Crazy Rider

G2 loves to ride his bike.  He constantly asks us to take him to bike jumps and the neighbor kid made him a little ramp that he loves to ride/jump over.  G2 has been to the skate park and the pump park (where you can ride jumps and aren't supposed to have to pedal...just ride and jump by moving your body and your bike) and has loved it.  The other two kiddos tag along and kind of putz around don't do much while G2 is just loving life the entire time he is riding his bike.  The kid is crazy in love with his bike and can be found riding up and down the sidewalk at rapid speed by our house with his cape and helmet.  His latest trick is to try and ride with only one hand.  My stomach just has butterflies the entire time he is doing this stuff.  This video is G2 on some bike jumps near our house.  You cannot see how fast he is flying down the hill and on this particular jump he doesn't get much air but it's the best we've captured on video.  I love how he crashes when he rides through the tumble weed at the end which is nothing compared to his other ventures! 

Fall Hike

Is it God shining down on my family or is it possible an alien space ship is ready to abduct them?

This is a picture heavy post but I cannot help myself.  The fall foilage is so beautiful around here this year.  Brad spends his free time mountain biking so he knew where to take us to see some gorgeous red leaves...we weren't disappointed!

G2 striking a pose in the red leaves.

Maisy looks like she is posing for a glamour shot.

This was a true family hike with both pups joining us.  Maisy is getting old and is slightly blind and pretty darn deaf but we still try to take her for outings.  She does not like car rides at all but once we are there she enjoys her time out of the house.  The kids had a great time hiking.  They were running and yelling and using their imaginations the whole time.  And when we get G1's nose out of a book, she can carry on quite interesting conversations.

Olivia bikes with Brad as much as possible and she LOVES to get out and run along the trail.  She was non-stop the entire time.  I love this picture of her with her tongue hanging out and her going close to full speed.  Hard to believe she will turn 10 next week!

One of the super bright red trees!

Brad bikes portions of the trail we hiked on.  Here is the trail marker where he cuts off to head up and over the mountain.  We feel so lucky to live in a town where outdoor recreation is right out our backdoor!

Yellowstone Day trip

The 3 Kozmo's at Yellowstone National Park

 We hadn't been to Yellowstone in a little over two years so we decided to do a quick day trip to see if we could catch any cool animal sightings, particularly elk at this time of year.  Due to a late outing the night before, we had a bit later start than we hoped. But, it's only a few hour drive away so we knew we could still get in a day of sights so we were off! The trees on the way to the park were beautiful.  I am not sure I have ever seen any leaves so bright and beautiful before!  The colors were absolutely amazing!!

A quick visit to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
If you look in the pic you can see the waterfall way far
in the back of the pic.

 Our first stop was at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  It's quite impressive and breathtaking.  Next we did a few hikes through two different thermal areas where we enjoyed seeing all the bubbling and boiling of the water and mud.  The kids of course loved the sulphur smell (not!)!!  W walked around plugging his nose while hiking. Then we parked on the side of the road and did a little buffalo watching.  They were all pretty far from the road so the kiddos took turns using the binoculars which is always a big hit.  We hadn't seen any elk so far which was a bit disappointing because it is elk mating season and they are a little feisty and in groups which is always fun to watch.  FINALLY, we came upon a group of three she-elk so we pulled over to snap a few pics.  On our way back to our car, we saw a bull elk chasing a mom and young elk over to the group of three we had just been observing.  A couple of tourists were being brainiacs and got a little too close to the fired up bull elk so he charged towards our children who were casually walking through the parking lot.  We thought we were safe....then after the pic below, he turned right towards our Tahoe and we threw open the doors for safety while the kids were scrambling to get inside! 


This bull elk got very close to our car after being scared
by some tourists who were getting a bit to close
to the wildlife!


 

After the elk was safely away, we went back to our original viewing point and watch the young bull elk try to gather a harem.  In the video, you can hear him bugle.  He did this several times and it was awesome.  We were so close (yet out of danger!) and I can only imagine the awesome pics we would have gotten if we had more than a point and shot camera.  

Super Hero Fun

Cutest Super Heroes Ever!

The boys are very into dressing up (nothing has changed here!) and the latest craze at the Kozmo house is to dress as (mostly) SpiderMan (W) or Batman (G2).  So, it was an easy decision that the theme for the boys party this year should be Super Heroes.  Since the boys are BFF's and have many of the same friends or are friends with siblings, we once again combined the boys party.  I recruited a couple of teenage girls, planned some games for them to help facilitate (but seriously, they did it all....I must give credit where credit is due.  They were amazing!), and decided to get a jump house to celebrate that this is W's Golden birthday.  The weather in mid-September here can be variable so I was a bit stressed about that aspect of our outdoor party.  Thankfully, everything fell perfectly into place and I think all of the kiddos had a great time.

The jump house--it was larger than I had envisioned.

Since we had the jump house for the full day, we let G1 invite a group of her friends over after the boys birthday party so they could get some jumping and socializing in before it had to be returned.  I think they had a good time too.  Phew!  Success all around from my point of view. 

Soccer

My soccer boys

Both W & G2 are playing soccer this year.  They are both so excited about their practices and games and love wearing their super cute uniforms to practice and then all day on games days.  W does great at practice and participates and listens to his coach fairly well.  Then when it comes to game time, he kind of fades.  He told me he is not so sure he likes everyone fighting to kick the ball so he just stays to the back of the pack.  That is so his personality...not aggressive and concerned about hurting someones feelings. But, he is enjoying himself and having fun and we are just cheering him on and encouraging him that he too can get a kick or two in on the ball  We want him to have fun and feel a little bit of success as he gains a little bit of confidence out on the field.  His coach is really great and I'm really thankful he is on her team instead of a team where the coach is dead set on winning.   G2 is a totally different story.  He is dead serious about soccer.   He practices with intensity and is all about scoring goals.  At the games, he totally gets the point of the game and although he is definitely not one of the aggressive kids on the field, he works hard to win the ball and attempt to get it down the field.  He has scored multiple goals at each game and is very proud of this and can tell you exactly how many goals he did score.  I love seeing how their different personalities come through in everything we do!

Labor Day hike

One of G1's friend's mom organized a little Labor Day campout.  Even though we couldn't make the overnight portion of the event, we did join the group for a fun little hike.  We even took Maisy and she LOVED all the attention she got from the group of kiddos and was absolutely exhausted when we got home.  One of the things I love about our little town....awesome hikes and views like this, just 30 minutes from our front door. 

1/2 Marathon

Don't be fooled by the medal....all the finishers got one.  But the flower and the water bottle...well, those are my prize for getting 3rd in my age group for the 1/2 marathon!  I love the local 1/2 marathon.  It's a great race, so well organized, some great competition, and a beautiful course.  I love that my family comes to cheer me on along the way.  I couldn't do it without them.  I have always loved to get out for a run, but lately, running has taken on a new meaning for me.  With our super busy life that revolves around our kiddos, sometimes I don't get a lot of time to myself yet running provides me with that.  Gives me a little time to clear my mind and exercise all at the same time.  Plus, I have made a new group of friends who are also running moms and even though I never get to run with them because our schedules just don't match up, we encourage each other and compare notes and injuries.  They are all doing marathons and iron man type races so my couple of 1/2's and 10K's a year look like walks in the park to them but they are great, especially one of the girls who I just love to pieces and has become a good friend.  This time around, I set a PR for this particular course which felt awesome.  I ran my best and most things feel into place although I did have a slight cold which hindered my breathing and led to a side ache but I felt like I paced myself through the race better than I had before and when I finished, I didn't have much left to give.  I hope that if my running can benefit my family in a couple of ways, it would be to help keep me healthy so I a can stay active with them all, that it can show my kids it's important to take a little time for yourself sometimes, and that they see that the effort and consistency I do put into running helped me accomplish a goal (ok, so honestly, I do not really have an awesome running goal except to cross the finish line....but hey, I did that so goal accomplished!)