Fruita-Licious!

Aha!  The little man finally nabbed for a photo....

yep, underneath this manly exterior, is our our little 7!!! year old Liam, ah what a year does to a man.  This weekend was all because this very serious and extremely handsome young gentleman wanted to have a couple of his buddies go camping and mountain biking with him as a birthday extravanganza in Fruita, CO.


(Thank you all for the wonderful presents and kind words-- all except Auntie Boomer... yes, Liam LOVES the handcuffs- but police grade?  We've had them a whole 4 days and have already had to go to the "secret" back up key more than once)   Disclaimer: No humans or animals were harmed in the process of handcuff demonstrations

So, school's out for summer!! And what better way to start off the summer than with a pack of dirty kids in a tent?  Liam and a gaggle of his buddies all converged on the lovely little town of Fruita, CO for some hardcore mountain biking and dirt slinging. 


It was truly impressive to 1) watch these kids ride some tricky trails with only minimal crashes  2) watch parents ride as well, some had never been on a singletrack and rode with grace, grit, and a whole lot of girl power!! and 3) deal with the crazy wind and still keep smiling!!  The weekend started off with the Demings puking, but ended with some good times around the fire and a whole lot of funny stories-- funny in hindsight that is...

The Gang:  Vivian, Zagar, Cole, Elijah, Porter, Ruby, Mason, Sam, Finley, Wagner, Liam, Matilda, and John Hampton



Thank you very much Trina, Erik, Jason, Obie (aka Captian Barbosa for the weekend) Shelly, Shana and Mandi  (the best camera-woman and Team Parle historian extraordinare!!)





Happy Trails to You, until we meet again.......



Cool Runnings

Despite the rain and extremely chilly temperatures for May (not at all what my Fromer's guide book to Meeker described...) the boys have still managed to keep busy outdoors.  While Liam and Elijah had their Presidential Fitness Challenges at school (Obama would have been proud!) Finley played rancher and helped some of his buddies pick out their bummer lambs for the County Fair.  (named Taylor and Taylor Swift respectively)

Elijah also participated in the Hershey's Track Meet- and stunned us all by placing 1st in three age division events!  Even more impressive was the fact that in one of those events, he had an actual competitor!  Ah, the benefits of living in a small town. 

The famed 8-10 year old 4x100 relay team. 

Finley also had a big event this past week.  Playschool graduation!  Playschool is a program put on by the High School's Consumer Science class that I gather is kind of like abstinence class and twice a week for a month and a half they hang out with a bunch of 3 year olds.  Finley just loved it, and graduated with flying colors (or hanging chocolates as the case may be...)

Yes, its true, Finley is a friend to all.  I'm pretty sure that is what "Most Outgoing" meant, and nothing along the lines of "didn't know when to shut up and listen".  Along with cute hats and super clever leis, they sang their hearts out in a rousing rendition of "On Top of Spaghetti"- take a listen,

And my sweet little Liam never seems to hang around long enough to be in pictures- I'll work on catching him.

Here We Go...

The boys are so busy and growing so fast that despite my exceptional organizational prowess, I'm afraid we are losing the battle of creating any sort of historical reference for our children.  I want to be able to share them with all of you, share them to themselves in the future, and not forget myself; so stealing a cue from my good friend- I am dipping into the blog world to (hopefully) create documentation that yes, we were actually paying attention to our kids this whole time.

So, as I learn how this process works, I'll update.  Please continue to check on us, because you all know how good I am at sending pictures, and making phone calls.  For now, just a couple random pictures that I like and could easily find.