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A rare moment when Conor slows down enough to cuddle

Nat Kenzie and Grandma had a girls night!!! Kenz loves doing makeup and Natalie does an awesome job.

IMG_3911 On his own, Conor set up a (prime) lemonade stand with two bottles and some candy he got at a party last night. We knocked on Miles door to ask him to come (I gave him the change) and then we set up in the front yard. A few Crystal lite batches later… with marshmallows and jolly ranchers as bonus food… Conor made enough to buy a Lego set! He didn’t charge anything specifically – just took coins or a dollar. Sometimes I gave people coins or sometimes he just gave it out for free. We visited with some new neighbors. He was very convincing because he yelled LEMONADE loudly at everyone. He did get tired. One time he told a woman: “you can do it”.  Haha.

Jordan and I took the big kids to Colorado for five days. Conor got lot of quality G&G and N&P time (Thank you!!!) Before Conor and before COVID, the four of us went on a lot of New England adventures, and we haven’t had much opportunity to travel other than spending time with family or going to a water park hotel in February in WI Dells!

Day 1 – Flew in. Ate lunch at a brewery with outdoor games like Jenga. It was hot and kids — esp. Elliott — had trouble with the altitude and heat. Kids watched shows while E&J met two college friends out for dinner.

Day 2 – Hiking in Golden (~20 minutes away). 3-mile path, but El was still struggling with heat, so he and I didn’t make it quite all the way. We ate lunch and then Natalie and I went tubing down a river (so fun!) while Jordan took E back to the hotel b/c he was hurting quite a bit. I think we had a very easy dinner that night.

Although this was posed, he seriously was doing this 30 seconds before… I think he was plotting how to best climb a rock

Hiking with the prettiest hiker with the best make-up (I’m referring to the younger hiker!)

hotel swimming pool ranged from 2.5 to 3 feet deep! We had to buy this raft to go tubing… we took it back to IL too. It took up half my suitcase.

The wait for this ice cream place was always 1.5 blocks long! We went in the express lane, which only had 15 people ahead of us. The ice cream was good, but not good enough to wait an hour.

Day 3 – We opted for indoors and AC to start the day… and something we knew E would like: Virtual Reality. Although it wasn’t my first pick for an activity, I felt like — if I want the kids to try new things, then I need to too. There was a VR game where we shot arrows at beasts and could be in it all at the same time. That was about my level and fun. Jordan was the expert marksmen. Natalie liked a Spiderman one the most. Then, we went to Jordan’s cousins’ house about 30 minutes away. His aunt and 2 cousins and their families were there. It was fun to visit and crazy to be at a house that is in a mountain suburb. Elliott especially got along with Nick, who is a year younger than him and also loves legos. We drove to an Air B&B in Idaho Springs. J has a pic of our visit with the fam!

Chilling after white water rafting – Idaho Springs was the site of much gold mining

Day 4 – This was the BIG day. The main reason for the trip – White Water Rafting! We had an awesome guide — Everett — and went through a company called AVA. The rapids were Class I-III. Kids would have loved to do Class IV, but only allowed for 14 and older. Natalie fell out of the raft at one point, but we quickly scooped her up. She didn’t get hurt and had a great attitude. Then, a surprise for me… Ziplining! That is as extreme as a sport as I will ever do. I was pretty terrible at it… got turned around, had trouble stopping soon enough. The kids both loved it. I don’t have any pics of this – J has the ziplining pics.

Day 5 – A 3-mile hike that E did much better in. It was cooler and shaded and we talked about the Zelda Nintendo game and Greek mythology a lot. We also stopped by Hammond’s candy factory for a tour.

All in all, a successful trip, and I’m glad we did it. We got funny messages about Conor while we were gone. One from my neighbor…. “We’re on the front porch listening to Conor torture your parents.  GRANDPA!!! GRANDPA!!! ARE YOU COMING OUT?! ARE YOU COMING OUT?! I’M GONNA DO IT! GRANDPA!” We also saw a picture of Conor swimming naked on top of Poppy’s shoulders. He had a great time. I made a mistake of facetiming with him, which didn’t go that well because he said “Why did you forget me when you went on vacation?” and he was tearing up. I got off FT quickly and bribed him with a TV show. (Sorry Mom about the FT!)

Grandma bought Conor some legos last weekend when she watched him. She had given me a heads up that is was incomplete because they started building but then Conor improvised and later lost a piece. She just put everything in my room and texted that Elliott could help fix.

me: Was grandma good at building legos?

Conor: Yes but not very good.

me: Why not?

Conor: She wasn’t very good at my ideas.

Me: well is hard for someone to do your ideas so I’m glad you can do them!

Evidence of Conor’s take on the Lego camper

Must be in the genetics…. Conor loves to build just like his big brother. Elliott prefers sets but Conor is doing well with his own setups. They are helped by the fact that Natalie has some old pieces like waffles. He is making Old Man Fookwires house (from a book) and a boat.

Conor’s post card to the Marx fam

I love you Uncle Rob’s. I went swimming in a pool. I went in a cave. I didn’t see any bags. There was an underground toilet. It was dark. I walked a lot but mom and dad had to carry me a little. I want to swim. When will I see you? I’m going to bring brushy. There are two cats here.

——

We did the main historical tour. It’s about two miles. More than 300 steps up at the end I believe. G N E and I did River Styx which was where an underground river came out of the cave. Today Elliott is spelunking in the cave, and we are canoeing down the Green river.  This trip is my parents retirement gift but it’s been so helpful to have them here, so we should probably be paying them to be with us!

Natalie’s LAX team won a tournament!

Grandma invited Natalie to her house for some G&G&G time (Grandma/Grandpa/granddaughter)… although I have a feeling Grandpa hasn’t been too involved. I heard there was a trip to bath and body works – Natalie’s fav!

Conor was so excited to eat his personal version of banana bread this morning (lots of M&M’s and chocolate chips on top)

Tubing at bang’s lake!

Elliott and friends last day of school… with donuts

Look at this big kid on his last day of school! (Before “summer camp” at his old school) He’s almost 4.5 and definitely the size of a 5 year-old. he barely fits in the bike seat

Lines Field day (water station)

Conor was so excited at his EOY performance! Lots of songs. he said he wants to be a teacher – the next week, he changed it to the boss of the firefighters.

(Almost) last day of 4th grade

a rare family photo

Conor’s last day of school was almost a week ago. The biggest positive is that Conor likes being at “summer camp” at his old school and is happy to go and happy to be picked up. He recognizes a few people from last year – and also has some St. Anne’s friends (Hadley and Miles) who he saw too.

Natalie and Elliott are on day 2. We did Friday night swim and tubing on Saturday. The highlight for Elliott was 10 minutes ago when the Nintendo Switch he has been saving for arrived…. They boys are assembling it now. (He also had an epic 25-hour sleepover with his friend Luca.) The highlight for Natalie is being in GB with Grandma. The downside for Jordan is that each kid stopped at his office between 2-3pm on their first day by themselves to report… “I’m bored.”

So… my coping mechanism is to make a list. Of daily tasks (read for 30 min, be outside and active for 30 min)…. projects to do… and ways to earn money.  Wish me luck.

west Dundee trail ride and lunch out half way through for Jordan’s 42nd birthday. 11.5 miles. Boys did great!! Funniest part was after lunch, Conor says… my body is all rested up now, as if he was ready for a 6 miles of cycling back. Did I mention he was in the seat carrier behind me?

Also had lunch with N and P yesterday   Nana made strawberry angel food cake  e and I think Jordan is flexing a bit much in his pic  with his parents  what a dweeb

c: When I’m supposed to go to heaven, I’m going to hang on a handlebar on my playground so I cannot go.

C: well maybe I will hang onto my mommy’s water bottle and mine so we can drink a lot of water.

c: Will I float in heaven

el: yes you can do anything you want as long as it’s a green choice.

c: what if I make a red choice.

e: I wonder what god looks like

c: does he have white hair.

e. Nobody knows. Could have white hair. Could be a boy a girl. We don’t know.

c: I know! I saw a picture at my school. God says you cannot lie. Well you can just like a little bit.

e. You lied today. (Referencing when Conor denied breaking his Lego bridge. )

c. Well I just lied a little bit. One time.

c: I’ll be so happy when I see mom and dad in heaven. Brother and sister will take care of me.