering. When you just learned how to use your legs, I guess you aren’t much in the mood to be carried for too long.

I usually get in trouble for not taking pictures of the Mom with her girls. So I made sure to do this early so I wouldn’t forget!

So we setup camp next to the lake and ate our picnic lunch. It was nice and cool at 10,500 feet and the breeze came and went. The girls and I jumped around on the rocks, which is a common pastime for us at any destination.

Baby hung out on the blanket and got into everything we left. At one point, she stood up without leaning on anything and took a step. Unfortunately, it was onto a rock and she fell but that seemed like the first sign that walking is coming. Soon.

Wyatt got hot and hid in the shade.

He was flying earlier so he might have been tired.

After about an hour of sun and fun, we packed back up and headed back towards where we came from. Sydney spotted a “rock garden” down the trail so we took a detour for some more climbing.

On the return trip, Reagan started dragging a bit but once she realized that I had Kayla on me and didn’t have room, she gave up and decided it was time to trail run. About dying to running in seconds….acting! So Kim fired up the video camera to get some footage of these runners-in-training.

Hopefully, more hikes to come in the future!

View a slide show of this event.

Water World

Summer is almost over!

Chores

Random Ice Cream Video

Babysitting the Sandoval Kids

Our friends approached us last week about possibly babysitting their two kids for 4 days while they got away to Vegas. To be truthful, I was a bit nervous about doing this. But the more we thought about it the more we were sure it was the right thing to do. Everyone needs time away. So we agreed. Just two days later Brandon finds out that he will need to fly to California during the first two days we had the kids. Ok, a little more nervous now. But I can do this. I planned out activities for each day to keep the kids occupied. Happy to say we made it through the week fine. No incidents. All kids left still friends.

My kids were already enrolled in the Sunflower Farm summer camp for this week. So we all decided it best if Madison and Ale attended the camp as well. It was their first summer camp so they were really excited. And my kids were super excited to have friends with them in camp.

Here is Sydney, Madison, Ale and Reagan on the last day of camp.

Each day they would tell me all about their adventures. How they would play in the water. Feed the animals. Have mud and shaving cream fights. Happy to say they all really enjoyed themselves. Here they are in front of the silo. It was filled with dried corn for the kids to romp around in.

They all took turns posing with their favorite lunch buddy the turtle.

And then the goats.

And one more group shot.

We also got the kids a bunch of silly bands to trade. It took them a good hour to decide who got which bands.

We also made a trip out to the theater. Always a good way to quiet the kids down and relax. Can you guess what movie they picked?

We lined the kids up in sleeping bags in the basement. Then we would unwind each night with a movie on the big screen and popcorn. The time not spent in camp or eating was spent in the pool. Madison and Ale went home about an hour ago. I think everyone in this house and theirs is gonna sleep good tonight.

Rope World

Reagan got invited on a play date with her pal Grady this week. We were meeting up at a place called Rope World. I had never heard of this place but the name alone sounded cool. Turns out it is held at one of the local elementary schools. The now retired gym teacher had come up with the idea to turn the entire gymnasium into a rope inspired obstacle course of sorts. It turned out to be really cool and very creative. What a great idea! Reagan and Grady were kind enough to let Sydney tag along. Being the monkey that she is she was climbing all over the place. Thanks for the invite, Grady!

Longmont Humane Society Summer Camp

This week Sydney had her first summer camp at the Longmont Humane Society. I’m sure many of you think her Mommy made her go to this camp. But, she picked it out all on her own. I think her Mommy’s love of pets might be starting to rub off on her. I’d have to say I was a bit jealous dropping her off.

She would spend her days walking dogs, playing with kittens and bunnies, and learning about pet care and overpopulation. During the week the kids were given chances to observe many animals and pick their sponsored animal by the end of the week. On the last day they would create a plaque to affix to the animals cage to help it get adopted. Sydney picked “Happy” for her dog. Luckily as we were walking through we spotted Happy going out for his walk so we grabbed a quick photo.

Here is the plaque Syd made for Happy. I have a feeling he’ll find his forever home soon.

Leadville Camping with the Sandovals

Brandon was hoping to get some more high altitude running in this summer before his big race. So I thought it would be a fun idea to invite our friends the Sandovals up to Leadville for a weekend camping trip to Silver Dollar. They had never been camping as a family before so we thought we’d show them how its done Fuller style. Which means you throw everything you can fit into your truck and camp with a few little luxuries. Here is our setup.

I’ll let Mr. Wyatt show you the tent set-up.

We had two huge side by side campsites reserved so we were able to set up camp pretty much wherever we wanted. We also brought along our little play tent to help keep the kids entertained. Daddy hates kids playing in his tent so we were hoping this would keep everyone happy.

After a bit we realized it was best to keep Kayla confined to either a tent or playpen to play. She was putting everything she could find in her mouth. And it was all pretty dirty. Sydney often volunteered to play with her baby sister. She would run around the tent and do something silly at the windows to make Kayla laugh. Kayla thought it was hilarious.

Sydney decided it would be fun to set up a kids only fire ring. So she and her friends went scavenging around our campsite looking for any suitable rocks. Reagan then decided that you can’t have a ring without logs. So they went off once again to gather any pinecones and small sticks they could find. I’d have to say they did an awesome job building their ring. All the parents were impressed.

The first night we cooked quesadillas camp-style. Then poor Miss Sheri made some campfire popcorn for everyone. I think she was crouched at the fire for a good ten minutes shaking the popcorn tin.

The next morning we decided to spend a few hours over at Turquoise Lake. We found a small little bay and set up a temporary camp with food and blankets. The kids ran around in the water for several hours and had a blast.

They could often be seen off to the side scavenging for large logs to throw in the lake.

And of course silliness was ever present.

Here’s a group picture of the gang.

When they had nothing better to do they played dress-up with Mr. Wyatt. I think he liked the bling.

When we had enough of the lake we grabbed a quick shower at the rec center and then made a quick walk of the small downtown area. The kids were hungry so we grabbed some pizzas at High Mountain Pies so the kids could play while waiting for the food. We made it back in time for s’mores before getting to bed a bit earlier.

Another great summer weekend!

A final group shot. Kayla was once again asleep in the truck ready to go.

Summer Visit to Fort Wayne

On Monday we said goodbye to the lake and made the short drive back to Fort Wayne. The girls were so excited to be able to see Grandma Hakes’ new house for the first time. So we made that our first stop. They loved her new place. Especially the garden in the backyard and the fact that they had their own room. We went swimming in her pool and got in lots of play time with Christian and Jonny. I did take more pictures while in Fort Wayne but when we got home they were gone. There was an error about them being in an incompatible format and then I think they got erased. Sad but nothing we can do.

The girls were also talking a lot about sleeping at Grandma and Grandpa Coburn’s house but his air conditioner had broken. We were in the middle of a Fort Wayne heat wave so we all decided that would not be the best idea. So we made plans to get together later when it cooled down. Then a few days later Papa ended up in the hospital for a brief stay. We would drop in to visit but hospitals and kids don’t mix too well. Luckily he was doing better so we were able to get the whole family together for a get together before we left. Once again no photos turned out which was a bummer.

We then found out that Uncle Ben and Aunt Sara were coming up for a sleepover at Grandma’s house. The girls were so excited to see their baby cousins Madison and Sophie. So for an added adventure we all got together for a trip to the zoo. These are pretty much the only pictures that turned out so at least we have something.

The zoo had just revamped their big African Velt area so we headed there first. They added a walkway with lions and other new animals. It was an extremely hot day so we zipped through anything unshaded. Towards the end there was a new giraffe feeding station. The girls bought greens and the giraffes would come over and eat them out of their hands. Very cool.

The giraffes had a brand new addition to their family. I think she was only about 6 weeks old at the time.

Here is a group shot of all the younger cousins. I think Ed and Ryan thought they were too big for the zoo. But, we did manage to bring Ryan’s wife, Lauren.

One more group photo, minus Sophie, who was getting tired.

There were overlooks along the way. You could see water buffalo, zebra and other African grazers down below.

They also had a music station where the kids could try out some African drums.

Next we went over to the Australian Velt where they have a water fountain for the kids to cool off. It is always a hit with the kiddos.

Soon after these photos a huge rain storm came in and we all made a dash for the car. However we did manage to get one train ride in for the little ones. It was fun to see everyone once again. It always feels rushed and you leave feeling like it wasn’t enough time. But that just means they need to come visit us more. Any takers?