Summer Daze

Summer vacation has officially begun! We went from winter to summer weather overnight. Purple iris stand gloriously out front and the smell of freshly-cut grass reminds us how much we really enjoy summer and persevere through the winter. We planted a garden and have already been consuming red leaf lettuce and our beans, cucumbers, bell peppers, and carrots have all sprouted.

Our summer routine isn't as much a routine as it is a smattering of fun. We've had friends over for barbeques, gone on bike rides and hikes, and spent several days at the pool. Mara does swim team in the early mornings and has added softball and Writing Club (by a teacher from Chipeta with a nice group of girls). Tonight brings her first softball game. I was asked to play catcher at batting practice last week. Took me several pitches to finally track the ball with that cumbersome mask on. Three days later I was still sore from squatting for 200+ pitches. Mental note: Avoid catching.

Grace is in the middle of two awesome camps. She is doing the west side soccer camp and has sore Achilles to show for it. She's not competitive at all. Did I mention there's four girls and 20 boys? She works her tail off. Nighttime finds her at a volleyball camp at Colorado College. Separated into nine age-appropriate groups, they rotate skills stations for three hours. I was so impressed by it all that Mara will go to the July camp.

Ian stays busy keeping up with everyone else's schedule. In the meantime, he has masterminded an irrigation ditch than runs under the trampoline to the fenceline complete with meandering path and bridges. A little boy's heaven. He will do swimming lessons in July.

Doug is in Dolores, CO today trying to secure a master plan for a school district. Dolores is not a straight shot - took him nine hours to get there! He hopes to return late tonight. Last week he was finishing up on a deadline so the kids and I went camping at the Crags (just 34 miles from doorstep to camp site) on the back side of Pikes Peak. We hiked partway to the Crags the first day and the second day we went up toward the Devil's Playground (a rock formation). The kids love to hike and Ian and Jack were our leaders. My friends think I'm crazy for camping with the kiddos alone. The girls have camped enough that they can nearly pitch the tent themselves. Their favorite part (besides Smores) is unrolling their sleeping bags and giggling in the tent. Ian fell into Four Mile Creek just once. Digger fell in and Ian tipped in going after him. Ian claims he had to hug a tree until Mara rescued him but that's the embellished version. More accurately, Mara drug Ian out while Grace and I rescued the beloved digger.

Time to discover parts for the evening's activities.