Colorado vacation: Well, we did that.

The Ellis family took a week-long trip to Colorado last week. We rented a house in Breckenridge (lukewarm review pending) and spent a lot of hours in the great outdoors.

We caravaned out in three cars and most of us spent our first night at Jared's mom's house in Loveland, while a few beer-loving souls travelled on to Golden, Colorado for a tour of the Coors factory the next morning. Instead of beer, the rest of us loaded up on breakfast food and coffee, Graham included. 

Our started off our first full day with a sisters (and boys) workout early that morning. We ran along a creek through town and stopped later for a gondola ride and other random photo ops.

We spent the afternoon exploring the town and buying souveniers. 

It was a busy and active week. We took a few different hikes. The first was much longer and tougher than we had planned. It was up to a waterfall and it took us a good 3 hours. Bailey came along and was leading the group the entire time. 

The second hike was much easier and only about 30 minutes uphill. We came to a small lake and ate our picnic lunch and checked out the trout swimming around.

The last hike was basically a tiny walk to a scenic overlook of Lake Dillon. And home of countless hungry chipmunks.Adults and kids alike got a huge kick out of feeding them.

We spent one morning white water rafting - which was so much fun! It was through Brown's Canyon on the Arkansas River and rated an "intermediate" level. It was a great trip to start with, but it would be fun to do an advanced rafting trip next time. The guys were in the front of the raft, so they took the brunt of all the cold water (around 40º) but we all got our share of freezing cold water at one point or another. 

We relaxed as well, hitting up a local brewery or two and hanging out in the hot tub at night. One night we played The Game of Things and were laughing till we were crying. (If you haven't played it, you really need to.) We also celebrated Fe's 30th birthday with a small surprise for her one night. 

The trip was memorable for all of us. The mountains were new to all of my sisters, and they all left wanting to come back soon. And I think a few of us were bit by the hiking bug - including Bailey! We all had fun, and who knows, maybe there is another Colorado trip in the future for us sisters some day.  :)

run, Bailey, run!

We all survived elementary track & field day.

Just barely. 

I enjoyed it. I get a kick out of the little kids. You can tell which ones are already super competitive and which ones are laid back. A stray toddler ran on to the track to run after a relative. Many shoes went flying as their owners wove in and out of lanes during that long 50 meter sprint. It was entertaining.

Bailey was excited to run, but I think she was more focused on trying to locate us in the stands than on her actual race.

Speaking of the stands...
Graham.
He barely survived the track meet.
Have I mentioned that this kid is adventurous with zero fear?

As the races were finishing up, we sat next to a friend in the stands. She was telling me that her son was afraid of the bleachers because she warned him that he could fall through if he wasn't careful. I'd already told Graham the same thing, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to reiterate. 
Not even 60 seconds later, Graham fell off the 2nd-top-the-top row of bleachers, looking like a game of pinball all the way down to the bottom where he hung above the ground by his elbow.

That was game over. He didn't come back from that one. Although he wasn't really hurt, he was already tired from missing his nap, and the fall just added insult to injury. Off he went, home with Jared. 

There were no winners at the track meet. No one was measuring or keeping tally of anything, which was nice. They all just got to try their hands at the different running and field events, and everyone was having a good time.

Bailey did well at long jump, although I missed her best jump since I was dealing with the injured 3 year-old climber.

That long, curly ponytail makes me smile.

The day finished up with some tug-of-war competitions.
I am not exaggerating when I say that Bailey took this very seriously.
I've never seen her so competitive. 

She went straight to beast mode. 

She was pulling on that rope so hard, she started basically stealing rope from the other team and ended up near the middle of the entire rope by the end. Her enthusiasm got a lot of laughs from the crowd, and she was beaming with pride when her team won.

It's a good thing that it was enjoyable because we have a lot of these days in our future.

May photo randoms

Birthday Breakfast: Daddy's Famous Cinnamon Roll + 5 candles

Grandma Snuggles

Grandpa Wheelbarrow Rides

New in the Solko household
It's like that weird extra room was just waiting for this piano to show up and complete it.

Ladies' Tea at church

I thought digital cameras made it fool-proof and virtually impossible to cut off someone's head. 
Guess not. 
Boo.

Tiny bowls for tiny chefs

The hat and pink aviators. 
Be still my heart.

Planting with Daddy

A scolding from Daddy

 Back yard chillin' and cupcakes with Papa Alan

Always Fighting/Kicking/Pinching/Hitting/Arguing

"Push me, Papa!"

 Painting

Photography by Bailey

 Photography by Graham

Photography by Avery

Workshoppin'!

Avery's 5th Birthday Weekend

Avery is five years old.
That seems way too old and not quite old enough at the same time. This child has been acting five for at least two years.

It was a full weekend, let me tell ya. 
For the first time ever, we had every grandparent present at the same time for a birthday party. (With the exception of my grandpa Lyle who was at home being a sick party pooper.)

And since everyone was present and this might never happen again, I made everyone pose for a picture. Cathy and I planned the spot in advance, I put it on rapid-fire-self-timer mode, and even Tucker was nice enough to hop in and humor me. 

There wasn't really a theme. Since Avery loves anything art, we took all her drawings and paintings and threw them up on the wall. Add in balloons, and other randomness and there ya have it. She requested a strawberry cake and I made chocolate cupcakes for the chocolate addicts on the Ellis side, along with a big supper for everyone.

Happy 5th Birthday, Avery Josephine!

More weekend photos coming soon.

Mother's Day

I got some cute things for Mother's Day. 

Avery made me a heart necklace at school. The heart was a mold of her thumbprints. 
Really sweet. 
The not so great part, she decided it was for her to wear and lost it within an hour.

Bailey made like approximately 21 cards in the days leading up the Mother's Day. One of them featured a picture of her and her dad holding hands. 
Hmmm... okay...
She did make a very beautiful painting at school complete with a rainbow and a portrait of me. With a bright red face. (Apparently she was picturing post-workout Vanessa when she colored that one.)

Jared is a very thoughtful gift-giver and this year was no exception. Along with scoring a sweet clearance deal on a make-up bag I was wanting/needing, he also made me this sign with my favorite verse from Romans 12:12.

And it's so cute, why not make more for sale on Etsy too, right?!  :)

Since we had family here all weekend for Avery's birthday party, it was a full family Mother's Day. We went to church, ate lunch out, and spent the afternoon outside planting and enjoying the sun.

I love these little people who are all just as crazy as their father and me. (And aunts. And grandpa Jeff.) 

4th Annual Sisters' Overnight

Formerly called the Sisters' weekend, this was a one-nighter.

Per usual, we got a hotel room and then found random things to do.
Like take odd-ass pictures on the hotel bed.
Because a doggie pile photo has to turn out great, right?!

Beaner came up with a new idea that we were all game to try. It's a place called Entrap Games in Omaha.
The premise is that you are trapped in a room with your group and you have to solve the clues in order to escape within the 60 minute time frame. 

We chose "The Cure" room, which had a 55% solve rate.
We were locked in and had to find the vial containing the cure to a deadly virus and escape the room before we were found.

Before going in we (drank a beer and) took bets on whether or not we would solve it within the 60 minutes. Everyone but Beaner was mildly confident that we would get it accomplished. I wasn't exactly sure, but fake-it-till-you-make-it sounded like a good enough idea to me.

It was a ton of fun. It was a bit awkward to start because we didn't exactly know how to even start, but once we got going, we were really in the zone. We worked really well together as a team.
And -shocker!- we solved it with 24 minutes to spare!

It was such a good time that I would definitely do another room again sometime. Maybe even a harder one. It is definitely the perfect activity for my inner Nancy Drew nerd. (I think I read every single one of those books as a kid.) I highly recommened it to any other Nancy Drew nerds out there.

That night we tried to use the hot tub and found it a steamy 80 degrees. Apparently we have bad hot tub luck. (See also Trip 2015.)

The rest of the trip just involved the usual laughing and eating. 
Every time we get together, I leave feeling very thankful that I was blessed with sisters.


Sisters Getaway 2015
Sisters Getaway 2014
Sisters Getaway 2013

found on my phone

I don't take photos with my phone much. If it's handy, sure. But if the photo is even somewhat important, I try to get out the good camera. 
So that means that lots of the photos on my phone are slightly blurry or downloaded from a Snap I took and sent to family.

And what usually happens is that I forgot I ever took them, and I am surprised to randomly find them months later.

Like this one last month before Boo's first concert.

Easter morning, anxiously awaiting the egg hunting

Have I mentioned this guy is obsessed with stealing my coffee?
Some days I will take one or two drinks, leave to do something for a few minutes and come back to find the entire mug empty.
And then I find him, and he is smiling really, really big.

This lady taking a nap on me in the doctor's office (Hour #2).

It seems there are seasons in parenting: all-night feeding season, diapers, constant activities, the teen years... 

But is there supposed to be a UTI season?

We're still trying to get to the bottom of all the issues, and we're trying whatever we can think of.

Currently: chiropractic. 

Photography by Avery Jo.

She really captured his essence, don't you think?