The Twii

I always expected to be a soccer mom. Drive the mini-van, carry bags of ice water and orange slices, you know... but I should have realized, back when Tyler and I were first married, that I was a soccer wife long before I'd be a soccer mom.

Tyler played on a city league team while we were at BYU, and now he's at it again. The nice thing about an adult soccer team is, they bring their own treats - and really require very little from us. So, the four of us pack up a dinner, head up to Fort Logan, and cheer on the Hooligans.


Their first season got off to a slow start, but they finished strong and won the championship! It helps that his random assortment of players (found from work, church, friends, neighbors, and Craig's List) now all know one another's names and how they play.

(and in case you're wondering what the kids do during all of these soccer games - the double headers especially - they run around.)

(Sometimes they're too creative with the things they find - and end up with their favorite toy in the trashcan. It's a rough life.)


Liza decided in the middle of all this soccer watching, that she was a soccer player, too.



And since one of her favorite friends gave her a sweet soccer ball for her birthday, she even had the ball to prove it. So, we signed up her and got her going for the month of June.
The first week that we bought her cleats and shin guards and everything, Liza got up every single morning and dressed herself from head to toe in her soccer gear. I love that kind of enthusiasm!

The games provided comedic relief, and Liza had lots of fun.

She even "made a goal!" at her first game, a highlight for her to be sure. She's done until September.
Even though she was all over this soccer idea, her feminine side would show through as she lined up or waited for instructions. She always had a little soccer pose going on.
I try to not say it too much - but what the heck? Where did my little girl go? She's grown so much -she's a real kid now.

I know this post has a lot of pictures, but just one more had to be included. Landon has a thing for funky shoes - and this shot documents it. I finally hid the camo snow boots (it may be Colorado, but we haven't had snow in a long time), but he's only replaced them with his giraffe rain boots. No worries about anyone taking the wrong shoes from the cubby at McD's play place.

This was the first of many days to take advantage of Tyler's days off. He spent the morning golfing while the kids sold lemonade, and then we spent the afternoon touring the Railroad Museum in Golden. A quick stop at Sonic on the way home for happy hour, and we called the day a huge success! (and then the fun continued at our weekly outing to Tyler's soccer games - go Hooligans!)


From the outside, the caboose looks like what I see in the cartoons (a reliable source, I'm sure) and in children's books.
I had no idea that they were so efficiently packed on the inside with a cubby for every little task. They had built in beds (but clearly not for tall people), desks, lots of locking cabinets, and even those cool benches to sit up and look out.

This is a real, working turntable. The roundhouse stores engines and cars being fixed up, and I guess on Saturdays they alternate which engine you can actually ride on around the park. For the parents who really, really love their children (to the Watkins - "well, now you know"), they can spend a small fortune to come for "A Day out with Thomas," for a few selected weekends in the fall, and ride a full size Thomas engine around. too bad, so sad for the Twiss kids

The Coors plant is in Golden, and they have some 30+ miles of railroad tracks on their property. They donated an engine to the museum, and it's all set up to work as a simulator. For a quarter you get your money's worth! You can work the pull brake, the whistle, and all sorts of other fun gadgets.
The museum is 95% outdoors, and has a nice eating area with shady trees. One spot I didn't seem to get a picture of was the super cool miniature railroad in the basement. Apparently some people love trains for life, and there are a bunch of them that come and work on the miniature railroad. It's quite intricate and pretty cool.

Unlike some of our other adventures, I have to admit that the children lost interest before I did. What a fun museum! Apparently, Landon's got me hooked on this train thing :) Much better than some other obsessions, I say (please - never DINOSAURS!).

Now that summer is here, Liza and Landon are expected to pick up the pace with their summer jobs. And believe me, they work their tails off around here.


Exhibit A:
The strenuous task of peeling apples for our apple pie:


Exhibit B:
Making and selling lemonade - a first for Liza and Audrey


notice that the sign says the lemonade is free. Well, they conveniently had a tip jar out - in which they earned $2! The nice neighbors across the street were their only customers, and I swear they emptied their entire cash drawer from the car into the girls' cup. Two dollars for two cups of lemonade! I'd say the girls turned quite a profit.
It's probably a good thing nobody else was out on a Monday morning buying lemonade; on the occasions when I happened to glance out - at least one of the kids was "pouring" or "stirring" or what have you into that not-so-sterile pitcher of lemonade. Who knows what flavor it was by the time they were done!