Rocky Mountain High

Did you know that Larry and I danced our first dance as a married couple to a John Denver song? Yup. Larry picked it, it's a very sweet song called Dreamland Express... ah, I digress.

I got home Tuesday from a wonderful weekend with Jackie in Colorado. We kind of "met in the middle" since she now calls Minnesota home. Her very spry 84 year old Grandpa lives in a little town called Franktown (and his name is Frank!) and we stayed with him and his wife Katie. It was fun to be a part of her family for the weekend, different family dynamics are always entertaining (she has a particularly "colorful" uncle named Fred).

Snow dampened some of our plans so we didn't get to go Estes Park and tour the Stanley hotel, but we did get to see a lot of Colorado regardless.

The flights home were smooth and I even flew over Whidbey, which I got to see due to the clear skies (I don't think I've ever flown home to Bellingham in clear skies!) I saw all these bits of "home" from the plane, and I teared up and got some strange looks from the passenger next to me.

And no matter how much fun (and relaxing!) my vacation was, nothing beats your kids running into your arms after time away. Natalie hugged and kissed me until my luggage arrived, then made sure she held my hand all the way to the car. Brady kept leaning into me like a cat, just kind of making sure I was there and to get a few hugs and kisses. Larry was much more civilized ;)

So without further ado, some snapshots of my trip!

I stayed downtown on Saturday and when I went out for dinner, I ran into chaos! Zombies everywhere! Even the Ghostbusters showed up!
Who ya gonna call?

View from the dining room, a deer was having breakfast. The deer and a skunk were the only wildlife I saw.

Jackie and I ordered Mai Tai's at the Mongolian BBQ restaurant while we waited for her co-workers. After 2 sips, "everyone was our friend". It also prompted quite a funny collections of self-portraits!

In Manitoo Springs, Jackie revealed what kind of "lover" she is.

This is the change in the layers of rock at Garden of the Gods. Jackie said it looks like I peed on the rocks.

Steamboat rock.

Jackie and Balanced Rock.

Me and Balanced Rock.

Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods.

"Kissing Camels".

Pike's Peak is only a few hundred feet shorter than Mt. Rainier, but at elevation it doesn't look like it!

Pike's Peak from Grandpa's back deck.

Boxx Berry Farm 10-22-09

My little pumpkin with a little pumpkin.
I am willing to put this awful picture of me on the Internet just for a laugh: this is the perfect picture of my children's attitudes this day!

I look better in this picture, but...

Natalie looks better in this picture.

This seems to bring a smile to Brady's face.

You may wonder why there aren't many pictures of Brady lately? It's because most of them look like this:

My sweet girl.

Brady could tolerate a photograph if he was being tickled.

We call this picture "Stand there next to your sister in the damn patch and smile or there is no pumpkin for you!"

No sooner than we got out of the car, the farmer ran over excitedly to show us the trebuchet he bought off of a high school student for $100. He loved to have an excuse to use it!

He's been trying to hit this outhouse, looks like he overshot this one!

Live from Colorado!

I arrived yesterday afternoon in Denver after a very long and stressful travelling day, ugh. I was 2 minutes late to check into my flight and so they gave my seat away, which meant I wouldn't make my connecting flight... long story short I arrived in Denver 5 hours late.
Jackie's family is so nice and gracious, and it's so good to see her face again. She and I have known each other since elementary school, but have been best friends since the 7th grade.
Today I wandered the streets of downtown Denver, stopping for an occasional coffee and a mani/pedi. Then I wandered down to find some dinner and found myself in the middle of Zombie Fest, complete with a Ghostbusters car and 3 Ghostbusters! Pictures of that to come!
I had P.F. Changs for dinner (yum-0-licious) and plan a long soak in the tub before bed. It's been so nice to have a day where I just did as I pleased. So very nice.
Tomorrow we're off to Estes Park and The Stanley Hotel (the hotel from The Shining). I am super excited for that!

The life I lead...

can be so mundane, I can't bear to blog about it for over a week. I feel like I'm on a treadmill... work, parent, clean, sleep, repeat. I mean, I was excited to go to Ashi's birthday today just so I had a reason to get my camera out! Of course I was excited to celebrate Ashi regardless, but his birthday was my big event of the week. Yawn. (don't send me hate mail Erin, you know what I mean!)

Happy Birthday to you...

Ashi was much more content to eat the same cupcakes all the other kids got. He only realized after he ate the entire little cupcake that the entire lions head was cake as well!

Poor Little Miss was the only little miss at the party. She got chased, lassoed, "gotten", and lots of other horrible boy things done to her. Nothing a little cake and ice cream can't fix though.

Why do the big boys find the little boys toys so much more entertaining? Is it because the little boys desperately want to play with it that makes it so enticing?

We got Ashenafi a Sit and Spin. I hope you enjoy it little buddy! We love you so much and are so glad you are in our lives! Happy 1st(2nd) Birthday!

Stoney Ridge

Something I've never seen before: a skittish goat.

Big love from Little Miss.

Natalie, me, and Brady's arm (the blue thing in the left corner).

Brady loved hand feeding the ducks. It freaked me out a bit.

My children have such natural smiles!

I think this is our Christmas Card photo.

Every year I forget that Stoney Ridge Farm doesn't take plastic. I didn't even have enough cash for entrance (and bought a new wallet that doesn't hold my checkbook) but the man waved us in anyhow. But this also meant that there would be no lunch, no tractor ride, no pumpkin or apple purchasing...but there was lots of other things we could enjoy without spending. We wandered around and looked at all the animals. I even dug out 2 quarters so that the kids could purchase a handful of feed to give to the goats and ducks.

After the farm we met Tracy at the market (ho-hum) and then she took me to "1993's" house. 1993 is a jewelry artist, and I have received many wonderful gifts from Tracy that were created by her. Today I got to pick out my belated birthday gift, these really nice dangly earrings (it was a tough choice between my 3 fav's). I'm wearing them now and even showed them off tonight when the kids and I met up with Shu and her family for a quick visit. They are in town for just a moment so I was glad to get to see her face. And she loaded the kids down with candy and glow sticks (she justified this action under the "Auntie" clause.)

Tomorrow I'll be baking up a storm in preparation for the Food Drive kickoff Monday! If you're close, please consider making a donation either drop it off here (or I could come pick it up) or take it to the FRED MEYER ICU or the STATE ST ICU (there is a hot competition between branches. The prize? A paid day off!!! FM and State are teamed up together against the bigger branches.) I hope my baked goodies help us pull ahead in the competition.

The car wash last weekend raised $255 in 3 hours! That's Brady there about to scrub down a real-life bucket truck. He was in heaven.
We both aren't looking as pretty as possible, but regardless it was nice to see her.

Batfire

My daughter has several speech idiosyncrasies. She even creates new ones while you're trying to correct the old one. I'll give you an example: My mother-in-law took the kids to Hovander Homestead where they have Peacocks that roam the grounds. Natalie CANNOT pronounce Mohawk or Peacock for some reason, she says "Heehawk". So MIL was trying to break down Peacock for Natalie. "Say Pea" "Pea". "Say Cock" "COCK!" she would shout which does nothing for keeping your composure while trying to teach a child. Inevitably, Natalie would come to the part where she put the two words together and shout "HEECOCK!" MIL threw her hands up in amused frustration and told Natalie that she's hopeless. Now Natalie walks around proudly stating that she is "Hope-uh-less". It's hope-uh-less to change you Natalie!


On to Batfire... Brady desperately wanted vampire fangs to put in his goody bags at his birthday. We had a couple of pairs left over so my kids have been playing with them. Last night Natalie came out to scare me with her teeth.

Natalie: "Mom, I'm going to put in my batfire teeth and you say 'how come you wearing those silly teeth?' Then I'm going to say 'they aren't silly teeth, they my real teeth cuz I a BATFIRE!' and then you gonna say 'oooohhhh' and I'ma gonna bite you! OK mama?" We rehearsed her script several times last night and this morning. It was even funnier this morning with Natalie's bedhead.

(please excuse the poor focus on these photos, Larry had it on the Portrait setting for some reason and she kept jumping at me just as I'd snap the photo! But I think her spirit is still captured!)

Week Wizzed By

I know I don't have a lot of room to complain when I only work twenty-some hours a week, but it seems like this past week was the one that wouldn't stop!
MON: Work
TUE: I don't even remember Tuesday oh wait, it was Open House that night at B's school.
WED: Brady's 7th birthday party ('nuf said)
THUR: Work. Come home with mild headache.
THUR night until FRI at 9:15am: No sleep and constant vomiting from now raging migraine (nothing is like barfing as you walk out the door to take your daughter to school).
FRI: Forgot that I had volunteered at Natalie's class this day and dropped her off with the intent of bagging out until I looked into the desperate teachers eyes. So I made bubble art with 12 4 year olds on zero sleep, zero food, zero coffee, zero pain meds...
SAT: Work. Power went out and crashed all the computers (when our line was already spilling out of the lobby. Came home and canned Apple pie filling and decompressed with Erin and Jen while we let our children play mostly unsupervised.
SUN: Natalie off to a birthday party while Brady and I went to Fairhaven to wash cars to raise money for the Food Bank. I figured he'd enjoy the mess as well as get a lesson in volunteerism. He gave me a proud "harumph" when I told him that he helped raise over $200 for the food bank today. (I will post pic later)
Went to Target, came home and made Apple Butter (it was supposed to be more applesauce but my apples cooked too long.) Made dinner (Chicken stir-fry), and watched AFV with the kids before story and bedtime.
And what's in store for tomorrow? WORK!

Brady's Birthday

Please excuse the randomness of the order the photos are in, sometimes Blogger and I don't see eye to eye.
Brady turned 7 on Wednesday. I am amazed at how fast time goes when you have children. I was teasing him the night before while we were at the grocery store that it was just yesterday that I put him in those baby seats on the grocery cart. I asked him if we would humor me and climb in one for old times sake, but for some reason he declined.
At first he wanted to have a "Tony Hawk Boom-Boom Huck Jam" themed party. I tried to steer him away from this idea because a. most of his friends had this theme and b. I don't think he really knows who Tony Hawk is. Then he decided on a "Camo" party. Now that I can do! And I thought the whole camo idea tied in well with his rock wall climbing party (very Army Ranger, don't you think?)

Natalie was only happy on the rock wall when she was in daddy's arms and close to the ground.
Brady on his descent (while Riley in the background continued her ascent).

The gang listening to the guides instructions: "On Belay?" "Belay on", etc.

Brady received so many awesome gifts!

The story behind this bike: Grandpa Cameron acquired it from the original owner (a man in his 40's) who handed it down to his nephew who was now to old for it. He knew Cameron had a grandson that might enjoy it. Brady instantly fell in love with this 30 year old BMX Mongoose. It was blue with spots of rust, and it weighs a ton! But Brady loves it more than he loves his brand new Trek bike we bought him last spring. Go figure!

We knew we had to do something about the rust on the bike, so Larry decided for Brady's birthday, he'd overhaul the bike for him. Many hours of sanding and painting later, Brady's 30 year old bike is in it's prime! We also added foot pegs and skull&crossbone innertube caps (per Natalie's suggestion).