Enjoying July...

 Our little Ballerina...

 Talia's in a MOMMY & ME Ballet class. So yes even though I retired from Ballet at age 4 I'm bringing back my skills for Tally :)

 Aricin at Tennis practice- insists on wearing the headband and wrist bands to look like Roger Federer

 Fun at the Zoo...

 Aricin's a crazy driver...

 Denver Zoo with Great Grandma Ruth

 Grandma bought them umbrellas

 Great Grandpa Ron, Uncle Rondo, and Great Grandma Ruth- we love them soo much

 tangerine please

 Aricin at swim lessons

 Golf lesson with daddy

 baseball fun at the park

 Talia and Courtney

 My brother Jon, and his girl friend Courtney came out to visit- we had fun with them

 Jon and Courtney

 Play time with uncle jon jon

 Heritage Square

 Chair Lifts to the top of the mountain...

 Keep Out??? This is what happens when Uncle Jon and Courtney babysit

 Alpine Slides- Seriously Sooo fun! Aaron and Aricin almost caught me and Tally because we rode the brakes quite a bit.

July was fun. We have spent a lot of time at the zoo, the aquarium, the pools, the parks, BBQing with friends. Aricin had swim lesson and Tennis lessons. Talia is still in mommy and me ballet. This summer has been exceptional HOT so we haven't spent a ton of time outside although i do love the summer time rains we get- almost every afternoon a thunderstorm will roll in and bring with it rain cooling things off. Aaron spent a week in Edinburgh in early July and my grandma Ruth came out from Lake Arrowhead, CA. to help me with the kids. The week she was out was busy with Aricin's Vacation Bible School and lessons but we all loved the sweet time we got to spend with her. She is 82 and is super active and is planning on doing a zip line course with her girlfriends when she gets back to Cali. We are totally moved in to the apartment and feeling more settled. Oliver is a crawling machine and seems to be pretty close to walking. Talia is so sweet and loves to sing, talk, and play with her brothers. Aricin is an adrenaline junkie- he loved the alpine slide and kept pushing the lever down to make his slide go faster he also had fun on the rock climbing wall we did with Jon and Courtney when they were in town. I've been trying to run more and have been doing bootcamps with girl friends to keep fit. Aaron continues to work on his Phd- he hopes he'll be done in 22 months. Impact EdVentures- his non-profit continues to grow and we are excited about a Dusk Dash 5k fundraiser with Glow sticks that will be happening in September. We got to get away and did a super fun date... Aaron and I rode our bikes from downtown littleton into Denver and then had a picnic in a park over looking the Platte River with cheeses, bread, and grapes- it was great! We then took the light rail home. Aaron and I have started trying to play tennis together which is fun and frustrating because it's been about 5 years and I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but i love that it's something we can do with the whole family. Also i just found out it looks like i'm going to be coaching the freshman girls volleyball team at Aaron's school this fall- I'm super excited to drop the kids off at Aaron's classroom and coach for a couple hours a day. I think i'm most excited about getting to know the girls and trying to encourage them and speak into their lives. 

          July was a weird month for Colorado to say the least... The wildfires in Colorado Springs were so hard to watch on TV and because of the dryness there were no 4th of July fireworks out here this year. And then the Aurora movie theatre shootings broke our hearts as we continue to learn more about the victims and the shooter. This weekend our church delivered bags of toiletries to families in need in denver and it was such a reminder of how much we have to be thankful for. 

          If you're not tired of reading yet... More random thoughts...

So i was thinking the other night about us having to move because of zoning laws and I had a bit of a deja vu moment. When we first moved down to southern california for Aaron to attend seminary we moved to Whittier (In LA) into a sweet pool house. It was a small 2 story pool house that was fenced off with the pool- we loved it but only lived there for about 3 months before we were forced to move because the property was not  zoned to have 2 families living there. And that's when we moved down to Orange County because I was working in Anaheim and was doing a 3 mile commute in about 30 minutes. We looked and looked and finally found an apartment complex in Santa Ana (Orange County) that allowed us to keep our 100lb dog and best of all every night at 8:40 we got to here the "pop. Pop. pop. Pop" from the Disneyland Fireworks show. 

One more thought... The other night I mentioned to Aaron I hope there won't be any fires at the apartment complex... He said "Seriously? Do you try to find things to worry about." But the thing is...I don't... I do actually worry about fires in apartment complexes. When we lived in our orange county apartment a fire broke out 2 buildings down from us... like a 3 alarm major fire with tons of fire trucks... we got evacuated and couldn't leave because the fire trucks were all along the parking lot. Needless to say our building was saved but it still kind of freaked me out and the thought of seeing fire out my window hasn't escaped me. Isn't it interesting how our past experiences whether  we like it or not totally shape our views, concerns, and perceptions as we grow into the future. I suppose it goes both ways... certain smells like orange blossoms for instance take me home to the orange trees of the central valley blooming or the smell of dairies of yes the rich scent of nitrogen infused air from thousands of milk engorged cows brings me home. Crazy i know.

Have you ever had an "Alright God moment"... a moment when something crazy happens and you think to yourself "no this can't be happening but at the same time feel this AMAZING peace and clarity that is only God's presence in the midst of a storm. I can recall this happening at least 3 times in the last 5 years. The first was right after i had a miscarriage in the hospital- it was the weirdest thing I was laying in a hospital bed completely vulnerble sad and broken and yet i felt peace that it was going to be ok. The second time was when we decided to move to Colorado... We assumed Aaron would get into a PhD program somewhere as he applied to like 10 programs across the country and all of his profs and advisors told him he was an easy in... I told him we could stay on the west coast, move to the east coast or even move to the UK but please don't take us to the dreaded middle of the country... Aaron didn't get in anywhere and randomly Valor decided to fly Aaron out to Colorado and make a gererous offer we couldn't refuse and like that we were moving to smack dab the middle of the country and yet I was ok with it because I felt like it was totally a God thing- he provided a very clear path and it seemed clear that Colorado was where he wanted us. And now for whatever reason I have felt peace... In the midst of the suckyness of this situation I have felt peace, but now... I also feel frustration, tired, drained, and just plain confused... Why is God taking us on this path? I still just don't get it. But through this I'm trying to be have a grateful heart. Our family is happy and healthy and i am thankful. We have a friend Nicole who is 25 and battling rounds of radiation combating a very aggressive form of ovarian cancer and we have a friend, Samm who is a young single mom going through Kidney Failure. She has to go to Dialysis 3 times a week and unless she gets a transplant she probably won't survive for more than a few years. These dear friends remind me to be on my knees in prayer and that we have so much to be thankful for. 

Aricin watched an episode of Curious George recently where George got a Red Robot that quickly became George's favorite toy. Since watching this about a month ago Aricin has been asking for a red robot. I told him to pray for it and so he did. He started praying for a red robot and low and behold this last week i drove by a garage sale and stopped in to find 2 amazingly awesome red robots for Aricin and Tally for about $1.00 we got home and i was able to have an awesome conversation with Aricin about how God provided. Rest assure Aaron thinks my theology is a bit off and said "What are you going to do if he wants a red ferrari next?" Point taken but I saw it as a cool teaching opportunity. We talked about how God doesn't always give us everything we pray for.... that sometimes even though we don't know it the things we pray for aren't necessarily good for us. Or maybe God has a better option for us. At the end of the day it was sweet to hear him thank Jesus for the new toy that he sent down for us. I sometimes feel like it's easy to overlook the blessings God gives to us. And so today i pray that i will be content in all situations with a childlike Joy.