PS (pre-script) Jeremy broke the computer and as of 10:00 pm on 7-31 none of the pictures are showing up. But have no fear, he promises to have it fixed by tomorrow morning.
PPS (post-pre-script) As promised, Jeremy the wonder dog fixed the 'puter. "Stupid, cheap computer," says he. And now that my parents are back from their trip, Ariel will not be joining us today, so stay tuned until Wednesday for more exciting adventures.
Hi y'all, we are back from our Extremely Fabulous Family Reunion. We had a blast. We met Jeremy's mother's family up in Cody, WY. There were 10 kids under 5 years and 45 people all together. They are a great bunch, everyone is so fun and loving. Here are the pictures from the trip. Make sure to enlarge the scrapbook pages of the rafting trip, Patrick wrote up a hilarious summary of the journey. Besides the rafting trip, we also went to the museum and the rodeo and hung out and had LOTS fun.
7:30 Cereal. I used the formula from the left over bottle Becky sent.
8:15 I put Ariel down for a crib nap.
9:15 Ariel woke up. She had her bottle, but didn't finish it.
9:30 We went outside and filled up our pools so the water could warm in the sun.
10:20 Left for the library. We returned our movies (Alex loved Robots) and checked out a few more books.
10:30 Since we were at the library, we walked over to Starbucks to I could get a mocha.
11:00 Our second outing, Target. There, we ran into our good friend Sheryl et al. We decided it had been way to long, so we have a playdate scheduled for tomorrow. And then, we continued on our mission, buying Adam big boy underwear. I decided to commit to potty training for a week and see what happens. I've never commited longer than 4 hours, but I think with a little encouragement Adam will get it. He did great on our trip, peeing on the grass with Alex. But then there was an INCIDENT when he wasn't wearing a diaper and he pooped in his pants and it fell out in the porch and was a general MESS and Jeremy made me swear he would wear diapers the rest of the trip. So anyway, Adam picked out Thomas the Train and Batman and I added Cars and Madagascar. And just so Alex wasn't feeling too left out, he got some Batman too. (PS - as I was blogging this evening, Adam peed his pant. Not sure if it was the first time or not, we were at the lake for 3 hours this afternoon.)
12:00 We got home. I was going to put Ariel right down, but first she finished her bottle and then she ate her banana/strawberry/apple? mush.
12:45 Everyone went outside to swim. Ariel probably should have just gone down for a nap, but the pool was heated and I didn't want her to miss out.
Here's my $5 clearance find:
I didn't give Ariel any toys, but she had a blast splashing. Poor girl forgot to bring her swimsuit. I almost bought her a clearance one at Target, but I couldn't justify spending half of my earnings today on it.:
Roses are red, I have to thank Amy, She sent me a Starbucks card so I could buy mochas and stay sane-y (zany?).
I hope you had a nice weekend. We had fun on our impromptu vacation. Here's my favorite picture from the ranch this weekend:
It's a limestone fencepost that Pop-pop brought from Kansas.
So today is a special day. It's Alex's half birthday. Now normally (or most normal people) don't celebrate half-birthdays. But we don't have any birthday in July so we decided to celebrate Alex's. It's a big deal for him to be 4 and-a-half now.
7:15 Drop off.
7:30 Lots of cereal. The most I've seen Ariel eat. There was only 1 1/2 ounces of formula left.
8:20 Walk to Starbucks. Both boys were in the stroller, I felt like it's been a while since I had any exercise. Ariel slept in the bjorn.
8:55 Starbucks. I enjoyed my 8th-one-is-free mocha, but somehow got roped into buying both kids milks that they didn't drink. They are on prohabition for a while.
9:05 It's been a while since we've been to Michael's so we wandered by. They already have their fall decorations out, isn't that creepy? I let Alex pick out a half-birthday present from the arts & crafts section. He picked out color-wonder statues.
9:40 We all sat at an outdoor table and painted our statues. Alex did the seahorse, Adam did the turtle and I did the fish. It was very nice of Alex to share. Before I started my statue, I gave Ariel a bottle. She finished the formula bottle, then started a new one, and left about 1 1/2 ounces. See, she just won't take 6 oz from me, she's a 4 oz girl.
See our bee-u-ti-ful statues?
(And for the record, I did not do a crappy job to make the kids feel better. I really just did a bad job. I guess I should stick to picture taking.)
10:10 We went to the library to stock up on materials for our trip tomorrow. I got Jer and I books on tape, a couple DVDs and CDs for Alex and some books. Before leaving, we all went to the bathroom. Adam didn't go, but he wouldn't let me put on his diaper, either, so once again he's comando.
10:45 We walked home and Ariel napped again.. And it was HOT, 87 deg as a matter of fact.
11:30 Got home. I called Crissy and finalized our Fabulous Adventure™ Plans. I also talked to Jeremy (who was at home). He was back from his job search related phone conference (which was a not helpful) and has an interview tomorrow. He'll have a new job in no time.
11:55 Left for Crissy's house.
12:05 Crissy's house. Ariel had some lunch, Apples & Cherries. She didn't finish the last part. Crissy and I had triscuits and cheese and smoothies. The blender scared Ariel, she really startles at loud noises.
12:45 At last we were ready to go on our Fabulous Adventure™ - Lakeside Amusement Park!
1:20 Got to Lakeside. We got the kids all checked in, then Crissy fed Ariel a bottle.
Much fun was had at Lakeside. Adam did all the rides except the one he was too short for. Marcus did a great job of sitting with Adam and keeping him safe.
Here they are on the roller coster.
Ariel was quite puzzled by Lakeside:
She mostly hung out in the bjorn or the stroller and didn't nap. She had fallen asleep for a few minutes, but then I walked under a water mister and she woke up with a start and wouldn't go back to sleep.
Alex and Gavin rode every ride together:
3:30 We all had a snack and then Crissy fed Ariel another bottle. Keep this picture in mind, because the part of Wendy will be played by Crissy for the rest of the week while we are on vacation:
3:45 We told the kids they had two more rides left, then we would have to go. Crissy predicted it might take a while to actually leave.
4:15 Crissy was right, it did take a while to go potty and walk to the car.
5:00 Got to Becky's house. Traffic was pretty heavy.
(And I think that this blog could have been better written, but Jer is watching Deadwood in the background and all the f-bombs and other colorful language kept discracting me.)
Hey Becky, I forgot to tell you this story. Yesterday, Alex said to Gavin, "Do you know why Mommy calls Ariel a princess? Because she IS a princess."
7:50 Wake up.
8:00 Cereal
8:15 SS & P. My new acronym for sit, spit and play.
8:45 Down for crib nap. Ariel did not fall right asleep. She lay there humming and kicking with her eyes closed.
9:20 I gave Ariel a bottle in her crib, then she fell asleep.
10:20 Jeremy got home from his bike ride and we went to the library (we being me, Alex, Adam and Ariel). I was going to leave sleeping Ariel with him, but she woke up right as we left. We drove today, both because it was hot and because we didn't have time to walk. Adam left the house yet again without a diaper.
10:30 Storytime. For some reason, it was very crowded today.
11:15 Home from library.
11:20 Ariel ate some banana, mixed berry mush.
11:30 A short video entitled, Will Ariel eat a Cheerio? (answer - no)
Now that my husband is unemployed, I thought I'd better work on my photography so I can support us. Ariel is by far the best model in our house. Alex was not impressed that I was letting her chew on his toy.
And then, Adam pooped. He was still not wearing a diaper, and he sure as heck did not poop in the potty. Sigh.
After I cleaned him up, he took matters into his own hands and got dressed again.
(Did you notice that his shirt is inside out and backwards, and his shorts are in fact not shorts, but his jammie tops? And that he's still not wearing a diaper?)
12:00 Ariel had a bottle
12:15 More sitting and playing, less spitting.
12:45 I changed a big poopy.
12:50 Crib nap.
1:30 Put Adam down for a nap.
1:50 After Adam was asleep, I stayed in the room because Ariel was humming again. I guess I fell asleep, because I woke up with a start certain that I saw a tarantula climbing down the wall. And my first reaction was, "Wow, that's a big spider." Second, "I should catch it" and third, "What is a tarantula doing in here?" It took a minute to realize it was just a vivid dream or hallucination.
2:30 I left Jeremy in charge of the baby monitor while I took Alex to the store to buy dirt. Yes, we have dirt here, but we needed special potting soil to plant our avocado seed.
2:50 Got home. Ariel was awake sitting and playing, Jeremy was on the computer. I gave him a bottle and told him to feed her while Alex and I planted the avocado. He gave me a dirty look and kept typing.
2:55 You may or may not remember that on May 15th, Alex and I started an avocado seed in water. Well, look where it was today:
Alex put the special dirt in the pot:
And then we planted it:
Alex wants to know what we will do when the avocado tree is as high as our ceiling. I told him we would cross that bridge when we came to it.
3:05 Jeremy did not in fact feed Ariel, so I did.
3:30 Ariel hung out with Uncle J, probably sitting and playing, while the boys and I read books. At one point Adam nailed me in the face with a book and I said how much it hurt. Alex got very concerned, then gave me a kiss on my nose. Awwwwww.
4:10 We all went outside to wait for Becky. I pulled weeds.
4:30 Pick up. I asked Becky what she thought of Adam's ensamble, she thought he was wearing a loin cloth. Ha ha ha.
Our first day with Jeremy home went about the way I expected. He rode his bike, tried to ignore us all, monopolized the computer, and didn't like it when the kids used him as a trampoline when he was on the couch. I bet he'll have a new job soon, he is HIGHLY motivated.
So, we'll see y'all Monday. Since Jeremy has suddenly aquired a bunch of "vacation" time, we're heading down to the ranch this weekend. See ya.
I try to follow the motto, the worse my day goes, the better the story it will make. So I hope this is a good, funny story, and not a whiney, boring story. And in honor of Stanely the Raccoon, the subtitle of this entry is:
Wendy's Wrong-side out Day
6:55 I awoke to the sound of Alex alternately calling "Mommy" and scrapping a toy against my door. Darn, I forgot that my dear, wonderful, loving husband had left for work waaaay early so that he could watch the Tour on tv. And for those of you wondering, "what tour?" that would be The Tour de France. Uh, it's a big bike race... Lots of people in Europe care about it... Ok, I don't care about it either. And for those of you wondering why Jeremy didn't watch it at home, that's because we don't have a TV... Well, we have a TV but we don't have reception on it, let alone cable. So where was I? Oh yes, I woke up 5 minutes before Ariel was due and Jeremy was not home.
7:15 Luckily Becky was late so I had a clean face and clothes on when Ariel was dropped off.
7:25 Ariel looked too tired to eat breakfast, so I put her down in the crib hoping that she could get in a nap before I had to take Alex to school.
7:40 Apparently I mis-judged Ariel. She did not want to nap, but I did change a small hard poopy.
7:50 I gave her some cereal and she ate an average amount.
8:00 I scrambled to get Alex ready to take to summer camp. Normally Jeremy would take him, but as I said earlier, Jeremy was not home.
8:25 Finally ready to leave. About 15 minutes ago, I had asked Alex, "Do you want to go to school in your clothes or jammies?" Alex had not responded, and I had not asked again. So we left with him in his jammies. And as soon as he realized that, he freaked out screaming, "They will not want to see me in my jammies. I don't want them to see me in my jammies!" Hopefully this turned out to be a good Love and Logic lesson.
Adam left the house in comando and in a pair of Alex's shorts that he had found, coordinated with his jammie top. He refused to put a diaper on.
8:30 We got to the grocery store so I could drop off Alex's disposible camera. I also let him change into his clothes in the car.
8:40 We stopped back at the house so I could grab my walking shoes that I forgot.
8:55 Three blocks from the school, I got a call. The preschool was closed because the building had no water supple. Uhhhh... bummer. So we turned around and Alex joined Crissy and I on our Super-sized Fabulous Adventure™.
9:05 I arrived at Crissy's house. She would like the record to state that she DID NOT answer the door naked, she was wearing her bra and underwear. But with her tan colored bra, it may have been difficult to tell from the street. I guess we loose all modesty in the delivery room.
9:20 Crissy and I drove to the predetermined trailhead so we could go on our Starbucks pilgramage. But that parking lot was full, so we had to drive down to one 1/4 mile farther away.
9:30 We were finally ready to walk. I carried Ariel and pushed Adam. Crissy pushed Gavin and Alex and Marcus rode his bike.
9:45 We were walking on the path with Marcus riding ahead and I suddenly heard a man yelling. I thought he was shouting at his dog, but he was yelling at Marcus, "There are no bikes allowed on this trail!" Now that was true, but we had forgotten, and plus Marcus isn't really a "bike" yet. The man went on his diatribe, "Your tires will make tracks and the trail will erode." Never mind that Marcus weighs 60lbs and Crissy was pushing an 85lbs stroller, or that the path was bone dry. I graciously apologized and got Marcus moving (I decided that the man was too old and too grumpy to argue with) before Crissy's momma-bear reaction came into full effect. And good for Marcus for not dissolving into a pool of tears, I know I would if a stranger ever spoke to me like that.
9:55 This walk turned out to be longer than we expected. Here's the day, hot and dry:
Coming up this bridge, I got a call from Jeremy. He had a meeting at work at 1:00 to determine his future at the company and given who was invited, it looked like his future was in hours, not days. I promised not to buy a car or new hot tub.
10:00 Gavin and Alex were messing with the stroller visor and Crissy told them to stop. Alex started into one of his, "But we...." and I said, "No buts Alex, Crissy said no." Alex paused, then in a very good Beavus immitation said, "Mommy, you said butt. That's bathroom talk." Crissy could barely keep pushing the stroller with a straight face.
Speaking of kids saying the darndest things, yesterday as I was getting dressed, sweet Adam said, "I have a baby bottom. Mommy, you have a big bottom." Jeremy thought that was hi-lar-i-ous.
10:25 We were almost to Starbucks when we saw a bizarre sight. A souped-up VW drove by, apparently driven by a boy who was 10, no more than 12 years old, with 3 other boys. Crissy and I didn't know what to do. I thought about calling the police, but I didn't have a non-emergency number and it didn't seem like a 911 situation. We ended up doing nothing, but it felt wrong.
10:30 FINALLY get to Starbucks. We each had a drink, and as a special treat we all got donuts. The boys all picked out one with pink and yellow sprinkles. Ariel had a bottle.
Marcus amazed us by figuring out 15% of $300 with only a little guidence. That kid is a mathmatical genius!
10:45 Adam's pants were still dry, but Crissy couldn't get him to go potty.
After the boys terrorized Starbucks (we were the parents with the kids that everyone hates but we were too tired to care)
we...
11:30 Walked to the park.
12:05 Crissy gave Ariel a bottle, then Ariel fell asleep on Crissy:
Ariel then took a nap in the stroller.
12:25 Adam finally had an accident, and I was able to change him AND get a diaper on. 'Cause I didn't have another set of clothes.
1:00 We walked back to CiCi's for the $5 pizza special.
1:30 We had pizza, Ariel had prunes and apples. We'll see if that cures her hard poopy issue.
Crissy wanted to play with my camera and Ariel. She took this:
Crissy seemed oblivious to the mayhem that the other four children were creating, I finally convinced her it was time to put down the camera and leave.
2:20 Started walking back to the car. For most of the morning, Crissy had been trying to convince me how fun it would be for the blog for us to take the bus back. Wouldn't it be comical to load 2 strollers and a bike while handling five kids? As funny as that sounded, I talked her into walking back a shorter way and saving $4.50 in bus fairs for a 2 mile ride.
2:25 I told Crissy we are only good mothers if our kids learned something new everyday. So far, it didn't seem like they had. Then Alex said, "What are those plants" and everyone learned about cattails and marshes. High-five!
2:35 Jeremy called back. His meeting was over. The whole company was laid off. He is on adminstrive leave until Aug 18th, then has a month of severence. This is the first time he's been laid off (though it's common enough in the computer programming industry) and he doesn't have anything else lined up. It wasn't completely unexpected, his job has been iffy all this year. But we were hoping for a better outcome. Poor Jeremy :(
3:00 Adam fell asleep in the stroller. Ariel was asleep in the bjorn.
3:10 Got back to the car. Adam transfered to the car without waking up.
3:20 Stopped at Crissy's house. The boys had push-pops while Ariel had a bottle while we played outside. Adam stayed asleep in the car.
3:50 Finally went home.
4:00 As we pulled into the driveway, Adam woke up and he was not happy. And when Adam wakes up like this, there is nothing I can do. He's crabby and irrational and just has to work it out. This is what the next half hour looked/sounded like (but I was holding him most of the time). Thankfully Ariel sat and played with toys while this was going on:
7:50 I hung my laundry out on the line (this will become important by 4:25). The boys played in the backyard. Our shadeless backyard is only pleasant from about dawn to 9:30am.
8:10 I called Crissy with my idea for a Fabulous Plan™ today. It's been 100 degrees here for the past 4 days and I wanted to get out of town and up where it's cooler. I proposed going up to the mountains, but Crissy was too busy to join me today. Wah!!! But once I had the idea in my head, I was doing it anyway.
9:00 Ariel woke up. She played while I finished getting things ready for our adventure.
9:15 I fed her the rest of her cereal bottle, about 3 oz.
9:45 Finally, we were ready to leave.
9:50 With all the driving I had to do today, I needed to stop by Starbucks for fortification.
10:00 And we were on our way! Up up up Boulder Canyon (we learned about canyons today, "But why does water cut through the rock?") all the way to Nederland.
10:40 Our plan had been to go to the mining museum. I couldn't find their hours online, nor did either of the phone numbers I found for them work. So we just winged it. Of course we found out once we got there that they are only open on the weekends, but they have some cool trucks to look out outside:
See how big this one is? See the kids in the right hand corner?
We looked at the trucks and some of the other outside equipment, then we decided to poke around Nederland a bit.
I didn't know this restaurant was here, but I'll be taking my internet friends here if they come and visit :)
We found a rock shop and Alex was very interested in the amethyst geodes. I let them each pick out 2 polished rocks.
We walked around a bit, finding an old train that had been converted to a coffee shop and a bike store. Then Adam said he was ready for lunch, so we walked back to the car.
Here's scenic Nederland:
11:40 They boys sat down in the mining museum parking lot for a picnic lunch:
11:50 Alex announced he had to go poopy, so we walked across the street to the gas station.
12:00 Ariel woke up from a short bjorn nap and we went back to the parking lot for her lunch, apple/strawberry/banana mush.
12:10 A man walked by and asked if I knew there was a park with a playground and picnic tables down the road. I did not. We must have been pretty pathetic sitting in a parking lot.
Wha? I don't have to be sitting here?
12:20 Go to park. It was a pretty nice park, but there was a group of older camp kids that were kinda wild.
12:50 Alex said he was done with the park, so we went back to the car. The boys played in the back while I fed Ariel a bottle.
1:10 Everyone got back in their seats, for phase B of our adventure - driving the Peak to Peak highway to Estes Park. Normally, I'm not a big fan of driving. But driving on a very scenic road with no traffic is almost pleasant. Especially when all three passengers are asleep. Here's some pictures I took from the side of the road.
Mount Meeker:
Mount Meeker again, with a cool church:
Here's Meeker on the left, and the Longs Peak diamond face in the middle. Eight years ago I, due to impetunousness (is that a real word?) and lack of sufficient information, I climbed Longs. It's a serious 14 mile mountain hike, we had to start hiking at 3:00am. Very exposed and sketchy on top, and a thunderstorm coming down. It was an awesome experience, but my legs didn't stop hurting for two weeks.
2:15 We got into Estes Park. Nobody seemed very happy to be awake, but I promised icecream in town.
Here are some nice snapdragons:
Estes Park is a tourist town right by Rocky Mountain National Park. It's probably the first time I heard my parents use the descriptive word "schloky." In other words, I you need postcards, t-shirts, a cheap plastic tomahawk, a lifesized stuffed jackalope or some homemade fudge, this is the place.
2:45 We found an icecream place. Alex picked out mint-chocolate-chip and Adam picked vanilla. I didn't getting anything because I had my PB&J sandwich and was anticipating icecream leftovers. And oh, I found a dollar bill in the store, very exciting!!!
2:50 Ariel had a bottle while the boys enjoyed their icecream. And yes, there were leftovers, but next time I'm not listing vanilla as a choice. What was I thinking?
3:00 Here's a hand chair next to the icecream store:
3:20 Almost back to the car:
And Ariel was making some interesting noises, and I thought something exciting might happen (but mostly Ariel is making interesting noises):
3:30 Drive back to Boulder. I got stuck behind two very slow trucks. Frustrating, and will also be important at 4:25.
4:20 We we about 5 minutes from the house and it started raining. Remember the clothes on the line? Well, now I have to wash them again. Wah!!!!
7:20 Cereal. Ariel liked cereal today, I made her three (small) helpings.
7:45 Ariel sat and played. And spit up. She must know today is 8 month picture day.
I took a little video of her playing and talking about Bob. We don't know who Bob is, but Ariel talks about him all the time. Oh, and at the end you can hear Alex calling me to wipe him.
8:10 Crib nap. While Ariel was asleep, the boys and I went in the backyard. We needed to get some outside time before it became unbarebly hot. And somehow I was motivated to CLEAN the backyard, which very much needed it. I threw away broken toys, cleaned out the sandbox and did a bunch of weeding. It looks MUCH better.
9:50 Ariel woke up.
9:55 2 oz bottle, what was left from the ceral.
10:30 4 oz bottle
11:15 Crissy and I have been talking about this, and today we finally did it. We swapped kids. Crissy dropped off Marcus and took Alex home with her. I hired Marcus for "daycare" for Adam (which ended up costing me $2).
11:30 Ariel went down for another nap. The boys played in Alex's room and I cleaned both bathrooms. Yipee!
12:15 I made the boys lunch, apples and mac & cheese. Marcus didn't seem to care for it.
12:30 I set the pool up for the boys. I put our little slide in and turned on the sprinkler and got a bunch of toys. They boys had lots of fun, especially Adam.
I ate lunch on the patio, and then I did something that I haven't done during the day in a long time. I read a book. And if you must know what I'm reading, I'm reading Anne of Green Gables again because my parents are visiting P. E. Island.
1:45 Ariel woke up, the boys and I came inside, and Ariel had another bottle.
2:15 Picture time! Ariel and I were on today I'm really happy with this set. Becky said that Ariel and Aunt Laura picked out this outfit. Apparently my sisters held up a bunch of outfits and this was the only one Ariel got excited about.
(I'm not sure if this is the final collage or not)
Becky - all the pictures with their numbers are on my flickr site...
And a small miracle happened, Ariel managed not to spit up during our photo session. Which is remarkable because she spit up all day long today.
2:40 I started proofing pictures while Ariel sat and played with toys.
3:00 Ariel went down for another nap.
3:50 Wake up, another bottle
4:00 Crissy came back with Alex. Marcus and Adam did really well up until the last hour. They did crafts, and Marcus made Adam a pop-up book. But then Marcus was getting bored, and I was busy proofing pictures.
4:35 Pick up.
PS - Ariel didn't have lunch today because I didn't want to be cleaning up colored spit up during pictures.
I'm a stay at home mom to Alex (8 1/2 years old) and Adam (6 years old) and a middle of the pack triathlete. I completed my first Ironman in Wisconsin in 2010.
