August 7, 2008

Poor Ariel. All the fun she misses on Wednesdays. Yesterday I took the boys to the Boulder County Fair. I'd never been to a county fair, or a state fair for that matter, but it was about as expected. We looked at 4H projects ranging from photography (Alex does not care for black & whites) to needle point, painting and cake decorating. We made a quick run through the pig, goat and sheep pens before Alex could tolerate it no more (though as far as farm animals go, they were pretty darn clean).

And then the good stuff started at noon when the rides opened.

I took the boys on the ferris wheel:



Alex's favorite ride:



Another ride (Adam was a bit short, so the operator stuck him on with some bigger kids to keep him from flying around):



We lasted 3 hours on the rides until our cotton candy lunch caught up with us and we left to go to Wa-Noodles. So yeah, the county fair was alright, might be worth an annual trip. And maybe next year I'll enter the photography contest and kick some butt :)

And onto today...

7:45 I got home from my track workout. Now, except for 2 weeks ago, I have haven't worked out on a track since high school and now I remember why I don't just go and do it on my own. It ain't much fun. Today we ran 4 400's at a good clip. At least, a good clip for me. And then a mile at a slightly less good clip. After a typical running performance from me, my coach suggested that maybe all my hacking and wheezing might be excerise induced asthma. An interesting theory, though I always though running was just suppose to hurt like that. So I made an appointment with my doctor next week to get checked out. Maybe that's been my running problem all along (I can hope, right?).

Anyway, when I got home, Ariel was here and still in one piece. JJ said there had been a minor crying incident due to some, "Adam hit me" business.

8:00 Hot cereal breakfast

8:15 Ariel and I showered.

8:30 I ate breakfast and Ariel finished her cereal.

And then, we had a very quiet morning. Alex and Adam locked themselves in Alex's room to work on legos and Ariel played by herself or tagged after me. She helped me load laundry into the washing machine.

We did some birding.

Here's my best hummingbird picture yet (though I took it last night):



Ariel and I sat outside and tried to get some good goldfinch pictures (got some pictures, not great).

12:00 Lunch - grapes and mac & cheese.

12:30 Down for nap.

And still, not much happened in the afternoon. We did learn that we have a ton of birds during the day, I guess we haven't been home much. I finally got a good picture of the goldfinches that have been tweeting non-stop the past few days. This shows it is a Lesser Goldfinch, and not the more common American Goldfinch. Good to know (Alex would not let me label the page just "Goldfinch"). I love these guy's song, they are so chirpy and happy sounding.



And then, a new bird for us. Alex was the first to spot this female Black-Headed Grosbeak. Right on!



3:40 Ariel woke up, very wet.

4:00 Early Pick up. Sweet Corn!

After pick up, the boys and I went to the Wild Bird Store to buy a suet feeder to attract more woodpeckers and nuthatches. Don't know what a suet feeder is? I didn't know until today. Suet is beef fat. And we got an extra special suet/insect (millworms, crickets) blend for the flickers. Woohoo, the things I do for my kids!