Family Wedding in Colorado {Summer 2015}

Colorado or Bust!

We were so happy that Seth and Kelsey decided to get married this summer so that we could plan a vacation to Colorado, with the added bonus of spending time with family.  The wedding was in Loveland, but we stayed in Fort Collins.  I spent lots of summer days in Fort Collins as a staff kid of Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru).  It's hard to believe how many years ago that was.  We spent an afternoon walking around the CSU campus.  I'm secretly hoping that one of my boys goes to college in Colorado, because... Colorado.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but you can see the mountains in the background?

Mary, thank you for faithfully wearing your Wolfe Academy shirt ;)

All the grands minus Elsa :(  Elsa was at summer camp, but we missed her!

The lovely bride and groom.

The wedding was beautiful and simple and elegant and rustic and God-honoring.

Twins.

My boys probably had about five Shirley Temples each.

My cousin's sweet new baby boy

We were buddies during the reception.

My cousin's daughter.  She was so excited to pose for me... all the while my boys were moaning, "Not another picture!"

The next day we packed up the car again and made our way toward Durango... more pics to come :)

First Day of School

 

First day of school as a 6th and 8th grader.  

It's strange to say that.  I guess it's more normal to put your five year-olds on the bus and cry because they are so little and are taking such a big step.  I thought it would be more emotional for me, sending these two to a "formal" school.  Maybe it's because they are still home quite a bit.  But I think more than that, they were ready.  I was ready.  It was time.  I think for every family it's different.  As a homeschooler, it's always been hard for me personally to read/see/hear that other homeschooling families that I respect are sending their kids to school, because then it made me doubt my decision to keep ours at home.  But I don't think that has to be the case.  For me, I was feeling in over my head.  I was feeling like it was pushing me to a place of worry and anxiety that I didn't like.  I didn't have confidence that I could get them ready for college.  In those younger grades, I did have confidence that they were getting enough, and that what they weren't getting from me, was being made up for in all the benefits of homeschool (lack of peer influence, extra time spent in creative play, and lots of hours reading).  

This parenting thing is something else.  Young moms, it doesn't feel like you think it will.  I can't believe I'm here.  I was sitting in an ACT prep meeting this summer, wanting to crawl under my chair and go back to the times of changing diapers and Matchbox cars and trips to the zoo and picnics in the park and pureeing baby food.  All of that came more naturally to me.  This stuff, this raising of human beings, it ties my stomach in knots, thinking of that day when they will actually leave our home.  Will they have what they need?  Am I making too complicated?  Am I making it too simple?

But I do know this.  There's lots to stress over.  But I KNOW God loves and cares for my boys even more than I do.  He's equipping them with what they need, aside from MY efforts.  He may be taking away what they want (or what I want for them) because it's for their own good.  And I need to learn to be okay to sit back with my cup of coffee and enjoy being a spectator in what God is doing in their lives and hearts.  It's becomes less about physically serving them, and more about being a guide and an example and a teacher.  But let me tell you, I'm better at the serving than the being.  So this is new for me.  

Maybe by the time that little one in background is a teenager I'll have this parenting thing down.  

But I doubt it ;)

Happy first year of school boys.  I love being your mom!