I was wondering if I would get my post up before Camille.
We arrived in Denver Late Sunday night on the 28th of September. I just finished our Primary Program, and we left right after. The drive wasn't too bad, the kids did great, but it was sure nice to get there.
We went out to help Camille with her new house. They bought a rental that needed a little bit of work. They ended up hiring a guy to paint the house and the kitchen cabinets, and to do a little repair work. Let's just say he wasn't the most detail oriented guy. The walls were Ok, but the cabinets were a disaster. He sprayed them with out priming or sanding them first so there were huge drip lines all over the place. It was really bad. Camille was so upset. So instead of getting to work on the good stuff we ended up sanding down the worst parts of the cabinets and repainting them. We didn't get to antiquing them until Tuesday night. It took us about two days to fix it all. But it got fixed and looked really great. We also touched up the red paint. It was bleeding all over and just messy.
While we were there this is what we (Camille, we were just the worker bees) wanted to get done.
Antiquing the kitchen cabinets. (Done)
Paint the baby's room (Done)
Paint and wallpaper Chances room (Done)
Tile the Bathrooms (Done, but not all the grout)
Refinish some furniture ( this was the only thing we didn't really get too) Fixing those cabinets took a long time.

Here is Camille and Mom working on those cabinets. She has a ton of cabinets.

Mom and I sanding the cabinets.

Lunch break for the kids. They were troupers! They entertained themselves and each other for the most part.

We finally are repainting and doing touchups. There was red all over under the cabinets so mom cleaned that up.

So the nightly routine of reading a book. One night I was in the other room and EJ and the kids were in Chances room reading a book. I hear EJ break out into song, singing The Little Mermaid's wish I could be part of that world. I think he sang the whole song.

Mom and Camille finally getting to antique the kitchen Cabinets. Finally! Very late Tuesday night. We didn't finish until the next day late afternoon.

Mom making a face at me.

I was wondering where the boys were and what they were up too. I found them in the living room. They both had a hold of one of the strings to close the blinds and they were both pulling on them at the same time. When I walked in they were both leaning back, if they let go they would have fallen. I just wasn't quick enough to catch it.

Brendan and Chance playing/ watching TV together.

We gave the kids a community bath which everyone loved except Brendan. The huge tub made him nervous. The other kids had a lot of fun splashing on the carpeted bathroom floor and playing with Chances bath toys. I would love a tub like that.

Story time night 2. Brendan knew exactly where the best seat in the house was. Look at those clean babies.

This is the new baby's room. We painted it all a nice light green then put up a chair rail then taped off the diamonds.

Me sealing the tape so the paint doesn't bleed under it. This way we don't have a whole lot of retouching to do. Yea.

Camille taping

Done taping. Looks kind of funky.

Mom and I painting the contrasting darker green diamonds.

Chances room, with Chance and Brendan in it.

We painted the top half of the room a light blue and painted stripes around the bottom. It turned out sooo cute.

Mom and Chance playing catch, or mom just throwing a bear at Chance.

EJ putting in the backer board.

Friday EJ and Dad began the tiling process. They started with the hardest place first. The main floor entry to the garage and bathroom/laundry room. Doing that first made the rest of the rooms seem really easy. Ok maybe not really easy, but easier.

Friday night we took a well deserved break to go to Casa Bonita. My Uncle Earl and Aunt Melissa introduced us to it when they lived in Denver. Just so you know, you don't go for the food. They have cliff divers and puppet shows and a magic show and music, exciting stuff like that. Although most of the attractions had been changed into haunted houses and the like so it wasn't as fun for the real little ones. The cliff diver was still cool.

We met with our cousin Taryn and her little guy Aiden, and our cousins on dad's side Mike and Debbie. Most of us are in this picture I think.

Kyle and Brendan.

A few years ago (like 30 or something) back when Mike and Debbie were dating, they came here and got their picture taken in the jail. So they got a new one taken claiming that they're still there. I guess we're just visiting. So this is all of us. We had a nice time visiting and hanging out and not working on the house for a couple of hours. We're glad that Mike and Debbie and Tayrn could come and vist with us.
I'm not sure what Mike was thinking letting Kyle hold the gun. Wait who lets people have guns when they are in jail?

Inside Black Barts cave you have to walk into the dragon's mouth (or maybe it's a snake) to get out. Kyle Grandpa, Brendan and I went through the cave together. Kyle was fine until we got to this part. Grandpa had to pick him up and carry him out. Kyle wanted to go through again so this time I took my camera. We got to this part again and he freaked out. I wanted to take a picture of him in the mouth, but he wasn't going to have it. I showed him that it was only made of plaster and that it wasn't real, and that enabled him to walk through it. Maybe next time. Elise didn't even get close. Because it was Halloween time they had turned the whole area into a haunted house type thing, so Elise didn't feel inclined to go in at all. It was too bad because I remember the caves from when I was younger and they were always fun. Granted I was more like 12 or 13. But still. So don't go at Halloween time unless that's what you love.

Dad laying tile in the main floor bathroom.

Brendan drinking out of the red cup.

Chance drinking out of the red cup. These boys share so well.

Elise and Kyle did so well keeping themselves and the little boys entertained. They're eating lunch here.

EJ cutting the tile.

Dad wisely suggeste to EJ to put on a jacket while cutting the tile. EJ ended up cutting tile until about 10:00 Saturday night. But we got it all in and left it for Camille and EJ to finish the grouting. At least it was in. We were all beat that night, well after working the way we all worked all week I'm amazed we still had it in us to stay up and finish.

Chance helping Grandpa lay down the tile.
What a big helper.

Chance was helping me measure the floor for backer board. There is a new backer board product out there that is soooo light. I actually laid the board down myself in two of the bathrooms. It's easy enough to work with that you can cut all the way through it with a utility knife. Using that board probably made it possible to get all the bathrooms tiled before we left. We would have been up all night Friday if we had used the other stuff.

Camille showing mom how to smile for the camera.

Brendan just being his happy self.

They were watching EJ cut tile from upstairs.

The end of Camille and Dad

These two boys just having a great ol time jumping on the bed.

Doing something in the main bath. The backer board was already down so we must be measuring for the tile.

Saturday night dinner. We did stop to eat sometimes. The boys have matching facial food.

Camille grouting the tile in the main floor bathroom/entry, at about 11:00 or later at night.

Mom grouting the entry to the garage.

So Sunday morning Brendan found the light blue paint can in Chance's room and painted the closet and the floor, and himself. Luckily it all came out just fine. EJ did make a good point that it was the only real incident we had all week.

The baby's room turned out really cute too. It all made me want to go redo the walls in my kids rooms. Just not in such a short length of time.

Chance's room. The stripes look so cute with the border and he'll have the blue car bed in there.

The section of wallpaper that Chance decided to pull off. He woke up and decided to check out the cars and it all went down hill from there. It ended up being not such a disaster though, because that particular roll of paper was missing all the black. So the tires on the cars were all white wall tires, and the taxi was missing some of it's taxi decor. Camille was able to send it back and they are sending her a new roll. So with Chance pulling off the paper and Brendan painting the closet, it was an eventful morning.

Main Bathroom tile in.

Master Bath Tile in.


This is Sunday night, the day we got home. I think we all felt this way, Brendan just expressed it best. Asleep on our feet.

We love you Camille, EJ and Chance, and were glad we could help you out and visit too.