All Gone

While most of the kids started school a few weeks ago, I put off posting about back to school until all of the kids were in school
During back to school week, I realized how incredibly busy having 5 kids in 4 different schools could be.
Veronica entered high school this year and with that started Success Academy. It is an accelerated program where she will have her associates degree by the time she finishes high school. She goes for half the day at the college and then the other half at the high school. I have to admit, I worry about that on all different levels. The biggest one is that I want her to have fun in this time in her life and to have fond memories of it and not remember being stressed out and too busy to enjoy it. We tried to make sure she made this decision on her own and not from pressure from others. Of course, after a while I started to doubt myself and wonder if it was the right thing for her to have done this and of course, Joe stepped in and was my voice of reason. We have to trust her judgment, be supportive, and help her where we can. She would most likely be bored in high school, etc.
Tyler started middle school this year with his usual trepidation and not excited about it. He is really liking it. More than he expected.
Samantha started 5th grade and is doing well.
Brenna and Braelynn started kindergarten today. It is a new phase of life for me. I have always been home taking care of kids. I have struggled the last few weeks with feeling like it is ok to be home without them for a few hours. For some reason I always feel like I need to be busy, accomplishing things. For years I have battled being busy and productive which is when I feel the happiest but also taking time to be still, which I believe is important. Just because of my personality, I am sure I will still be busy and productive but now without kids at home the whole time.
I love this time of year because I love the excitement of all the things my kids will learn and do, especially when they reach a new stage, kindergarten, middle school, high school. They will learn much, meet new friends, have difficulties and hopefully learn from those things.
I included a picture of our cousins that get to come hang out with us before school every day and Brenna is the one in the pink/grey shirt and Braelynn is the one posing. She is incapable of taking a picture, especially by herself, without posing!

I heart Colorado!

For years we have made the (mostly) yearly trek to Denver, Colorado to see Joe's maternal grandparents and aunts/uncles/cousins. I have fallen more and more in love with Colorado and the people there every year.
We made a little trip to Grand Junction and Hotchkiss, Colorado this weekend to attend a memorial service for his Grandma Connors (his dad's mom)that just passed away. While there we had the great experience of seeing most of his extended family on his dad's side. It was an amazing experience of joy and sadness. Joy of being with them and enjoying their company and forming friendships that have never been. Sadness because all these years of him not really knowing them and knowing how great they are. I mentioned in a previous post about how we were able to get to know some of them better the last few years when they would stay with us when they came to visit Grandma after she moved here. It was so good, though to meet the rest of them and spend some more time with them.
Although I had my camera close by the whole time, I only took pictures once. Aunt Geri and Uncle Don have two horses. She told the kids about her horses and told them they could ride the horses when we came out to visit. They did not forget her promise so after the memorial service we went to her home and rode Magoo. He is the most easy going horse but has plenty of attitude. Don told us that he loved girls and only tolerated boys. Sure enough, the girls took turns riding him and he did great, but when Tyler hopped on, he would just stand there. It took a lot to get him to move when Tyler was on him. After that, a few more girls took turns and then a boy cousin got on to ride and he did the same thing.
After that we met up with some more cousins and went swimming then out to dinner afterwards. We knew we had a long drive home but wanted to spend as much time with them when we could so we stayed until evening then headed home, getting home about 2:30 am.