October’s Celebrations

Elizabeth had three birthday parties this year.  Once at Aunt Karen’s, one family one at home on her birthday, and a celebration with friends at a local park.  We’ve been so lucky we’ve had great weather for the outdoor playtime!

Shopping for decorations and gifts at the Party City was a time-consuming event!

We had a dinosaur theme, with fun pith helmets for the kiddos.  Couldn’t get a dino cake again this year though…our bad for going too late!

Her party was a lot of fun with play time on the playground, chasing eachother, sharing bikes, and playing ball. 

Shopping is always an adventure with Elizabeth!

California for Beach Time

The four of us took a trip to California to get in some beach time.

Daddy pokes fun of the slow Subaru drivers in Colorado, so it was no surprise that karma thought it’d be funny if our rental car was a subaru…and Elizabeth couldn’t believe it!

We got to spend some time with Jen and Alex at the beach, which was awesome as always.  Love being able to reconnect with dear friends.

Drove down to Carlsbad, CA one day to do a little driving tour and see some friends.  Had a snack at a Ruby’s on the end of the fishing pier.  Yummy milkshakes!

Josh and Lindsey and their two boys used to be neighbors of ours here in Colorado.  So it was nice to catch up with them at their new home.

Karen and Craig went all out decorating an early Birthday party and dinner for Elizabeth.  The ocean-theme was a hit!

Elizabeth got wet playing in the hot tub and ended up wearing her bathing suit while her pants were in the dryer.

She has now been exposed to what “fine” cakes can taste like and asked why cakes in Colorado don’t taste that good!  ha!

Then after the celebration, we had to squeeze her and all of her dolphin balloons into the car to head back to the hotel.

It was a beautiful trip and we were all a little sad to go home.

From 2014_September

Find more pictures and videos on September’s WebAlbum

She’s a Park Ranger!

Meet the new Junior Park Ranger for Rocky Mountain National Park!

In September, Elizabeth became a JPR at RMNP by paying close attention on our hikes, gathering information about nature and the park animals, and recording her findings.  She was so proud to get her badge!

A Little Retro

Way behind on personal things as always…

So, real quick:

March – a big highlight was going to Butterfly Pavilion.  And, Elizabeth ALMOST held Rosie (the tarantula)…heck, she got a lot closer than I did!

(see March’s Album)

April – Easter, of course, was the big event.  Elizabeth did awesome dyeing Easter Eggs, and hunting for them in our back yard.

(see April Album)

May – a long weekend in Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park was wonderful.  Two new awesome sightings on this visit – a Bobcat!!!  And, two owls in a tree.  We also saw a moose in the woods on the drive home.  Can’t complain about those sightings!  No picture of the bobcat, I was making sure he didn’t run our way as I was carrying Elizabeth at the time.  He was climbing down out of a tree after harassing some crows and their nest, and then he took off running zigzagging back and forth due to hikers on both ends of the trail.  He was BIG, too!  I’d guess 65+ pounds.  Didn’t know they got big.

(see May Album)

June – not a whole lot this month.  Elizabeth got a new used 3-in-1 bike (tricycle and big wheel in one).  So she is learning to pedal now.  She’ll be ready for a two-wheeler very soon.  She also has been asking for a dog.  Often.  We keep telling her all the work involved in taking care of a dog…so you’ll see a photo of her taking her dog, Roscoe, out for a walk to go potty before school.  She’s trying to show us how responsible she is!

(see June Album)

July – fun, fun, fun.  We took Elizabeth down to Colorado Springs for the 4th of July weekend.  We did the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and got to feed the giraffes and ride a tram.  We climbed the rocks at Garden of the Gods.  And, we went to the North Pole to visit Santa and ride all (and literally, almost ALL) of the amusement rides.  I didn’t remember these rides being so nauseating.  Oh, how things change as we get older.  She loved it.  Only once complaining how her belly hurt :0

(see July Album)

August – another great month.  I took Elizabeth to the Lookout Mountain Nature Center for a Toddler-Talk on Snakes.  She loved it!  If you look closely at the pictures, she’ll get really close to the “bag”, then she’ll be towards the back when she sees how big it is, and then she is back up front in a jiffy petting the big Bull Snake!

We spent an afternoon up in Boulder one day, hiking Pioneer Park and biking along the Boulder Creek Trail.  She is so fast on her Strider that we’ve been having to run to keep up with her.  It’s great, I’m finally getting exercise again!

We flew to Avalon, NJ to spend a long weekend with the Thomas family.  I thought I took a picture of our rental car…the Chevy Spark, called “Sparkplug” for how small it was.  Just one skinny row of seats bigger than the Smart Car.  I don’t think it should be legal for car rental companies to rent such things!  We couldn’t even put our stroller in the so-called “trunk” (barely a hatchback) because our umbrella stroller couldn’t fit across the width of the vehicle in the back.  Even Elizabeth kept asking why Mom Mom had such a funny little car (she didn’t understand ‘rental’).  She’d crack up that the car bounced so much from the bumps in the road that her thumb kept falling out of her mouth!  ha!  Needless to say it was great seeing my family for a night, and Andy’s at the beach.

We also got to take Elizabeth camping for the first time.  A friend was cancelling on a cabin at the KOA in Cripple Creek on Labor Day weekend and we took her reservation.  We were actually off for the three-day weekend, and didn’t plan ahead for camping.  So lucky.  We had been wanting to go tent-camping all summer…purchased new gear and had the tent up to air out and make sure we had all the parts.  Hopefully we’ll still go tent camping before the snow comes.  So Elizabeth’s firsts that weekend included:  camping in a cabin, sleeping in the top bunk of a bunk bed, campfire, smores, and jiffy pop.  She got a second ride on a steam locomotive.  She fell asleep during the ride, though, she was so tired.  But she was still happy.

(see August Album)

I keep hoping to be better and more timely with my posts.  But I’m just going to have to start accepting my new lifestyle soon!  Ha!

Rocky Mountains in September

We took a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in September for a little business and a little pleasure.

Here are some pictures:

More pictures on September Webalbum

Our First Camping Trip

From 2014_August

We had bought our tent and were trying to get away to go tent-camping.  As Labor Day weekend came upon us, we still had yet to make the time to go away.  A friend had a reservation for a cabin at Cripple Creek KOA that she was having to cancel, so we took it.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from that trip.  More on the WebAlbum.  And I wrote more in a prior post.

More pictures on both August and September’s Albums

Soooo Tired

You know daddy is extra tired when he takes your daughter to school without her socks and shoes!

Good thing I tripped over them in the hallway to notice that they were home....and not on her feet

Snakes!

Took Elizabeth to a Nature Nuts class for toddlers with two of her friends. She was quietly sitting in a chair until Roger brought out the live snakes. She even nudged her way to the front when he said he had a big one!

A five foot Bull snake!  

We did arts and crafts and other fun games to learn about snakes. 

Elizabeth told me afterward that she now wants a snake for her birthday. Uh oh. 

Her wish list of gifts has been getting longer and longer. She's been talking about her birthday party for months now. We were warned!  We've heard 4 is a BIG one!!  

Getting Wet

We were so excited to see a big change in Elizabeth this week. All of a sudden she began playing in the sprinklers, even bending over to get her head wet. She played The Monkey game in the shower turning the spray nozzle on herself and spraying water into her mouth. We took her to a pool today and she actually ran through the fountains soaking her head.  For those of you who know her well can vouch that she always cried if water got in her ears or on her face.  It's been challenging.  

It could be her age. It could be our constant talks and encouragement. Or it could be because a friend did a spiritual clearing this week to rid her of her fear of water. Hhhmmm.  It doesn't matter to us how this change has come about. We are looking forward to some fun times ahead of us!!  

Should've Expected

Andy thought he was being funny at the playground. There is a play station teaching kids about the planets. Andy says to Elizabeth. "Look honey, there's Uranus."  (Snicker snicker) 

Her response??  "And there's your other anus, and your other anus, and another anus!"

Not necessarily something you want your kid yelling in public. 

I Never Thought

I never thought I'd find myself wishing for two things:  let it be Hand, Foot and Mouth...and, please let her poop be brown. Crazy sounding , I know. But after two white bowel movements the other options are frightening. I didn't think too much of white poop until I thought I should read up on this strange color. Maybe Elizabeth just needed more protein in her diet I thought. But Mayo Clinic and her pediatricians website scared me enough into calling right away. When her doctor wanted to see her within the hour ( on a Saturday) I really got scared. 

Thank God the initial exam reduced our panic. But we still needed her to poop brown. The doctor said it could be a virus in her system causing the discoloration. That's why I am hoping she has Hand, Foot and Mouth now. 

Much better than Bile Duct Obstruction, liver disease or gallbladder cancer. We are so thankful to say that her BMs are turning brown again today. 

HFM

Hand Foot and Mouth??  Let's hope not! Uggh

A Rock in the Nose

Soooo...last Thursday, Elizabeth mentions that she found a rock at the playground at school and in order to keep it away from her friends, she hid it....in her nose.  You might know what it's like to hear something like this from a three-year-old and when you pepper them with questions you got nonsensical answers, right?  Well, I shined a flashlight up her nose and didn't see anything so I dropped it.

She didn't.

She talked about this rock for days.  Then last night she mentioned it again, how she could roll it around with her finger.  Yuk, I know.  When she woke up this morning with a bloody nose, I knew something was wrong.  A closer inspection with a flashlight did indeed show something dark in her nostril.  Deep.

I called the doctor's office and they told me to try and blow it out, via her mouth.  I did some "CPR" breaths to try and push it out...about 10 times.  She thought it was funny.  It "worked" on her stuffed elephant, Bodie, when I showed her what we were going to do, but it only pushed the rock to about mid-point (due to the inflammation I believe).  So off to the doctor's we went.

She was a real trooper.  A good, brave girl with a little tears, a little crying, and thankfully only a little blood.  It took the doc 4 tries with two different instruments to get it out.

The doctor offered it up as a keepsake.  No wonder she wanted to hide it...it was a pretty little quartz rock.  Or, maybe not so little.  Ouch.

Ssage Me

Have we told how we are spoiling our daughter ?  When she is sick I massage her with essential oils to help boost her immunity. When she falls down, we have other oils to help healing. When she's tired, a nice massage. When she wakes up , a massage. When I'm trying to get her to sleep, a massage. And so on .  So over the years I've built up an expectation I guess. 

Now?  She asks for them. Every. Day. 

How can I refuse her when she asks in a tiny voice , "mommy , ssage me". 

Toddler Tennis

Elizabeth got her first tennis racquet!  We had a blast taking her to the local court with a wall to play against. Of course she thought she should've been able to hit all of the balls...so that led to some tears but all ended well. Videos to come...

 5/31

What Not to Ask a Park Ranger

We were in Golden when we saw a Park Ranger on the bridge looking down into Clear Creek.  The river was flowing high and I thought he was studying the flow rate when I asked. "What are looking at?"  And when he said "are you sure you want to know?"  My heart skipped, my stomach churned and I answered " a body, huh?"  Ugh  

His desire was to find him before someone else had to. What a job. 

Shirts On

Elizabeth was so proud that day she showed me she showed me she could take off her own shirt. Love that look on her face.

The Things I Learn in the Car

Elizabeth tells me this morning,"Daddy doesn't like to drive behind other cars.  Or trucks, or motorcycles, or dump trucks, or anything. He says they go too slow."  Not that I didn't know this already, but it confirmed where her Type A personality is developing from!    

Dressing Suit

So I finally got Elizabeth to wear this one piece bathing suit. It's purple with a little ruffle over the hips. Very pretty and girlish as compared to the rash guard she usually wears. She asked if it was a dress ( God forbid! ), and I said no, it was a bathing suit. She hesitated for half a second and declared it was a Dressing Suit. Ha!  Surprisingly she still kept it on. Perhaps because none of her friends would see her in it. Or perhaps because it was pitch black out and no one would see her in it. We'll have to wait and see if I can get her to wear it again some day. 

Rolly Polly's

Elizabeth just reminded me that the bugs in our driveway were Rolly Polly's.   She couldn't tell me how she knew that, but I knew she was right as soon as she said their name.  Soooo we began to tap bug butts to watch them roll up in balls. A pretty comical Saturday night!