Livin' it up in their 60's

Okay...so I stole this off of my Mom and Dad's blog, but I just couldn't resist. Since my Mom and Dad both retired, they have been living it up in the mountains. They go camping every chance they get and have been especially enjoying their ATV. This makes me look forward to my retirement years. Love you both!

Parade

Last weekend we were able to watch Doug's band play in the Evans Day Parade. (Evans is a small town connected to Greeley) It was a fun parade. Short AND they threw candy. That's my kind of parade! The kids had a great time.

I recorded a little bit of them playing. They didn't start playing until after they passed us, so unfortunately, you'll see the back of them.

Greeley Central Marching Band and Colorguard from Kristi Farr on Vimeo.

Labor Day Camping

Over Labor Day weekend we went camping up Poudre River Canyon. They have free camping spots up by the Red Feather Lakes. We haven't been camping together as a family for several years and we had a great time! Surprisingly, it wasn't very busy. We found a spot away from the main road and couldn't see anyone. Awesome. There were several big rock mountains around that the kids had a great time climbing on. They pretended to be pirates. Take a look at this short video I took of them:

Camping with Pirates from Kristi Farr on Vimeo.

Windsor Lake

Last Friday we headed to Windsor Lake for a ward activity. The kids had a great time playing in the lake and the sand. This lake is only about 15 minutes from our house. We will probably head back there soon. We also noticed that we could fish, boat, BBQ, and play on the playground. We are having a great time exploring this new area we live in.

Tour of our home in CO

There are many who wanted to see what it looked like where I am living now. I did a camera recording for those who are interested.

Colorado Rental from Kristi Farr on Vimeo.

We are renting this home for now. We still need to sell our house in NV before we can buy another home. We really like it here so far.

First day of school!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Today was the first day of school. It starts really early here in Colorado. I did notice that they get out on May 20th though. Also...they have short days here. Every Monday they get out of school at 2 pm. The rest of the week it is 3:30 pm. I remember having short days when I was in Elementary School (Although our short days were on Friday, which (in my opinion) makes more sense). The kids were extremely excited to start school. They met their teachers on Tuesday during open house and brought all of their supplies to put in their desks. I can see the school from my backyard and the kids can walk every day. Here is a picture of them in their new "back to school" clothes.

Jordan-Fifth Grade

Kaylee-Third Grade

Lexi-First Grade

A task long overdue!

We've been meaning to teach Lexi how to ride a bike without training wheels for a loooong time now. Doug finally taught her last Saturday. She is sooo excited!

Lexi without training wheels from Kristi Farr on Vimeo.
Way to go Lexi!
(This is my third post for today...so be sure to check out the next two posts)

Sunday Drive

After church on Sunday we decided to take a drive up the canyon. It is only a 30 minute drive to the mouth of the canyon. The drive up the canyon follows the "Big Thompson" river. We stopped and walked around a bit. We saw a duck in the river (which surprised me a little bit), and we also saw a beaver. (I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of the beaver, so all I got was the dam...drats!). We were there at dusk and we saw A LOT of fish jumping. It would have been a great spot for fly fishing. I can't wait to go camping!

Visit from Stacie

Sometimes I can be persuasive. Mostly I leave that up to my sister Stacie. But I did persuade Stacie to fly to my house from Minnesota for a visit. We normally get together and scrapbook, but this time she just came for a quick visit. My mom was still visiting from Utah, and my sister Marilee lives only an hour away from me...so it was a great opportunity for all 3 girls and my mom to be together. The first night she was here we decided to try Geocaching. My friend Amie told me about it a long time ago. It sounded fun and I thought I would give it a try. I don't have a GPS, but my parents do. If you've never heard of Geocaching, it is super fun. It is like a treasure hunt. You type in the Latitude & Longitude coordinates into your GPS and then you go find whatever is "hidden" at that location. It is very popular. The first night we tried Geocaching, we arrived at the first location and it started raining. We did find it, but then had to return home for the evening. The next day we went out and did a few more.

This is a picture of my Dad, Jordan, Lexi & me. My dad is holding his GPS, and I am holding a rock which was the item we were supposed to find with more coordinates. Stacie is taking the picture. My mom, Mason, and Kaylee were walking around at the time. If you haven't tried it....it is worth a try. My advice...wear tennis shoes and long pants.

The four of us girls wanted to spend some time together, so we all went over to Marilees house for a sleepover. We went to the movie "Julia & Julie" and out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. We had a fun time together.

Good Times!

My Mom

I was really lucky to have my parents visiting in town during my mom's birthday. My sister Marilee had a birthday party at her house and we all had a great time. We ate dinner and Cherry Cheesecake (Yummy!). While we were there the girls decided to put on an impromptu dance. They made invitations and passed them out to the entire household. Mason joined in on the chaos as they "danced". All of the adult children went in on an ipod with my mom's name engraved. She loved it. We then played some group games and had a lot of fun. Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom opening her new ipod

My sister Marilee and my mom

Moms 66th birthday from Kristi Farr on Vimeo.

Colorado

We're in our new house! My parents are here helping us get settled. They have been extremely helpful. We are getting everything unpacked and trying to get ready for school too. School starts here on the 13th so we don't have a lot of time. We live in a culdesac, and with our kids, there are 15 kids total. Our kids have ended up playing with their new friends every day and have had a blast. Most of them are boys. I don't have Internet until Tuesday, so I'll post pictures of our new place and a posting about my Mom's 66th birthday that we celebrated yesterday sometime next week.

Kaylee Baptized!

Kaylee was supposed to be baptized here in Pahrump on August 1st. We knew that we would be gone by then since Doug starts work on August 3rd. After a lot of phone calls, Doug's parents were able to arrange the baptism in Utah. (THANK YOU!) Since both sides of our family live there, we thought it would be a lot easier. We put the program together REALLY fast, and everything came together nicely. Thanks to all those who attended and helped participate.

After the baptism, the Burgess crowd headed to Golden Corral to celebrate. Yummy! I didn't bring my camera into the restaurant. :(

Later that evening, the Farr crowd had a BBQ.

Mason has lots of boy cousins near his age....too bad we don't live closer. Jordan played games with anyone who would play with him.

We all had a good time in Utah even if it was only for one day. (This is my second post today, so please check out the next post too!)

Vacation

Our vacation this summer was going to Colorado and looking for a house to rent. We actually had a great time. We stayed with my sister Marilee and her family. They live in Louisville which is one hour from where we will be living. We were super busy there and I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I did snap one on the morning we left: (Charles (my Brother in law) was out of town, and Benjamin (my Nephew) was working so they are missing from this picture)

While we were there, we were able to find a house to rent. It is a 2 story colonial home in a
cul de sac. 3 Bedrooms, 2.5 bath, hardwood floors, and an unfinished basement. It's always exciting to move into a new home.

We went swimming at a rec center near my sisters house. The kids loved it! They had a kid play area with a slide & a waterfall. They had a river raft, diving board, and a huge water slide. Mason loved the big water slide and kept asking us to go on it again. I definitely got my workout in by going up those stairs a million times! We all had a great time.

Marilee watched the kids while Doug and I went out to eat and to a movie. We saw the Harry Potter movie. I loved the movie. Doug recently read the books again, but I haven't read the 6th book in a long time so I couldn't remember what was going to happen next. It was really good.

While we were there, a Greeley Band booster parent invited us over for dinner. She had also invited the Orchestra teacher and his family, and the choir teacher. It was nice to meet a few people and everyone was really nice. The kids did slip n slide with their teenage daughter. Afterwords they had set up an Ice Cream Social outside of the High School. A lot of the students and parents were able to meet us and everyone is very excited. It seems to be a close knit community with lots of support.

The only set back to Greeley is that when the wind blows from the West, it smells like farm. Definitely not the most pleasant smell. For the day we were there, I probably smelled it 3 times. It was interesting to me how the wind was changing directions several times throughout the day. The other set back...was mosquito's. We don't get very many mosquito's here in Pahrump, but we did when we lived in Utah. I just had forgotten. Kaylee was eaten up and felt better if she put bandaids on all of them. I think I owe my sister a box of bandaids. :) We had a great trip.

Kaylee's Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLEE! Today Kaylee turned 8 years old. Last night her Grandma & Grandpa Farr and her Aunt Heather came to visit for the night. We spent the evening together, opened some presents and had some Birthday Cake.

She received a great present from her grandparents...A purse filled with accessories, including a gift card. She is all ready to go shopping!

Today she is having a few friends over to swim with her. She wanted a small party with some of her closest friends. Her theme is fish. She saw a cake shaped like a fish online that she really liked. I decided to give it a try. It is the first cake I've made with fondant frosting:

Grandma Farr & Aunt Heather helped me do the final details. They had some great ideas!
I'll post some pictures of her party later. Happy Birthday Kaylee!

Independence Day Weekend

On Friday, we had originally invited some good friends of ours over to dinner, food, entertainment, etc. But due to illness, they had to cancel :( We still ended up swimming, grilling, and watching the fireworks from our front yard and enjoyed spending time together as a family.

On Saturday, Doug had an awesome opportunity to play drum set with "Razorback". A rock band here in town. Their drummer was moving and at the last minute backed out of a gig they had playing outside of the Nugget.

Overall, we had a great holiday. Happy Independence Day!

Moving and Bake Sale!

I know this is my third post for the day...I've just been so busy, so I'm trying to catch up!
Thanks to all of you who supported us in the moving and bake sale these past two Saturdays. I have never had a yard sale before and it was quite the experience. It took a lot of organizing and planning. It was exhausting. For all of those who missed out, we still have some items left, so feel free to come by or call us. We earned over $1000.00 for the two Saturdays and we will definitely use the money to help us move. This is a picture of all of the goodies I made for the Bake Sale: Peanut Butter Cookies, Semi-Sweet chocolate chip cookies, Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies, Butterscotch Chip Cookies, Chocolate Cookies w/ Peanut Butter Chips, and Brownies. MMMMMMMmmmmmmm......

While we were pricing items out in our garage Friday night, Mason disappeared into the house. When we went to check on him , we found that he had pushed a chair up to the counter where the cookies were...

Only two plates and a few cookies here and there. It could have been A LOT worse. The rest of the kids were excited because that meant that they could have the broken cookies.

Summer Fun

Even though we've been super busy these last two weeks, we've been trying not to rob the kids of their summer fun. Kaylee's friend, Jackie came over and spent the night:

Mason was in front of Kaylee at one time, but he got up before the picture could be taken. I love having my hair combed through and played with. We all took turns.

I hope all of you are enjoying your summer too!

Father's Day

Happy Fathers Day to all those Fathers out there. Here is one of my favorite pictures of my Dad wrestling with some of the grandchildren: This picture of Doug's Dad is true to form. I don't think I've ever visited him without seeing him wear at least one Charlie Brown or Snoopy shirt:Both of those pictures were taken this last Christmas.

We all tried to treat Doug like a King on Father's Day. We got up and made him a yummy breakfast to include French Toast, Sausage, Hash Browns, Eggs, Juice...the works. It's all about starting the day off right. He unfortunately had a meeting at 8 AM so he didn't really get to sleep in. :( When he came home from his meeting we let him open some presents: The kids did an awesome job singing to him in Church. Jordan even had the opportunity to sing a solo. After church, we fired up the grill. Yummy. We ended the night with some Chocolate Cream pie.

Thanks to all 3 of these great Dads!

Happy Birthday!

Today my first born is a tween. I can't believe how old I am....I mean, how old he is. :) Yep...Jordan turned 10 today. He had a great birthday. Doug came home from Scout Camp this morning which was a great present. Jordan didn't want a big party. He just wanted a couple of friends over to swim and BBQ some hot dogs. He loves Sonic the hedgehog and I finally broke down and made him a Sonic the Hedgehog Cake. He has asked for a Sonic cake for about 3 years now, so I thought I would make it this year before he outgrows him. I actually have a lot of fun making birthday cakes. I love how the camera caught the splash behind Kaylee on this picture. So cool!
(I wanted to put this picture of Mason in because if you notice on the corner of the table, he insisted on trying a flaming hot cheese puff. He made a funny face and drank about half of his apple juice after trying it, but I was actually surprised at how mild his reaction was.)Jordan had a great party and a great day. Some days I still remember Jordan like this: This is in 2001...a little over a month after he turned 2. Blonde Blonde hair. He felt so privileged that I would let him hold Kaylee for this picture and he didn't care that she was screaming her head off. What a sweet day that was. Happy Birthday Jordan!