Cameron's 8th Birthday!!

We have had a very busy last month! Finally getting back in to the Blog to share all of our adventures and memories:)

Cameron is a bit like me when it comes to birthdays, you start to hear that it is coming a month before:) My little man turned 8 this year and as you have heard me say many times on this blog, where is the time going!! Jeff reminded me that in 8 more years Cameron will be driving, yikes!!! My little guy (not so little anymore) is growing up and while I look back on the years before I am loving all the moments we are making now. It is so fun to see how he changes year to year and his likes and dislikes. He loves all things sports, non-fiction books, video games:), school (yay) and bugging his sister (with love, right). He has moved up to 28% for weight and 65% for height! Those Cintel genes are great, we love them!! I love you Cameron! Happy Birthday!

We were lucky this year, Jeff had been in Miami all week for a press check and was delayed getting home. Thankfully he got home the night of Cameron's birthday so we got to celebrate as a family! Daddy also brought home some very special treats for Cameron!

Cameron is a big fan of the new champs!

Birthday Loot! Ashley even got a gator book from daddy's trip!

Cameron wanted to get his favorite food for dinner so we headed out for some Chinese! Orange Chicken is his go to!

Home for ice cream sundae's! Happy Birthday Cameron!

July 4th!

This year due to the wildfires in Colorado most of the fireworks displays were cancelled! We were lucky to go up to Denver on the Friday before the 4th to check out the great show the Rockies put on after the game!

On the Fourth we got up early and went to the Highlands Ranch parade with our good friends the Bartels. From firetrucks to bands we had a great time enjoying the festivities! The kids decorated bags and got to catch all the candy being thrown into the crowd. My friend Kim even brought tattoos for the kids, so fun!

All dressed up for the big day!

Kim helping Cameron with his tattoo!

His first Tattoo!!

Ashley's turn.

Look at my rebel:)

Cameron, Ben, Meg, Ashley and Catherine with Gary in the background! Ashley and Ben will be in the same Kindergarten class and Meg and Cameron will be in 3rd grade together.

Since we couldn't set off fireworks that evening Meg decided she wanted to set up a lemonade stand to raise money for the Colorado firefighters!! It was very cute and the kids raised over $10 in just over and hour. We also decided to cool off with some water balloons, so fun:) It has been so hot for weeks in Colorado so the kids loved it!

Happy Birthday America!!

Science and Nature Museum

Last week I took the kids up to the Denver Science and Nature Museum! The kids love this place and it makes for a great day of exploring and discovering. I love all the questions that I get when we take trips up to the museum. The dinos are always a hit as well as the animal exhibits! Here are some pictures from the day.

We always do a scavenger hunt and somebody loves it!!

Ashley and the deer.

This is my favorite animal in the museum! This is an Alaskan Black Bear, it is huge!!

Cameron checking out the fossils!

The museum currently is showing live lizards and snakes, yikes!!

Trying to stay cool in the summer heat, they look pretty cool!

National Park Day!

On Saturday we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park for the day! We had gone up last year and loved it, we even got to see moose last year (still a highlight for me). Jeff found out that Saturday was a free day for the National Parks so off we went! We headed up through Boulder and first stopped at Longs Peak just outside of the park. Jeff and the kids got their National Park Passport books stamped at the ranger station. Jeff loves collecting different stamps from all the parks and the kids are now hooked on it!!

The crew with their passports stamped!

 

When we were at the ranger station we even got to check out a llama that was heading up the trail with some rangers. He was hauling tons of supplies; look how cute he is:)

We then headed through Estes Park and into the Park!

We first stopped at Moraine Park Meadow. We visited it last year and had to go back. It offers such a beautiful panorama of all the mountains in the park! We then headed up to the old beaver ponds, they have since left this area but the kids got to put their feet in the water and check out some mountain fish!

We then drove over to a huge washout area that was created by a flood in 1982. It was nice to soak our feet in the icy water on a hot day!

 

 

On the hike back down Jeff gave the kids the binoculars and they were off looking for wildlife:)

 

We didn't see as many animals this time around in the park but here are a look at some of the friends we found!

On our way out of the park we noticed a ton of cars pulled over looking at something so we stopped and found out we were looking at a huge Great Horned Owl nest with two baby owls. The mama was just two branches up keeping an eye on everything. The nest was amazing; truly a special thing to see:)

We had one more stop to make just outside the park. At the beginning of the day we had stopped and gotten Ashley and Cameron Jr. Ranger booklets. Their job throughout the day was to complete all the activities in the book finding animals, plants and exploring the park. When we stopped in at the Ranger station the Ranger was so cute and quizzed them on the book, even making them take a park oath:) Then he asked everyone in the visitors center to stop and congratulate the newest Jr. Rangers! Needless to say the kids were so excited. They wore the badges all the way home:) Here are some pictures of them finishing up the booklet and getting their badges.

Hard at work!

Getting quizzed:)

Taking the park oath!

Official Rangers!

Celebrating:)

It was a great day in a wonderful place! Here are some scenery pictures from the rest of the park.