Summers end

Here is a picture purge! It's mid-September and I still have not blogged about August, which was super busy! 

After Denver, literally 2 days later we packed up again and headed to Whidbey Island for our longtime friends Nikki & Mark's wedding. We met my parents and Adam's family there too to celebrate. My parents brought up a "birthday" bike for Eliza. She is getting better at the balance bike each times she uses its. 

Nikki and Mark wanted to sail their sailboat away from their reception but needed to moor it in the bay near the venue, so they asked us to join them for a couple hours of sailing from the harbor to the bay, only 9 nautical miles or something like that. This was my first time on a sail boat. I did not know I was going to be going so I was not prepared with extra layers or food. And Nikki and Mark thought we would be back in time to get dinner after... good thing we left the kids with our parents!

It was a beautiful day for a sail with Nikki!

Working on her "boat train" instead of tin cans, Odwalla bottles tied to a rope!

Nikki working hard.

The sunset was gorgeous! But it was getting cold!

This was about 3 hours into it...as the sun was setting we still had almost an hour to go...

Good thing the moon was bright and full!

Our 3 hour tour turned into almost 5 hours! We sailed in the dark. We sailed by the light of a weak flashlight and Iphone GPS. We had to moor the boat, a first for Nikki & Mark with this boat. We had to get into a small blow up dingy in the dark and row to the shore. I was not nervous about the whole thing until this. But we all made it. We left the hotel about 5pm and got back to it around midnight! Crazy. But I think we saved Nikki & Mark for killing each other the night before their wedding! We were a good buffer for the stress of sailing in the dark and having pretzels, nuts, and a beer for dinner. It was a gorgeous night for a ride in a sailboat though and we couldn't have done it with better friends on their wedding eve. 

Despite the extended sailing trip, they sure put on a great wedding, very true to Nikki & Mark. It was beautiful, simple, fun, great food, and a good time by all!

Nautical theme of course!

Adam was the lawn game master, of course! He even made the cutest little signs and rule cards for each game.

Brothers

The bride and groom.

Thanks Grammie Dani for helping out with Eliza's nap! You were awesome!

Announcement to ceremony.

The family!

The happy couple!

No rings, just knots!

My Eliza girl.

I don't want my picture taken!

Whoa, boob shot!

I can't believe it's been 15 years since we met on the lacrosse field at WWU (Ali, me, Nikki).

Getting ready to head to the beach to set sail!

That was the dingy that we all sailed in on the night before.

Away they go. Congrats Nikki & Mark!

Then we came home for 2 days before heading off again to camp with 5 other families. Crazy family fun. Lots of non-sleeping Shaffer children, smores, good food, naked kids, walks in the woods, and general camping fun! Next year we are getting an even bigger group site for 10+ families. Who's in?

What a kid crew! Miles, Quin, Bjorn, Uma, Silas, Alden, Corbin, & Eliza. We were missing Brody and the babies.

Quin got stung by nettles, Ouch!

We had two double sites, one with 7 tents and the other with all our food and cooking. And no one around us, it was perfect.

The whole gang!!!

Denver!

Finally our trip to Denver! We decided to make our big summer trip to go and visit my brother, Jed, and his wife, Kara. We had not seen them since their wedding last July (too long!). We also made the excuse to see the rental house that Adam and his brothers own in Colorado Springs.  Our timing was a little off since Jed & Kara are expecting a baby in the beginning of September and now I want to go out again to meet her once she comes into the world. 

We got to fly non-stop from Bellingham to Denver on Frontier, which was great! We got there in time for nap time and then had a great dinner out with a couple of Jed's friends at an outdoor beer garden. We started off our first full day with the smoke detector in our room, which all 4 of us were sleeping in, started beeping low-battery at 6:15am! One of those beeps you just can't ignore and go back to sleep. Of course they have vaulted ceilings and we could not reach it! So Jed got a ladder and we put it on the bed and he balanced up to the top to take it off. The kids slept through the whole thing! Since I was already up, I went with Jed to his high school cross-country practice. Running at altitude...more like a walk for me! 

We then took off for the mts. We went up to Rockie Mt. National Park for the afternoon. We had lunch in Estes Park and then went into the park for a short bit. There was a short kid friendly hike to an alluvial fan and water-fall. 

Eliza getting her feet wet in the water.

A good way to cool off!

Corbin loved it!

Me and my little bro!

We are strong hikers!

Family picture. 

 Corbin did a great job "rock climbing" up on the boulders. He was so cute coming down too, he would go backwards on some of the less steep part. But safety first!

 The next day we headed down to Colorado Springs. Adam and his brothers inherited a rental house from their uncle when he passed away. None of them has ever seen it. It's been managed by a property management company but we thought it would be nice to see it in person and be able to write off part of Adam's trip. It was very cool to see this house and property (7 acres) we have heard so much about. It had a  beautiful view south west towards town and Pikes Peak. You could also see the burn scar from the fire that damaged so much near the city & neighborhoods.

The burn scar in the distance.

 We stayed in a hotel and got some pool time. That was our only other purpose for this short trip-pool time!

Of course our trip also coincided with a Sounders v. Rapids game. Lots of Sounders fans in the stadium! This was also Eliza's first game as a non-infant. We had bleacher seats, which were prefect because they could see the whole game/field and also play around and stand on the benches. It was also nice that the crowd didn't stand and block their view. Both kids did AWESOME!

Go Sounders!!

Yaaay!

The fam with Kara and Jed too.

A pretzel and bag of kettle corn is a good dinner right?

 The next day the boys took off for a Rockies game. I was not interested in taking Eliza to another sporting event. It was HOT. And Corbin got a corn-dog, another great dinner choice!

Ice-cream in a baseball helmet.

Corbin helping Uncle Jed water the garden.

Jed and Kara had a nice BBQ with a few friends and their kids and some birthday cake for me. Then the next day was my 33rd Birthday. We went to the Natural History and Science Museum. Space, Dinosaurs, and lots of taxidermy animals. The kids LOVED it!

Driving the space shuttle.

Hmmm...I wonder what this button does?

Dinosaur bones! Uh, oh Corbin, look what is behind you!

How big are you?

We went into the city on the light rail the last day. We walked around a bit but Corbin was pretty tired out, so we rode the free bus and then stopped at the FREE Money Museum. We all got a bag of shredded money, that was the high-light.

Eliza would like to have $30,000,00 and so would I!

We had a great time! It was hot. The kids went to bed late every single night- too late. They played musical beds, refused to sleep, kept each other up, and made us stay up too late waiting for them to go to sleep first. But they did sleep in almost every day too. Kara and Jed were awesome hosts and we wish they lived closer. We also can't wait to meet their baby girl!