Later this morning Nicole gave me the big Monster House “DONE” stamp on Summer Project #1.

I picked it up from our local Costco last Thursday afternoon, and yes it fit in the new van.

I began work on Saturday morning. When the work became too large for one person to handle I called in reinforcements. My dad came over about 1pm and he helped me with some of the two man jobs.

At 1: 30 we had to break; the boys had a birthday party to go to for one our friend’s daughters. It came at just the right time; the work was starting to wear on me.

We started back up about 4:45. Al and Dad were real troupers putting up with my organization of every last piece. We worked for about 2.5 hours and called it a night.

I got back after it this morning about 9AM. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. All that was left was to add the hardware, “that should take that long” I thought. I was wrong. I ended up putting the last knot in the rope ladder about noon.

I must say it really was worth the time. Jacob made me a wonderful thank you card that alone made all the bruised knuckles worth it.

The boys spent most of the afternoon playing fort and swinging. I expect that’s what most of the summer is going to be filled with.

The boys dragged old dad down to the Denver Zoo this afternoon. I think this may be a weekly occurrence during the summer. With that in mind we picked up a family pass, $75 for unlimited visits for 365 days. I think the nice thing about a family pass is that you’re not rushing around the park trying to see everything in one day. We plan on going for a maximum of about 2 hours each time, this way the boys don’t get too tired, not to mention me.

Anyway here are some pictures.

Anyone who would like to play hooky from work and join us for a morning or afternoon is more than welcome.

A few weekends ago the boys, Nicole and I headed out on a camping trip, taking advantage of a long weekend. This was to be the first trip using the new Honda Odyssey as tow vehicle. It performed great. However the trip wasn’t without issue.

The 1993 Coleman has been in need of some upgrades and putting them off really caught up with us on this trip. The hot water heater wouldn’t hold water, and in turn left us with out enough water pressure to run anything. So we ended up using the camping showers and bottled water to drink and cook with. Not really THAT big of a deal. After inspection it turns out I forgot to drain the hot water heater before putting it away for the winter and the tank burst, lesson learned.

We also had both dogs this trip. We usually end up leaving at least one with family. Nicole was not looking forward to this. I had the idea to take Belle’s kennel with us for the ride down, and it turned out to be a great place to put them when things became too much. Looking back on it now, even Nicole agrees that taking both dogs really wasn’t that bad.

Most of our time was spent lounging by the fire, reading and taking in the clean air. We also had quite a few napping moments if I remember correctly.

We needed a good long nap after our neighbors took the boys and I on a 2.3 mile hike. This was the first time the boys had been out for this long of a walk. They handled it ok. Dad only had a few offers of “carry me” and “can I ride on your shoulders”. All in the entire afternoon hike was great for ALL of us. The boys learned quite a bit from the nature signed posted ever so often. Dad even picked up a thing or two.