Kumon, Kumon, Kumon

We have been traveling a lot this summer, so we haven't had much chance to go to Kumon school, the boys have been working hard though every day on their maths and reading.  It must be working as Cody did Tyler's second grade spelling test today and scored 8/10 without seeing the words in advance.

Three weeks of Kumon

Tyler with his missing teeth

Tyler and Cody goes thru the car wash

Alan's car started to smell like something died in there, so we thought it was time to get it washed. I took the kids with me so they could go thru the car wash and i had an evil plan while i was there.

I've always liked to wind down the windows when it was time for the dry cycle. So, here's the video of the kids going thru it. The funny part is at the end.. so be patient. And there's no sound as my phone is broken.

Hiking at Eldora Canyon

It is sad to say we haven't been hiking much this summer at all. So, after being inspired by our camping trip last weekend, i decided to make use of whatever summer weather we've got to catch up with some hiking!

Alan chose Eldorado Canyon and it was a lovely hike. On the way up, we were telling the boys that we were visiting a hotel at the top of our hike and spoke of all the drinks and ice cream that they could possibly serve when we get there. So, they weren't too happy to find out the hotel had burned down 100 years ago when we got there!!

We did let them splash in the cold stream at the end of the hike for a little treat, but then they complained it was too cold!

Cody not too pleased that we "lied" to him

Old fireplace left from the fire

At the "hotel" site!

Continental Divide overlook

Beautiful view of the canyon walls

It's too cold mommy!

Last Supper - Raclette

Grandma and Grandad are headed home tomorrow, so we did one last supper meal.  We made Raclette, although we couldn't find any raclette cheese so had to make do with some other cheese.

Damith, Sabrina, Siobhan and Aneira stopped by to share some donuts with us and say goodbye.

All in all a very busy month!

Cheese anyone?

Donuts after our first day of school

The boys went back to school today. Luckily for me they are now both going to Hulstrom, so a few less car trips each day!

As a treat and as Grandma and Grandad were still here we picked them up and took them to Krispy Kreme for donuts. Cody ate one and a half and Tyler two donuts so maybe school is making them hungry (or they didn't eat much of their lunch!)

Donuts for everyone

First Day of school

Summer is suddenly over and the kids are back in school! Tyler is in 2nd grade this year and Cody is in Kindergarten at his new school - Hulstrom.

All of us, including Grandma and Granddad went to school with them to cheer them on. Cody started off with great spirits and got weepy when we got to the school. Tyler on the hand was completely at ease the moment he saw his friends and never gave us a backward glance.

They had a little parade for the little ones and it was super cute. By then Cody was cheering up a little and even cracked a little smile.

Quite happy to hold his Kindergarten sign

Got a little clingy

Tyler all cool with his friends

Getting a little weepy

Cody's class in the parade

Cracking a little smile

Tyler's all cool.. with hands in pocket!

Though wasn't so happy to carry his sign and smile for his picture crazy mommy!

A trip to the science museum

Tyler and Cody go back to school tomorrow so we just had time to get a last trip in to the Denver Science Museum.

We did the usual exhibits but also got a chance to see the new temporary shows of Poison and Mythical Creatures.

Mammoths have been a summer theme!

Getting ready for poison

Build a Bear

Grandma had promised the boys they could build a bear so after we watched the minion movie and our lunch we went to the build a bear store to build a bear!

Tyler had already built a bear with Grandma many years ago, so he knew what he wanted to do, Cody had not done so before and didn't seem as confident but all credit to him for going with a radical choice.

Here are the boys getting the bears ready, and the final bears.

Ready to stuff our bears

Stuffed, bathed, dried

Fluffy, Awesome, Army and Bronco

A visit to the zoo

We took a trip to Denver Zoo this morning to spot a bear, so that Patrick could nearly experience all of the Yellowstone animals.

As luck would have it they were also doing a lego exhibition so Tyler and Cody went round the zoo looking for plastic animals instead of real ones.

Ready for the animals

Riding the train

Riding the train - second row

Up close with the tiger

Up close with the leopard

Adding another bison to our count

Dinner at Lena

We had to go out for one posh meal before the Grandparents went home, so I picked one of 5280's best new restaurants.  Lena  claims to be Latin American inspired, it was noisy for sure, and the food was good but not great.  Highlight of the day seemed to be the fish tacos.

Fish Taco

We followed up with a trip to sweet action ice cream, where everyone enjoyed a variety of flavors and Cody got a hot fudge sundae much to everyone's surprise.

Florissant Fossil Beds

Our last long trip of the vacation was to the Florissant fossil beds  This is only around 70 miles as the crow flies, but around 2 and a half hours driving to get there.  The website looked interesting, it sounded like we would get to see a lot of fossilized tree stumps, but my recommendation if you are traveling from Denver is to just look at the website.  Not sure the five hour round trip is worth it on its own to see a few stumps in the ground.

On the plus side we did learn about mammoths and humans and the bear who was tied to the stump and it is a pretty drive for the last 30 miles.

Arriving at the visitor center

We came all this way for this?

Dramatic twisty tree

This must be the big stump

Forney Museum and Hammonds Candies

We had been traveling a lot the previous week, so this week we had a gentle start.  A visit to the Forney museum followed by a trip to Hammond's Candies.

Reading the website the Forney museum sounds like a lot of fun. Plenty to see for the kids and adults. It turns out that it is not really oriented towards enjoyment. Dire warning about being thrown out for touching anything, kids not being able to run, shout, or do anything a kid might do, and to cap it all even the signs (enclosed in glass) have signs saying do not touch the signs.  Leave everything in lockers and the door has to be opened by the receptionist.  Not this much security in the Louvre.

They did have a lot of cool exhibits, and Patrick got to see some Indian motorcycles and we did get to have our picture taken on on exhibit. Not sure if the car was too wide, or the backdrop too small, but they could have gone the extra mile!!

Driving the model T

What it really looks like

Our second excursion of the day, as it was very close was a trip to Hammond's candies They have gone a bit more high tech than last time we came as they now have a video and quiz.  The tour is pretty much the same and we didn't get to see too much being made. They were making sweets for Christmas already though and the boys and Grandparents enjoyed the free sample, before spending a small fortune in the shop!

Now that's a rock

Figure 8 racing at Colorado National Speedway

We took Grandma and Grandad to the racetrack on Saturday night to see the car crashes.  Lets be honest this is why people go to the races.  The racetrack had a lot of different races but our favorite was the figure 8 racing.  There were a lot of very loud cars, there were a lot of people doing the chicken dance and even a powercut.

Watching and Eating

Cars coming round

Crazy 8's

Crossing the middle

Stairs and loft completed

We came back from our trip and were eager to check out the new stairs and loft area.  It looks a lot better with the hardwood floors. The wall still needs work, we will get to that next month, but overall we really like it, and Evelyn's paint job on the side of the stairs looks good.

New stairs, white sidewalls

Looking from the loft area

Loft area looking good

The Mileage game

At the beginning of the week we all made our mileage predictions for the total amount of miles traveled on our trip.

Cody - 1,234 Miles
Alan - 1,297 Miles
Grandad - 1,331 Miles
Grandma - 1,350 Miles
Tyler - 1,424 Miles

We kept a daily running total and as we got to the final day, it was very close

Day 1 - 362 Miles
Day 2 - 34 Miles    (396 Total Miles)
Day 3 - 245 Miles (641 Total Miles)
Day 4 - 320 Miles (961 Total Miles)

As we sped home we were calculating who was going to be the winner, as we pulled into the drive we had driven another 337 miles, leaving us with a grand total of 1,298 miles.

So Alan was the driver and the winner and despite accusations of changing routes, cutting corners and all round cheating I was awarded the grand prize (tbd)

The final results. everyone pretty close