A Family of 5 again!

As I mentioned in the last post, Ashley flew Drew home and we went straight to the mountains!!  That Saturday morning, Drew joined Ashley and I for an awesome hike around our neighborhood.  We saw deer and a fox.  Don't ask about the headphones...some new trend he is trying to start!  

We took Aunt Ashley to Grand Lake

 

Drew went to Camp Iowa

So when my friend offered to drive Drew to Iowa for a week vacation this summer, I immediately said yes!!, even if I did not have a way for him to get home.  Everything worked out and Drew had one of the best weeks of his life!  

He spent the Fourth of July weekend camping with Aunt Ashley, Uncle Troy, Cael, and Lainie at Cutty's, attended the 4th of July parade in Urbandale, played water balloons, and ate s'mores.  He made so many great memories that I wish I had been there with him!  

 

 

 

 

 

Aunt Ashley treated the boys to a movie day and saw Inside Out.  Drew said it was really good.  

 

Drew has a new "girlfriend".  Lainie fell pretty hard for her cousin and I think it is reciprocal.  He even lets her give him hugs and kisses, which is so not like him.  

 

Drew spent the day with Aunt Ashley, Grandma Ruby, Cael and Lainie at the Blank Park Zoo.  I have been wanting to take my kids every time we visit Iowa.  Next time we will for sure, because Drew said it was a great zoo.

 

Grandpa Jim took a day off work to spend with Drew and Grandma Ruby touring around Madison County.  They saw the bridges, Clark Tower, John Wayne Museum, ate at an old fashioned soda shop, and visited Drew's Great Grandma Mary.  

 

 

He still tells people the highlights of his summer were Florida and his trip to Iowa.  Evelyn was so jealous the whole week, I think this is going to have to become a tradition for all the CO grandchildren!    We got spoiled too on his trip home because Aunt Ashley flew home with him and then spent the weekend with us in Granby (pics to follow).  

 

4th of July Week

So, we shipped Drew off to Grandma Ruby's and Grandpa Jim's in Iowa for a week (next post will be about his adventures in Iowa) and we were a family of four with two beautiful girls for a week.  We spent the 4th of July weekend in Granby at our cabin.  We attended the amazing Granby 4th of July Parade and Festivities and watched the fireworks from our balcony (Evelyn even got to stay up and watch!). Granby Ranch had a carnival with games, jumpy houses, face painting, sno-cones, and cotton candy.  We had fun swimming in the pool, hanging in the hot tub, and going on hikes.  The highlight of Evelyn's weekend was that she learned how to ride her bike without training wheels!  It is amazing the amount of "undivided daddy time" she could get with Drew gone!  She is now a rockstar on her bike and very proud to tell people she learned when she was still 4.  

 

The girls and I had lots of fun play dates the week Drew spent in Iowa.  My most memorable part of the week was when I called an audible and we went to the Butterfly Pavilion an hour before it closed.  We had the place almost to ourselves and the girls enjoyed doing something special!  

 

Ev holding Rosie

Finishing up June

After our wonderful vacation, the rest of June went by in a blur...but we did get out to do some fun things!  We went to the Denver Children's Museum with Aunt Annie.  They have a new outdoor area that the kids really enjoyed.  It has zip lines, hay bales, a sand pit, and stream.  

These are my creative girls. I love watching them play "imaginative play" because they both are so good at it!  Here Cate was in a wheelchair and Ev was her caretaker. 

Drew played Softpitch baseball this summer and loved it. He played all positions at sometime through out the summer, but I only got pics of him as catcher.  He makes his Aunt Ashley proud!  His team the Yankees finished well and he had a blast!  

Evelyn played t-ball for the 1st time this summer.  Here she is with her friend, Teddy, who was on her t-ball team.  I think she enjoyed it.  They don't play games and a lot of the kids could not catch the ball, but she did very well.  

 

Florida, Part 3

The rest of the Kahler/Bushnell family flew back to Iowa on my birthday and I did not want to be on an airplane for my birthday, so we stayed an extra day in Orlando (well, actually two days due to the debacle at the airport, but that is another story) and treated our kids to a day at Nickelodeon Suites Hotel!  Cate was under the weather, so it would have been even more fun if she had been 100%, but I still think they had a blast.  They still tell people there favorite things about Florida were the ocean and eating pizza with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  

Cate at the pool before we determined she had a fever.  

Tim, Ev (underwater in front of Tim), and Drew in the pool

Slime Factory (sorry no pics of the sliming because I was in the room with Cate while she napped).  

Ev-atella

D-Rafael

 

Cate-angelo

 

Showing our muscles with Michaelagelo

 

Tough stuff with Rafael

 

Donatello (Cate did not like him touching her)

 

The next morning we had breakfast with some other Nickelodeon characters.  It was early for these kids, but they enjoyed seeing all the characters and their performances. 

 

Sponge Bob

 

Marshall from Paw Patrol

 

Patrick from Sponge Bob