The last fortnight started in Des Moines where Jude and Anna went to the zoo there. Then it was back to Denver where it has been hot and dry. We have had some bad forest fires and a few days ago the smoke was so bad in Denver that we decided to head up to the mountains to get away from it all. So, we spent a couple of nights in Keystone. Marcy bought the kids some backpacks and we went for a short hike while we were there.

Last Sunday was Father’s Day and after a wonderful sleep in I wanted to head up into the mountains for another hike. Marcy packed a picnic lunch but unfortunately, the weather was not the best when we get up there so were not able to have a picnic there (it rained pretty hard). Not to worry, we decided to have our picnic back at home in front of the TV where I could watch the US Open golf.

This weekend we headed into the foothills to Lair o’ the Bear – a popular hiking destination for kids. They have a river, hiking trails and this tremendous climbing tree that Jude always likes to climb. While we were there we went on the longest hike we have ever done as a family – over two miles.

Thursday was a big day for Jude, his graduation from kindergarten. At the Denver Waldorf School they have two year kindergarten’s so even though we spent six months in Sydney it feels like he been in Morning Glory (the name of his class) forever. And in their second Kindergarten year they call the boys and girls Golden Knights and they have a special Knights Club on Tuesday afternoon where they practice getting ready for first grade.

Above is a photo of the ceremony where the teacher, Mrs Clark, gives each Golden Knight a golden cape to wear and she says a little something about each kid. Before the ceremony all the Golden Knights get to perform a puppet show in front of all the parents and other kids. It was really cute.

In the last two weeks there has been a lot of bike riding in our family. Anna wanted her training wheels taken off and this motivated Jude to get back on his bike again – we took his training wheels off last year but he hasn’t shown much interest in biking since. But now Jude has made great strides – he can start and stop by himself and he is quite a strong rider. Last weekend we rode all the way around the lake at City Park where both Jude and Anna learned to start riding by themselves for the first time.

Jude’s imagination has been very rich for a long time. We have described many times where he will tell a story that will last literally an hour or more. That was the case after we came back from our bike ride last weekend. He wanted to eat some almonds and cranberries but instead of eating them he told this elaborate story of battles between the soldiers that were almonds and the cranberries who were trying to attack them. Everything got eaten eventually after about 90 minutes. Below the almonds are lined up on the window sill getting ready for battle.

On Friday morning, the first day of summer vacation, Marcy, Jude and Anna flew to Des Moines for a quick visit. I couldn’t go because I have so much to do to get ready for my big conference in 10 days. But I have had reports that the kids are having a great time, below is Jude giving Lily, his 7-year-old cousin, a big hug during a visit to the Science Center.

We celebrate half birthdays in our house – no presents, though, just the cake of their choice. Jude chose yummy cupcakes from Whole Foods for his half birthday celebration. Unfortunately, I could not be there is person for this event, I had to settle with Skyping in from New York.

Las weekend we went to a fair at our local gym, the Jewish Community Center. The kids had a great time riding the train, playing in the bounce house and doing their inflatable obstacle course. Then, Jude spotted his favorite activity – rock climbing – and he made it the top of their 25-foot climbing wall with ease.

It has been a hot Memorial Day weekend here in Denver so we had lunch outside today and Jude really enjoyed his watermelon.

The big news in our house today was that we have put an offer on a new house. This is the fourth offer we have put in since we began looking for a house seriously late last year. We are very hopeful it works out. We will see.

On Friday Jude’s kindergarten held a Mother’s Day party. There was a cute ceremony where all the kids handed their mothers a present they had all made. Jude had created a beautiful metal trivet with a star on it. Then they had morning tea and danced around the maypole outside.

Yesterday, Jude and Anna did a kid’s fun run with one of Jude’s school friends. After being a bit unsure about it at first, when all the kids started running Jude wanted to join in. He did great and ran all the way around the lake there. They also had lots of kids activities there including a kids climbing wall. Jude always likes to practice his climbing skills.

Today was Mother’s Day and Marcy called the shots all day. We went out for a picnic lunch in the park and then afterwards biked (Anna and me) and scootered (Jude and Marcy) to our favorite local gelato place. It was a beautiful warm day so after that we decided to go to the pool at the gym. Then it was sushi for dinner. A fine way to spend Mother’s Day.

We have discussed before Jude and his love of making things with popsicle sticks. Well in the last few weeks I would say that love has only increased. He plays with them every day making all kinds of dinosaurs, animals and insects. He will often make several in one scene and then the “meat eater” will eat the “prey” which Jude demonstrates by the breaking of the popsicle sticks in two. It is quite the process. Here he is with a giraffe he made earlier this week.

I have been in Sydney for much of the past two weeks so Marcy has been a single parent for most of that time. I missed Marcy and the kids terribly and it was great to see them when I flew in on Friday afternoon. They were waiting for me as I came off the train and I don’t know who was more excited, me or the kids. I have been a bit jet-lagged this weekend but the gorgeous weather here helped get me outside and feeling a bit better.

While I was away Marcy took the kids out to Dinosaur Ridge west of Denver where they have a bunch of dinosaur footprints as well as a small museum. Here is Jude sitting in the footprint of an Iguanadon.

This morning we went to the Butterfly Pavilion where Jude and Anna both got to hold Rosie the tarantula. Jude had done it a few times before but it was Anna’s first time so here he is showing Anna how to do it.

Spring in Colorado means great skiing as well as the beginning of the golf season. But first to skiing. The first week of April we spent up in Keystone. Here we achieved a family first – all four of us skiing together. After a day of lessons we took the kids up the gondola and practiced on the kids slopes. Then it was down Schoolmarm – at 3.5 miles the longest green run in Colorado.

Jude and Anna did great. While they fell down a few times they always got back up and when we got the bottom after 50 minutes they wanted to catch the gondola up and do it again. But we didn’t want to push our luck – that was a lot of work for a four and six year old. Here is a picture of Jude showing his style on the mountain.

Funnily enough, though, we didn’t actually get to skiing until Friday. Ice skating was what they really wanted to do every day. The main skating area was closed due to thin ice but they had a small rink at River Run that great for the kids. Because of the warm weather it stayed open only until around noon every day but we went there three mornings in a row.

Both kids progressed well during this time period and they were even a little reluctant to give up ice skating to go skiing. Jude, quite the competitive one (especially with Anna) wanted to make sure he could go fast. Here he is tearing down the ice on his third day.

After a two-week Spring break it was back to school this past week. Although Tuesday was a snow day and Jude was sick on Friday so it was a bit of a short week. Jude has been fighting some kind of GI illness for a few days now and he has been a bit lower on energy. But he was well enough to head to the golf course yesterday.

This week was Masters week and my favorite weekend of the year. I spent both afternoons this weekend glued to the TV and was delighted to see Adam Scott, a fellow Aussie, take his first green jacket. It was a very exciting finish and I had both kids on my lap as he sank the winning putt. What fun.

Last weekend it snowed. But Jude had been really wanting to roast marshmallows again so just before the snow came we got out our little fire pit and did some roasting. Jude wanted to use his wooden reindeer we bought at Christmas for the fuel and it burned quite well. By the time we were done the snow came down.

It was also my birthday last weekend. As we have done the last couple of years I have foregone cake for pie, by far my favorite dessert. So, Marcy puts a candle in my pie and everyone sings happy birthday. This time we had apple pie and ice cream at 10:30am – who needs to wait until lunch.

Both kids said today that Easter is their favorite holiday. That may be true but every holiday we get to these days they say is their favorite. But they did have a good time with Easter that is for sure. It started with coloring of Easter Eggs yesterday.

Then this morning when they woke up it was time to go hunting for Easter eggs. The Easter Bunny had left them all over the house as well as outside in the backyard and the race was on. Jude sprinted around the yard gathering as many eggs as his basket could hold.

Inside the eggs was either chocolate or money. They had quite the stash by the time it all ended. And it didn’t end at home. We also went over to the annual Easter gathering at the Briere household where more eggs were hunted down. Here is a cute photo of both kids with their Easter baskets as they were getting ready to go.

On Jude’s fourth birthday he received this dinosaur book from Aunt Mandy. For the next 2+ years he has been pretty much inseparable from it. It has been quite staggering to me how much he enjoyed looking through this book.

So when we went to Mexico last month naturally the book came with us. But then tragedy struck. When we went to the bathroom at the Denver airport we left it on the counter, not realizing our mistake until we were already on the plane. Marcy called Lost and Found from Mexico but no one had turned it in. I tried looking for it on Amazon but couldn’t find it.

But Aunt Mandy came to the rescue again. She found the book on Amazon and sent us a replacement book. Jude was very happy to be reunited with his very favorite book again.

Jude and Anna have been going to creative movement classes for the last few weeks and today they had their performance. They were both pretty excited beforehand so they took to running around the dance hall as we waited for the performances to start. Both kids did great in their routine and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Last weekend we were in Keystone where both Jude and Anna spent Saturday in a ski lesson. This was their 5th lesson and I think they really made progress. Jude is very confident now and can turn and stop with relative ease. Marcy and I had the day to ourselves to ski and then we checked in on them late in the day and they were both doing great. Here is Jude powering down the slopes.

It has been a busy three weeks since the last Renton family blog update. A couple of weeks ago Marcy and I went on a snowshoeing date, something we hadn’t done together since the kids were born. It was part of an organized group that also included dinner and wine afterwards, although we had to pass on that because some bad weather moved in and we didn’t want to be stuck 50 miles from home on a Sunday night and have the babysitter stay very late.

The big part of the last three weeks, though, was our trip to Mexico. We went to Puerto Vallarta for 8 days staying at the Sheraton Buganvilias resort through the timeshare deal with Marcy’s parents. It was great to be by the ocean and in some warm weather again. The Sheraton is walking distance to downtown Puerto Vallarta which we took advantage of one day – this photo was taken on the boardwalk that runs through downtown.

While Anna wasn’t feeling the best during our trip Jude was completely fine. He stayed out late a couple of nights with me and we watched the sun set over the Pacific. Perfect.

While we spent quite a bit of time at the pool every day the beach was the bigger draw for the kids. Jude could literally amuse himself for hours looking for rocks, playing in the sand and chasing waves. The water was a perfect temperature for swimming although the onshore break was a bit rough at times. There were hawkers on the beach trying to sell us everything from trinkets, hats and clothing to whale watching trips. One day we were lucky and enjoyed our very own whale watching from the beach. A couple of humpbacks came in close to shore and I was able to zoom in on them and got this great shot.

But the highlight of the trip I think for all of us was the visit to Dolphin Adventure. The last time we were in Puerto Vallarta was over two years ago but Jude remembered it well and wanted to go and see the dolphins again. One of the places had a great kids program where they could touch, feed and even swim with the dolphins. So we signed them up.

This place also had sea lions and when we arrived we were greeted by this guy. The trainer asked Jude if he wanted a kiss from the sea lion and Jude being the brave one around animals said yes.

It was the dolphins, though, that everyone came to see. And they didn’t disappoint. Both Jude and Anna had wide grins on their faces the whole time and when Jude took a ride on the dolphin he could barely contain his glee. We bought the official video afterwards that you can see here on Youtube.

After 8 days it was back to Denver where we were in for a shock to the system. After enjoying sunshine, the pool and beach every day in glorious 80 degree weather we got hit with the worst blizzard of the season so far today less than 24 hours after getting back. So, it was time to get out the snow shovels.

There is some excitement brewing in our house these days: Jude has not one but two loose teeth. He is ecstatic to be catching up with some friends and a cousin who have already lost some of their milk teeth.

Most of the time Jude and Anna are great buddies. They can play together sometimes for hours on end with barely an argument. Of course, like most siblings they have their moments when they can barely stand each often but for the most part they are really good buddies. This was clear during Anna’s recent two-day hospital stay. Jude stayed home with me and couldn’t wait to see Anna at the hospital each day. And you could see the unbridled joy in Anna’s eye when she saw Jude had come to visit. Then there is the photo above taken by Marcy as they walked through the zoo on a recent visit. Jude just spontaneously put his arm around her shoulder.

When Anna was sick last week we had a Jude and Daddy date at the annual stock show. He was a little reluctant to go at first but when we got there he had a blast. The petting zoo was his favorite part. They had baby pigs, goats and sheep running around that you could feed and pet. Jude was particularly fond of the baby pigs. We also did a pony ride which he seemed to enjoy but not as much as in previous years.

The big news in Jude’s life recently was the start of Knights Club at his school. At the Denver Waldorf School they have two-year kindergartens and each January the older kids get to join a “club” where they go and do big kid kind of activities. Jude has been looking forward to this for the last 18 months. The transition to 1st grade is a big deal at Waldorf and they try and prepare the kids for it. Every Tuesday afternoon for the rest of the school year Jude gets to participate in Knights Club.

Jude still loves nothing more than making up imaginary games and stories in the backyard. Yesterday he had a lengthy discussion and game with the little boy statue in our yard and the reindeer.

Finally, I have been meaning to get a picture of our new car on the blog. We bought this fun little Audi TT in December and have been having a blast driving it. We haven’t had the top off much but in Denver you do get the occasional 60-degree day in winter where you can take advantage.