This is where we camped this weekend. It’s kinda purdy … more tomorrow.
The Bells
Camping en Masse
This weekend we headed back to Leadville for another group camping trip. This time we had invited over double the group from last year and so we were bummed when the reports out of Leadville were rather … chilly. No water. Lake is frozen. Some folks backed out (reasonably so) and as we climbed the hills to our destination, the top of one pass revealed this little gem … a totally frozen lake. On May 31. Yikes.
Happily our lake, Turquoise Lake, looked like this. And, honestly, it didn’t seem that much colder to us than last year! We still had DOUBLE the number of people. And it was a wonderful group.
Evenings looked a bit like this, with loads of chairs around the fire and everyone finding something yummy to eat.
The kids ran in one big pack, kinda feral and crazy and over-sugared. Ben almost learned how to ride his bike and got some nasty bug bites.
Tabby got gobs of marshmallow in her hair. No one got enough sleep. But MAN it was fun! We went fishing. We hiked around the campsite. The moms and dads went for bike rides and runs and had sipped wine and whiskey.
We have already reserved it for next year and I already can’t wait … so we’re going to do another group camp thing at the end of the summer. Woohoo!
Friday Faves May 24, 2013
Another busy busy week! Looking forward to the long weekend. We need it!
Favorite Daydream: Check out this beautiful lagoon in Riomaggiore, Italy. The Mediterranean coast is gorgeous! I could go there!
Favorite Savory Treat: cool ranch, crockpot chicken. I am game to try this!
Favorite Funny: my HP nerd may be showing here, but I just adore this photo.
Favorite Breakfast Nom: angel food french toast! Maybe this should be under sweet treat, but angel food is pretty healthy, right? riiiight?
Favorite Craftiness: I think doing these chalk drawings with the kids would be so much fun. I think Tabby would really get into it and maybe Ben if I can get him to hold still for a bit! He did pretty good on his b’day.
Favorite Workout: Some great tips from Fit Sugar on running up hill. I’ve gotten lots better at this, but can definitely use some work!
Favorite Sweet Treat: check out these frozen yogurt blueberry bars – they look a little complicated but worth the effort!
Favorite App: This is an app I use practically every day for note taking at work and goofing around outside of work: Penultimate! It’s from the people who make Evernote and it’s basically a Moleskin on your iPad. It has loads of features too that I haven’t even scratched the surface on, including handwriting recognition.
Favorite Wise Words: Well Joss would know.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!!
Friday Faves May 17, 2013
Another busy Friday! Tabby has Field Day today, so I am spending half my day at her school, playing tag and giving out popcicles and the like. Should be fun! On to another round of Friday Faves.
Favorite Daydream: check out this awesome attic movie theatre. I think what really appeals to me is the soft surfaces and cave-like look of it. I think I could watch movies or just sleep or read in here for hours.
Favorite Purchase: I tried some of this ice cream at the Mother’s Day Race I ran on the recommendation of my girlfriend. Man, she was right. I am not sure I’ve ever had better ice cream. Sweet, salty, creamy, crunchy. AWESOME. Not sure how widely available it is, since they’re a CO company, but if you can find it, BUY IT!! Coconut crunch is great too.
Favorite Savory Delight: This orange chicken with asparagus looks awesome. I think we’re heading out of asparagus season, but I want to make some next week.
Favorite App: This game’s a little hard to explain, but easy once you “get” it. You and a friend both say a random word, then you both try to find something in between your two words. Then again with the next two words you come up with until you both say the same thing. It’s also great because you can get it on Android and iOS. Interesting side note, it was developed by the band OK Go! (a personal fave).
Favorite Craftiness: Just saw this great article on how to make your own paper tape!! You just get some double-sided adhesive and put it on wrapping paper or whatever you like. Such a fun idea.
Favorite Destination: This is Faroe Islands in Denmark and it is definitely going on my must-visit list. So beautiful.
Favorite Workout: Bob Harper’s 20 minute crossfit workout is all things I love: Bob Harper and Crossfit. All you need are some dumbells and this little vid.
Favorite Sweet Thang: Check out these avalanche bars. One of my favorite candy stores, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, sells something pretty similar. It won’t happen soon because I’m trying to behave myself vis-a-vis sugar, but I will have to try these out!
Favorite Funny: bwwaaaahahhahahah! His expression says it all!!!
Favorite Wise Words: yep … well said, Sirius.
Favorite Breakfast Nom: I am constantly on the lookout for new breakfast ideas because while I could (and do) happily eat the same breakfast repeatedly for months, the kids like variety. This breakfast pizza looks great and has the protein that is hard to fit into a quickie breakfast on the way out the door. Going to try it soon – maybe for camping!
And that is it! Hope you have a great weekend!
We Be Trippin’
Sometime this summer we’re going to Alaska. Actually, we’re flying to Texas and then Vancouver and then we’re getting on a big boat and we’re going to Alaska. My inlaws have generously invited us on this adventure and everyone is looking forward to it. Big time. But it’s all that flying that gives me pause. We will be in transit to and from our boat for almost 12 hours on the front and back end of our trip and I’m sure it’s worth it, but all that flying makes me nervous because since we’re going to have transfers, I worry about the airlines losing our luggage. I always prefer to travel with just carry-on luggage if possible, but with the little ones, it hasn’t been possible for long time. But now that they are getting older, we’ve decided we’ll try it on this trip, so we made a rule: everyone gets one back pack and one rolling suitcase. Matt and I will also be carrying the kids’ booster seats (bases only – high-backs aren’t allowed for air travel).
My mom knows my struggle against too many toys and too much junk around our house, so she is always on the lookout for good, useful things for the kids’ birthdays. So this time I pointed her to suitcases for the kids. They already have little weekender sized ones and Matt and i have full-sized carryon ones, but the kids don’t. After research, we decided on rolling duffels from LL Bean. They can squish easily and especially with the kids’ gear, that’s perfect. I also know they hold up well because their largest duffel has been safely shuttling our family’s ski-gear to and from the mountains for almost 6 years now. And it still looks awesome.
These will travel well, but there is still the matter of space. We’ll be gone 10 days and in a wide variety of terrain. All the articles I’ve read on cruising in Alaska say the same thing – layers! It could be a problem because that can be a lot of clothes and can get bulky, but we have a few items in our wardrobes that are better than others. Matt and I both have great down jackets that we love to travel with because they’re very warm, but they’re also tiny! The kids, however, didn’t have these jackets and I didn’t really want to shell out $100/ea from Patagonia for them, especially when mine was $50 from Uniqlo, a Japanese sort of H&M that I’ve only ever seen in NYC. Though cheaper, it’s still very warm and has held up perfectly. I love the jacket and in fact, when I misplaced the original, I begged Ani to go get one for me since at the time they didn’t have an online shop. But now … they do! And I was able to get darling down jackets for my kiddos for the trip for only $25/ea. And they’re cute! And they’ll be here soon.
Now that I have two major hurdles out of the way, I’m turning my attention towards the rest of what goes in the suitcases and on our backs. More on that later.
And then it was Sunday
I haven’t been home enough lately.
Friday morning, a little less than a week since I returned, I headed off again for the mountains, this time for a girls’ ski trip with some of my besties. Me and the other Jess (Jess²) skied all day, minus about a 20 min break for lunch. Then we met up with the newly arrived, went out for dinner and came back for a relaxing evening in the condo. Saturday was more skiing, the viewing of a teeny bikini contest (on skis), dinner and a fun night dancing at an Irish bar. We came home this morning in semi-nasty conditions with a little extra sun on our faces and our batteries fully recharged.
It was great to see Matt and the kids. They had a wonderful time without me, broke all the rules (y’know the ones about changing clothes, showering and eating nutritious things). We spent most of the afternoon at a swimming birthday party. It was the first time the kids had been in the pool since they started lessons and it was amazing to see how much their confidence has grown.
After naps, my parents brought over corned beef and cabbage. My dad makes the best and the kids were very appreciative of his efforts, begging to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Just like that, the weekend is done. Now back to the grind for another four days until … spring break!
We Went to Vail
We spent a few days in our favorite home-away-from-home, Vail, in honor of Tabby’s 6th Birthday (actually tomorrow).
The weather on Friday looked like this ….
So Matt and I got a re-do on our semi-disastrous date day two weeks prior. Mom hung with the kids – who couldn’t ski in the deep powder and who didn’t want to brave the snow – and we skied our butts off.
We also had a great date lunch at The 10 which is a reservations-only restaurant at the top of the mountain. We’d never tried it before, so we treated ourselves. You get to go in and disrobe, including ski boots which is a big treat because even the most comfortable ski boots are decidedly uncomfy. Then you wear furry little slippers to lunch.
The average lunch fare on the mountain is chili and fries and pizza. And actually that’s what we had too, though upscaled versions of those with figs and lamb and stuff. It was tasty. As an after, we shared this sundae. Salted caramel ice cream, brownies, chocolate sauce and candied bacon. Mmmmmm
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mom totally spoiled the kids. They had a picnic, read a billion books, painted with water colors and skipped naps. Is it any wonder we had to beg them to go skiing the next day?
The next day was super beautiful and with tons of nice snow, so we spent the morning at the bunny hill with the kids. Over to the left of the bunny hill happened to be a little event called the US Snowboarding Open, specifically the finals.
We watched from afar as crazy talented guys, including Benji Farrow, pictured above, did their insane tricks on the half pipe.
Back on the bunny hill, it was our Benji’s big day. After some initial regression from his victories in January, he rallied beautifully and …
Took his first runs on the gopher hill, which of course, means his first ride on the chairlift! Big time big boy!!
After Ben’s excellent morning, it was still beautiful weather, so Mom took Ben home and Matt, my dad and I took Tabby up the mountain.
It was a wonderful time. Tabby gets better and better every time we take her out and she really seems to enjoy skiing and she’s so proud of her achievements.
After our ski day, Kelly joined us and we went to dinner for Tabby’s birthday. After dinner, we came home to the cake I’d baked for her and presents.
Exhausted from two days of skiing, we went to bed early and woke up even earlier to pack up and head home.
Winter Fun
A couple of weeks ago, we had the pleasure of visiting my aunt and uncle at their mountain home in the pretty town of Granby, CO. The big feature of Granby, CO is Lake Granby and their house is right on the lake. In the summer we have a wonderful time boating, but in the winter, the lake is frozen solid and covered in snow which makes it perfect for snowmobiling. Continue reading “Winter Fun”
Vail Break
My apologies for the extended break, but our wifi while away was absolutely terrible and I had a heck of a time getting a connection to WordPress for some reason. It was actually a kind of breaky trip in general. TV broke, my car’s battery died (light left on, below 0 temps), elevator went out. But at least all the people are in one piece!
Anyway, as we have done for a long time now, we spent the first week of the new year in Vail. We ski. We cook. We watch movies. We hang out. We read. We lick our Christmas-season-induced wounds. We have a great time. We are very very lucky to be able to do this and we cherish our moments together. We were joined by my parents, sister and our friends from Nashville. Our friends’ son is 2 and quite a talker and singer and all around charmer. It was great to see them, and everyone for such an extended period and really get to spend some quality time together.
Nashville
This was one of those trips where I could play a highlights reel that would make you think this was the worst trip ever … my 24 hours of stomach flu HELL, Tabby throwing up thrice, Ben ruining a pair of underwear on our flight out, me hauling Ben bodily from Vanderbilt’s bookstore thrashing and throwing the world’s hugest fit, etc. But the truth is that in between all of that no so fun stuff, we really had a nice time.
The trip was pretty low-key, so we had some fun doing the simple things like going to the park with Grammy Sherrie …
… and playing on the riding lawnmower.
We celebrated Miss Autumn’s birthday (that’s Ben with a cupcake) …
and baptism.
We saw some old friends, some extended family. We went to the zoo.
It was exhausting at times and also nice. I always love spending a good block of time with my babies. The kids were, overall, excellent travelers. And on the way out of the airport, I once again noticed the London/Heathrow gate. It is starting to seem like a real possibility.