Livin' Off the Fat of the Land...Sorta

We decided to try growing some veggies this summer, but our neighborhood has some issues with bunnies. We’re pretty sure Jack does a good job of terrifying most of the bunnies from our yard – mostly due to the incessant barking at birds, rather than skilled guard-dogging – but we figured the lure of tasty vegetables would be too much to resist. Our solution was to build a garden box.

Knowing us, and our upcoming scheduled vacations, we figured it was a good idea to set up a watering system for the box. Even still, the kids loved giving the box extra water pretty much daily. Our first couple of harvests were a little meager:










Our biggest harvest was the last harvest.

Note: the carrots were stubby because I didn’t do a good enough job thinning them. Whatever; they were still tasty.

New West Fest

We took the kids to watch a free concert in Library Park during New West Fest in August. The band, The Northern Way, is local and put on a great show.

YoMaWiKi Camping Trip

We went camping with our small group in August. We went up the Poudre Canyon to a campground called Jack’s Gulch. It rained for most of the afternoon/early evening, but cleared up in time for dinner and campfire. Around dinnertime, one of the kids got hit by a rock on the head, and it split pretty good. His dad and one of the other dads took him to get the split glued shut, and the rest of the trip passed without incident. We enjoyed s’mores and singing around the campfire.

Nerd Alert

For my 30th birthday, Seth surprised me with tickets to Comic-Con in San Diego. We’re not into comic books at this house – yet, anyway – but a lot of great tv shows and movies are promoted at the convention. Most of my favorite shows have panels where actors, writers and producers talk about the show and give away one-of-a-kind swag.

Originally, we were only going Friday through Sunday; however, one of the reasons for going to Comic-Con was the Psych panel, and when they finally published the schedules, Psych was on Thursday. Seth surprised me by getting extra tickets for Thursday and changing our plans to leave a day early, so we wouldn’t miss it.

Panels we saw [actually, we saw a ton of panels; these are just the ones we cared about]:

• Psych
• We got some awesome shirts and foam pineapples, like the foam fingers you get at sporting events.
• Also, we saw Dule' Hill (Gus) get his tap on - check out the slightly blurry photo to the right.
• Big Bang Theory
• We sang the theme song with Barenaked Ladies...that's right; they were there, live and in person!
• White Collar
• Check out my homage to Matt Bomer's hat collection - I found it at a store downtown.
• Chuck

Movie previews:

• Harry Potter 7…trailers for BOTH movies!!!
• Sucker Punch [looks pretty rad, despite the fact Vanessa Hudgens is in it]
• Cowboys & Aliens [sounds dumb, but looks cool]
• Harrison Ford showed up as a surprise, his first Comic-Con appearance ever.
• Thor [looks decent]
• Paul [looks funny, but stars Seth Rogan, soooo...it's going to be R-rated]
• Captain America
• Green Lantern [looks amazing...of course!]

• Oh, yeah…Ryan Reynolds was there, and he was amazing…even from far, far away. Squeeee!!! 
• The Avengers
• This is huge; apparently, there are a bunch of legal and rights issues that have led fans to fear this movie would never happen, but Joss Whedon (!!) is slated to direct, and it’s going to have a ton of huge stars. Robert Downey, Jr. as Ironman, for one.

We also met up with our friends, Joel, Michelle, Bryan, Tiffany and Val, for a great night in downtown San Diego. We hung out on a rooftop bar, then went to a very chic hole-in-the-wall wine bar, which looked inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Loved it!

Our Coolest Family Road Trip Yet

We tried to think of a cool, but inexpensive, trip to take this summer. We decided to combine camping with a road trip. Our route: Fort Collins to Colorado National Monument [Grand Junction], through the mountains to Durango, to Sand Dunes National Park, and home through Pueblo.

Colorado National Monument
One of our main reasons for choosing CNM was the Dinosaur Journey Museum located nearby. We figured this would be the highlight of our stay in Fruita, which is near Grand Junction, in western Colorado. The highlight was most definitely not the Grand Junction shopping mall, which was curiously filled with pregnant teenagers and punk kids. While the museum was cool, the highlight of our stay was our camping spot.

We ended up on top of a bluff in the CNM park, nearly at the edge of a cliff, staring at a huge expanse of red-rock walls across the valley below. Seth got up early and took amazing photos of an incredible sunrise. The campsite even had flushing potties…and cell reception…happy mama. We walked on trails around the park, and found places where dinosaur bones had been excavated. We saw Balanced Rock, and several other formations that the boys gleefully pointed out whenever we drove past. Walking along the tops of plateaus had me sort of freaked out, so I spent a lot of time trying to drill safety into the boys’ memories. At one point, after I had, yet again, warned the boys to stay away from the cliff edges, Alex said, “If you jump off the cliff, you'll die & all your bones will be breaked." Message received.

Our original plan was to stay two nights at CNM, but there wasn’t enough to do to keep us busy. Plus, it was really hot. So, we decided to spend an extra day in Durango.

Mountains

We drove to Durango through the San Juan Mountains. We passed through several towns, but Telluride and Ouray were by far the most impressive. Telluride was stunning – it’s nestled in the mountains, among lakes and streams and green-covered red mountains. We drove on the “Million Dollar Highway” to Ouray. We walked around Ouray, which is an old mining town with a cute downtown and beautiful scenery. It was interesting to see how the San Juan Mountains differed from the Rocky Mountains, mostly in color.

Durango
This was the first time we’d ever been to Durango. I expected it to be similar to Grand Junction, but the only similarity I could see was the southern location. Actually, Durango reminded me a lot of Fort Collins – college town, a river the town uses for recreation, quaint downtown. We ate dinner at a great little Mexican restaurant called Gazpacho’s.

We stayed in a little cabin at a cool campground; our cabin was right next to a little stream, which the boys absolutely loved. We spent two days sitting on the rocks in the streambed while the boys splashed around in the water, shaded by huge trees on the bank. Very relaxing. The campground also had bathrooms with showers, so everyone got cleaned up. Not surprisingly, the boys were pretty grimy after only a couple days, so the showers were appreciated. Mostly by me.

Since we had an extra day in Durango, we decided to check out Mesa Verde. We weren’t sure how the kids would do on the tours of the cliff dwellings, but we figured we’d give it a shot. The kids were the darlings of our tour group. They behaved so well, and charmed our group so that by the time we were climbing the exit ladder from the dwellings, the whole group was cheering the boys on. They enjoyed learning about the history of Mesa Verde, and climbing on ladders to get up and down the dwellings. Zach was brave enough to go down into a kiva with Seth, but it was too dark and enclosed for Alex’s taste. They saw lots of little lizards on the nature trail, which was pretty exciting…each and every time we saw one.

Sand Dunes

The boys loved the dunes – we walked on the sand, barefoot, and splashed in the inch of water flowing at the base of the huge dunes. The sand is amazing – it feels just like beach sand, with no ocean for thousands of miles. The dunes are in the middle of mountains and plains – it’s crazy to see huge mountains of sand surrounded by normal Colorado landscapes. We camped in the dunes park; the rangers told us to make sure to put anything with a scent of any kind into the bear-proof metal box at our campsite – including toiletries and make-up! Apparently, they’d had some trouble with bears in the park, which freaked us out a little. We didn’t see any bears, much to the boys’ dismay. We hiked in the mountains; Seth and the boys took an early morning hike, which led them to a beautiful waterfall. The rangers held an informative program at the campground amphitheater, where they talked about the different types of animals in the park.

The Ride Home

We drove home through Pueblo and Colorado Springs. In Pueblo, we found a tiny little Mexican restaurant that sold homemade, authentic tamales. Seth bought one for me, and as we drove away, I devoured it. Months later, I still dream of those tamales…I think a trip to southern Colorado will be on our agenda in 2011. I foresee a good portion of the back of our car being devoted to transporting muchos tamales back to my freezer.

Colorado Springs was experiencing incredible thunderstorms the day we drove through; we literally watched clouds pour buckets of rain as we drove from Pueblo to Denver. Fortunately, we made it through safely, and pulled into our driveway having logged a thousand in-state miles.

Happy 5th Birthday, Zach!

Zach’s 5^th birthday was a dinosaur-themed birthday. We had a great time celebrating with a ton of friends and family. Once again, Auntie Coley decorated the cake. It was pretty epic.

Camping at Grandma Judy's House

Seth’s family decided to do a big family camp-out in his mom’s front yard. Before dark, we walked around the natural areas nearby, and the kids threw rocks into the lake. They set up tents, pulled out the fire pit, and toasted s’mores.

We also played with the fun photo features on my phone...

Swim Lessons

Zach’s last round of swim lessons was two years ago, and Alex hasn’t had a lesson since he was an infant, so we figured we should probably sign them up this summer. They enjoyed the lessons, especially since their friend was in their class.

Happy Father's Day!

We took the kids to Hermit Park in Estes to camp during Father’s Day weekend. This was our first tent-camping experience of the summer with the boys and Jack, and our new tent [which actually fit all of us]. They loved it. They got dirty, built stuff, went hiking, saw deer, made s’mores, sat by the campfire, and slept in sleeping bags. We invited Seth’s brother, Shane, and he brought his daughter, Shayna, and dog, Bailey.

Now, Jack, alone, is a pretty rowdy/naughty/stinker of a dog. But for some reason, this dog is a completely different dog in the mountains. He behaves, doesn’t bark, stays near us. It’s…well, it’s weird. Probably, by herself, Bailey is the same way. Needless to say, Jack and Bailey together behaved exactly like two kids – one kid [Bailey] was somewhat prone to naughtiness in the form of incessant barking, and the other kid [Jack] was a big copycat. We got warned by the park ranger…yeah….

 

Still, we had an excellent time. I got a ton of reading in, since it was Father’s Day, and Father needed to spend time with his sons. [Like how I worked that? ;)]

Zach: Preschool Graduation & 1st Piano Recital

Zach graduated from preschool! Harmony School had a star-studded graduation ceremony…patriotic stars and stripes, that is. There was song, and tears, and some goofing around. We are so proud of him!

 

He also had his first piano recital. He played “Old MacDonald’s Farm”, and even though he was very nervous, he still played.

Fun Family Weekend in the Mountains

Our traditional family trip to Silverthorne took place in May this year, as opposed to December. Having been to Silverthorne several times during the winter, it was neat to see how beautiful this area is during the spring. The males, young and…younger, spent time at a fun park and the shore of Dillon Lake. The ladies shopped.

Together, we had epic Catan battles and the game playing stretched to midnight and beyond. All in all, this family tradition is one that we all look forward to each year.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Some of my most favorite memories, as a child and as an adult, involve one of the Disney theme parks. We’ve been chomping at the bit to take the kids to Disney World, especially after our great day at Disneyland last year. Finally, all the factors aligned and we were able to plan a family trip to Disney World in May. We wanted to do Disney right, at least for the kids’ first time, so we saved our sheckles and splurged on an onsite hotel. We compromised by ordering groceries through a service (GREAT, by the way) for half of our meals, snacks and drinks.

Plane Ride & Hotel

Our trip started on Saturday with a plane ride – Alex’s first – from Denver to Orlando. Alex loves transportation vehicles, so he was thrilled to finally be airborne. We were a little nervous to see how the kids would do on the three and a half hour plane ride, but they did great. At the Orlando airport, we boarded the Disney Magic Express bus, which took us to our hotel, the Wilderness Lodge. The Lodge is modeled after the lodge at Yellowstone National Park, and it is stunning. Huge timbers, lots of fun Disney details, a fantastic pool and even an ‘Old Faithful’ geyser that erupted on the hour. We spent the first afternoon and evening swimming, exploring the hotel, and excitedly planning our first day at the parks.

Sunday: Animal Kingdom

On Sunday, we went to the Animal Kingdom park. This was the first time any of us had been to AK; either the park wasn’t yet built, or it wasn’t a priority on any of our past DW trips. We thought the boys would really enjoy the animals, and most of the dinosaur-related attractions are at AK. It was a fun park, and a great way to ease into the hustle and bustle.

We saw some fun live shows, including the Lion King, Finding Nemo and It’s Tough to be a Bug. We had yummy BBQ for lunch, rode fun rides – included a ridge based on the movie Dinosaur – and the kids played on a dinosaur-themed playground.

Seth, my dad and I went on the Expedition Everest rollercoaster, which was incredible…and scary. We all went on the Kali River Rapids ride, and we all got really wet. We went on the safari, and saw a ton of animals just hanging out on the grasslands.

Monday: Magic Kingdom

Monday was our first day at Magic Kingdom. Staying onsite had a fantastic advantage – we were able to make use of the special “Magic Hours”, which are extra hours at certain parks on certain days, but only for those who are staying onsite. Monday had late Magic Hours, so the park was open from 9am-11pm for everyone, and from 11pm-2am for hotel guests. We hit everything we could in the park.

Unfortunately, Alex was still an inch too short to ride some of the rides – he was particularly disappointed that he couldn’t ride Splash Mountain, despite our best efforts to fool the ride attendant into letting him on.

We enjoyed the classic rides – Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Country Bear Jamboree (“Lester’s Possum Park!”), Peter Pan, Snow White, Pinocchio, Hall of Presidents, Haunted Mansion, Tomorrowland Speedway (let the kids drive and someone broke down), and Carousel of Progress. We also enjoyed the new rides – Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger (on which we shot as many of Zurg Zs as possible to get points), Mickey’s PhilHarMagic (a 3D musical adventure that freaked Alex out – he didn’t like the trombones popping out), and Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor (where Zach got to tell a joke into the microphone).

Seth, Nicole, and I stayed late at the park that night and closed it down. We even convinced Coley to ride Space Mountain for the first time…then, we made her do it again. Go, Coley!

Tuesday: Hotel & Relaxation
Tuesday was a ‘chill’ day. We spent most of it at the hotel pool, which had a great waterslide. The hotel staff had activities to keep people busy – games in the pool, fun music and more. We rested our feet, read books, enjoyed the warm sun and walked on the beach.

Another great thing about the Wilderness Lodge is that it is one of the hotels that gives access to the free taxi-boats, which were like a ride of their own. The boys loved each ride, and made getting to and from the parks an adventure. We took a taxi-boat across the lake to a neighboring hotel (Camp Wilderness) for a campfire sing-along and movie…hosted by Chip and Dale. We made s’mores and ate popcorn, and finished the night with the Electric Lights Parade on the lake.

Wednesday: Epcot

Wednesday was Epcot Day. Lately, there haven’t been many perks to being an HP employee – other than being employed, that is. But HP technology was part of the Mission: Space attraction at Epcot, and Seth learned that showing his HP badge at the attraction got us into a special behind-the-scenes lounge (free Coke and cookies to boot). The ride was really cool – only a few of us went on it, because the rider experienced “several Gs”.

We also went on the nostalgic rides, like Universe of Energy (more dinosaurs=happy Zach), Spaceship Earth (the ride inside the Epcot “golf ball”), Imagination With Figment, and more. We checked out The Land and The Seas, which were revamped since our last visit. At The Seas, we got to sit in on ‘Turtle Talk with Crush’, from Finding Nemo – this was a cool, interactive show where the animated Crush talked to live audience members.

We rode the new Test Track, which is a cool “crash test dummy” type of ride - the boys loved Test Track, and we went on it twice. We also rode on the new Soarin’ ride, which is a simulated hang glide through California. It was amazing – like IMAX, but your seat moved so that your legs dangled, as though we were really hang gliding. Alex wasn’t tall enough to ride, so he and Babi waited for us; Zach loved it, and wanted to ride it several times.

We visited a bunch of the countries in the World Showcase, and the kids enjoyed making a craft at each country. An employee from each country’s store would help them, and did something special to the craft that was representative of that culture. We ate lunch at the German Biergarten restaurant – an “all-you-can-eat” buffet. Maybe “we ate” isn’t the right phrase here…we stuffed ourselves full of delicious, authentic German food, until we practically needed hand-trucks to get out of the place. Before we got too full, the live “oom-pah” band played a lively polka, and I took each of the kids onto the dance floor. After all, they need to be in touch with their German heritage.

We finished the night with the ‘Illuminations’, the laser-light and fireworks show, and to a monorail and a boat ride back to our hotel.

Thursday: Magic Kingdom & Chillin' by the Pool

We went for Round 2 at MK for half a day, and hit our favorite rides again. The males all went back to the hotel to chill and swim, and the ladies stayed to power-shop for a few more hours. We rendezvoused at the hotel, and went to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping, and returned to the park for the parade and fireworks show.

Friday: Hollywood Studios

Our last day at WDW just happened to be the first day of ‘Star Wars Week’ at the Hollywood Studios park…guess who planned our week’s itinerary…we were sooo there! Our day started out with long lines to get into the park, overseen by storm and clone troopers on the tops of the awnings. Oh, yeah. Star Wars merchandise and characters were found throughout the park. It’s really too bad the boys weren’t in their ‘Star Wars Obsession’ phase yet; as it was, I was the one freaking out the most. We found the perfect shirt to encompass Alex’s entire WDW experience. Check it out in the top-left of the collage next to this section.

We rode the Tower of Terror, the first time for both Coley and Zach. Zach looooved it, screaming every time we bounced up and down; Coley wasn’t nearly as thrilled, but she was a good sport. We rode Star Tours, which is now being renovated – we were part of the last month of classic Star Tours. We went to the Playhouse Disney Live on Stage show, and Alex was ecstatic to see the characters from Little Einsteins in person. He jumped up and down, sang and danced, and yelled out all of the answers to the questions. It was such a cute show.

Seth and I made Dad ride Aerosmith Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, which was rad. Toy Story Mania was our last ride – it’s the newest ride at Hollywood Studios, and FastPasses sold out three hours before the end of the day. The lines had two hour waits, and even FastPass was a 40 minute wait! It was worth it; the ride is like an old carnival – you sit in a seat with 3D glasses, and the seat moves through different game booths. You have a gun-thing, and use it to sling rings over bottles, pop balloons with darts, and so much more – the crazy part is, it’s all virtual reality! The kids thought it was the most amazing ride ever…and the adults agreed! We were bummed that we’d waited until the end of the day before riding it; next time, we get FP first thing, and again after lunch.

Home
Our week at Disney World was incredible – we had wanted an unforgettable first trip for the boys, and we got it. Even still, months later, the boys talk about our trip and the fun things we did. Someday, we’re going back…but we’re waiting until Alex is tall enough to do everything.

"All About Me" Day at Preschool

Each kid in Zach's pre-k class is crowned the star of an "All About Me" day during the school year. For his day, we made a poster with photos and memorabilia, and Zach got to present his poster to the class. This presentation was followed by a Q & A session with his classmates. It is, without a doubt, the most adorable 10 minutes of video I've ever seen. Please enjoy.

Zach's in Kindergarden

Zach started kindergarten!

We requested morning classes, but apparently, so did everyone who registered for kindergarten. He ended up in afternoon classes, which threw off our schedule quite a bit, sicne Alex is in morning preschool. But it’s been fine – his class is a little smaller than average, and his teacher is amazing. He gets to do Spanish twice a week, computer lab twice a week and library once a week.

We had his first parent/teacher conference, and his teacher is really pleased with him. We're reallly pleased that she's challenging him. He loves school, loves homework, and loves the school environment.

Alex is in Preschool

It came! Finally, the day we've been waiting for since registration in February. The day for which Alex potty trained himself. His first day of Mrs. Melby's preschool class! It was worth the wait. As though she had him specifically in mind, Mrs. Melby's room was decorated in cars theme - cars on the walls, cars on the windows, car toys, car nametags... He couldn’t wait to play with the toys he’d wanted to play with since Zach was in this class.

His first semester has gone well – he loves having music class every week, and practices with all his heart the songs Miss Chase teaches them. He’s in Tumblebees, an enrichment class, once a week – it helps to cover a scheduling overlap, and he loves running around and somersaulting for an hour. It’s cute to hear him talk about his friends, and to see all the cute project he brings home.