This weekend we made our yearly trip to the Denver Zoo’s Light display. We have had days and days of unseasonably warm weather and yet the night we went? FREEZING. Oh well, we’ve done colder.
Zoolights!
Random Crap on a Wednesday
Last night we took photos of the kids for our Christmas card. We wanted a specific effect and weren’t able to get it with ambient lighting and the flash, so Matt and I teamed up and came up with the idea of using his big work light reflected off this nifty piece of polystyrene to light the kids very well. We got some great shots, which I will have to share later.
I made these brussel sprouts for dinner last night. These have never been my favorite vegetable, but I keep trying them in different ways to see if I can find a recipe I love. This was OK, but not quite perfect. Roasting wins so far. But how pretty, right?? And usually I can get the kids to eat anything if I top it with craisins … not so much in this case, but a girl’s gotta try.
When we were at IKEA on Saturday, I noticed this sign. It advises patrons to use the “travelator” if you have a basket cart or are just on foot (presumably to save the elevators for those with the flatbed carts. I have never before heard a moving sidewalk (albeit on a slight incline) called a travelator. It is definitely going to become part of my lexicon. This year has been a great one for new words to add to my lexicon, including: omnishambles, Eurogeddon, voluntold and sarchasm.
We had an absolutely gorgeous sunrise this morning … oranges, reds, pinks, purples. Lovely thing to look at as I drove to work.
Adieu to Camping
After a crazy week, we set off on Thursday night for our final round of camping for the season – at Mueller State Park. Of course we got going late, but luckily the camping spot was only a couple of hours away and even with some stops, we made pretty good time. We couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like we’d still get to see most of the pretty fall color. Despite the chilly weather, we were snug and warm in our camper!
The next morning, we made some pancakes and then started driving around to check out the scenery we’d missed in the dark. We drove through town and were immediately sidetracked by a dinosaur museum and spent the next couple of hours there, doing everything dino. The museum is primarily a working dinosaur lab and they have sent dino skeletons all over the world. The kids were enthralled by their specimens and our bizarre tour guide. Continue reading “Adieu to Camping”
Mini Photo Book
This little project was inspired by a few different pins, but particularly this one who links to this great site, Printstagram, where you can turn your Instagrams into cute little books! Well SOMEONE can, but not me because Instagram has not yet come to Android (though I hear it is imminent!). Anyhow, not enjoying being left out of the cute little book party, I decided to make my own.
I started out by making a template in photoshop: 3 rows of 4 2-inch squares and 580×580 photos that fit handily into the squares with just a nice little white border. Print and cut out. [wpdm_file id=1] Continue reading “Mini Photo Book”
Chasing Waterfalls
I seriously love photography. When I believed my camera to be dead, I was adamant that I would have a DSLR back in my hands within one day, dip-into-savings be damned (and I don’t take $$ out of savings without a fight). I think my favorite thing about it, besides the obvious memory-making aspect is the fact that it’s a continuous learning process.
I had my DSLR for years before I really dug into how to use it. Most of the time the sheer speed of the DSLR was more than enough for me to use it and Matt has a pretty good background in the technical aspects of photography so whenever I wanted to achieve a certain effect, he was my cheat sheet. He’d tell me to do this or that and I’d do it and generally it would work, but I didn’t really know why.
That was fine for a long time since I was busy raising the kids and just wanted to take some photos already!! But I did finally get a wonderful little book that somehow made all the stuff I sort of knew, in theory anyhow, really crystallize. It’s got a bit too much on shooting with film, something I have no time for or interest in, but otherwise it’s a great book. I have not switched over to shooting fully in Manual mode … my main subjects are the kids and I’m not good with speed in manual mode, but at least I know now when I need to and I’m comfortable enough to switch over and set things as I need to get what I want. Like awesome blurred waterfalls.
There are only about 100000 more things I want to learn and hopefully will over time.
Family Photos!!! Great weekend! Woot!
Friday morning, bright and early and COLD we met with Angie of More Sugar than Spice Photography to have some family photos taken. We’ve been doing the “hand Kelly the camera and let her click away” method for the past few years and while she’s gotten some pretty fun shots of us, we wanted to try a professional this year. Angie was great to work with and we had a fun time, despite the cold, hanging around Clear Creek Historical Park. Due to the cold and some digestive issues with Ben, we were setup for failure, but I think things worked out pretty well and so far, the photos look like a good testament to that!
After photos, we headed home for lunch and naps. Later I dropped the kids off with my parents and headed back to my house where Kelly and I went to Bunco and Matt stayed at home to finally set the toilet in the kids’ bathroom.
Saturday morning we slept in until 8 and then hit the gym for a couple of hours. After that we picked up a couple of things at the store and the kids at my parents and headed back home for … you guessed it … lunch and naps. While the kids slept, Matt and I did pop-in cameos at our neighbors house where they were introducing everyone to their new grandson (such a cutie!!), Oliver.
Around 3 we took off for our friends’ house. Tabby, excited to see her friends, bounded up the stairs with tons of enthusiasm and promptly puked all over their porch. Yay! Since she seemed otherwise fine, we let things go and successfully executed Turrrrkey Day and deep fried a 13.7 lb bird. We also enjoyed some sweet potato fries, rolls, rice, pumpkin butter, cranberry sauce, dressing, green beans and outrageous oreo cake. Glad the next turkey day is still a few days away. Tabby did not eat much and had an upset tummy all evening, but returned to her normal self on Sunday.
Sunday we did the Costco thing and not much else before we jumped ship and came home for naps … for everyone. Everyone but Tabby got up a little while later and we worked on laundry and getting the house cleaned up.
We finished up the weekend with a very nice dinner at my parents’ house … and some laundry folding. The house doesn’t even look too horrendous.
Falling for Fall
We packed up the car this weekend and headed off to our favorite weekend getaway, Vail. It is “mud season” there right now, between the mountain-biking, hiking summer season and the snow-crazy winter season and it is LOVELY! It is less-crowded and really pretty.
It was a huge treat for everyone since not only did my parents and sister join us, but also my grandma (my kids call her Gigi). It was overcast and rainy and we laid pretty low. We went out and walked the town and looked around at Betty Ford Gardens on Friday. Matt and I had a brief, fairly chilly bike ride on Saturday. And today we drove over Independence and Tennessee passes with a stop in Leadville to take in some purple mountain majesties.
In between we cooked, napped, played computer games, went to Starbucks, bought some nailers and an air compressor (don’t ask), watched movies, read books and generally vegged out. It was very nice.
Now I must hit the ground RUNNING. We have back-to-back action until the end of the month. Then I’ll have to head back to Vail to recharge again, right??
Loads more photos here.
Summer in the Mountains
Sorry for my absence. We had a crazy crazy busy week last week and then immediately left for the mountains. I especially love Vail in the summer – it is so nice to get away from the heat and manic pace of the city (and our regularly scheduled life). We always have a lot of nothing planned, though of course with little kids running around, things are busy enough. We had my parents, sister and our friend Holly and her boys with us.
The big hit of the weekend, given the HOT HOT HOT temps, was the children’s fountain, where the kids went crazy running around in the spray. Ben even got in on the action and enjoyed himself hugely. We had to go twice to get our fix. We also got to ride to the top of the mountain in the gondola, mercifully free thanks to our ski passes, where we had dinner and checked out the beautiful views. We went for a couple of runs. We walked around town … to the playgrounds, to the gardens, to pet dogs. We did a bit of shopping. We made good food. We relaxed. We played games.
I always enjoy spending extra time with the kids. It is fun to get away from the typical routine of have-tos and just have fun – playing trucks with Ben, coloring with Tabby, hearing all they have to say. I’m already looking forward to our next holiday!
Around the House Part 1: Views
So I got to thinking that we’ve been doing lots of this and that around the house and I have not been updating you on it. In fact, I still owe you, my readers, some photos of our finished basement. I was waiting on the finishing touches, some of which have happened, some of which have not and I’m sick of waiting. It’s all a work in progress anyway, right?
So this week in celebration of the new look around here (the blog – did you see, it’s pink now), I’ll share with you what we’ve been doing to the house and (maybe) what we’re up to next.
I strive for our house to be neat and presentable as much of the time as possible. I am not a neat-freak, but I enjoy our house more when it is uncluttered and put-together. That is no small task with the kiddos, but I fancy myself that we do an OK job. Most weeks. One thing I love, though, is finding a room that is otherwise very “adult” and having a small bit of “kid” in the middle of it. Like this coloring setup on our dining room table (we don’t have a kitchen table). It makes me smile.
Another view of our dining room (click for full), reveals a slightly different story, with a few more “we have kids!” touches – some children’s artwork, a Lady and the Tramp Print (that we had pre kids) and Ben’s high chair. Continue reading “Around the House Part 1: Views”
Heading for the Hills
As much as I'm eagerly anticipating spring, there's still some good winter fun to be had. Our lovely friends from college, Patrick and Marcella are in town and we're all heading for the hills to partake in some winter fun in the form of skiing. My parents and sister will be joining us on the morrow. I am very much looking forward to the skiing, the karaoke, and the general goofing around and comradery. Oh yea, and a day off work!!
I'll try to take a few photos this weekend. I've been just horrible about this recently. I did get a few cute ones the other day. Tabby's babysitter got her a picnic table for her b'day and we have it set up in our living room and she's been taking her snacks there. And I've got some really cute photos of her munching happily at her picnic table. Haha. Will upload them some day. Anyhoo, I digress.
Hope you all have a lovely weekend.