The last few days...

...have been full ones. ;) 

So. My lovely friend Molly got married last fall. (Woohoo!) They decided to celebrate, though, with a party this past Saturday (which was awesome...more on that in a minute). Given that, our mutual friend Sarah and her two girls came up from Texas for the party and stayed with us, and we all got together with yet another mutual friend, Melissa, and her three kids. (Melissa and her kids live here in Colorado.) We all went to undergrad together and have been friends ever since. ;)

Anyhow, Sarah & her girls arrived last Thursday. (The boys and I managed, therefore, to finish up the week's worth of schoolwork in the first three days of the week.) We picked them up at the airport, met up with everyone else, grabbed some lunch and then hit the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for an afternoon of exploration and (for the kiddos) getting reacquainted. As we were leaving, we made all eight kids line up by age and say "Noah, smile!"

(Hee hee. Yeah, Noah felt a bit out of place among the two almost eleven year olds, the almost nine year old, the three almost eight year olds and the almost seven year old. Yeah, they're also all summer birthdays except for Noah, lol.)

After that, we had dinner (with a surprise birthday serenade and cake for me!) and parted ways for the evening. 

Friday (my birthday) started out with just Sarah, her girls and us. We took them to the archery range for some shooting and had a grand time before getting lunch and meeting up with Melissa & her three kids at Fort Fun for a round of miniature golf (letting Noah be in charge of the "older boys" group and having us moms keep the younger four going, lol). I didn't take any pictures of miniature golf but got this one at Rocky Mountain Archery:

(See Noah in the background and Micah talking to Jane?) After Fort Fun, we headed for a local park with a water feature (after a quick detour for hydration, some changing of clothes and dropping Noah at home as he resolutely refused to get wet or enjoy a park, lol) where we spent a lovely afternoon chatting and letting the kids run and play. 

Saturday, then, was Molly & Mark's party. It was at an awesome party area inside of Golden Gate Canyon State Park and ran from about 2-9pm...with the limited close family and friends coming and going as worked for them. There was giant Jenga, where Noah beat Mark:

...and plenty of food...

(We made the kids (for the most part, lol) sit and eat before they could have cake or cupcakes or handmade chocolates or smores. Yes, I said handmade chocolates and smores. Dude. Yummy.)

...and there was plenty of playing...

(The girls were so delighted to have each other...and had become BFFs pretty much instantaneously, lol. Poor Abigail (in the middle) usually has to hang with her two brothers and my three boys when we get together.)

Speaking of boys...all five boys hung out with Nathan and tried their hands at horseshoes, volleyball, hiking, throwing things in the creek, tossing various balls and squidgies, and other boy type things.

Meanwhile, Melissa, myself, Molly & Sarah gabbed and posed with the photo booth goodies:

Yup. Good times!

Sunday, we headed up to Estes Park with Sarah and her girls, where we had lunch and rode the aerial tram up to feed peanuts to chipmunks. (Gorgeous day for it, though the chipmunks were more shy than in years past. Still. The kids had fun.) Then we washed the peanuts from our hands so as not to kill Melissa, lol, and met her and her kids at the giant slide nearby for a few turns at that. We then "hiked" around Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park (nice, easy and short walk considering the number of us, lol) and played another round of miniature golf before heading to dinner.

And, after dinner, we obviously had to get homemade ice cream:

And then we went home. :) 

Monday, Melissa & her kids had various summer camps starting so Sarah, her girls and the boys and I met up with Molly and Mark at their place. Molly, Sarah and I took the kids over to the neighborhood park for awhile, where we chatted. Mark and Noah happily stayed back and watched the Apple conference presentation thing. ;) (Mark, Noah is forever grateful to you, lol.) Then we all went to lunch before taking Sarah and the girls to the airport to bid them farewell. Sigh. :)

And now we're back to schoolwork and household chores...which aren't nearly as much fun. ;) (Have already been for a morning run, taken Asher to a demo team performance, done four or five loads of laundry, edited a number of pictures and done math, spelling, world history, science and guitar today...)

Here's hoping we can all get together again sooner rather than later...