Our newest adoption!

Meet our newest adopted furry friend. His name is Hot Fudge. He is the sweetest baby guinea pig! Camille and Lily adore him (especially Camille). We decared adoption day to be his birthday, and we had a hot fudge sundae party to celebrate!

dance class

Camille has taken her first dance class this summer, just for 6 weeks. They did ballet, tap and tumbling. I think Camille likes getting dressed up the best. She doesn't want to wear the tights because they make her too hot. We got to sit in on the last class, but it was difficult to take pictures. I mostly videotaped for Matt, who was out of town. She's thin and looks like a dancer all dressed up, but like anything else it would take a lot of work to get good at it.

I'm concerned about over-involving her next year when she starts kindergarten. Camille told me that she wants to do Gymnastics, church choir, ballet and piano. I think we'll just stick with the first two and then see how the year goes. If she did all those things, she would unfortunately be eating a lot of quick dinners like PB&J and scrambled eggs. I'm not sure the rest of us would like that meal situation!

Daddy's birthday cake. He's the big 33.

Camille lost her first tooth on Daddy's birthday. She was so brave about it. I guess we can't deny that she's growing up!

Popsicles outdoors. Always a good excuse not to wear clothes:)

Lily's been feeding the cat again!

C and L love to paint. Here they're working on painting wooden hooks that we are making to hang PJs on in their rooms. They later stenciled flowers on (though that's not in the picture). Unfortunately we've been so busy that we haven't gotten around to finishing the project yet.

Photo catch-up

Camille and Lily enjoying the slip-n-slide in the backyard.

Our new patio cover.

I taught Camille to needlepoint this summer. She likes to do it while watching TV and while riding in the car.

Ready for a bike ride? (I don't know what's with the jump rope around Camille's waist. Maybe it's a leash.)

Lily loves to be free of clothes in the back yard. Both girls love to play with the hose and in our little back yard inflatable pool. This is what we found the other day.

Matt and Jamey's side-trip

While Matt and Jamey drove back to Texas from Colorado (the girls flew home) they took a side trip way up high. They actually saw some snow. This visitor center is only open a few months each year because most of the year it's under snow.

They saw elk grazing!

This tree line is interesting, above which no trees grow. Above the tree line there is only tundra, which Matt reports takes many years to grow.

This was a whole bunch of steps up to the top of a rock!!

Steamboat vacation

This whole building is two units of a duplex. It was impressive inside and out. Camille and Lily called it "Our Colorado House." The next pictures show the view from the driveway looking out.

After rain, the clouds were actually at our level.

The bike trails were great. We took a family adventure on the bikes. The first day we tried, Matt ended up getting a flat tire, and we had to abort. The next day we went, we spent time at the aborteum on the trail and then ended up riding back in pouring down rain. It was an impressively wet and cold ride back.

We called him a Baylor bear.

There were signs around the arboretum with "secret trails" and Camille thought these were an exciting adventure.

Alpine Slide--Steamboat

Camille, Matt and Papa rode up the chairlift and then rode down a big slide down the side of the mountain. Camille had a blast and did it several times, braver each time. Matt said by the end she was telling him to go faster.

Waterfall in Steamboat

We hiked to an impressive waterfall. The photos don't really capture the scale of it. Lily insisted on walking with her hands in her pockets.

Steamboat

After riding up the gondola we ate lunch and hiked a bit. Lily was hard to take along because all she wanted to do was play in the gravel. She did it over and over, and wouldn't keep walking. We aborted the hike. Beautiful scenery!!