At the "Moose Playground"

Grace in small things, June 24, 2015

1. The calm after last night's storm, there was even a sweet deer, nimble across the road...
2. Pink flowers picked on today's walk...the pink's beautiful with my orange vase...
3. Taking a break tonight and letting my husband do most of the dinner/kids madness that is evening around here...
4. Beach-y blue bedspread on our bed now for summer...
5. The kids' excitement at the prospect of some alone time with each parent the next two days...

Happy Weekend!

XO

Grace in small things, June 23, 2016

1. A couple hours at "The Beach" this morning with my littles...cloudy and cool...nice for a change...
2. Talking on the phone with my mom and dad today...so grateful to have them...
3. Luke and Zo making me Lego flowers to make me happy...and bringing me out from the bedroom eyes closed until I was standing in front of their surprise, which was an amazing lego city...
4. Crazy hail/rain/wind storm ending just now...fun to watch but a bummer we can't be out on the porch tonight...everything is soaked...
5. We won't see them tonight with the storm, but right now both Jupiter and Mars are in our little window of sky that we can see from our balcony...so cool...

Grace in small things, June 22, 2016

1. Great day at Steamboat Lake...our first time there and there was sunshine galore and whole hillsides yellow with sunflowers, a deer seen up close from the trail, a seagull, crawdads (which the kids called "clawdads"), lots of time in the water for the kids, a little hike, grandma with us and friends including Julia who is a professional artist and was working on this gorgeous painting...fun to see her at work...love that this is her workday and she can bring her young daughter along...
2. Sunflowers picked roadside on the way home now all over the house...
3. The smell of the rain this evening...
4. My work/life balance back in balance...way too much work Monday/Tuesday, very little work today...
5. A husband who takes everything in stride...love him...

XOXO

Grace in small things, June 21, 2016

1. Zo walking the dog with me first thing...
2. Luke discovering his Uncle Luke's stash of Calvin and Hobbes books this morning, and he and Sis sitting intently while I explained about Calvin and Hobbes and read them some of the cartoons...
3. Luke finding four-leaf-clovers with his grandma this afternoon, and putting them in my grandparent's encyclopedias for safekeeping...
4. Luke: "Mommy, let's blow bubble up, so maybe they'll go to Uncle Luke in Heaven."
5. Kids taking ice cubes outside to see how long they'll take to thaw...
6. Great dinners lately of fish or meat and veggies on the grill...tonight was chicken legs which Luke, who can be such a picky eater, loves...
7. FitBits in the mail today... :)

XO

Brooklyn's Pizza, Father's Day

Statues in the park

First time fishing

Grandma took the kids fishing for the first time Saturday. Luke and Zo didn't catch anything, but the boys next to us caught a fish and let the kids touch it and Luke throw it back in the pond...they were thrilled...

Airplanes and angel wings

A horse named Lightning

Mustang Roundup

Froggy friend

Grace in small things, June 17, 2016

1. We got Zo a Princess Cupcake game last weekend...where you can take apart and put together your own cupcakes...what a hit it is...she has had hours and hours and hours of fun making her cupcake creations (and loves to have me and/or her Daddy creating beside her). For some time, her plan when she grows up has been to open a bakery called the "Monster Bakery." Fun to see her so in love with a toy...
2. Speaking of hours of fun...I had to (unexpectedly) work this morning and so set the kids up with scissors and paper and glue and stickers...and they spent a couple happy hours with me typing/on calls and them cutting colorful paper into tiny confetti and sticking cupcake stickers onto paper (Zo) and tearing and gluing patterned paper one piece on top of another (Luke). "I'm making a house for Beeper," Luke told me. (Beeper is his imaginary fox friend.) It's actually a pretty cool 3-D paper sculpture...I'll have to take a picture and post...
3. Used my spa appointment gift certificate from Mother's Day this afternoon...ahhh...bliss...
4. Spaghetti for dinner...and mixed fruit for dessert...cooked by my mother-in-law (thanks Charlotte!)...yum...
5. My husband to help me get the kids down...I tucked them in and went back to work (it's been one of those days) and then re-tucked them in with additional hugs and kisses, and then Luke was up again and thankfully Jeff took over...

Happy weekend!

XOXO

Grace in small things, June 16, 2016

1. We see this balloon almost every day, although usually not this close... :)
2. "The beach" with the kids this morning with friends and a beautiful sunny summer day...
3. New books on the hold shelf at the library...including "The Bathing Costume," which was a favorite in ABQ and "Island of the Blue Dolphins," which I remember from being a child (I think the kids are too young for it, but I'm looking forward to reading it). Being able to request books and have them put on the shelf right inside the door makes things sooooooo much easier when you're running around with 2 four-year-olds...
4. Listening to "Little Liza Jane" and "Peace Like a River" while driving around town today...
5. Laying on our backs in the grass the kids and I before dinner, looking up at a cloudless cornflower-blue sky, watching specks of silver airplanes high above, swift swallows just above us...

XO

Grace in small things, June 14, 2016

1. Hiked a new trail this morning...green, so green, and wildflowers everywhere...the first pic above is from near the end...still a tad bit of snow on the ski slopes in the distance...
2. Car wash with the kids...car wash is so magical when you're four...we go to the drive-through kind and first there's the blue monster, followed by the porcupine, rainbow soap, the red monster, rainstorm, then the dry cycle...oh and swirl ice cream with rainbow sprinkles while the car wash guys did the interior...
3. Cement mixer/pourer were back today...Luke and Zo and I sat and watched...
4. Baby races on the lawn tonight...
5. Daddy just put the kids to bed (after me spending a couple of uninterrupted hours with them, which was bliss after some crazy tired-crankiness earlier today)...and it appears they went right down which is a miracle. (Both kids have been up super late lately, like sometimes midnight...we figured we'd try Daddy Bedtimes for a while to see if it helps...)

XOXO

Grace in small things, June 13, 2016

1. Kids playing "boxing" after dinner, which involves each of them going to opposite ends of the couch with a throw pillow and then running towards each other until the pillows (and they) crash and much laughter ensues...
2. Gosh, the kids are starting to get some complex concepts, like tonight when they were hugging good night Luke said to Zo, "When I say 'hug tighter' you hug looser, and when I say 'looser' you hug tighter." And that's exactly what Zo did...
3. Reading "When Aunt Mattie Got Her Wings," which deals so sweetly with the death of an aunt (AKA a 99-year-old chicken) and stirs up all sorts of  questions from my little ones...but, I don't know...I'm glad we can talk openly about such tough subjects as death and grief...
4. The smell of rain (it rained on and off all day)...oh, how I love that smell...
5. A whole day at home...we love to get out and about, but a day spent in is wonderful too...

XO

Grace in small things, June 12, 2016

1. The happiness--and hours and hours of fun--a new truck brings to Luke...
2. Nice little road trip today with the kids and my husband over "Bunny Ears Pass" to Frisco and back...got to say a brief hi to my mom and dad which was great...and retrieved the kids' bikes which we had accidentally left in Junction...and got to go to Target...oh, how I miss living in a place with Target...
3. Zootopia for movie night tonight...
4. Early to bed shortly...with a walk to look forward to in the morning...
5. This little one's easy smile...gosh, she is the sweetest...

XOXO

Grace in small things, June 11, 2016

1. A lovely little walk downtown for date night tonight...the river is fuller than I've ever seen it...
2. Luke and Zo just full of hugs, both of them...love having 4-year-olds...
3. A little drive out of town with Zo today, hard rain and hard wind so the hills were all misty and the rain seemed to be marching sideways...I don't know why but it looked to me like ghosts floating slowly and gracefully along...
4. A half hour to sit on the porch and read this afternoon...and actually some time this morning too with an espresso...what luxury! Those little pockets of time are so rare...although I know that won't always be the case...
5. Our real estate agent is doing such a good job for us...so appreciative...

XOXO

Grace in small things, June 10, 2016

1. A late-spring after-dinner hike to Picnic Rock (off Fox Creek Trail)...it's been so muddy this spring...last time we went was in the snow but now the trails are like we remember them...Picnic Rock is like we remember it...it's fantastic...
2. A deer on the trail coming back not too far from us, pausing to finish his or her bite of grass, looking us straight in the eyes before bounding off into the bushes...
3. Zo and I chanting together as we went around the corners, "Hey bear! Hey moose! Hey bear! Hey moose!" to make sure they knew we were coming (we forgot our bear bells). I also had fun telling the kids about hiking with my Uncle David as a kid and how he would say, "Pack train coming through! Clear the trail please!"
4. Picking just a few flowers off the trail where no one would miss them...but they made such sweet little wildflower bouquets...
5. The Beach (AKA Burgess Creek in front of the Sheraton this morning with friends...
6. Preceeded by Hawaiian coffee, chatting with one of my favorite people here while our kids played...it was delicious...

Happy weekend!

XOXO

Grace in small things, June 9, 2016

1. Early-morning cartoons with lambie and duckie...with kids in their lamb (Zo) and shark (Luke) PJs...
2. Beautiful warm sunny late spring days this week...when we left for vacation it was rainy and cold, now it is glorious...
3. Clean sheets on the bed, dust from sound-proofing construction work wiped away, floor vacuumed, bags unpacked...good to be getting things back in order...
4. Spent the morning taking care of paperwork...made a good dent in my list...
5. Starting to get a handle on where I am with work...I hadn't taken a true vacation in FIVE YEARS...forgot what reentry is like...it has been a bit chaotic but sooooooo worth it to have some time off

Vacation photos to follow soon but wanted to start getting back in the rhythm of posting...

Oh, and this sunset, the light from it turning our whole world a lovely warm pink-y/orange:

XOXO