Back to school

Now that we have settled into a school schedule, I can finally post some back to school photos and a few other items.

It is hard to believe we have a 7th, 4th and 1st grader. It all just needs to slow down a bit!! So far, I have loved all the kids teachers and they are all enjoying school. Cooper was invited to take Algebra I this year based on his CSAP scores in a pilot program this year (it's the first time his school has done Algebra for 7th graders) and so far, so good. I have had to read his text book along side him so that I can actually help with his homework, but I never minded Algebra. I actually use it all the time at work doing drug calculations, so learning something that has practical use is OK with me. He got to be a part of the 6th grade welcome team as well and loved being part of that. He is playing as much golf as he can and has a couple tournaments this fall, but I selfishly enjoy that he is not in a formal team sport this time of year. His sisters are keeping me plenty busy as it is!

Kaiya's fall meet season is about to gear up, so she has been living in the gym. She has become such good buddies with her gym friends and we've had many of them over to our house now. She seems to juggle her schedule better than I do, so for now it's all good!

Kinley was pretty excited to start 1st grade. She has some of her best buddies in her class, so that was a real bonus. Her dance schedule is nuts right now as she prepares for the Nutcracker in December and we may have to reevaluate it all after that, but she really loves it. If she's not at the dance studio, she's is dancing all over our hardwood floors. This last weekend, she had a performance at a local town festival and did great! I was so proud of her because a toddler from the audience made his way onto the stage and she just ignored him and kept going. Her instructor later pointed out to me that she has watched her go from a dancer to a performer, which is true. The last time she had a performance, she was concentrating so hard that she forgot to smile. This time, she was all smiles! She got to do a ballet number and a group dance.

Just tonight, after receiving a bill from her dance studio that about popped my eyes out of my head, we made the decision to pull her out of that place. It about KILLED me because she was so excited about the Nutcracker, but the fees were beyond reasonable. She is going to try to join the dance company at her sister's gym and see how that goes. As soon as she realized that, she was all smiles and Kaiya has been super supportive and excited to have her sis in the dance studio right next to her gym. :) At least she got to do this super cute dance before we bolted. Check them both out below!

Love this photo . . . blowing me a kiss goodbye

The combined dance companies

Ballet performance

Seven Nations Company Dance

Lindhardt University!

After 2 years of planning and thinking and organizing and stewing, the bi-annual Lindhardt Family Reunion is in the books! Of course I am biased, but I think it was a huge success and most of the credit goes to Doug. He worked tirelessly on every detail and even had an organized spread sheet for the shopping trip.

Doug's immediate family (parents, siblings and their children) has a reunion every 2 years and it was our turn to host (and it won't be our turn again for 14 more years since there are 7 kids in his family!). Reunions up to this point have been at Doug's parents' house and his brother's house. Seeing that we don't have the room to host 42 people, we made the decision 18 months ago to seek out an alternative location here in Colorado. We did some research and found out that the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park has huge cabins designed specifically for family reunions. One trip up there and we were sold!

The reunion officially started on Saturday afternoon at the cabin, but we had two of Doug's siblings and their families join us for a Rockies game on Friday night. They all stayed here that night and then we caravaned up to Estes Park. It was a great Rockies game and my kids about came unglued with anticipation of the cousins' arrival. They had a big sleepover in our basement that night. The next morning, we took our time getting up and getting breakfast and then packing the car became the big challenge of the day. I have never seen such efficient use of space in my life! All the food was packed and we headed up to Estes about 2 p.m.

The following is a brief day-by-day recap of our adventures . . . . enjoy!!

Day 1 - Saturday, Aug. 14th

Arrival day, unpack, room assignments, and dinner. We ordered 8 large pizzas for the group from Bob & Tony's (our fav spot in Estes) and it was all completely devoured!

Day 2 - Sunday, Aug. 15th

Church day! We had enough people that we decided not to crash our own church so we had our own Sacrament Meeting right in the commons area of the cabin after breakfast. The vaulted ceilings with full windows provided a breathtaking backdrop for the services. Gorgeous! We had talks given by some of the grandkids as well as the siblings and Grandma. We even had a special musical number by the grandkids. It was all so well organized and such a special time!!

We took family pictures after church, had lunch and then headed to the field for a family game of kickball. Good times!! My family joined us for dinner that night and we really just enjoyed the evening catching up with everyone and seeing the Manti Lindhardt's talent skit since Miki had to leave early to go home and be a volleyball star.

Our own Sacrament Meeting

Miki and Baby Kara

Coop and Jacob

Jess and Claire

The Manti Lindhardt Pirate Show

Answering questions during the family quiz

Makenzy, Paul and Emmett

Kaiya and Kara . . . she loved the babies!

Day 3 - Monday, Aug. 16th

Day 3 was spent in Rocky Mountain National Park. We headed up and stopped at Bear Lake for an hour or so and then had a picnic lunch at Sprague Lake. Monday night was Family Home Evening capped off with a talent show of epic proportions. The girls put on a fashion show that they had worked on for about a month and there were skits, singing numbers, and the highlight might have been when Abbie had Uncle Paul pull out her loose tooth in front of the audience.

Coop and Claire waiting for our shuttle at RMNP

At Bear Lake

Grandma & Grandpa taking it all in

Our picnic chiefs

FHE lesson by Grandpa

Talent show, round 2

Getting a little messy!

The much anticipated fashion show

Day 4 - Tuesday, Aug. 17th

This was our free day. Some ventured back into RMNP and went to the top of Trail Ridge Road and saw some elk and other animals while others went into the town of Estes for shopping. The afternoon was spent doing all of the activities at the YMCA--the craft cabin, swimming, mini golf, tennis, etc. We had a very small world happening while playing mini-golf. The family that we got to know in April during Spring Break in Arizona was playing mini golf behind us! Cooper recognized them and the whole thing still blows my mind. Kinley and their daughter, Julia, became good buddies at the pool in Arizona and here they were. It was crazy!! They are from Minnesota and were in Estes for a wedding. I still catch myself thinking about how wild that was to run into the same family twice.

Estes Park slides

In downtown Estes

Loving the craft cabin!

Our major deja vu experience . . . Julia from Minnestoa!!

Day 5 - Wednesday, Aug. 18th

The kids and I had to leave Tuesday night (all 3 of my kids were bawling as we pulled out simply because they didn't want the reunion to be over) since they started school on Wednesday, but the reunion officially ended at about 10 a.m. as everyone packed up and headed out. The torch was passed on to Doug's sister, Nancy, who is in charge of hosting the next reunion in 2012. We are done for 14 years! Wohoo!! :)

Great memories!!!

The talent show act that stole the show!

End of summer, part 1

Our summer ended with a bang . . . . twice!

We were first treated to a visit home from Uncle Bennett! He got to come home for 3 days before heading back to college. It was awesome! We got to go to the lake with him and then he spent the night Sunday night (Aug. 8th) with us. We got up Monday morning and headed to Jump Street. I have never seen so many sweaty people in my life. We had a blast jumping on all the trampolines and playing dodge ball. We went out to lunch and then had to say goodbye . . . . again. :( I hate seeing my kids cry!!! Of course, Uncle B was a puddle of tears, too. We will see him again at Thanksgiving, but the goodbyes always suck! But, we are planning a Caribbean cruise over Christmas with Bennett and the whole family. Can't wait!!

Loved this pic--Kinley's arms are getting buff like her sister's!

Relaxing in the hammock

Jump Street with Uncle B

Sweaty fun!

The rest of the week was filled with full-blown preparations for the big Lindhardt Family Reunion. We made multiple trips to Costco and other stores getting ready (spent $1400 to feed 42 people for 4 days . . . yikes!). We had lists about our lists and every day was filled with getting things ready. We got new furniture and a new kitchen island countertop installed and spent plenty of time getting the house and yard ready. It was a ton of work, but fun to plan and see it all come together.

Of course, we made it to the pool a few times before the week was over. Kaiya got quite good at putting on a show off the diving board and I am now an expert on removing green color from blonde hair.

Look closely--Kaiya is upside down!

We also attended Cooper's year end baseball party. His coach's comments almost brought me to tears talking about how hard he works and how other teams and even the umpires always made comments about his work ethic and sportsmanship.

Super cute cake by one the team moms

All of the third year players (minus Kaden, who was on vacay)

Neat speech--made his mom cry

Kicking back

Kinley also had her year end Daisy celebration. She absolutely loved Daisies this year and they did so many neat crafts and service projects. It was fun to see all the girls together.

Daisy end of summer party

Not ready for summer to be over!!!! :(

A little of this & a little of that

As the summer is winding down, so is my body. We have packed so much into this summer, but it has been great. I absolutely love summer and I'm not really ready for the routine of school to kick in.

In the last couple weeks, we have . . .

1. Finished Cooper's summer baseball season. They won the first game and then lost the next two, but had an awesome season. Cooper caught 16 straight innings in the tournament in the heat and did great. There were a few tears after the last loss--he HATES losing. So proud of that kid!

Great shots taken by my amazing photographer friend (thanks, Kris!!!)

2. Attended a fun outdoor concert with my dad.

Waiting for the music to start!

3. Sent Cooper on his first week-long scout camp . . . with no dad! He did so great and we could not be more pleased with the report we got from his leaders about how he did. Oh, and did I mention that his camp was visited on numerous occasion by BEARS! I still can't really think about it.

4. Had one car break down and got the other one into a parking lot accident that is still not resolved. Grrr!! After working for the at-fault driver's insurance company for 10 years and knowing the system, I am not happy!

5. Attended my 20-year high school reunion. So fun!!! Saw everyone I wanted to and some I didn't. Ha!

My bestest high school buddies

6. Attended Kaiya's first USAG Level 5 meet. She just missed qualifying for the state meet on her first try. Six more meets to go between now and November.

A fun goodie bag after the meet

Kaiya and her best gym buddy, Sara

7. Shuttled Kinley to and from dance all week (thank goodness for a wonderful carpool buddy!) and gearing up for her winter Nutcracker performance for which she auditioned and got 4 parts.

8. Got 24 hours with my best friend, Lori, in town. We stayed up chatting til 3:30 a.m. and then went for a run the next morning before I had to ship her off to her own 20 yr. high school reunion in Denver.

9. Started the final preparations for the big Lindhardt Family Reunion, which we are hosting in Estes Park in two weeks. Many hours spent creating a theme, planning activities, etc.! This is our logo--Doug's parents were married in 1962 and there will be 42 people at the reunion representing just his immediate family and their spouses and children. Whew!!

10. Served as Cooper's caddy in a golf tournament (he still has two days to go in the tournament, but so far, so good!!).

Whew!!!!