Ashtons of Colorado: October 2011

Go me! Three weeks, three months of blogs done. Maybe there is hope afterall? :) A re-cap of October of last year (yay I'm less than a year behind now!) Lots of stuff happened of course but here's the highlights.

On Conference weekend we got ding dong ditched, and there was a note to go search for clues for Brynna. Hilariously, both she and the boys had absolutely NO idea or no clue what this was about. I smirked and knew immediately. (Homecoming was in less than a month) The boys accompanied Brynna (with knives I might add-just in case bad guys were going to be stalking her in broad daylight!) and they followed the clues until she arrived back home with a stuffed animal, some chocolate and flowers along with an invitation to go to Homecoming. Kids are so cute! :)

Flowers for Brynna!

Also that weekend we began a "project"! The boys room was WOEFULLY overdue in a makeover. So we pulled all the junk out, all the furniture out and painted it. This involved seriously more than a month of complete chaos as we primed and painted furniture and then painted the walls. They had blue previously and we did a light green with a contrasting dark green wall. It looks great even if it was a long, hard project.


Priming the shelves.

In the middle of this, Josh was in 6th grade at Goddard, which means Outdoor Ed! I had been able to be a chaperon for both Brynna and Joel and LOVED it. 6th grade is a cool time, when kids are still fun and kids...but learning to do things on their own. Some kids have never been on their own before. This year was particularly great because I got to go up with my really good friend Katherine who was my roomie and we got to chaperon the same group with both our boys.

Josh looking at Samson at YMCA of the Rockies, Estes Park.

It was actually pretty cool, sort of damp some days and very pretty. We did do some things inside to keep warm. It was raining pretty good one afternoon. But we also had some nice outside times too. Sadly, on one of the nights (and it was actually REALLY cold) a house just above Estes caught on fire. Thankfully they contained it to the one house but wow, not every day do you see a house go up in flames.

Josh in his 'survival' shelter at the YMCA of the Rockies, Estes Park.

Back to the home front, we spent many hours painting, cleaning and tossing stuff. I am not joking when I say I tossed at least 8 bags of trash from their room and gave away at least 6 bags of old stuff to Goodwill. And that was the first 'go round'. I've tossed other stuff since. And somehow it's still sorta messy!

Painting green over blue.

Joel prepping for more paint!


Brynna helping paint the boys' room

Final setup. Green walls, black furniture, adjusted locations, much more room and lots less junk! (and yes this picture is actually today, because I can't find if I took a 'after' picture anywhere, but it's much better than it was!)

Fall colors, yes, we have the best tree in the neighborhood. SO beautiful. :)

October is also the time when trees turn really pretty in Denver. Usually in the high country it's done by October, but I love our front tree. It gets really a dark, dusky purple, then it starts to sort of glow yellow inside and the leaves turn from dark purple to a crimson and the yellow part really shines and then wind comes and it's over. But it's like an amazing butterfly transformation from glorious green to these stunning colors.


Joel the Ref.

Then October is full on soccer season. Joel refs and Josh plays and Curtis refs and I drive everyone around, make sure they are supplied with water, sunscreen and snacks and do tons of laundry that involves really stinky socks. :)

For Halloween 2011, Joel was a SCARY Occupy Denver protestor and Josh was a Viking!

We still have a few trick or treaters but really it is surprising how few we get. We had a ward party last year and Joel and Josh had fun...while...Brynna went to Homecoming with Jamon Armitstead. They went with a nice group of kids and had a fun time taking pictures before and having fun in their group date. Brynna had a wonderful time and had a beautiful dress made by our amazingly awesome friend Rachelle Milligan. Otherwise I don't know how we would have pulled it off as I completely stink at sewing.