Well lots has been going on, but not in the orderly, organized way that lends itself to blogging and photo taking (although I’ve done quite a bit of that). We’ve been settling into the school routine. It is pretty different from when we had one kid in “real” school, I’ll say that. It’s probably not quite double the work, but close! Lots of papers that need reviewed and signed and homework that needs a help-it. And while it would have been smart for us to stick close to home, probably, we went away for the weekend last weekend and we’re doing the same this weekend. I never really regret doing these trips, but they don’t exactly make my weeks easier either. Truly, it’s a good “problem” to have. So in between the school stuff, here’s some of what’s been going on. 
We’ve been taking lots of walks around our new ‘hood. It’s something we LOVED to do in our old ‘hood and I sort of thought I might be giving up when we moved to the new ‘hood, but not so. It’s like the old hood on steroids! There’s tons of trails already built and there will be more. 
And where the old ‘hood was mostly neighborhood, this has some excellent wild, open elements to it as well – less landscaped and manicured with fields of cows and amazing vistas. We even found a ton of crawfish in the stream (drainage) that runs through our neighborhood. All this wildness will diminish somewhat as the neighborhood grows, but our northern side is bordered entirely by a wildlife preserve (above) that will always be wild! 
We even spent a good hour of our date night walking around the ‘hood together. It was very nice. 
Moving along … We took these two on an outing in Downtown Denver the last weekend in August. I wanted to see the Maya exhibit at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature and we did it on literally the LAST DAY of the exhibit. 
It was a really great exhibit with plenty to read, but also a ton of cool interactive features like this rubber ball simulating the ones the Maya played their ball games with. Sucker is HEAVY! Afterward, we went to Biker Jim’s for gourmet hotdogs (wild boar, rattlesnake, etc.) – photo above – which is always a huge treat (even if it’s a huge pain to park near there!). 
School is going along pretty well. The transition for Ben has been a little harder. He has had some trouble listening and keeping his hands to himself, but has already made huge strides correcting these peccadilloes. Most importantly, he LOVES school. Yay! I went to “curriculum night” at their school to hear the spiel about what they’ll be learning and enjoyed his cute poster (above) about himself. As he states, his favorite thing about school is hot lunch in the cafeteria. He also likened his iPad (and beloved Woofie!) to Owen’s yellow blankey, complete with picture showing its green case (and his doggie!!) … in a truly cringe worthy parenting moment. 
Tabby is LOVING second grade as well. I was able to pick her minion out from across the room (its the patterned glasses that tipped me off) when I went to back to school night. Her teacher is awesome as well and she’s in for a great year. She’s super excited as well to have leveled out of the little kid take-home books and now gets to read chapters from chapter books every night. The honor is not lost on her, that’s for sure. 
I’ve been doing a lot more cooking at home than I was able to this summer as well. I suppose if you have to take a season off cooking, summer’s a good one. I don’t BBQ much (though I am able) and about all I really like to make are salads. But fall is the best for cooking – I love making soups and stews and that sort of hearty fare. I’ll have to post one of my new favorite recipes, Buffalo Shrimp Po’ Boys here pretty soon. We’ve made them twice now and they’re a huge huge hit. And also the Chicken Gumbo from above. No one can say no to that soup!! So all in all it’s going pretty well. Work’s been a bit crazy, but nothing I can’t handle. I also signed up for a 15k (9.3 miles) which we’ll see if I can handle the first weekend in October. I am feeling like life is coming back together and I’m so immensely grateful for the good people and wonderful blessings all around.
making it up as i go along
