Lots going on!

Wow - it sure has been a while since I posted an update on the life and times of the Dachel family. I've started scrapbooking again - making a dent in all those boxes of pictures I have in the craft room. It seems that when I scrapbook, I don't blog and when I blog, I don't scrapbook... hmmm... let me make this proclaimation - I vow to really try to both work on my scrapbooks and keep up with the blog in 2011. There, I said it and you all are my witnesses - I'll let you know how it's working out!
Now let's get to the good stuff!

November was filled with a lot of activities and a ton of fun!
Hayden competed in a Lego Robotics competition with his school. His team was the Lobster bots and they sure worked  hard- meeting 2 times a week after school to work on the challenges. They did well in the competition, but most of all had a really great time challenging their brains.

Harrison had his first breakdancing performances. The first was a dance production of Candy Land and the second was a Company Showcase, in which they highlighted the dances they will be performing in their upcoming competition. This child was born to perform - when I asked him if he was nervous, he said "when I first looked out and saw all the people, I felt 1/2 a butterfly in my stomach, but then it went away." He did a great job and had so much fun showing his stuff!

Harrison Dancing in Candy Land (Left)



Harrison (left) showing his moves




Harrison (left) and his friend Asher during the Company Showcase




Luca, Asher and Harrison (Fuze Dance Company) at Dress rehearsal

Hayden performed in the final music program of his Elementary school career - much to his relief! Singing is not his favorite thing, nor is performing or being in front of people. Despite all this, I think he really enjoyed this final performance - he sang all the songs and he still gets some of them stuck in his head! The production was call December in Our Town, the songs were really fun and catchy - I can see why they still pop into Hayden's head from time to time. I really enjoyed this performance!

Hayden singing - he's in the red scarf

Harrison and I went to see a performance of Tap Dogs and the Buell Theatre in Denver. It was incredible!!!

We had a nice date and really enjoyed the dancing, I have never seen anybody move their feet so fast!



Waiting for the show to begin

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parents house with my older brother and his family. When we got home, we decided to get our Christmas stuff out... we weren't going to because we were going to be in Mexico for Christmas. In the end, we decided 'why not?' and set about decorating the tree and the house for Christmas.

That about sums up our November! I don't want to overwhelm you, so I will save December for another day- it has also been a very busy month!

October

Another month has just flown by! We have been busy with all kinds of fun stuff! Harrison is really enjoying breakdancing, he spends a lot of time singing and dancing around the house! Hayden is enthralled with Lego Robotics, there is such a sense of accomplishment when he and his team mates complete a challenge during pratice - he is truly in his element here! He has a competition coming up on 11/6 and Harrison will dance in Candy Land on 11/20 - it doesn't look like life at the Dachel house will be slowing down anytime soon.....

Of course this month has been filled with a ton of fun stuff and lots of adventure - our family motto is "always an adventure with the Dachel's".... At the end of Sept. we had some friends over for football, tacos, and gourmet s'mores. When I say gourmet - I mean it! Pumpkin pie s'mores, carmel apple s'mores, cookie dough s'mores, definitely not your average s'more! It was a great day with lots of good company, until the dog got out of the gate, ran away, got hit by a car and was finally found just before dark - thanks to an all out man hunt - everybody got into cars and canvased the surrounding neighborhoods looking for her. Turns out she was scraped up, a little bruised and very scared - but otherwise okay. Phew... not the kind of adventure we mean when we say 'always an adventure...'




Making s'mores





Harrison with friends Molly & Emma roasting marshmallows

 At the beginning of October Nels and I celebrated 14 years of marriage - where does the time go? We spent the Saturday before our anniversary (which is Oct. 5th) in Rocky Mountain National Park. Our favorite spot is the Elluvial Fan - it's this amazing pile of rocks that was created by the Lawn Lake Flood in the 80's. The lake flooded and the rocks stacked up and made a beautiful water fall. We all really enjoyed hiking and climbing on the rocks and of course the aspen trees were turning and absolutely gorgeous!



Me and my boys! Check out the Aspen's behind us...




Hayden hiding in an aspen



Nels climbing on a log over the river



Harrison playing in the river at the bottom of the elluvial fan



That Monday (Oct. 4th) Hayden left for Eco-week with the 5th grade. The whole 5th grade went to Pingree Park, CSU has an extension campus there. It's about a 2 hour drive from Fort Collins and is above 9,000 feet. Hayden had a wonderful time hiking, doing stream ecology and attacking the ropes course. It was a great experience to be away from mom and dad and staying in a dorm room with 3 of his peers - what a fabulous learning experience. Nels and I both did Eco-week, I think most Colorado school districts offer this... Nels, having grown up in Fort Collins, went to Pingree Park - just as Hayden did. I went to Wild Basin, which is part of Rocky Mountain National Park. Both Nels and I have fond memories of our Eco-week and we know this experience will stay with Hayden for the rest of his life!

 

View from Hayden's Mummy Pass hike





Climbing up to do the ropes course




Hayden swinging in the air on the ropes course

















We visited a pumpkin patch - one of my preschool students lives on a farm and every year the owners of the farm plant pumpkins and squash and have a huge pumpkin party, complete with apple bobbing! This pumpkin field was amazing, they had all kinds of pumkins, white ones, red ones and of course traditional carving pumpkins. The boys had a blast exploring the field and picking pumpkins and squash. They both bobbed for apples, this was quite difficult for Hayden with his braces.... he finally got one by it's stem!
Last weekend we decided to carve our bounty from the pumpkin patch. Two of Harrison's friends brought their pumpkins over and we had a carve fest. It was fun to listen to their conversations and ideas about how they wanted to carve the pumpkins. We also attended Hogwarts Halloween, at one of the city's recreation facilities. It was decked out just like Hogwarts, complete with a sorting hat, potions class, care of magical creatures and the forbidden forest. The boys dressed up as wizards, I was Bellatrix Lestrange and Nels dressed as Mad Eye Moody. We even tasted butter beer at the 3 broomsticks!

Our Huge Pumpkin



Our bounty!



Hayden bobbing for apples




Harrison Bobbing for apples



Laney (our next door neighbor) carving her pumpkin



Seth (Harrison's BFF) carving his pumpkin



Hayden Carving the huge pumpkin






Hogwarts Halloween




Wand making class at Hogwarts Halloween



Update - Been a while

I can't really say where the summer went - it seems like I blinked and it was gone! The boys and I talked about updating our blog more than once this summer, yet somehow it never got done! Here we are about the start the 5th week of school and there has been no blog post about all the fun stuff we've done since the 4th of July. So - here it is - the Dachel Family's summer in a nutshell...

July

We spent a weekend in Breckenridge (our favorite mountain town). We hiked the Lily pad lakes trail in Wildernest and saw a moose right as we got out of the car - it was so fast that I was unable to get a picture of it... but it was so beautiful and majestic! Moose are my favorite - so it was really amazing to see one!

The boys and I before our hike

The boys on the hike - notice the beautiful wild flowers!

Lower lily pad lake

Nels and the boys on the way down

The Boys and I went to Spring Canyon Park with Friends and played in the water feature there. It was a super hot day -so the water was quite refreshing! We also spent an entire day swimming and playing at Windsor lake - after we were rained out on July 4th, we decided to make a day of it, so we packed up a friends car and had so much fun, swimming, building sand castles and playing on the playground.

It's COLD!

Getting wet

Friends Tate and Seth

Harrison Chillin' in Windsor Lake

 On the very last day in July we spent some time with Nels' parents at the 'beach' - Diamond Rock in the Poudre Canyon. The boys love to play in the river and after a picnic lunch, they spent hours building a dam, skipping rocks and chillin' in the river.

August

August started off with a bang as we prepared for school to begin - clothes shopping, school supply shopping and getting the house organized after the wonderful chaos of summer. The boys and I spent a lot of our days relaxing at the pool and our weekends seemed to fill up with activities with friends and family. We went to meet the Ram's day at Sonny Lubick field, watched them scrimmage and then got some autographs. It was fun for the boys to meet the players - it makes it more real when you watch them on TV. Hayden partcipated in a one day Lacrosse camp with the Colorado Mammoth (our indoor Lacrosse team) and Harrison took up breakdancing and was invited to join the breakdancing Troupe at his performing arts school, he will perform 2 numbers in their upcoming production Candy Land! The boys attended their first concert - 1964 a Tribute (a Beatles Tribute band) with Grandma and Grandpa (and us). The concerts was at Red Rocks, which of course is an amazing venue! We also took them to see Green Day at Comfort Dental Amphiteater - WOW! This band really knows how to put on a show - complete with Pyrotechnics and all kinds of bad language! It was loud and rockin' and we all LOVED it!!

First Day of School 2010 (5th & 2nd grades)

Hayden and his buddy Athol after the Mammoth camp

at the Pepsi Center

Meet the Ram's day

Green Day Concert

September

Here we are almost halfway through September - school is in full swing, I'm back to teaching pre-school after taking the summer off and Nels has a big project going at work... We spent Labor weekend with friends and family - watching the Rams get their booties kicked by the Buffs and catching up with my Brother, Sister-in-law and Niece. We tore the carpet off our stairs and have spent a lot of hours painting them (with help from Papa- THANKS) - They really look great and are so much easier to clean now! This weekend, we have been relaxing at home and canvasing the neighborhood selling popcorn for the Cub Scouts.

 Life is in full swing at the Dachel House!

4th of July - posted by Hayden and Mama

July 4th started out as just another day. We piddled around the house, lit some smoke bombs and spinners in our alley, tye died some shirts... originally they were red, white and blue, but when we washed them, the red took over and made the whole shirt pink with a little white and blue. We followed the directions, but apprently the red is just too dominant. The rest of the day was spent getting ready to go to Windsor Lake to watch the fireworks. Every year we pack a picnic dinner and head over around 6 or 6:30 PM. Harrison and I always want to swim in the lake, but since it's usually starting to get dark and cooler outside by the time we finish dinner, we don't get a chance to swim. So this year Mama decided we should go earlier and be able to play in the lake. We dressed in our swim trunks and tye die shirts, packed up the towels and the picnic stuff and headed out a little before 5PM.
When we got there and staked out our spot - near the beach so Harrison and I could swim and play in the sand. We wandered out into the lake, up to our knees - but it was too cold! The clouds were beginning to roll in and the wind had really picked up. So Harrison and I decided to dig a big hole in the sand for shelter from the wind. We had done this before with Daddy in Hawaii and made a hole wide enough and deep enough for Harrison and I to sit in and be sheltered from the wind- we were a lot smaller then! We found a bucket and began digging, the sand was rough and chunky - not like the fine sand of Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Our Friend Tyler showed up and helped with the hole - but the clouds just kept coming, the sky got darker and darker - we abandoned the digging to quickly eat dinner. After dinner we lit some sparklers and packed up our stuff in case the storm came our way. Just as we finished packing up the torenntial rain and fierce winds forced us to make a mad dash for the car. The car was close by, but by the time we go there, we  were soaking wet and dripping. We waited for about 30 min. and decided to abandon ship and head home. The drive home was a little scary - we could hardly see in front of us.
The rain didn't let up for hours, I'm glad we weren't sitting in the car that long! We tried to find fireworks on TV - but there weren't any. At 9:00 Mama checked the Coloradoan website and found out the Windsor fireworks were a GO! So we piled in the car - luckily we had put our rain coats in the dryer when we got home - with hats, cloves, raincoats, glow lights and sparklers too! When we got to Boardwalk park there was maybe 100 people standing on the side walks with umbrellas and rain coats waiting for the show. It finally started at 9:50 - the fireworks started off slowly with one about every 5 minutes... every once in a while they would pick up speed and get the rhythm going and there would be 10 or so in a row. The Grand finale was a good one with lots of color bursts. Again, we were water logged and quite sleepy as we made our way to the car. All in all it was a good 4th with good friends!

The Tye die before washing

Smoke bombs in a jar

Fun at the lake

Sparkler fun- waiting for the fireworks to begin