Fall Break in Florida

Just like last year, we headed to Florida for fall break.  This year, we rented a house in Pompano Beach and Uncle Terry came along with us.  The house had 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, an outdoor pool and boardwalk access right to the beach.  It was such a good decision to rent a house versus staying in a hotel like we did last year.  We had so much more space, our own kitchen and the kids weren't constantly hounding us to go to the beach since they could play in the pool until we were ready to go.  We enjoyed the lizards that came sunning on our pool deck, too!

Saturday morning, we had a yummy breakfast at Duffy's Cafe and then went on the hunt for a sporting goods store to buy fun stuff for the pool and the beach.  After that, we hit the grocery store for a week's worth of food so we didn't need to eat out so much.  We spent a huge chunk of change at the store, but in the long run, it was the less expensive option.  For the rest of the day, we played in the pool, went to the beach and the kids rode their boogie boards in the waves.  Mattea had fun building sand castles, too.

Our grocery store receipt

 

On Sunday, Alex woke up not feeling too great so we had a pretty low-key day alternating between the beach, the pool and watching football.

On Monday, we took a road trip to Marco Island and had a surprise visit from Aunt Julie & Uncle Kevin!!!  Crazy coincidences had us in Florida at the same time just 2 hours apart.  We felt so lucky to get to spend the day with them.  Julie scheduled a boat ride/dolphin excursion for us all and Kevin paid for it which was so incredibly generous.  We saw quite a few dolphins, including a baby and her mother.  The boat dropped us off on a private beach to hunt for sea shells and go swimming.  Everyone had a great time and we topped off the fun day with an amazing meal at the Snook Inn.

After breakfast on Tuesday morning, we headed towards Ft Lauderdale to rent bikes to ride along the ocean. Alex was disappointed that we couldn't find a place to rent longboards.  Apparently, "longboards" in Florida mean surfboards and not skateboards!  Everyone but Josh and Mattea ended up with beach cruisers.  Man, the seats on those are COMFY!!!  We took a ride through a state park where there were workout stations every half mile, so of course we stopped and did those, too! After that, we headed down to ride along the beach.  We rode for awhile and then stopped for lunch at a restaurant overlooking the ocean.  When we got back to the house, the kids and Uncle Terry went to ride the waves and then we had a volleyball game in the pool.  After dinner, we drove to Boca Raton for a movie.  We showed up at the iPics Theaters and were completely blown away.  It was the fanciest movie theater we had ever seen.  We opted for the premium seats... I mean, it's VACATION... which meant we each had a recliner, a pillow, a blanket and unlimited popcorn.  We were the only ones in the theater, so we jokingly thanked Jeff for renting out the entire theater for our family!  We all wished the movie lasted longer and were sad when we had to vacate our recliners to leave.

Wednesday was a very low-key day.  Uncle Terry wasn't feeling well, so after breakfast, we left him at the house chillin' while we went for a long walk on the beach.  The water was "angry" so there were lots of waves and washed-up jellyfish. We spent the rest of the day relaxing.  Mattea decided she would do a workout. I kid you not... for at least a solid hour, she did multiple rounds of scaling the stairs (monkey-style) and laps in the pool.  We finally had to make her stop as she showed no signs of fatigue, but we were worried she would be sore the next day.  Crazy girl.  I wish I still had energy like that.

 On Thursday, we were supposed to go snorkeling, but sadly, the water was still tough rough so our adventure was cancelled.  Instead, we played in the pool and then went souvenir shopping.  We spontaneously decided to take the kids trick-or-treating since it was Halloween, so we shopped for some cheap costumes.  But, as we all know, they don't seem to make cheap costumes that are also cool.  So, we opted to just get Mattea dressed up.  We bought some miscellaneous items from Party City to make her look like a rock star and called it good.  Our next obstacle was figuring out where to trick-or-treat since we hadn't seen many kids in the neighborhood where we were staying.  We ended up in Boca Raton.  There didn't seem to be many kids around, but since Mattea was getting anxious, Jeff dropped us off to ring the doorbell at a house.  The lights were on, but I was a little hesitant since I didn't see any other families out trick-or-treating.  This nice guy answered the door and Mattea said "Trick-or-Treat".  He looked a little surprised, but smiled and then said "Just a minute."  He closed the door and then came back a minute later with an apple!  Mattea was happy about the apple, but we all knew that those people were NOT expecting trick-or-treaters, so we moved to a different neighborhood.  We finally found this fancy neighborhood where there were other people out walking around.  Some of the houses just had fancy bins of candy sitting outside their gates.  We were in awe of the houses, so it was fun walking around.  Some of them had some really great decorations.  It was a Halloween to remember!

 

  On Friday, it was time to head back home.  We were all bummed to leave the beach and the pool, but it was nice to be back home and I know Cody was happy to see us!

 

 

HE'S FINALLY FORTY!!!

So, I married a younger man.  This is a good thing, right???  Well, it seems that the older I get, the more often I hear about how I am OLDER than Jeff!  He is such a stinker that he even has the boys teasing me about it!!!  Well, this year on his birthday, he FINALLY entered into my decade again.  Since it was a significant birthday, I threw a surprise party for him so he could celebrate with his friends.  We had a great turnout for the party and Jeff was totally surprised!  It's always amazing when I can keep a secret!!! 

I used all of the pictures everyone sent to make a memory album for Jeff.  I brought the album to the party with some journaling cards and asked everyone to write a note to Jeff.  I also took pictures of each person with Jeff before they left.  I'm going to add all of the notes and pictures to his book along with some pictures from our trip to Colorado Springs.  Jeff loved the book and all of the kids just loved seeing all of the younger pictures of their Dad. 

The kids and I took Jeff to Colorado Springs for the weekend to continue the celebration.  We had a fun weekend of horseback riding, touring an air force museum, swimming in the pool and just relaxing with no responsibilities of home or work.

Grandma Judie and Grandpa Bob's Visit

Grandma Judie and Grandpa Bob came out for a week long visit at the end of August.  The goal of their vacation was relaxation and I'm pretty sure we accomplished that goal!  Since they both had just gotten over a nasty sinus infection and Jeff & I were stressed to the max with work, it was nice to have some time to kick back and relax.

 Terry came down for a couple days to get some Mom & Dad time which was nice for us, too, since we hadn't seen him for awhile.  While the kids were in school, we took a day trip to Red Rocks. 

 

 On Friday morning, Jeff and I rode our bikes along with Josh to the middle school.  It is nice that he is not to the age yet where he is embarrassed having his parents take him to school.  We said goodbye to him and decided to ride our bikes to get some breakfast since Grandma Judie and Grandpa Bob were getting Mattea off to school for us.  Unfortunately, our nice morning turned terrible when I hit my front brakes instead of the rear brakes and went head first over the handle bars.  When I lifted up my head and blood was gushing out, I knew it wasn't good.  Jeff jumped into action quickly and asked a concerned woman who had pulled over to call 911.  The paramedics asked me all sorts of questions as they assessed my injuries.  At one point, they had me sit up, but when I started feeling light headed and seeing stars, they laid me back down.  Because I had a head injury, they had to take precautions, so they put a neck collar on me and moved me to the ambulance on a back board and then took me to the Emergency Room.  I ended up with a separated shoulder and four stitches in my head.  I felt pretty lucky to escape with only minor injuries since it truly could have been much worse. 

 

 We decided to take one more day trip with the kids this time and it was such a fun day!  We didn't want to go too far, so we headed up to Estes Park.  (Looking back now, we are all very grateful to have made the trip before the Colorado Flood of 2013!)  We had lunch at a cute diner downtown and then headed towards Rocky Mountain National Park for some beautiful views.  We got in for free thanks to Grandpa Bob!  We all went for a hike at Bear Lake which was a new stop for us.  There was a nice, easy trail that took us all around the lake.  We saw some wildlife on our way out of the park, too!

 

My sweet Mattea

Mattea has a way with words.  I have told her this many times.  She writes the sweetest notes that just melt my heart.  She had to do an assignment for school and I couldn't help but take a picture of it before she turned it in because I want to treasure it FOREVER!!  (Especially when she enters her teenage years and I need to pull it out often to remember the good ole days!)

First Day of School

The kids are back in school!!!  WOOHOO!  Alex started his freshman year at Grandview High School this year.  His school day starts at 7:10am, so his alarm clock goes off at 6:00am... yikes!  He gets up like a champ, but he often grumbles about being tired.  Welcome to the teenage years, my son!  His classes are longer and they alternate schedules each day, so that takes some getting used to, but he is enjoying it so far.  He has men's choir and he said there are a ton of boys in it, so he's excited about that.  He is also taking German which will be interesting.  I had suggested he take Spanish, but Jeff urged him to take German.  We all know that is just so Jeff can take him to Germany to order his beer.  : )  I was so thrilled that Alex actually let me take some pictures of him on his first day.  I did later find out that Jeff had talked to both boys to ensure that they didn't give me any grief when I asked to take their pictures on the first day.  What a sweet hubby!

Josh is in 7th grade this year at Falcon Creek Middle School.  He is quite happy to be the only Dolan at the school.  In true Josh Dolan form, I have already had a call from the Dean because he was caught with a laser pointer flashlight pen which he swears he was only writing with... it's interesting how a teacher would bust a kid for simply writing with a pen, isn't it???  Anyway, that's not to say that Josh is always in trouble at school -- just that he can be a little mischievous at times.  We'll see how the rest of this year plays out.

Mattea started third grade at Rolling Hills Elementary and she ended up with the same teacher that Josh had for fifth grade.  She is super excited to be in third grade this year since that means she can join the choir!  She is all about style right now and comes up with some very creative outfits.  Her style also transcends into other things... we had to take patterned duct tape to her boring pencil box to give it some pizazz.  I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of that!

Last, but not least, is my one "outtake" from our photo shoot.  Right before Josh left on his bike to ride to school on the first day, I said "Let's do a self-portrait!".  So, I turn the camera around, aim it at us, put on my best smile and click.  I turn the camera back around to see if I even got us in the shot and what do I see???  Myself and my little turd kid who made the craziest face.  But, I laughed SO hard that it might end up being one of my favorite pictures.  I know for sure it will be one of the pictures on the collage at his high school graduation!!!

 

 

Broncos Training Camp

Josh and I went to Broncos Training Camp on Friday.  We were both really excited to see the team up close and to see how they are looking going into football season.  The energy at Dove Valley was buzzing and it turned out to be a great day! 

We were in great position to see Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler throw passes to the wide receivers and tight ends.  We also enjoyed watching the running backs catch short passes and run through agility exercises and the special teams run back punts.  It was awesome!

 

It was hot and Josh got a little bored in the middle, but we stuck it out and it paid off.  He ended up with 3 autographs... one of which was Peyton Manning's!  Josh was totally excited about that one - especially since they are birthday twins!!!  Josh had some older kids looking out for him when he was trying to get autographs.  One young man held him up while shouting "Hey Peyton, this cute kid shares a birthday with you!".  That effort didn't pay off the first time, but after Josh and his new found posse moved to another spot in the throng of people vying for Peyton's attention, it did.  The young man got his football signed and then I heard him shout out to Peyton again about Josh sharing this birthday.  Before you know it, Josh is handing his jersey to Peyton AND having a conversation with him about his birthday and his age.  It was an amazing experience... one that neither one of us will forget!!!