Category: Misc

Well it just wouldn’t be the holiday season without a trip to the Denver Zoo for Zoolights. They deck out the whole zoo with amazing Christmas lights, play beautiful music, and have some fun exhibits for the kids … animals, ice carvers, fire dancers and SANTA. The last two years we’ve taken advantage of the member’s preview weekend right after Thanksgiving. It’s been a bit warmer than mid December and a bit less crazy and generally awesome.

The kids, as usual, had a wonderful time. This was the first year Ben really got into it all, clamoring for “Mo Kissmas Lights!” – Matt is thrilled as he sees Ben as his future accomplice in Clark Griswold style Christmas light displays. He loved seeing all the animals and would grab our hands and pull us from exhibit to exhibit.

The kids got to ride on the train and the carousel. They got to check out their favorite animals at night. They got to have a lovely later-night sugary snack … and, to top it all off,

they got to meet the big guy … Santa himself.

It’s bad/hilarious when you hear your own words coming out of your kids mouth. I’m not talking about the stuff you meant for them to parrot, as in yesterday’s post. I’m talking about the *ahem* adult language that sneaks in. Like the day over a year ago when Tabby, trying to figure out how to fold a small stool, uttered, “What the devil??” (one of my favorite phrases).

Anyhow, yesterday we were heading from our sitter’s house to Target (because it’s a day ending in Y, of course). And the kids were in the back seat. Tabby, contrary to the norm, was pretty quiet and Ben was taking FULL advantage of the situation to ask us what everything from a tree to a bicyclist to a car “says.” Suddenly, Tabby saw something that intrigued her and started talking loudly in order to get our attention. Not happy with the change in focus, Ben became quite upset.

“NO SISSY, NO! I MAD AT YOU!! <pause> GOD!!” He was completely exasperated.

Of course we burst into laughter immediately and he kept repeating, “SISSY! I MAD AT YOU!!” over and over. Eventually, he must have realized we were dying of laughter because then it turned to, “NO, MOMMY! IT NOT FUNNY! NO NO MOMMY!”

Happy Halloween to all and to all a good night of candy-eating!

Last Wednesday Old Man Winter showed up with 6-8 inches of snow (more in the foothills and high country!). Since temps stayed pretty reasonable and nothing got icy … and it didn’t ruin any fun or stay around too long I am OK with it.

Plus it was really really pretty!! Especially the next day when the clouds were gone and the sun came out to turn everything bright and sparkly.

The only bad bit was it downed quite a few trees, including one in our front yard (but luckily it was the one slated to be removed this weekend) and, unfortunately, one limb from our beautiful Bradford Pear tree. But it will survive … and I loved seeing its beautiful orangey leaves next to the crisp white snow.

It also made Tabby a weee bit cold in her mermaid costume as she headed for her Halloween parade at school. But she wouldn’t have traded either the snow or the costume. And it looks really cute with her pink hoody anyhow.

It has been a BEAUTIFUL fall around here. The above photo is from our “long” run (6.2 mi) on Sunday. The view alone was inspiring. My sub hour finish was icing on the cake… but I digress.

Continue reading “Random Stuff from My Phone Camera”

We had a very nice, very FALL sort of weekend. Pumpkin patch and corn maze? Check. Visit to the Halloween super store? Check. Making of fall foods including pumpkin bread and apple chips? Check. A Halloween-themed birthday party? Check. Eating way too many pumpkin-spice almonds? Check.

It was busy (isn’t it always?). But very good. We got to see lots of friends and family. We got a few things done around the house. I made Tabby a dress out of an old polo shirt. Matt worked on his Halloween project, a “crank ghost.” We went for a nice long run (though it was only 5 mi – we had a b’day party to get to!). We absolutely wore out the kids.

My arms are kind of sore. Today my coach, Robyn, insisted I walk around the gym (approx 300 m) with a 30 lb barbell extended over my head. It kind of sucked. But I didn’t put it down the whole time. This was, of course, after I’d already walked around the building (300 m, in case you forgot) holding two 26lb kettle bells. Get this … I pay her to torture me like this.

What else is going on in the house? The kids have been crazy. Ben hasn’t wanted to eat much and he’s been really tired but when he’s up, he’s just on a tear. He just wants to destroy everything. Destroy is probably the wrong word. He wants to take everything apart and scatter it all over the house. He is currently not allowed to have: crayons (duh), his orbital toy from the Natural History Museum (he menaces his sister with this), anything with small pieces (I’m too sore to pick them up right now), any food outside of the kitchen and dining room (duh). On the bright side, he seems to have developed some respect for moving vehicles. On Tuesday he actually held my hand all the way through a parking lot and he huddled closer to me when he saw a car headed our way.

We have decided NOT to go camping. Honestly I am MORE than fine with this decision. It changes next to nothing except possibly giving me more free time, although that is quickly filling up. We can also make it to one of our favorite kiddo’s b’day parties which will include swimming. Instead this weekend I will cook the same food we would have eaten while camping (maybe we can even do a last round of s’mores on our fire pit) and instead of doing whatever camping stuff we’d have done on Saturday, we will probably work on winterizing our camper so it can go to storage (and I can have the garage back – snow is going to fly soon).

It has been a long week and I will be glad to lie around a bit this weekend.

I’m sure the NYers are going to say “duh.” But rain really sucks worse in the city.

We split up today along gender lines. The guys went to a diner and then checked out the USS Intrepid. Ben apparently had a great time splashing and climbing and running. The ladies checked out Tea and Sympathy and then did a bit of shopping around the W Village (I think). The only problem was the RAIN!!! We were all soaked. Tabby and I ended up getting wellies at Marshalls to cope.

At 5:50 we realized time had gotten away from us and we headed downtown to meet up with our friends we’ve never met before, Ani, Niel, Olivia and little Niel. It was a nice and crazy evening. They had bad traffic, the kids were tired, drinks got spilled, my dad had the diaper bag, the rain complicated things, etc. But the restaurant was nice, we got to go by Magnolia and grab some cupcakes and best of all, we got to meet these lovely people we’ve known forever, more or less.

We got back super late. The kids were exhausted. But it was a fun night.