Papa and Granny drove into town for Labor Day weekend. It was great to see them, and we fit in quite a bit while they were here.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I’ve developed an instagram crush on @dramapothecary. There’s this comedy sketch that Joshua watched last year where a couple are in their car. They have kids in the backseat, and the wife says, “oh look! A new restuarant.” They make meaningful eye contact and deadpan, “we will NEVER go there.” Anyway, it’s become a bit of a saying for Joshua and myself, and in the case of Dram Apothecary, I hope it’s not true, but thus far, it has been. The 21+ rule, while understandable, is a bit prohibitive. Oh and the location. Silver Plume? You’d blink and miss it, just past Georgetown.
Anyway again, I knew they were in town for a little tea workshop at the DAM, so I convinced the family to make an outing. It wasn’t much of a workshop, really. Just a make-and-take sort of craft, but it was fun to creep on my instagram crush and get a back of tea.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Inside the art museum, when went to see the flower exhibit. WHY I have not yet gone through that exhibit is beyond me. It closes in October, and I MUST see it again at least once. The paintings are absolutely stunning, and the one above was my favorite. Perhaps because of this little explanation right next to it:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Mmmmm… So lovely.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
On Saturday, we drove up past Silver Plume to the trail head for Herman Lake. It was a stiff uphill hike for about three miles, but when we got to the top, it was well worth it. Above treeline, we got a generous view of mountain tops and this here lovely lake, which made an excellent backdrop for a rare family photo.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
If you’ve ever tried to take a photo with little ones in the mix, you know just how many photos have to be taken in order to get everyone looking/with a half-smile on their face. Really, if you’ve ever done this, you know the half-smile is really asking too much.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Which makes me wonder, really, why there are so few photos of this here man and me. They’re a relative breeze to take, and he don’t hurt the eyes, if you know what I mean.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Lily and mommy.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
This guy. What a dad. I really love him. Did ya know he’s running 100 miles this weekend? Yeah. That’s what I said.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Lily was a good sport. She got out and hiked quite a bit, and then she took a little snooze in the Poco.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
This picture pretty much captures it all. Lu follows Lily everywhere and tries to do whatever she’s doing. Cuties.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Grr. I’m just now realizing that someone never sent me the photo of all of us (Papa, Granny, Sarah, and the four of us), but just so you know, we all did that hike, and I was particularly amazed by Joette, who is a bit of a miracle woman. She’s conquering her Lyme’s naturally, with plant-derived anti-biotics and a strictly Whole 30 diet since this past January. For a woman who has battled pretty severe pain for the past three years, she was a rock star on that hike!
On Sunday, we knocked out a few projects around the house, taking advantage of a couple of extra hands with the kiddos. The dresser you see above was a castoff from the previous owners at Sarah’s new house, so I nabbed it painted it pink, and soaked the gold handles in turpentine (which smells, but did the trick).
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
We moved things around and I can finally say that our home feels a bit more moved into :)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I found this super tall bookshelf at the thrift store for $10. Once I painted it yellow (with much help from David’s fiance/my future super awesome sister-in-law, Melanie – yeah, that’s a whole ‘nother story), it made the perfect storage spot for toys.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
We played a game of musical couches and moved this one in the photo above from the porch to the kid’s room, the one from the living room into the porch (pictured below), and the futon from the back porch into the living room. Cuz we like to make things complicated.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Porch is still probably my favorite room in the house :)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
We had been making do with one toilet since we moved in, and then on Friday our other toilet broke, so Joshua and Tim took out the old ones and installed the new ones… For $23 each?! I guess with a rebate, that’s what they came out to? How is that possible? Anyway, I thought this photo above was hysterical #menandcoffee
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Mischief.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Here’s the futon in the living room. And our hopelessly dirty rug.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
We decided to go small with the futon in the living room so that we could fit in a small dining area. And we finally managed to get a “W” up on the wall for little Lu.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
This is a better pic of the dresser.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Mommy, take a picture of my white pigtails. Yes ma’am. On another note, this was the same morning after we had gone to the “soft” opening of Coda Coffee in Edgewater. I got a FREE cold brew, and my mom got a FREE chai, and it was spicy and not too sweet, so pretty much the BEST MORNING EVER.
On another note, (drumroll) we withdrew Lily from preschool. Yup. After all that fanfare… BUT I have to say that I have a lot of peace about the decision. We debated for a good long while before we enrolled her and then decided to have a trial period. After two weeks, we debated some more, and although it was a tough debate initially, I think we all arrived at a good decision. We included Lily in the decision making process, and surprisingly (?), she seems to be pretty content with the decision too. I’ll give you the deets some other time.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I guess the theme of September is squeezing out every last drop of Summer. This past weekend, we drove up past Buena Vista and Mt Princeton Hot Springs to camp at Cascade Campground, just below the trail head for Mt Antero. It was super beautiful and the aspens were just starting to turn.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Mt Antero is an old mining spot, and the summit is even known for having aquamarine and topaz just under the surface. There are tons of old roads criss-crossing this high alpine area, and there were plenty of ATVs taking advantage of the trail. Nevertheless, it was a gorgeous hike.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Sadly, I’m a total wimp when it comes to old forest service roads, so rather than encouraging Sarah to take her SUV up 2.6 miles of rough road, I made her chicken out and park at the bottom… Which meant that a round trip to the top would be 15+ miles. In addition, I had to keep a close watch on the time. I figured that, at maximum, I had eight hours before my breasts would explode into massively painful mountains of mastitis (too much information????).
So we hiked our tails off. And so did Ollie and Oscar. And we hiked and we hiked and we hiked. And then, less from a mile from the top, at roughly 13200 ft of elevation, I had to call it. We weren’t going to make it. Not if my boobs were going to make it back intact. So we turned around :( I mean, we could TASTE the summit :( But I guess 13.5 miles and 3,400 ft of elevation gain round trip is nothing too shabby?
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Joshua had some good bonding time with the girls while we were gone. Doesn’t even look like they missed me, snots. When I got back to camp, we went for another little walk and then stopped to build a fairy castle with sticks and rocks and pinecones. Lily finally forgave me for leaving her behind. She asked me, “mommy, some day can I have a date with you and we can go up a mountain?” Um, sure. I mean, definitely. I mean, thank you, dear child, for making all of my dreams come true.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Went for a run yesterday after the long hike on Saturday. I was feeling pretty good after the hike but then my run humbled me. It wasn’t pretty, folks. No better than a fully pregnant slog, really. But I saw these pretty puppies up there and decided to take a little break and smell the roses (harhar).
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Would you just look at her? I mean.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Today Lily drew a picture with two eyes, a nose, a mouth, and legs. She also wrote “Hoil.” Because, apparently, she can do that? Who is this child?!
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
On the way home from the Children’s Museum, these two fell asleep holding hands. Pshaw. So cute. Now if only they hadn’t fallen asleep on the bike ride home, they would have napped (which quite possibly would have been even cuter).
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
