[Excited] Today, in one hour, Alex will graduate from elementary school... and what great timing! He graduates on the first day of summer.  Next Monday, he will be the master of ceremonies at his scout troop. Boy, he sure has grown.

Tucker: this little monkey is singing now with our kid music CDs, and he loves to play name that tune with dad whistling the tune. Lately, he's been randomly pitching in to help around the house with no prompting. A couple of weeks ago, when he heard one of the twins crying, and he scampered out of the living room, picked up a pacifier and brought it to mom in the nursery. He's also been able to climb up the climbing wall of our playset in the back yard.

Quinn: aka 'the shrieker' - for such a small child, she can belt out an ear-splitting shriek. Oy! She's pulling up herself on mom and dad and anything she can get her hands on. Not quite cruising yet, but almost there.

Cleo: this bright-eyed little girl is cruising, can stand straight for about 5 seconds and is almost ready to take her first steps!

Both twins are pronouncing the sounds 'mama' and 'dada', but I'm not sure yet if there is an association of what these words mean yet. Our latest pastime is taking the girls and Tucker on walks with Quinn and Cleo in the twin Radio Flyer now that the weather is decent.

[Burdened] Alex and I flew to Denver for his birthday (he turned 12 on Sunday) and Father's Day this past weekend. One of our goals was to catch the last tour of the Denver Mint Friday afternoon. After having set up a reservation more than 2 months ago, can you believe that I couldn't go in because of the camera on my phone? After reading down through the aforementioned link, I assumed the mint would let you check these items in. Boy was I incorrect!  Alex went alone, and I was left outside like some mangy mongrel left to fend for itself in a storm. That's how it felt at least.

Dinner that night was fun. I took Alex for his time to the Hard Rock Cafe. I'm pretty certain he enjoyed himself though his eyes were glued to the music videos most of the time. He was pretty jazzed about how tasty the french fries were. So what's dinner without a movie? Luckily enough the movie theater was a block away from our hotel and we went to see the Fantastic Four sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer. I must say enjoyed myself. The dialog between the characters was good, and well, Jessica Alba isn't too hard on the eyes. Saturday, went rode the bus to a pretty cool water park called Waterworld - big park, lots of rides. I'd like to bring Lisa, Tucker, Quinn and Cleo there sometime. Sidenote: I've noted recently on my recent trips how much I miss my little ones whenever I see parents totin there infants or toddlers around. It's like I feel guilty for not having them with me when I go out, but then I remind myself that I have 3 kids under the age of 3... Geez, I can't imagine having to go through an airport security checkpoint with all the kid paraphernalia, crying, cajoling and chaos involved. It would probably be best to go through with every in underwear and diapers just to avoid any questions from security and on to the concourse.

Anyway, we wrapped up Saturday going to a Rockies baseball game. Playing the Tampa Bay Manta Rays, the Rockies started strong in the 2nd or 3rd inning with a grand slam from their right fielder Hawpe. I found it comical that the Rays intentionally walked the Rockies big hitter Helton to make bases loaded only to have one of the other Rockies players pelt one out of the field. Final score was 10-5, Rockies win... and Alex and I got a promotional free tie out of the game.

Sunday was spent at my dad's house. It was nice and relaxing though pretty hot. My dad gave Alex quite a treat by giving him a motorcycle ride up to Red Rocks. Thanks Dad! He and my step-mother have really done some amazing things with their backyard. Every year they plant a vegetable and herb garden among their lovely fruit trees, flowers and berry bushes and vines. I'd love to be able to do something similar one of these days, months, years, decades... The four of us also played a pretty riveting game of Wahoo with Alex and my step-mother winning just barely ahead of my dad and I.

Overall, Alex and I had fun and a few bonding moments offset by moments of being on completely different wavelength. I wonder if it will always be so? The two things that could have been improved on this trip are me actually being able to take the Mint tour, and *sigh* me not losing the silver ring Lisa gave me back in 1999. I'm pretty certain I left it in the hotel bathroom, but the hotel lost and found hasn't recovered it yet.

[Catching up...] The Red Sox's hopes for conquering the Coast League this year came to an end last Wednesday. After four games in double elimination, we finished the tournament pretty quick this year. *sigh* This is the first time Alex didn't go all the way to the final game in our local tournament. It's also the first opportunity that Alex would have had to go to a city-wide tournamement. Ah well, there's always next year. Who knows, maybe Alex will go into the majors league. 

Cleo is starting to balance herself on two feet for about 3-5 seconds at a time. She's almost ready to start taking her first steps on her own. Would be cool if she did that on Father's Day - heh! Meanwhile, Quinn is right behind Cleo and can pull herself up like a champ. I don't know what I'm going to do when these two are walking and bumping into corners, falling down stairs and getting into general mischief and self endangerment. I'm shaking my head and rubbing my eyes as I contemplate this...

I've been listening to an audio book called, 'The Winning Spirit,' partly written by Joe Montana. Pretty good to listen to and has been a good reminder to me about focusing on what my goals are, and generally where I want to be. There's some really info and life-style changing thoughts in there, but *deep sigh* super hard with four kids. I wonder if Joe has three kids under the age of three?