Gorgeous Colorado

Yesterday we were outside in beautiful Golden, Colorado. We spent a good portion of the day climbing with three great friends. It was the perfect number of people because there was always someone to watch Elias. Even though he didn't climb any routes, I think he had a great time just hanging out (mostly with Kat). With not much for him to do (but get extremely dirty), he ate...and ate and ate and ate. I have never seen him eat so much food. I think the picture below sums up how we all felt once we made it back to the car. What's not to love about Colorado!

Napping Conundrum

Elias used to take a morning and an afternoon nap when he was at home. He really does like sleeping (gets it from me). These last two weekends I have been trying to skip the morning nap because quite often he would just cry instead of nap...and he only has one nap at school. The trouble is by the time lunch rolls around he can barely keep his eyes opened and he becomes very very crabby (gets it from me). I'm thinking about re-instituting the morning nap..............for Elias.

Dessert Feast with Dinner

We had some great folks (Shari, Brad, Mika and Sara) over for dinner the other night and had a wonderful time. We had some yummy homemade enchiladas, but the really exciting part were the desserts. There were chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, carrot cake and chocolate cupcakes with some kind of cream cheese filling...a dessert feast with dinner as a side note. Just my style. We hadn't seen everyone in a while, so it was nice to finally catch up. It seems like it is harder and harder to find time to be with friends. Kids become giant time suckers; there is no time to hang out with good people, certainly no time to get all of the errands done, and the days, weeks and years fly by. As a friend so eloquently put, "sigh".

My Own Poll

I couldn't make a poll like I used to in yahoo, so vote via comments.

I couldn't wait to go to work this morning. It's not that I have the perfect job or that I'm working on a great project. It was just a much needed break from Elias. Does that mean:

a) I need a psychiatrist
b) It's all about balance
c) When wouldn't someone rather be at work?

Chubby Cheeks

High Hopes

A little over a week ago, Matt, Elias and I went to the Folks Festival in Lyons, Colorado. When I bought the tickets in early June, I was super excited. An all day outdoor concert with various folk musicians, plus the main act of Gillian Welch and her guitarist David Rawlings (love them!). Why wouldn't it be great?

Well, it was pretty crowded by the time we got there, so we were a bit crammed in on our blanket. Elias was antsy and pretty hard to keep entertained. It rained, but thankfully only for about 10 minutes. Once it neared Elias' bedtime, we tried to get him to sleep on the blanket, but he wouldn't have it. We had to stroll him around and around until he fell asleep. Then the transfer back to blanket didn't work, so we had to stroll him around and around again. We had to leave early so we didn't get to hear all of Gillian and Dave, and we were both exhausted on Monday morning.

Why is it that when you have such high hopes, things never seem to turn out?

Book Club

My high society book club ladies came over on Monday to discuss the classic I had chosen, Ethan Frome. It is always fun to get together and everyone seemed to enjoy the book. Unfortunately Elias had a hard time getting to sleep, and I discovered that Matt and I are not very good at cooking for more than 4 people at a time (there were 7 of us). It is unfortunate as I always have delicious food at all of the other book club meetings. I'm thinking we will head to restaurant for the next one.

Greeeaaaat

Last week, at Friday's music class, we had a substitute because our teacher, Mathew, was at jury duty. Jo, the director, taught our class. She was very enthusiastic and did a great job. Elias pretty much just sat and stared at her because she was new. On Saturday, we went to our music class with Gary, and Jo was there observing him since he is a new teacher. As the parents were arriving, Jo tells me very loudly that Elias seems very musically talented. She asks me if he may have inherited some musical genes and tells Gary to keep an eye on him because he is really amazing. She just couldn't get over how well he paid attention. Greeeaaat. Turns out to be the worst class as far as Elias and paying attention goes. Couldn't have predicted that!

New Pool

We finally got around to getting Elias a little pool for the backyard. He seems to really like water, and I think it is safe to say the pool is a big hit!

M A R K

Our friend Mark visited all the way from New Zealand. Matt had to be out-of-town for the entire trip for work (sniff, sniff), so it was just Mark, Elias and me...plus tons of friends. On Thursday, Mark hit trivia with Will, Kathy and Steve. They made a valiant effort, but only managed 4th place. Friday, during the day, Mark rode around on a bike while Elias and I went to music class. That night, a bunch of people came to our house for very large pizzas (two 24" and one 18") and games. We ate, yelled, laughed, met new girlfriends (go Dave) and had a really nice time. Luckily, Elias slept through it all. On Saturday, Mark played volleyball in the morning, and then we headed to Will's for Karaoke and Wii. It was a smaller, more intimate crowd, but fun none-the-less. On Sunday, we went to Lucile's for a great brunch with some old friends of Mark's from Grand Junction. In the evening, Mark went out to an unidentified place with another old friend from Wyoming (I think we all know where they went). On Monday, Dave was nice enough to pick Mark up and drop him at the airport. It was really fun to see Mark again, and hopefully he had a good time. At the very least, he can't say we didn't do anything.

Bellybuttons

Elias has recently gotten interested in bellybuttons. Since Matt doesn't always have a shirt on, it was most popular with him. Just today Elias realized if he lifted up my shirt, he could see my bellybutton. I can see this easily going horribly wrong out in public.

But Mom

It has already begun...

The Whirlwind Visit

Grandma Darleen and Grandpa Jim came out for a visit a few weeks ago. We had a great time, but not a moment of rest. Here are some of the things we did. I know most of them will make you jealous:

Installed drawer locks to keep Elias from meddling
Did some sewing related mending
Took out the toilet and sink from the basement in anticipation of redoing it
Changed a smoke detector battery
Sanded and painted a little mishap with the garage (yes it was me and my car)
Fixed the handle of the pack n play

While I know it doesn't seem like we could have had any more fun, we also:

Went to two Music Together classes
Visited the mountains and had a picnic dinner
Toured some property at Winter Park
Played with Elias

Really makes Denver sound fun, I know.