My Inspiration Part 1- So Very Capable

Every new parent has been there, staring into the face of their newborn child, thinking of the new full life in front of them. "They can do anything, they can be anything"

I guess I can't say for sure, I haven't questioned every new parent in the world, but I, myself, felt that way. With every new mile stone I saw my girls more and more capable of amazing lives in this world. As much as I know they capable of any accomplishment they set their sights on, they still seem to exceed my expectations every time.

Now my first born is five years old. She is under 4 feet tall, weighs 36 pounds and her legs are 16 inches long. Last weekend Hannah moved her 16 inch legs up 1852 foot climb to the top of Courthouse Mountain-elevation of 12,152 feet. Her first summit!!





When Hannah was three we camped at the trail head of Courthouse and hike the trail in the morning, she was able to make it half way up by herself and hiked back down again. I was confident now at 5 she would be capable hiking to the top and back down again. I did however come prepared with "rewards" to "encourage" her to complete. So with a bag full of gummy bears to bribe her.... I mean... encourage and reward her up the steep climb, we set off. Just as expected she reached the half way mark without an issue, just like she did when she was 3.





She ate a few cherries and she was ready to head up the rest of the trail that was unknown to her. Hannah insisted on being the line leader all the way up and to my surprise took very little drink breaks. The girl was on a mission (Task Master the 2nd generation).





The gummy bears were never needed, in fact they didn't even come out until we reached the summit, and not as a rewarded bribe but as a celebration that we all took part in. Once again she exceed my expectations and once again I looked at her on the peek and thought "you can do anything, you can be anything".



I'm so inspired to exceed my own exceptions, with her, Madalyn and myself.



WE ARE ALL SO VERY CAPABLE!

My Vision, His Back Breaking Labor

I think this has been going on for about a year. Well.. no... truly I have be loathing my laundry room for the last 6 1/2 years, but have been envisioning and planing a new laundry room for about a year. It is finally done and I hate doing laundry a little less now.

Here is the before pictures of my cave like laundry room...



How depressing is this!?!



There is nothing about my old laundry room that I miss.

We cleaned it out...



We gutted it (and by we, I mean he)


We (he) ripped out the flooring, painted, and laid tile.....



Josh and his dad built a platform for my washer and dryer that I can store my baskets under (using these plans) Josh built shelves and hung my laundry room art that I found on istock.com and my parents got me the the drying rack from Ballardsdesigns.com for my birthday.

I adore it

Independence

We had a wonderful Independence Day weekend. Our weekend started on Thursday when we headed up to Soap Creek to camp with the largest group of our fabulous camping friends. Eleven other families to be exact!













We headed out of Soap Creek late Sunday night and got home around midnight. After washing four days in the woods off of us we were happy to be in a bed again. The next morning we worked for a few hours getting unpacked and everything wash. We finished, looked around, and than agreed even after all that, we are ready to head back up and can't wait for our next camping trip.

Getting unpacked and cleaned up took most of our Independence Day, but I was still able to dress my girls in their 4th of July outfits and force them into picture taking.... which turned out like this.....



Oh that stubborn kid of mine!!!

Luckily it was about 1,000 degrees outside so Josh was willing to step up, be my hero and spray himself in the face with the hose to get results like this......





TA-DA!! Fourth of July cuteness!!







Our extremely hot day turned into the most perfect overcast and cool evening. My parents, John and Charity joined us on our back patio for steaks and baked potatoes. We shot off the fireworks we had left and passed the time before the town fireworks by perfecting our intoxicated cartwheel, the kids gave it a try too.

Here is Mom's mule kick cartwheel..



John's bent knee/tumble into my rose bush...



My toes that cartwheel along with me...



And the winner!! Dad had the most graceful of the intoxicated cartwheels!! Way to go Dad!







We finished our night together on the roof of our house watching Montrose's firework show. Truly blessed this year to be surrounded by so many friends and family!! A very Happy Independence Day Weekend!!