Hand, foot + mouth disease, holding hands with Uncle Luke + "Sleep Tuck-In"
- Nice hike this morning after being pretty cooped up this week...I found a way to Spring Creek Trail from our house which was awesome...
- Cooped up because kids (or Luke at least, I'm pretty sure Sis is avoiding it or avoiding it for the most part) have "hand, foot + mouth disease," which is a super-contagious rash. They feel fine but they can't go back to school until they're all better. They've both been out all week except Wednesday when symptom-free Zo went back...but Wednesday night she had a spot...Luke was so excited his Sissy was going to be back home with him, it was the cutest...he really missed her when she went to school without him. Glad we're getting this (sickness) out of the way before Halloween and vacation...
- Zo: "We were just in your tummy for a couple days before we popped out." Me: "Where were you before that?" Zo: "Up in Heaven, holding hands with Uncle Luke."
- Love this from Chrissy Kelly on Jen Hatmaker's for the love podcast: "One of my favorite quotes is Roger Ebert, he says, 'To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts.' We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health or circumstances, we must try. I didn't always know this and I am happy I've lived long enough to find out."
- Luke: "I love you and Daddy all the way to the end of the universe!"
- Zo: "Daddy is my favorite person on the planet!!!"
- Listening to the kids playing together with their wooden train track upstairs...
- Snuggling the kids until they fall asleep, each on alternate nights (or sometimes both kids sequentially if one falls asleep before the other). They call it "Sleep Tuck-In," as in: "My turn for Sleep Tuck-In tonight!" Loving that time with them. I didn't do that with them when they were little-little like in Albuquerque—because, I don't know, exhaustion and grief and 4:30 AM wake-ups for CrossFit—and it's one of the few parenting regrets I have. Doing what I can to make up for it now...
- The porch with my husband, a warm blanket, shooting stars...
- We're going to watch (re-watch for me, first time for Jeff) Stranger Things starting tonight, so excited! One of the best series I've watched in a long time...and I can't wait to watch Season 2...
Happy Thursday!
XO
Skis...check!
We did our annual Ski Haus rental trip the other day. And of course the requisite "driving" of the snow cat. :)
Kids got poles for the first time. They are so excited about poles!
Less than a month to go before the mountain opens...can't wait!
Pumpkin patch!
One of the things I miss about Albuquerque was the great pumpkin patch north of town with pumpkins spread out in a field and hay rides and a corn maze and a petting zoo (remember that year the cow mooing terrified Zo?) and corn kernels to play in like a sandbox and then we'd always get pizza afterwards...fun times.
Here our tradition is a little different but we still have one...and that is to go to the Ski Haus Conoco where they have the best pumpkins piled in the back of an old truck. Kids love climbing around and finding the perfect pumpkin. This year they agreed pretty quickly. It had snowed the night before and the kids are so excited about Halloween and I still love our little tradition, even if it's not as expansive as it was in New Mexico.
Fall's so great!
Happy Monday!
XO
Lower Bear Trail Hike + Strawberry Park Hot Springs
There's been an agreement that the kids need a little more easing into all-day Kindergarten, so I'm going to pick them up at 11:30 one day a week for now. But not just to come home and lie around the house; instead, for an adventure.
Yesterday was our first day of Afternoon Adventure, and it was glorious. We stopped and spent quarters to get gumballs and then had lunch at the sandwich shop (the kids' favorite). Then we put on our hiking shoes (and Zo insisted on changing into her swimsuit and cover up and hikers, lol) and then we hiked a trail we'd never been on before, Lower Bear, it was steep and windy and it rained sideways for a couple minutes like little shooting stars covering the sky and there were just a few aspen leaves hanging on and we collected leaves, Luke found a cool one that was decomposing in the middle so all that was left was veins. And then we went to Strawberry Park Hot Springs and played and played and played...we would have stayed longer but I was worried Daddy would worry about us.
It was great. I've really been missing times like this with the kids. Need to make it so there are more of them...
XOXO
Library books you'll love: What is up with the lion? edition
- A Walk in London, Salvatore Rubbino -- Fun as Grammy and Papa are in London right now...
- Henry the Sailor Cat, Mary Calhoun and Erick Ingraham -- We love Henry. We first met him cross-country skiing...
- Goldfish Ghost, Lemony Snicket and Lisa Brown
- Ada Twist, Scientist, Andrea Beaty and David Roberts
- Cinnamon, Neil Gaiman and Divya Srinivasan
- Keith Haring, The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing, Kay A. Haring and Robert Neubecker -- Luke had me read this over and over. Good lessons about giving...and I like remembering back to seeing a show of Keith Haring's at the SFMOMA a million years ago...
- Watersong, Tim McCann and Richard Smythe
- The Journey, Francesca Sanna -- I love this book, it talks about refugees, the pictures are amazing. Luke hid it after I read it one too many times though, lol...
- Noisy Night, Mac Barnett and Brian Biggs
- Little Wolf's First Howling, Laura McGee Kvasnosky and Kate Harvey McGee -- Lots of good belly laughs with this one...
- Yellow Umbrella, Jae Too Liu
- Madeline and the Cats of Rome, John Bemelmans Marciano
- Irving and Muktuk: Two Bad Bears, Daniel Pinkwater and Jill Pinkwater -- Love Irving and Muktuk. They're so naughty...
- Everywhere , Wonder, Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr -- Great story about beauty in small things...
- A Hungry Lion, or A Dwindling Assortment of Animals, Lucy Ruth Cummins -- Best described by the following quote: "So smart and so cute and so dark all at the same time. Sheesh.” —Jon Klassen
Nightmare foods, the mystery of the missing tongs resolved + the green crayon incident
- Luke singing all the time...waking up, going to sleep, going to the bathroom...music is big right now...
- Luke and Zo in the back seat in unison over and over: "You are so busted! You are so busted!"
- Luke: "Do babies have fresh breath when they pop out of their mommies?
- A lovely baby shower over the weekend for my sweet friend Lindsay...
- Zo, while drawing a Fairy Tale Forest on a big piece of paper (an activity into which she roped her Daddy, he drew all sorts of cool fairy houses): It's sooooo beautiful!"
- Luke, on learning I was putting edamame into his lunch: "Ugh!! Edamame is my nightmare food!"
- I was getting a fabric canopy I've saved for Zo out from under Luke's bed, and once under there, discovered where all our kitchen tongs had gone. Me to Luke: "What are all the tongs doing under here?" Luke: "Oh, I figured if I hid them you couldn't grill chicken and then you wouldn't make me eat it."
- Daddy helping the kids build stuff with their new legos. So cute...
- A green crayon got washed and dried last week. Green crayon stains on everything. What a mess.
- I agreed to write a monograph and survived...
- Beautiful warm afternoons right now. I know we're not going to have that for much longer so getting outside all I can...
Happy Tuesday!
XO
Pony Day!
Went on a beautiful drive this weekend over Rabbit Ears to Dillon. Sis has been sooooo excited about the My Little Pony movie for months, and we had planned to go this opening weekend, and wouldn't you know it, it wasn't playing in Steamboat. It was Jeff's idea to take the kids over. He's the best Daddy. Good day with all of us together...it's been a hectic time at work for both Jeff and me...nice to have a whole day as a family...
XO
Music mix: Fall 2017
A happy, pop-y mix for school drop-offs and pick-ups, cooking dinner, prepping lunches, coloring with your daughter, vrooming little cars around the house with your son, etc. :) Put it on shuffle and enjoy!
XO
- First Aid Kit: Wolf
- Shakey Graves: Roll the Bones
- Milk + Bone: Pressure
- Banta: Dark Charms
- Foo Fighters: Happy Ever After
- Ed Sheehan: Galway Girl
- Camila Cabello: Havana (feat. Young Thug)
- Blake Shelton: I'll Name the Dogs
- Kelsea Ballerini: High School
- Taylor Swift: Look What You Made Me Do
- Portugal, The Man: Feel It Still
- Auli'l Carvalho: How Far I'll Go
- Maroon 5: What Lovers Do (feat. SZA)
- The Killers: Some Kind of Love
Cupcakes, "Bad Dirty Mud Team" + Zo joins me for my workday
- Cupcakes after school a few days ago...super fun...
- ...and apparently, the kids have a game going at recess that involves the "Bad Dirty Mud Team" and the "Good Clean Team." Can you guess which side my kids are on, LOL? It all sounds pretty benign from the kids' description and there are teachers supervising, so hopefully everyone involved is enjoying themselves...
- Zo has been standoffish to me lately (she just wants her Daddy), except today when I told her I had to do a little work she begged to sit and color with me...and it worked out great...
- Luke up early yesterday with the full moon still above the horizon. He could see gray patterns on it, which I explained were mountains and valleys. We got out binoculars for a closer look. He told everyone about it all day long. We need to go to the college when they have an astronomy night so the kids can look through a telescope...
- Jeff and I have plans for a Halloween Movie Marathon...excited...
- Beautiful fall day today with the bright blue sky and the rich orange and yellow and red of leaves...love this time of year...
XO