She is Tyler and Rachel's first and only cousin on Jeff's side of the family so far, so we were very excited to meet her.
Tyler and Rachel loved talking to her and giving her special attention...maybe a little too much attention at times. Tyler took a special interest in baby Alyssa and would go over and talk to her and touch her whenever she woke up. I think he is going to be a very attentive brother to our baby in a few months.
On July 4th we went to Rock Ledge Ranch and participated in their festivities. The boys helped saw some wood. Lots of hard work and sweat. The kids were put to work learning to wash clothes. We only had one mishap where we dropped an article of clothing in the dirt and had to rewash it. I am very grateful for washing machines, and I am sure my kids are too.
They also had some fun activities to participate in. Rachel made a corn husk doll.
They also had some stilts to try out. Jeff was excited to show off his stilts skills. Last year we tried out the stilts and Jeff got the hang of it pretty fast and he hadn't lost his touch. A couple of us tried our hand at stilts walking, but Jeff showed us up.
There were also games in the barn for the kids to do. Their favorite was searching for candy in the hay.
Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July!
July 5th we went to Cave of the Winds. We have never been there and thought it might be fun since the kids have never been in a cave. It was super busy! We waited over an hour for our turn to go in the cave and then in the cave it was super crowded and our tour group had to stop several times and wait for groups ahead of us. It was not a good day to go. Poor Alyssa wasn't too happy to be stuck in a cave needing a diaper change. There were no good picture opportunities so here is the best photo I got:
That evening we went to the Skysox baseball game. We stuck around and saw the fireworks in the stadium. On the 4th we sat across the street and saw the fireworks. They were much more impressive from the stadium itself.
Sara had her birthday while she was out here. We decided to throw her a party....including games geared for a 6 year old kid. So we played mummy wrap with crepe paper:
(We used a lot of crete paper)
We played bean bag toss
And we played an egg relay race
Unfortunately, we had a hard time playing the game without a little cheating i.e. pushing. We played the game 3 times to try and get a true winner without pushing or blocking. It was a very intense game.
Sara opened her presents. I don't know if she was more excited for the homework assignment Marc and Ashleigh gave her or the gooey spider we gave her. She may choose to have her birthday somewhere else next year.
Hopefully she enjoyed the rest of her gifts.
We also took a trip to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. They have a new elephant exhibit that Rachel hadn't seen. We were in the new elephant exhibit an hour and a half. Rachel was fascinated. She loves elephants!
We were at the elephant exhibit at just the right time. It was feeding time for the elephants and they allowed people to pay extra and feed the elephants. Rachel was very excited to get close to the elephants. She wanted to pet it, but feeding it was pretty cool too. First Jeff took her to feed it a carrot and lettuce:
Then she requested Grandma take her to feed the elephant again, so she fed the elephant with Grandma too.
Afterward we watched an elephant demonstration and saw one of the elephants get washed.
We did visit other animals too.
Petting the wallabies
Watching the bears.
Feeding the giraffes:
(Sorry Jeff, your tongue doesn't even compare to a giraffe's)
And what is a family reunion without matching shirts? Well, our shirts weren't totally matching, but along the same theme.
(You need to see Downton Abby to understand the shirts.)
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