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So I had the bright idea that I would take the girls to the grand opening of the new American Girl Store in Park Meadows. Not one of my better ideas!
So we had to get up early to take Wyatt to meet his Boy Scout troop for a snow cave camp-out. Unfortunately for Stryder that meant that he would have to come with the girls and me since Jason is working and was asleep during the day.
We dropped Wyatt and headed for the mall. We got there at 8:45 and we couldn’t believe the line. I knew it would be busy, but NEVER expected that it would be that long.
We got in line and it was so cold!! The wind was blowing, and it was freezing. We made it to 10:50, and the kids were cold, Chloe had to use the restroom, and the line had NOT MOVED AT ALL!! They wanted to leave, but come back after lunch to check how long the line was. So I agreed.
I wanted to go to Old Navy to look for some shorts for them. Spent a little while trying on shorts, and each one got an outfit. Stryder was excited that he found a Marvin the Martian shirt. I told Stryder before we left that he got to choose where we had lunch. Of course I thought that we would be in and out of the American Girl store by then! HA!!! Since the girls wanted to see how long the lines were again, he choose Subway at the mall. Back to the mall we go!
After lunch we went back down to check out the lines! They weren’t as long as this morning, but still long. The girls wanted to stay and wait again. I wanted to leave and tried my best to get them to agree to come back next week during the week. Chloe finally agreed to go home, and Olivia broke down in tears. She wanted so badly to stay. She kept saying “I never get to go to the doll store!” I just didn’t have the hear to make her go. We got there at 1:45, and by 2:30 we had moved a good bit. However it wasn’t close enough. There were some girls behind us that were the same age as Chloe and Olivia, so that helped pass the time. They all had their dolls to play with. Their moms, and I took turn taking the kids to go get hot chocolate at Borders, and bathroom breaks. So instead of having to leave our place in line we just held the spots for each other. That was a HUGE help.
At 5:00pm we got in the store.  For a total of 5 hours 15 minutes in line! The girls were so excited. They got to look at all the dolls, and pick out 2 outfits each! Thanks to Grammy!! They also got t-shirts that say American Girl Denver. They were so tired, but were really good. And Stryder, well what can I say, he was so good. He didn’t really complain at all!! Grammy was so impressed that she is going to buy him a DS game for being such a trooper!!
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With the Laster pack down to one old, grumpy blind dog, the kids certainly had a legitimate gripe. It’s hard to play fetch with a blind dog. Steph and I spent some time looking at breeds that would be a good fit for our family. We settled on a possibility of a rat terrier (or rattie). There is a breeder (10 kitty farm) down south of Pueblo so we all loaded up and drove south the day after Christmas. We really weren’t sure about these dogs because of our lack of exposure to them. However once we got there that was shortlived, and we just fell in love with them. We spent a good amount of time deciding between “riley” and “rosalee”. Both had a great temperament with the kids, but the end decision was that rosalee liked to climb so we went with the more grounded “riley”. All the way home was spent brainstorming names, and in the end Oliver was decided on ( we call him Ollie).

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You can find more of Ollie and the family Here

With SolVista opening this weekend we headed up to the high country for some time on the slopes. While most of the runs were not open this early, we did have some fun. Chloe started to learn how to ride, and Olivia can ski all by herself now.

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With snow still on the ground it was a little chilly, but the kids seemed to have a great time.  Wyatt worked in the House of Fear haunted house again this year.  He took his friend Molly with him.  They said it was a lot of fun.  Stryder dressed up as some kind of masked creature.  We still aren’t sure exactly what he was.  Chloe was a 70′s chick, and Olivia was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.  Jason walked around with the kids while I stayed home and gave out candy.  We put our fire bowl in the drive way, and I had a nice fire to sit in front of while I gave out candy.  It was also nice for the other parents out with their kids to warm up by before going off to other houses. Had a nice surprise when Troy, Leah and their kids stopped by to do a little trick or treating with us.   All in all it was a fun night.  Here are a few pictures.

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We had a wonderful time taking the day to see all that DMNS has to offer. We were able to see some of the Genghis Khan exhibit as well a lots of other neat stuff. Chloe even had some publicity shots taken of her for the Museum.
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Every year since we moved to Colorado Steph and the kids have taken a trip to see Hammond’s candy made, and every year I always miss it. This year was different and I got to go.
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The twins turned 9 this year. Seems like a very long time since trying to learn how to change two diapers in record time. This year we had a party at the bowling alley, which was very cool. They each invited some of their friends and had a good day.
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Olivia has been asking to get her hair cut for several weeks now.  I have been hesitating.  She has such pretty long hair, and she will still let me put hair bows in.  On Thursday she woke up with a huge knot in the back.  I guess her hair was still a little damp when she went to bed.  It was horrible to get out.  So I decided to get her hair cut.  She wanted it as short as Chloe’s but Momma wasn’t ready for that.  So what she ended up with was having 8 inches cut off.   Here are before and after pictures.

I know this is a little behind, but I thought better late than never.

Friday August 7 – Stryder and Chloe are starting 3rd grade, and Olivia is starting kindergarten!  I can’t believe it!  Time is going by really fast.  Everyone is very excited about starting school.  Olivia is beside herself about finally getting to go with everyone to school.  It was a little hard for mom to get up early.  I have been so used to sleeping until at least 9:00 that getting up at 6:00 was rather hard.  All the kids got up with no problems or fussing.  Wyatt would not start school until Monday, but he had to get up early too.  He didn’t like that very much but he wanted to get to spend the day with Jason and I by himself.  We had a surprise for him.

So its off to school after a few pictures.  Jason was working so he had to meet us at school.  With a 30 minute drive to school Olivia fell asleep in the car.  So when we got to school she was a little cranky.  She wasn’t as excited as she had been.  Once we got inside and she woke up a little more she was fine. Stryder and Chloe were off once we got into the building.  Jason and I barely got out a “Have a good day, we love you”!  We waited with Olivia to go into her classroom.  She was very excited by this time.  Jason was holding up pretty well.  He was very tired after being up all night, and his baby girl was going to kindergarten.  I think that Jason took it harder than I did.  Of course Olivia was fine in her class.  She found her cubby, put her backpack and lunch box away and sat on the carpet in the gathering place.  She was ready!  With a wave good bye, Jason and I left.  I have to say it was strange.   The PTO was holding a BooHoo/Yahoo  for parents at a deli across the street from the school so we headed over there.  There were not many parents there that were crying, most seemed pretty happy that school was starting.  I know that Jason and I were glad.  We stayed there for a little while, and then headed to a friends house.  Like us, she was sending her last child to kindergarten, and was really happy about it.  She was hosting a champane breakfast for a few people who were sending off the last child to school.  We knew several people there  and got to meet some new ones.  It was nice.  All of those parents were like us, glad and happy about the last once finally being in school.

Jason and I surprised Wyatt by taking him to see Harry Potter since it was his last day of summer break and the others were all in school.  He was excited about that.  Jason made it through the movie, without going to sleep.  By this time he was on 20 hours of no sleep.  After the movie we took Wyatt to lunch.  Then it was time to go back to school.  Olivia’s class was having popsicle party during the last 30 minutes of school, so we wanted to go back to that.  The 3rd grade had a popsicle party after school.    It was a very good first day of school.

Monday-August 10- Wyatt’s first of 7th grade  (Middle School!!!!  Yikes! )

Wow, I can’t believe that I have a middle schooler!  We got up with no problems this morning.  Everyone is still excited about school.  Wyatt doesn’t seem nervous at all.  He has been really excited about starting a new school, and starting middle school.  He is also really excited about riding the school bus.  The bus stop is about a 10 minute walk from our house, and we ask him if he wanted us to walk with him.  He said it didn’t matter to him, but you could tell that he really didn’t want us to.  So I stayed home and Jason walked with him half way.  Jason could see the bus waiting, and then he came back.  Wyatt walked the rest of the way there.  He said that he had a great day.  He has now had 3 days of school and he is still excited about it. I have a few pictures, Wyatt would only let us take one.

Another Magness Adventure Camp for young Cub Scouts has come and gone. I took Stryder the past few days and we had a fantastic time here. Lots of fun shooting BB guns, Bows & Arrows, as well as some cool tomahawks.
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