August Adventures

Aside from school starting back up, which is easily our biggest adventure in August so far, we've been up to lots of other things!

Our garden is doing amazing! This all is just from one day's haul-- it usually comes in waves, and every 4-5 days we get a nice little harvest similar to this. Our tomato trees (they cannot be called plants because they are just MASSIVE) have finally come on and started to ripen, but sadly (actually, I was devastated, let's be honest) something got into them this weekend and pretty much massacred them. I think it was a raccoon. It jumped from on top of the fence and landed on them and basically crushed the tops... Jon tried all afternoon yesterday to salvage them, so maybe there is hope yet. 

With Zach and Lucy back in school, lucky me gets to spend all day with these fun girls! How could we not take a break while running errands to stop and eat pink cupcakes??

We had a super busy Saturday the first week back to school, since all of the sports teams started up again with school. I signed Lucy up for soccer and she is on the Tigers. She loves it! She looked so cute and grown up all dressed and ready for her first game, and she did awesome playing defense.

After her game, we ran over to our HOA pool which closes after Labor Day, and we're trying to get as much use out of it as we can. It was a nice hot afternoon, so it felt great to Lucy who'd just played 60 minutes of soccer!

Even Daddy got in which was so fun for the kids! 

Right after the pool, Zach had his first flag football game so we all quickly changed and ran over for that. It was his first time ever playing football (as well as most of his teammates') so it was a little rough! Zach was supposed to be a blocker, but he kind of just looked bewildered most of the time. I bet he'll figure it out pretty quick though.

Isn't he such a cute little football player?? He is loving it.

That night I wanted to take Jon to the burger place Whitney and I had tried-- Larkburger, in Littleton. After a long, hot day of sports games, swimming, running errands, and yard work, a burger really hit the spot!

This picture is so hilarious!! Lizzie is just staring sooooo longingly at that burger! Poor baby. She is totally curious about food, but still doesn't have any teeth, so french fries was all she got.

We've been getting some spectacular sunsets, and I snapped this on the way home from Littleton that night. Colorado is really beautiful.

Monday morning, bright and early, it was major project time! Jon had the day off, so while he tirelessly took down cupboard door after cupboard door (27 in all), I taped off and started painting. I have HATED these cupboards basically since we moved in. They were so dark, and sucked so much light in an otherwise bright and sunny kitchen!

They smelled funny too. I'm not sure if that was because the previous owner used an oil-based paint, or it was just from my pregnancy-induced heightened sense of smell, but regardless, it was time for the brown to go!!

After three days of endless, endless, endless painting (it took 3+ coats to cover all that dark brown) that kitchen is finished and it is AMAZING!! The pictures just don't do the change justice!

It feels brighter, cleaner, and just fresher. I told Jon that the unintended consequence is now the counters look really drab, and we desperately need a backsplash (wink, wink). About halfway through I was starting to get really nervous... but I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

An up-close of the cupboard doors. I knew I could never ever get it perfect (we'd have needed to hire it out or buy a sprayer to do so), so antiquing it just a little was the next best option. It makes up for my painting imperfections, and lets some of the old brown show through which in this context actually looks nice. We used chalk paint too, so it won't peel or scratch off, and it's totally waterproof.

Friday afternoon right after school we loaded up in the car and drove up to Fort Collins for the new temple open house. I really felt strongly that I wanted my kids to experience seeing a temple firsthand before they could go themselves when they are older, and this was our only opportunity! Traffic through Denver was a nightmare, so it took us quite awhile to make it, but it was so, so worth it. 

It is a GORGEOUS temple, inside and out, and all of the artwork really reflects the Colorado landscape. There's even a really beautiful mural covering the walls in the endowment room with the Rockies in the background and deer and elk. 

On the drive up a big thunderstorm blew in, and it literally dropped the temperature 30 degrees. It was 56 when we got out of the car at 6 p.m. on August 19th! Welcome to Colorado!

So where's Jon during all of this, you ask?? He's been working lots of extra hours, the usual long hours, and staying up late working on all of the various balls he has to juggle, and as a result, on the drive up he got a killer migraine. I felt so bad! He was able to tour the temple with us, but as soon as our tour was done, he just wanted to go lay down in the car. Everybody just thought I was a single mom with four kids!

Such a sweet, special experience to walk through the Celestial Room, and the rest of the temple with these guys. I am sure grateful for temples and my family!

By Saturday Jon was back at it again and working 8-5, but at least feeling much better! Thank goodness. We headed out on a date night to Parker Garage, which is a local restaurant right on Main Street, and as it was a really nice night they sat us outside.

We left all four kids with the babysitter and they did great! So, as August is quickly coming to a close, here's three cheers to some more August adventures before fall officially comes to the Rockies!