Grandparent visit

The day after we moved Noah home (May 16), Nathan's parents arrived. They were able to watch Asher & Micah perform with the Karate West demo team that night, and then we all spent the weekend visiting and playing games. On Monday (May 20), John, Nancy, Noah and Micah went up to Estes Park for the week. 

The original plan had been for us all to go up, but Nathan had a big work thing at the start of the week that had him in Boulder pretty much all day except to sleep Monday thru Wednesday. And Asher's summer job started that Tuesday (and we still had some things to do to get ready for his Costa Rica trip). So, Noah & Micah got some quality time with grandparents...in the snow. Yup, in typical Colorado style, the end of May was quite chilly and wet, which nixed hiking and enjoying time outdoors in Estes. They managed to find a rock climbing gym and a bowling alley along with playing more games. And Nathan headed up and joined them all on Thursday. On Friday, the weather finally cleared and Nathan and the boys went on a hike to Alberta Falls...

Yes, there was snow along the hike, but they enjoyed the time outside. :) 

And then they all came back home for Memorial Day weekend and I made sure to get some group shots...

Look at what a difference ten years makes! 

This was taken back in August of 2009 in Steamboat Springs. They were so adorable and small!

And look how big they've gotten...

And I made sure to get one of Nathan with his parents, too...

And we played more games and did more visiting and John & Nancy got back on the road on Tuesday (May 28). (Our visit was in the middle of a big road trip traveling through national parks and seeing fishing friends.)

Since then, we've been adjusting to our new summer schedule...with Asher at work, karate and parkour, Micah at karate and rock climbing and prepping for CEC registration, Noah catching up on sleep and looking into possible summer jobs or research positions, Nathan working and me coordinating all that, reorganizing stuff at home and going to another CAP CAC (Climate Action Plan Community Advisory Committee) meeting. Whew.

Oops

Um, sorry. Looks like I've fallen behind. ;) I have two more posts I'll get to in a minute..but, first, here are some random pictures and notes...

Micah and Nathan made me some lumpia as a combination "end of school year, teacher appreciation" and Mother's Day gift...yum!! 

Now that school's done for the year, Micah's been keeping busy with rock climbing and karate. He's also taken the placement exam so that he can register for classes at CEC for the fall. (Meeting with his advisor will take place sometime this month.) 

Asher got me an inflatable costume for Mother's Day...(he picked it out, himself)...

Halloween is going to be terrific this year! ;) 

Asher started his summer internship a week after his classes finished and has been learning all about what it's like to put in an 8 hour day. (Given homeschooling and then the flexible nature of classes at CEC, he's never actually done that before, lol.) He seems to like the job just fine, though...he's just tired. :) (He starts work at 6am, gets home around 3pm and then has karate or parkour in the evening every night except Mondays.)

And here's a picture of Noah vacuuming his dorm room when we were moving him out...

He's finally unpacking his stuff today, though he's been home more than two weeks. :) 

And now I'll go get those next posts posted so you can see what else has been going on...

What's what

Sorry. I know I haven't been posting much. April and May are always busy. Here's a bit of what's what around here right now:

- Let's see. Micah has officially finished eighth grade, and I've officially finished homeschooling boys. We wrapped up our school year last week and both Asher & Micah will be at CEC starting in August. I've been selling off homeschooling supplies through our local homeschooling group. (Fortunately, I generally do some purging each year, so I don't have a huge backlog.) I've also, though, been keeping some of the supplies/curricula because I just can't seem to part with them or think I might still need them for reference, lol. It's a process. 

- Micah continues to love rock climbing (and is thrilled to be back to it after I imposed a break from it while he was wearing a walking boot due to a sprained foot)...is now scheduled for the steps needed to register for his high school classes this fall (and is looking forward to it!)...and had his follow up down at Children's Hospital at the start of the month. The doctor is sticking with her original diagnosis but is happy with how well we've been managing to abate the symptoms thus far through supplements and dietary changes. For now, we'll just continue to monitor the condition. 

- Asher has been busy. He's finishing finals right now (CEC's last day of school is Monday)...continues to train for his second degree black belt testing this summer...volunteered at Habitat for Humanity again with me last weekend (we learned how to install windows!)...has registered for his classes for fall (he's switching to full time at CEC so will have four college classes)...is getting ready for his Costa Rica school trip in June...and landed his first job! It's a paid summer internship at a local manufacturing company and he starts a week after his classes end. Whew. 

- Noah has final projects/papers this week and final exams next week. As a procrastination technique, he's also been teaching himself some Japanese, lol. After his finals are done, we'll be loading up his dorm room and moving him back home for the summer. It'll be a bit of an adjustment again to our grocery budget, lol, but we're looking forward to having him around. :) (He'll be back in the same-ish dorm next fall (different building but mostly everything else is the same).)

- Nathan is busy at work. He flew out to Florida earlier this week and has a full company gathering in a week or so (flying in all of their employees around the world to be in one place for the first time ever). When he manages a bit of time, he's been rock climbing with Micah a few times and is his annually unhappy self about allergy season, lol.

- As for me, I've been busy with all of the above...getting people to activities and appointments, going to various appointments and gatherings myself, finishing up the school year, being sore after boot camp, complaining about still needing to wear sweaters and boots (it's currently snowing...again), and all the normal things. :) (On the plus side, since I need to look for one regarding the weather, lol, all the stupid snow and rain means that we haven't yet had to turn on the sprinkler system. So that's something.)

And that's some of what's what around here lately. :) How's your spring going?

Friday FYI

Just a couple quick things...

First, this popped up in my email yesterday. I didn't do anything at all...it just showed up with a "here's what you missed" message and a number of collages it had put together. Google kinda creeps me out, lol. But. Just look at that face...

The picture on the left was taken just before the boy turned 2 (look at those cheeks!!), and the other was obviously recent. :)

Second, just so you know, I took this picture of the boy at his climbing class yesterday:

See where he's at there? That's an example of where he's been after me to drop from. For real. 

I *know* it's fine and safe and all. I watch the kid do it all the time. But. I'm a good bit older than him, right? It's perfectly reasonable not to want to drop. Yup. ;)

April (Snow) Showers

While I sit here watching our second "bomb cyclone" in a month or so, guess I'll catch up a bit on what we've been up to...(for those not here in Colorado, it was almost 80 degrees yesterday...which was when we got the blizzard warning for today, of course, lol)...

- At the end of March, Micah organized a demo team get together. The original plan was to go to the local trampoline place, but it was crazy busy so they all ended up next door at the new climbing gym and had a great time: 

What a terrific group of 12-16 year olds! 

- Speaking of karate, Asher's begun his training for second degree black belt! He started some extra lessons last month and has weekly training sessions and check ins from now until July. Then, he'll have a full week of testing in July...with the promotion at the end of July. (The evening training sessions were actually supposed to start tonight, but won't now due to the blizzard, lol.) 

- Micah continues to love his weekly climbing class and has been managing to get there an extra time each week either with friends or with us. This past weekend, he got Asher, Nathan and me to all join him and we had a grand time. I took a break at one point to remember to get a few pictures...

(Ham, lol.)

For having only climbed twice now, I think I'm getting the hang of it, lol. Micah would definitely tell you, though, that I need to work on dropping. (As you climb a bouldering route, you either need to "top out" and climb over the top of the route to come down a different way when that's available or down climb a little and then drop. I, um, hate to drop. ;) Apparently, I end up working a lot more than necessary because of this.)

- For those who are wondering, Micah's got a follow up appointment down at Children's Hospital scheduled for the start of May. He's been doing mostly better since his first appointment last month. After that appointment, we started him on some supplements and made some dietary changes which seem to be helping. His MRI, by the way, came back with no signs of arthritis in the sacroiliac joints or hips (yet?). So, that's what we know at this point. :) 

- This week, Asher's school doesn't have classes because of state testing. So, yesterday, we picked up Noah and grabbed lunch in Old Town before going to watch a movie. I made them take a picture with me before I bought them ice cream, lol.

- Later in the night, we all (including Nathan) went to the Lincoln Center to watch The Illusionists magic show. It was amazing!! Nathan even got selected to go up on stage at one point and help handcuff the magician lady. (I'm bummed I wasn't allowed to take any photos, lol. Nathan requested next time I book tickets to something like that I get them in the middle rather than along the aisle...as he wasn't thrilled to be picked, lol. But, as I pointed out to him, at least his role wasn't too involved like some of the others.) 

And now I'm off to play some games with my guys. I'm told that it's still snowing outside. Joy. ;P