An entire month gone by...

WOW, an entire month gone by with no post to my blog. I am getting really bad at this. I must must must try to do better.

Well, I finally feel as if summer has come. It is the 3rd week of the kids summer vacation and the temps are finally hitting what they should be for summer and the daytime rain seems to be holding off.

We have been busy. Tiff started softball and has had a couple weeks of practice and started games last week. She has pitched in two games and done really well. The boys started swimming lessons yesterday. Both Jake and Ryan are doing awesome. Kyle however is still afraid to get in the water unless he is holding the wall, so it will be interesting to see how he does.

Two weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to once again participate in Relay for Life. It is such an inspiring event. I walked in memory of my mother and in support of friends who have both fought cancer and survived and those who have lost family members to cancer or who may be dealing with it in their lives somehow at present. I had a great time with the ladies on our team and look forward to walking again next year.

This weekend we spent a wonderful four and a half days in Steamboat Springs with the whole Sims gang. (minus Kari and Deron who stayed home to have a baby). We had a great time and did some really fun activities. On Wednesday night, our arrival day, we played a friendly game of family bingo. It was a great way to help everyone to remember all the names and faces which we sometimes confuse since we don't see eachother all that often.
On Thursday we took a walk through old toen Steamboat lookin gin the shops and made a fun stop at Johnny B's for some ice cream and shakes. After lunch we headed to the Old Town Hot Springs and swam in the pools. The water was between 98 and 103 degrees in the various pools so even though the air temp was only about 65 degrees we stayed plenty warm while we were in the water. They had a 3 story water slide and the kids had a blast with that as well. That night we played games and had a really fun time. Susan prepared a game of bluff for the adults that we played after the kids went to bed and it was such a riot. Who knew some of us could lie so well. We also built up our vacabulary by learning the meaning of words like vidiot (a person who watches too much TV), sussarus (the sound of wind blowing through the trees), cadelle (a bug that eats smaller bugs), and I can't remember any of the others, but it was a total blast.
On Friday We took a little hike. It wasn't much since we had so many small children with us, but it was beautiful. After our hike we ate a picnic lunch in the park and then headed to the Alpine Slide. This activity was a huge hit with everyone. That night we had our fmaily pictures taken by Matt, our family photographer and brother in law. He did a great job as far as I could tell from the preview o the pictures we got later. I can't wait to put a new picture of my family up on the wall in my family room. The adults stayed up late and played phase 10 and had a ton of laughs.
Saturday was brunch and horseback riding which was so much fun. The trail ride was beautiful and the kids, even Kyle, loved riding their own horses. We ended the night with a BBQ dinner and gifts for dad for Father's Day.
Sunday we packed up, cleaned up and headed home.
The excitement of the weekend was that Kari's water broke on Saturday and little Isabella Marie was born on Sunday morning weighing 7 pounds and was 19 1/2 inches long. Congrats to Kari and Deron for their new little one.
Well, I think this post is long enough. I will do a picture post later today.