SKAD Family (Simon, Kelly, Ava, Dylan): A Joyful June

There was a lot of progress made on the remodel in June and by the end of June/early July, we only had small little touch up items that had to be completed on the main floor and upper stair case (basement, kids rooms and lower stair case still needed to be done too). Things were really starting to look amazing and by the end of the month I finally had a chance to clean the entire house before another project started up. I had never been so excited to clean my whole house.

By now the kids were really enjoying their summer break with a new routine of sleeping in (woohoo) and then reading, working on a page of math, and getting a short list of chores done in the early half of the day, before they could then play with their neighborhood buddies in the later afternoon. Simon would also take them to the gym a couple times a week for some one-on-one drills with coach dad. It really worked well for us to establish a little summer routine so that Simon and I could actually get some work done during the day without tons of distractions and interruptions from the kids and all their friends running in and out and around the house. We love that the kids have awesome neighborhood buddies to play with and terrorize the neighborhood with, but we just can't have it going on all day long and throughout our house when we have to work.

It's nice that Simon and I both work from home so that we can see the kids a ton but, it can also pose a challenge when we really are having to get work done. However, Ava and Dylan both caught on quickly with their summer routine knowing that they could play with friends in the afternoon. Plus they had a tennis and swim camp every Monday and Friday for several hours, which was great for all. By now the whole family was also enjoying getting back into our summer routine of track practices on Wednesday nights with our Runcolo Training friends. It was a fun way to spend time as a family and get in a great workout at the same time. The kids enjoyed running with their buddies and Simon and I enjoyed getting to chat with our good friends too.

Sunday, June 5th, I helped Simon time a race so that he and the kids (and many other Runcolo teammates) could run in the Splash Dash 5K. This event took place a 1/4 of a mile from our home which was so fun for us.

This year it was a hot morning and it was also a pretty hilly 5K course so everyone's times were slower than years past but, it was still a fun race. Simon was happy with his effort and just happy he was able to run a race rather than timing it.

Simon's cousin and Cathie's nephew, Seth, was out visiting us for a week too so he jumped in the race as well. We enjoyed having Seth stay with us for a week. Hopefully, he was ok with our house being under construction in many areas and still a big mess with some small chaos too. He's a pretty easy going guy which helped with the current house order and he also helped us assemble our new patio umbrella so that was great. We did have (yet another) water issue in the basement while Seth was visiting which provided continued entertainment while Seth was staying in our basement. At least Seth had a bed however, to sleep in because the new Murphy bed had arrived and had been installed just before Seth arrived. Phew!

Ava finishing in the heat.

Dylan had a great finish too but, again it was too warm and hilly for anyone to have a great race time.

Many of our Runcolo friends were out together for an awesome morning and great race.

Dylan won his age group and...

...Ava did too!

A quick pit stop later that afternoon when Dylan and I saw a remote control race track set up in the parking lot. Dylan loves remote controls and racing. Wow, these guys were so fast.

The next day we got hit hard with a massive rain and hailstorm. I was so happy to see our new driveway and back patio were now draining the water away from the house! Mission accomplished. It was hard to spend that much of our budget on concrete but, well worth the peace of mind.

The hailstorm came and went quickly and by Tuesday the 7th, we woke up to sunny skies and it was another gorgeous morning to walk the kids to tennis camp.

With Simon and I both working from home, we didn't feel we needed to send the kids to Willows everyday this summer. Instead we thought they'd enjoy getting to do various camps they've been wanting to do like a summer tennis camp which happen to be close by at Arapahoe High School during the week of June 6th - 10th.

We were glad the rain clouds cleared on the 7th as well because Simon, Cathie and I were excited to head out to Red Rocks with Seth to see The Lumineers. Seth attends many concerts and had come out to CO to see The Lumineers so we were excited to purchase tickets so that we could join him for a fun evening.

We're always up for an evening at Red Rocks and The Lumineers put on a great show.

Dylan has been a huge rock collector lately and has been collecting rocks from various places for the last several months. He has hundreds of collected rocks but, these two were pretty cool fossil rocks he had found on June 8th.

These two have been best buddies for a long time even though they don't go to the same elementary school and they unfortunately, don't get together very often for playdates. Which makes it even more fun to see them get together for Sasha's birthday and act like they haven't been apart. Happy birthday Sasha.

After a fun birthday party, the next day on June 12th, Dylan had his last flag football game and rocked at playing defense yet again. Boom another flag pull caught on camera.

In fact, Dylan, had a total of 11 flag pulls in his last game plus two touchdowns. One that he caught and...

...the other one that he ran in.

Great picture of a pulled flag.

Awesome job Dylan. So fun to watch you play.

Another camp choice by Ava this summer was an outdoor Volleyball camp that she did for a few hours each morning at deKoevand Park for a week starting June 13th-17th.

June 16th was a milestone day for me with the remodel. I was finally able to park my car in the garage again. The garage was either being remodeled or it was the holding ground for all the contractors power tools, supplies, machines, hardwood floors, trim, crown molding, dust, saw dust and much more for the last 3.5 months.

Sunday, the 19th, Grampy and Sharona had come down to see all the new progress on the house and to also celebrate Father's day. We now had a bed for them to stay in and the house was getting back to some order. The best part was that the new back patio was ready for celebrating on with an evening fire and roasting S'mores.

Loving our new backyard look.

Over the weekend Ava was helping me spray paint the above mirror silver (turned out perfect), and when she sat in the grass she got stung by a bee or wasp. The very next day, June 20th, we left early for the mountains to take Ava up for a week long science camp in Keystone. However, on our drive up to the mountains Ava kept mentioning her bee sting. By the time we got off at the exit and I had taken a look, her bee sting had swollen...

...to the size in the picture above. I decided I'd better take her to the Kaiser clinic to get it checked out before dropping her off for a week away from home. It turned out that Ava had a localized allergic reaction to the bee sting and probably will always have a slight allergic reaction with any sting in the future. Ouch. At least we now know to carry Benadryl.

The bee sting was calming down with the help of Claritin-D and Ava was now more than ready, and very excited to be dropped off at camp.

Saying goodbye for a week was rough. We weren't allowed to call or text with Ava all week. This was a first. A full week without my Ava and not even being able to talk on the phone to make sure she was ok and having fun. I may not have been ready for it, but Ava sure was.

Dylan was just as sad as I thought he would be.

After the kids week-long tennis camp at Arapahoe High School was over, the rest of the summer they did a tennis and swim camp two days a week for most of the summer break. So while Ava was away at Keystone she missed two tennis and swim camp days that Dylan went to on his own. However, during one of his lessons it was rained out on the 24th so when Dylan came home he quickly jumped in the hot tub to warm up while the rain still fell outside.

While Ava was away at camp we decided it was a great time to get her hardwood floors installed in her room. We had just gotten rid of all the noise and the house had finally been cleaned up from all the dust, so I guess it was time to get started on another project.

These three pictures were of Ava's finalized room from the 26th which took place the following weekend when Ava was home from camp. When she was gone at camp we had only removed her carpet and had the flooring guys install all her new floors and trim and then I had painted all her trim. We then wanted to wait for Ava to get back from camp to choose the colors of her new room that she wanted. This was what she chose.

Here was Ava helping me paint her room after she had returned home from camp on the 26th but, first...

...Ava still had to get home from camp. I was in tears when I saw Ava on Saturday morning. On the 25th I was able to pick Ava up from camp. We had not talked with her all week so it was emotional when I first saw her and we gave each other a huge hug with lots of tears. She had an amazing time and experience with no electronics and being out in nature hiking, camping, exploring, summiting the highest elevation she has ever hiked, learning about science and how to purify river water, and the list goes on, plus meeting new friends. Here was one of Ava's good friends she made that week and it sounds like she made many others too.

Dylan was thrilled to see his sister as well.

Ava crashed on the ride home. She was up late and up early every day hiking for 8 days so she was exhausted by Saturday. We were so happy to have her home but, thankful for her very meaningful and memorable experience.