My last post was way back in March, we have done A LOT since then. It never ceases to amaze me how fast time goes - it really does fly and in my world it flies at mach 20.
Here are a few highlights in the life and times of the Dachel family.
March:
We celebrated Harrison's birthday at the end of month. He invited a few friends over for a Tron party and we took them to play Laser Tag in nearby Loveland.
April:
A fairly quiet month compared to the others... Nels celebrated his 38th birthday on the 11th, we had a quiet celebration at home. The boys and I made him lasagne (his favorite) for dinner and hung out at as family.
Harrison participated in the 2nd grade art show at his school. He worked hard and had some great drawings in the show.
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| Harrison pointing to his cat picture |
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| The picture next to his head is his |
Here's where our life took off at full speed - but not for long, because summer came next!
Hayden got his braces off, participated in his last field day of elementary school and graduated from 5th grade.
Harrison played the part of a dragonfly in a play in his classroom called "Goin buggy" and really enjoyed his field day - even though it was pouring rain!
We had a neighborhood party on the last day of school, the kids in the hood came over, ate hot dogs, had a water balloon fight and celebrated the last day of school. This was an abbreviated version of our annual last day of school party because we had a big celebration to attend with the whole 5th grade...
The whole family went to a party at the Island lake marina with the Zach Elementary 5th grade class of 2011 to celebrate Hayden's graduation. The Island (as us locals refer to it) is a series of 3 islands on a lake. The islands are for rented out for private parties. It is not far from our house (in fact we have ridden bikes there before) and a really fun place to hang out with friends. The weather was not the best for the graduation party, but the kids went in the water anyway and had a ton of fun.
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| They gave his a huge bag of all the candy he was not allowed to have w/braces |
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| We celebrated by going and getting a huge Carmel apple he couldn't wait to bite into it! |
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| Hayden hugging his teacher at graduation |
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| Field day in the rain |
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| The rain let up a little at the end |
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| The morning of the last day of school - they're not excited or anything.... |
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| Water balloon fight with friends and neighbors |
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| getting onto one of the big water trampolines at the Island |
June:
Ahhh... summer! The first half of June was busy with the end of Hayden's Lacrosse season and the end of Harrison's dance season. Hayden's LAX team had 3 games in the Jamboree - the big end of season tournament. And Harrison had a marathon weekend with 4 performances. After that the more leisurely days began, we spent a lot of time hanging around the house and at the pool with friends.
We took a family hike on Father's Day at Horsetooth Mountain Park. We have an awesome view of Horsetooth Rock from our house (named this because it looks like a horses tooth) and onced we hiked to the top, we had a gorgeous view of all of Fort Collins. Once a week, I babysat our neighbor girls and we had a lot of fun adventures around Fort Collins and the surrounding areas.
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| View from the top of Horsetooth rock |
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| hanging out with the girls, Izzy and Laini at Lake Loveland |
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| The boys and girls at Windsor Lake |
We took a road trip to Wisconsin to visit Nels' extended family. The drive was un-eventful, but the time there was awesome. We floated down the Chippewa river, ate way too much, played at an indoor water park and visited Lake Superior. We hung out with Cousins, 2nd cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandma (Nels' Mom - the boys' Grandma) and Great Grandma(Nels' Grandma, the boys' Great Grandma or G.G.) We saw some beautiful fireworks and enjoyed some back yard games with the family.
Harrison did a Lacrosse camp to see if the sport was for him.
The boys and I participated in a mother/son amazing race. We had fun running all around our local Rec center, inside and out to complete different tasks.
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| All of us before our float |
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| Aunt Grace and I showing off our 4th of July t-shirts |
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| G.G. doing pop ems fire crackers |
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| Kenzi (our niece), Hayden and Harrison |
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| The boys in Lake Superior |
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| Harrison at LAX camp - he's the one in the helmet with the V on it |
August:
August was probably our quietest month. We spent a lot of time around the neighborhood, riding bikes, playing and swimming.
The boys and I went up to Steamboat Springs to stay with Izzy, Laini and their Grandma.
The whole family went boating and tubing with our good friends who live up at Horsetooth Reservoir.
Hayden started Middle School (6th grade) and Harrison started 3rd grade.
I went back to work after having the summer off.
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| The kids posing on the pond in Steamboat |
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| Hayden tubing |
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| Harrison Tubing |
September:
The month of September was spent settling into school and work. The boys both did tumbling and hip hop once a week. Hayden had crazy hair day at school and Harrison participated in a flash mob with his dance instructor. What's a flash mob you ask? It's where a group of people meet up at a certain spot and blend in, then the music suddenly starts playing and the dancers start dancing. It was pretty fun and the crowd really got into it. Harrison and Laini made cookies one day after school to practice their math (yes, measuring is math).
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| Hayden's crazy hair... |
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| Harrison dancing in the flash mob |
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| yum! Chocolate chip cookie dough is my favorite |
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| Harrison on school picture day |
October:
One of our favorite fall activities is to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park and see the beautiful aspen trees and hear the elk bugle. It is such a wonderful time of year in Colorado! We made the trip (only an hours drive from Ft. Collins) the first Sunday in October. We left our house in the late afternoon (the best time to hear the elk is at dusk) and got to our favorite spot with still plenty of daylight. Then we ate a picnic dinner and listened to the Elk.
The following weekend, Nels and I went to Breckenridge to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. The leaves on the trees were gorgeous up there as well and we woke up to snow the next morning. We spent our days walking around town, and enjoying each others company.
Nels' brother Jude and his kids Kenzi and Austin came over one Sunday to watch the Bronco game with us - the Broncos actually won that one! :-) The kids had a great time playing outside in the leaves - it was a wonderful day!
After our first snow storm - the one that broke a bunch of branches on our trees, the boys had a blast sledding after school. It was too cold for me, but I did manage to snap a few pictures of Harrison and his friend Seth.
Then of course, came Halloween. Harrison had a Halloween celebration at school and then our friends the Smith's came over (as they do every year) to eat chili and trick or treat. It was a beautiful night, the weather was perfect.
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| Harrison listening to the Elk |
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| The slopes of Breckenridge |
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| The Town of Breckenridge |
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| Cousins |
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| Harrison and his buddy Seth, hitting the sled hill |
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| Hayden, Savanah, Harrison and Payton ready to tick or treat |
Harrison had Crazy hair day at his school yesterday - his blond hair really soaks up the color!
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| That is some crazy hair |
The next update hopefully will not be so long... I have made a goal to update once a month. We'll see how that goes during the holidays. ;-)
