August 4, 2008

Well, hello there and welcome back. It was quite a long and busy month without Ariel, I'll try to sum it up for you.

First, we did the 4th of July with Grammie in Colorado Springs. Adam stayed up for his first firework show.





On July 8th, we traveled to Maryland to visit Crissy and family. We had a very relaxing time. We spent a lot of time at the pool and a lot of time just hanging out. Our only kid adventure was going into Baltimore to the National Aquarium, and one night we hired a sitter and Crissy took me out for crabs. Pictures are here (and if you've already looked, I just added some more with my new underwater camera).

We stayed in MD for 10 days. The week after we got back, the boys went back to Grammie's house for a week of art camp. They were both pretty skeptical but of course ended up enjoying it. And I enjoyed my week off. I worked on my "real" job stuff, I did a few photoshoots and updated my website.

The next week (or last week, depending on how you look at it) the boys and I did a lot of swimming and a trip to the museum. I took them to see Beavers at the IMAX theater earlier in the month and they wanted to go back to see Greece (and no, not the movie with John Travolta). We also spent an obscene amount of time at bird dioramas. Alex has turned into quite the bird nerd this summer. Well, we all have and it's quite fun. We've done several bird watching hikes and the kids do much better if they have something to look for. They might not be complete wusses after all. Some of my more exciting bird pictures are here. Oh, and Grammie, we finally got a hummingbird to our feeder. It's a migrating Rufous, but she's been hanging around for a week. We only saw the male one day.

Female:



Male:



And talk about Bird Nerd, right away Alex identified the female because she didn't buzz when she flew, "Mommy, only males flap their wings fast enough to buzz." Oh, of course.

And yesterday, I completed my first triathlon in 8 years. I did the Tri for the Cure at Cherry Creek Reservoir in Denver. And for just picking up the sport again in June, it went pretty well. I did fine on the swim, I was consistent and confident, if not fast. I rocked on the bike (Jeremy's so funny, now that he knows I'm actually decent for a female triathlete he's encouraging me to get aero bars and try his time trial helmet). And then the run... didn't go as well as I hoped. First, it was hot by the time I started and the run was a hard course. It went up to the Dam road and the whole course was visible at all times. Because of the elevation and because THERE WERE NO TREES. I didn't stay hydrated and ended up walking some. Well, first I just walked the water stations but then I just kept on walking. And, oh yeah, I thought I'd save 10 seconds by not wearing socks and I ended up with some nasty blisters. Anyway, I wouldn't have wanted to do spectacular, now I have some (lots!) room for improvement before my next one September 21st.



And that pretty much sums up the month of July. And now, onto today's exciting installment of Adventures with Ariel.

7:15 Drop off one Ariel. All cousins were excited to see each other again. At least for the first 1/2 hour.

7:45 Small breakfast of oatmeal.

8:15 Ariel demanded pink toes, I gave pink toes. Then Adam asked for blue toes and got those.

9:00 Left for our Adventure of the Day - swimming at Boulder Res with Ellen and family.







Much fun was had by all. Alex and Adam did a little swimming, Ariel waded in up to her waist. But they spent the most time playing in the sand. One popular game was sliding down the hill on their bottoms, which put sand in places I didn't even want to think about.

11:00 For lunch, Ariel actually ate half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some pretzels.

12:00 The Res closed to due lightning, but it was time to get going anyway. All three kids took a shower in the locker room to try and remove some of the aforementioned sand.

12:30 Got home, threw kids into the bath. I decided some soap was also needed. Plus, my own kids have had about 5 baths this entire summer and I'd been meaning to get around to it for a week or so (c'mon, doesn't swimming count as cleansing?).

1:00 Lunch Part II - Ariel finished her oatmeal, had a string cheese and a bowl of spaghetti o's. Who is this child that eats?

2:15 Super fun trip to the grocery store. SUPER fun.

3:15 Got home and unpacked the groceries. The kids were out of my hair until I mentioned that I was baking zucchini cookies and then all three wanted to be in the kitchen on chairs "helping." Oh, and back to zucchini, my small garden is doing pretty well, inspiring me to plant more next year. We have mint and basil, tons of cherry tomatoes and zucchini. The big tomatoes are just starting to ripen and the carrot tops look good.

3:45 Gave up on cookies and talked to Crissy on the phone.

4:25 Ariel pick up. No, she did not have a nap. And yes, she was fine until Mommy walked in the door. Oy.