Eli's 9th Birthday

I can't believe I have a 9 year old!  Eli had a nice birthday.  The day before we had family dinner at Tony's house and sung to Eli and Ivaras together.

On Monday, his actual birthday, we went to McDonald's after school for ice cream and to play in the play place for a while.  Then we had a movie night with pizza (his choice).   We gave him a set of scriptures and a skateboard.  

The Saturday after his birthday, he had a friend party with Anthony, Alex, Diego, Ivaras, and Rocky at a nerf gun play place.  They had fun.  Then we came home and had pizza and brownies and ice cream.  

Happy Birthday Eli!  

Preschool

Ruby started preschool last week.  She attends Stedman Elementary and is in Ms. Grimes ECE 3/4 afternoon class.  She loved her first week (and so did I).  Its' so nice to have some alone time!  She already told me she learned that "zero is a special number; it means you have nothing".  She also told me about how bees like flowers and that the rules in her classroom are: "to keep yourself safe, keep your friends safe, and your things safe".  Sounds good to me.  I'm excited for everything else she will learn this year!

She already got to go on a fieldtrip!  They went to Anderson Farms and got to pick a pumpkin.  I also went.  She rode on the school bus and I rode in another mom's car.  It was a pretty cold day.  We had a good time.

on the bus with her friend, Luke.  He is in the morning class and we know him from church.  

porch picture, (3rd day of school).  

Yellowstone

We took a family vacation to Yellowstone.  It was our first time taking such a long road trip and our first time camping for more than a night.  I would call it a success.  The kids did great on the road and we only stopped for gas and food.  We have a DVD player in the van so they got to watch lots of movies!  We drove nearly 1300 miles during the entire trip.

 We saw a lot of Bison- one was right by our campsite!

 Old Faithful Geyser

 mudpots  I remember going to Yellowstone as a kid and one of the couple of things I remember is the smell or the mudpots.

 We cooked our food on a little camping stove.  It worked just fine.  For breakfast we had pancakes, omeletes, oatmeal, cereal, and fruit.  For lunch and dinners we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hotdogs, chicken tacos, and taco salad.  We only ate at a restaurant once in Yellowstone.  

 Here is Diego holding a mold of a bear claw.  We couldn't believe how big it was!  We never did see any bears.

One day we rented a boat and went out on Yellowstone Lake.  It was fun and each of the kids took a turn driving it with Cesar.  I got a little motion sick and I think Diego did too.  

Here is Cesar reading the Book of Mormon with the kids by the fire one evening.  

One night we had "family fun night" put together by Eli.  We played card games, told jokes, and ate dinner.

Sports

The kids and I went to a Rockies game at Coors Field last week.  It was nice to be downtown and be in the stadium.  I think I have only been once to a game before I was married, so it's been a while.  We got free tickets from the rec center and even got free close parking from a friend of my dad's.  We did spend a lot of money on cotton candy- I think 8 or 9 dollars!  We didn't stay long, but it was a fun time.

Eli got to go to another Rockies game with his friend and his dad.  It was Jack's birthday and he invited Eli and anther boy named Elijah to go with him to the game.  They had fun!  Eli got a bobblehead, dinner at a pizza restaurant, and dippin dots.  

Saturday morning we took the boys to Jr. Broncos training Camp at Invesco Field.  It was also cool to be in that stadium!  It's huge- 77,100 people can sit inside.  Coors Field seats around 50,000.

Elder and Sister Porras

My parents are on a mission!  They are serving in Bakersfield, CA from July 4th- July 4th, 2017.  We miss them already, but are happy they went.

These pictures were taken in Mexico on our trip last December.

Swigert Garden

I volunteered to take care of a garden bed at the Swigert garden this summer.  It has a watering system already, so I just need to go every once in a while to weed.  In our bed there is pumpkins and some kind of edible flower, but we are able to take food from the other beds too!
Yesterday the kids and I picked a huge zucchini and plan to make bread and muffins.  Yum!