The Hopkins Family: Summer Fun

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Summer Fun

After Sammi's birthday we were trying to cram in some fun before Disney (that will be my next post) since after getting home from vacation I would have Girl's Camp, then Adam would start work, then school would start. The Waldo Canyon Fire ruined our efforts to go camping and the kids were pretty upset so we decided to put up the tent in the living room and go camping inside. It wasn't quite the same, but I will admit it was far easier.

Really?

The Fourth of July was a little weird this year. All the fireworks were cancelled because of the fire danger and even the parade was cancelled since the emergency personnel were busy. That left our morning pretty relaxed. Denae's neighborhood had a little parade so the kids rode their bikes (around the block) for that, then they had carnival type games. It was actually really fun and Paul especially had a great time. One of the neighbors was having some issues so the fire truck was called and they let all the kids get inside. It was great. That afternoon we went back to Denae's for a BBQ with Kevin & Holly and Josh's girls. They had an awesome time.

She had her face painted red, white, and blue in the morning, but decided she needed a change.

Then, that weekend my parents got home from their mission. We went to the Garden of the Gods and drove around the Mountain Shadows area. It was strange seeing all of the houses that were destroyed, but it was even more strange seeing the ones still standing. Although I am sure there was a reason, it looked totally random as to why some homes were still standing and others were gone. In a neighborhood you would have 1 home burned on a block, and the rest were fine, then on another block 2 or 3 were gone. I didn't see many areas were everything was gone. We didn't last too long around there because it felt a little voyeuristic and I wanted to leave.