Snow Mountain Ranch Day 2

This was our second full day at Snowmountain ranch and also our last day in the mountains. The boys were a little harder to get up and get going for a morning hiking adventure, but we eventually took off for a hike before Chad left for a fly fishing trip.

While Chad was off flyfishing, the boys and I had reservations for another round of tubing and had a blast!

The boys and I fixed lunch in our cabin again before our afternoon adventure of zip lining.

Collin was too young to go on this, but was a good sport and came along to watch us.

Zip line selfie by Mitchell.....

Mitchell was the first one in our group to go....he is always up to try just about anything!

Climbing the wobbly ladder up was by far the worst part!

This was Mitchell's first time zip lining and he did great!

Then it was my turn. Oh boy, I am still not a fan of heights.....I graciously 

went last :)

This was a faith based zip lining session, so afterwords one of the youth pastors talked to our group about strength and taking that leap of faith in our spirit loyal journey....great message!

These last few pictures are of Chad's fly fishing trip. He had a great time and caught some of his biggest trout to date!

Colorado Trip 2015

We have spent the past several days in Colorado and introducing our boys to the mountains for the very first time! Before heading up to snow mountain ranch, we spent an evening with one of my dear friends from high school, Shana and her family.

It was so great to spend some time catching up with them in Denver!

Then we headed into the mountains for our final destination of snow mountain ranch!

We checked into our cabin unloaded all of our groceries for our stay, and took out exploring all this YMCA camp has to

 offer.

What a great first evening in the mountains!

#cb4life

June 22nd marked Chad's second Life-aversary. He took the day off and we made a quick day trip to try out a new place in Topeka with the boys.

We'd all give this place two thumbs up and was a great place to have fun together as a family!

We are so blessed to be able to celebrate this day together. When we were saying prayers that night, Collin and I said a special prayer. We were thankful for all the people who helped daddy two years ago so he could fight to stay with us. 

It's something we are thankful for and not just on this day...but every day so Chad can be there for baseball games and so much more.

14 Years and 400 Miles

This week Chad  and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary! Mitchell had a baseball game and Collin had baseball practice the evening of our actual anniversary, so we went out to eat the next evening to celebrate.

I have been averaging around 15 miles or more each week, and this week I logged over 400 miles for the year 2015!

Even on busy days with work and baseball in the evenings, Chad still finds a way to make our day special. And next year we hope to celebrate our 15th anniversary on the beach while my parents celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary!

Manhattan Marlins

Mitchell participated in his first swim meet today at the Little Apple Invitational in Manhattan.

He swam the 200 m free style, 50m backstroke and 100m Free.

It was a rainy and cool morning but he did great!

It was a long morning....cheering on Mitchell is hard work!

Minnesota

The boys and I took a quick trip with Grandma and Grandpa Ammeter to Minnesota to see Aunt Amy, Uncle Doug and Daniel.  Chad was presenting at a conference in Atlanta, GA for the week so it seemed like a good time to sneak away before all our summer activities get into full swing.

Daniel's last day of school happened while we were visiting and we got to meet his classroom teacher and explore Aunt Amy's music classroom before watching Daniel perform a piano piece for the evening talent show. 

 On our last day, we took the boys to the Mall of America to spend the day at Nickelodeon Universe and the boys had a great time on all the rides!

 After much coaxing from Mitchell (and maybe even some guilt tripping), I finally went on this roller coaster.  It literally goes straight up and then straight down to start.  The worst was sitting at the bottom waiting for the climb.  But Mitchell was right, it was very fun and I even rode it again with him before leaving.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Ammeter for this fun day at Mall of America!  It was so much fun to visit our family in Minnesota again and always so fun to watch the cousins pick up right where they left off the last time they were together.

375 Miles

After my 10th Half Marathon a few weeks ago, I took several days off.  My legs were much more sore this time around than my race in March.  I felt good for most of the race in May, but the last 3 miles were a huge struggles and I am guessing the more challenging course led to some very sore quads!

I have kept up with my running since the Bill Snyder Highway Half and recently logged over 375 miles so far for 2015!

We're Going to the Zoo

Instead of having a birthday party, we opted to go to Omaha for Collin's 7th Birthday Celebration.  We met Grandma and Grandpa Bunger there for a quick get away and had an amazing time!

 We spent the night at Coco Keys and the boys enjoyed an evening of swimming and many trips up the stairs to the big slides.  While we both had our share of making the trek up all these stairs, I was glad that the boys are both big enough to be able to ride this solo when mom and dad need a break to just watch.

The next day we spent most the day at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo!  This is our fifth visit to this zoo with the boys and it still never disappoints!

The best part of the day was the Backstage Experience at the Aquarium that Grandma had lined up for us!  You are asked to not post pictures of the behind the scenes adventures, but it was a definite highlight and right up our newly 7 year old's ally!

I think Collin's favorite part was being present with the zoo keepers during feeding time for the turtles and sharks.  We all thought it was awesome and was a perfect retreat from the warm afternoon weather.

This last picture is one of my favorites from the day.  Chad loves stingrays so of course we had to take in Sting Ray Beach.  What a great way to celebrate Collin's 7th birthday!