New West Fest

So. Yesterday was the sixth year that at least one of my guys performed with the Karate West Demo Team at Fort Collins' New West Fest.

The team had a couple extra practices ahead of time (after we got back from our road trip) and were stoked to go. The weather, however, was not. Upon arriving, the event announced a severe weather delay and urged everyone to seek shelter. (It was starting to rain and there was lightning and thunder.)

Since a few years ago severe weather led to the cancellation of performances just after we'd started, we quickly nabbed a few group photos to at least prove that we'd been there:

(I don't know why Micah's making that face, lol.)

(This one's the final pose from one of their routines.)

...and then joined the crowds inside the library. :) 

Fortunately, within half an hour, the delay was lifted and the skies cleared. Woohoo for Colorado weather! Here's just a sampling of shots from the many routines they performed:

...Micah jumping to rejoin others...

...one of many instances where Micah and Asher "battle"--in this one, Micah got to "win"...

...and a crowd favorite routine called "Dueling Banjos"--here's Asher doing an aerial...

There were plenty of other shots, too. :) The point, though, is that they performed and enjoyed themselves.

Last few days...

Sunday, we got a slow start (after the very late night Saturday)...

We started out with just some visiting and saying goodbyes to Bekah, Mark, Alexis and Gram (who were headed back to Prosser). Joe, Bridget, Alice, Evan and Sam left early, so we'd said our goodbyes to them the night before. Grabbed some pics with Gram first...

We had some quiet time after that while Mom, Cade & Aidan went to the airport to pick up Quinn (who'd been in Colorado with Zach for the summer and would head back to Prosser with Mom). Then, Cas, Charlie, Nathan, Noah, Asher, Micah, Quinn, Cade & Aidan played some basketball (while Blaze & Case were napping). 

That was followed by boys doing yardwork (well...some did more than others, lol) while girls stayed inside and prepped food. And all of that was followed by some time at the play structure (for Case & Blaze) then a 2-on-2 "tournament." Gotta say...considering that none of mine have really ever played basketball before (and Cas, Charlie, Cade & Aidan play somewhat regularly), I think they did pretty darn well. :)

In the end, the team of Charlie and Micah emerged victorious (after I lent Micah my running shoes since he'd been trying to play in flip flops, lol).

Then we helped wrangle and bathe the little boys and said our goodbyes...heading back for our AirBNB for one last night. :)

Monday morning, we headed out of Spokane and to Lewis & Clark Caverns (about 5.5 hours of drive time, plus we lost an hour due to the time zone change). We managed to make the last tour of the day...

...and enjoyed the two hour experience before heading toward Bozeman, MT for the night. Found a delicious spot for dinner before crashing at our hotel.

Finally, on Tuesday, we drove the 9ish hours home. After 2793 miles, plenty of stops for bathrooms, gas, meals and snacks, Glacier National Park, Lewis & Clark Caverns and seeing lots of family...we made it home just after 9pm. Whew.

In Spokane...

So. Friday we woke up and headed the 25-30ish minutes to my sister's...which was the purpose of our road trip in the first place. As of August 15, it will have been ten years since my dad died (farming accident...he was 57 years old at the time). We all gathered together to celebrate his life and legacy. (Well, almost all of us. Zach and his family were missing.)

Friday was just a low-key hanging out day...

I have a lot more pictures...but these are Blaze and Asher playing...Cassy, Nathan and Joe watching/heckling Charlie hitting golf balls into the field...Nathan going down the makeshift slip n slide (not completely naked, as was Blaze's preferred method, lol)...and Micah photobombing my grandma (who turned 96 the week before and somehow managed to sleep in the house full of people).

Not pictured were the water fight (with Cassy's epic fall while trying to push me into the kiddie pool...ha!), kids jumping on the neighbor's trampoline, handing off the various toddlers and babies, and Bekah and her family arriving after dinner.

By the end of Friday, though, the haze/smoke had really rolled in and was making it unwise to be outside...especially for the little kids and Gram.

Saturday morning, we headed back to Cassy's for a quiet-ish morning and a day full of fabulous food--just as Dad would have wanted it. :) Joe, my favorite brother, lol, had made lumpia ahead of time and Micah helped him fry that up at lunch time. (It disappeared in a hurry!) Dinner was skewered bulgogi and chicken (and hot dogs and lots of other yummy things). And the night ended with baking kifle (Joe had prepared the dough the night before), which again disappeared pretty darn quick.

Beyond all the food, Cassy made us all do a relay/obstacle race...which included shooting hoops, shoveling and moving gravel (she was trying to get us to do some of her landscaping), running up and down a hill, going down the slip n slide and running through a gauntlet of spectators squirting water and pummeling people with balls. Afterwards, we all pretty much agreed that we should perhaps have listened to the air quality warnings and stayed inside, lol.

We also had a moment outside to release balloons and read a poem for Dad (one that Mom had read previously when we'd released balloons just after Dad's funeral). The poem went well...getting toddlers to release balloons didn't, lol. Let's just say that there was some trauma involved and not all of the balloons were released. :)

Again, I have a heap of pictures, but here is a sampling:

From the top left: Micah helping fry up lumpia (borrowing Cassy's apron, lol)...Charlie, Case, Nathan and Asher playing Pictionary (against Noah, Micah and me)...Asher helping Evan and Alice down to the basement...Cassy trying to get through the tunnel during the race and Charlie cheating by grabbing her shoe and throwing it into the field (couples went head to head--Nathan had a good lead thanks to Charlie's cheating but I made up ground)...Cade and Joe making kifle...most everyone outside for the balloon release...and Cade and I after finishing up most of the kifle.

Oh, and I remembered to get some group pictures:

Mom and Gram...

Me, Gram, Cassy, Bekah and Mom...I'm realizing now that we should have snagged the two granddaughters we had there to be in the picture also. :( Could have gotten four generations in the shot.

And, finally, a big group shot...

Not the best shot in the world...but it had us all in one place. ;) It's not easy with that many kids and just using my phone camera, lol. (And I'm sad that I missed pictures of just the kids and of me and Joe...but, again, it was next to impossible to get all the kids to cooperate at once, lol.)

Anyhow...after all the littles were in bed, we watched a video Dad had made years ago of the blood sausage making process...not good videography or subject matter at all, lol, but lovely to see and hear him.

And then we headed back to our AirBNB for the night... 

First few days...

So. Last Monday (7/31), we headed out on a summer road trip. We spent the first day just driving (and driving and driving) to Great Falls, Montana (about 10.5 hours of drive time, not counting stops). We stayed at a lovely hotel with heightist bathrooms (I literally couldn't reach the showerhead and had trouble reaching the towels and comfortably using the countertop)...it was well designed but I definitely don't see how kids could use that bathroom without a stool being provided, lol.

Anyhow. :) Tuesday, we drove from there to Glacier National Park and enjoyed the day driving through the park via the Going to the Sun Road.

We hiked from Sun Point past some falls that I can't remember the name of until we reached St Mary's Falls. (The top three pictures are along the hike. The bottom left is St Mary's Falls.) While we were there, people were jumping from the bridge into the freezing water below--it was pretty impressive and my guys were all sad that they hadn't brought suits and towels. I, personally, was fine with just watching, lol.

We continued our drive through the park, stopping at Logan's Pass and a couple of pull outs and at Lake McDonald (the two bottom right pictures). We ended up in Kalispell, MT that night for dinner and a hotel (with a normal bathroom and a decent breakfast the next morning).

The next day (Wednesday), we drove from Kalispell to Yakima (about 7 hours of drive time) to visit with Nathan's parents and take Nathan's grandma out to dinner and have a lovely visit with her. We neglected to take a picture during the daylight but did remember to get one:

Thursday morning I consented to run on a treadmill (instead of outside) given the poor air quality (wildfires in Canada, Idaho and Montana were causing a good bit of haze and smoke in Washington, Idaho and Montana) then we spent a quiet day just enjoying time with John & Nancy...going out to brunch to celebrate Nancy's birthday (a few days early) and playing games and seeing the house they're renovating/selling and taking pictures...

In that bottom left picture, Micah and Asher are making a grandpa sandwich and sporting their new Scottish hats that John & Nancy brought back from their recent trip there. The hats are both variations of the McLean family plaid (Nancy's maiden name is McLean). 

After dinner, we got back on the road and drove back from Yakima to Spokane (about 3.5 hours) where we found our AirBNB and crashed for the night.

More on the rest of our trip soon...

Steps!

While I'm working on getting unburied from laundry and photos from our trip (we just got back from a nine day road trip...more on that soon, hopefully!), I wanted to make sure not to forget to share photos of the steps that Noah finished just before we left!

They turned out really well! And now we can get out of the kitchen without risk of falling...yay!

It's so handy to have an engineering-minded son (and husband). :)