Makes me sick to watch

B with his buddies at Elitch's a couple weeks ago:

Z's field day

Today it was Z's turn to have a field day.  Her school is for kids aged 18 months thru kindergarten entry, so it not quite the same as B's.  A lot less organization, but still a lot of fun.  She did a lot of random running around:

And B excelled at the obstacle course, setting a course record for the day

I won the sack race (only because nobody but me was racing):

B and I ran the three-legged race, with Z along for support:

And it wouldn't be field day if your dad didn't knock you to the ground and tickle you until you begged for mercy:

And even though it was a "baby" field day, B played along graciously and had a good time. Here he is explaining to Z all the events she's done, all marked with stickers on her ribbon:

Lake City

We drove down to Lake City, Colorado for the weekend. M was running a sick, sick race: 50 miles, with 12,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. Just the fact that the race started at 5:00am was enough to put me off (as if I would, or even could, run 50 miles!). Who would voluntarily sign up for that?! M would. Here's M & our friend Jason, before & after the race:

It was about a five-hour drive, and Miss Z zonked out pretty early on. Here she is going through the stages of out-cold, waking up, feeling grumpy, hamming it up, screaming with joy, and generally pleased with her own cuteness:

And here's M-the-driver, who looks grouchy here, but really wasn't. In fact, the drive up went amazingly well. The kids even behaved nicely! Don't ask about the drive home.

We stayed in this adorable cabin:

It was old and not exactly stylish (it was a CABIN, after all), but it was absolutely spotlessly clean. And the couple who ran the place was so friendly -- they stopped by several times over the weekend to chat, and even gave B & me a little ride in their Ranger when B asked for it.

The cabins had a playground that I thought was rather sad, but the kids found no fault with it whatsoever. B even insisted on eating his dinner up in this "treehouse" the first evening:


The race itself? Not so hot. Literally. Here's the view from town of the Continental Divide, where M was running at the time:

It looks foggy up there, and I guess it probably was, but it was also snowing and very very cold.
Here are the kids with our friend Jess, several hours after the previous photo was taken & the sun had come back out, waiting for M & Jason at the 40-mile aid station:

And here's an anthill B found a hundred yards up the trail from the aid station -- we're pretty sure it's the biggest one IN THE WORLD:

Z stole the show when one of the volunteers at the aid station decided the belly dancer coin skirt would look good on her. Here she is just after the woman put it on her, and after she figured out that it jingled if she shook it:

Last but not least, a couple images I just really like. One is my sweet B, of course, and the other is of the wonderfully wild and unique nursery in Lake City:

Mount Evans

My friend Nia is only here for about ten more days before she goes home to Indonesia. She has done some hiking while she's been here, but had never seen dramatic Rocky Mountain vistas. I thought a trip to the top of Mount Evans would take care of that.

On the drive up Squaw Pass, the views were still pretty stunning. Storms were moving in, but you could clearly see the ranges to the north and west of us. By the time we stopped at Summit Lake, it was snowing lightly and pretty misty. We hiked a little bit there, did a little bouldering (B) and saw some wildlife.


I couldn't believe how close we got to this mountain goat! It was an accident -- he was behind a big pile of boulders, and we didn't even know he was there until we'd been a few feet away from him for several minutes. He didn't seem to mind our presence though -- he'd look up from his foraging every few seconds to study us, then went back to digging and eating.


Then we headed up to the top. It's been years since I drove up Mt. Evans, and I didn't realize there would be so many people up there! We practically had to wait in line to get to the top. Nia was overwhelmed by the scenery, even with all the mist and clouds. She told B at one point that it was so beautiful she felt like she was going to cry. Both of us were amazed by how many cyclists there were up there, and awed by the bravery (or foolishness?) of the people hiking up then skiing down the boulder-strewn snowfields.

At the top, it was only 30 degrees and very windy. Plus it was snowing these weird little pellets of snow that were blowing horizontally. It felt like needles hitting our faces. We didn't even stay five minutes -- just long enough to take in the little bit of view that was visible and take a photo.

I am so lucky to live where I do. Colorado is a wild, beautiful place, even when you have to endure a traffic jam at 14,000 feet to see it. At the end of the day, I felt like climbing a fourteener again. It's been many many years since I did that, and back when I was doing it, I barfed off the side of quite a few of Colorado's most beautiful mountains. Yes, even though I've lived here for most of my life, I get horrible altitude sickness. Horrible. Debilitating. Seriously -- on Mount Massive, it was so bad that I laid down in the shelter of a boulder and dozed/barfed while my family went the last few hundred yards to the summit. But I'm willing to try again!

Family Fire Muster

B and I went to the Family Fire Muster on Saturday. It's hosted every year by our local fire protection district, and it's AWESOME. They bring out every fire truck and piece of rescue equipment they have, and let the kids go in all of them and climb all over it all. They have all sorts of games and activities, all intended to teach kids in a fun way how to be safe around water and on bikes, how to tell apart toys and tools, how to crawl under smoke, and my personal favorite, how to stop, drop and roll.

[Until very recently, B apparently thought it was the "Fire Mustard." How do I know this? Because a couple weeks ago, he asked me if there was a "Fire Ketchup" too.]

This year, we hiked over there from our neighborhood -- just a quick half-hour hike across a little section of our backyard mountain -- and met our friends Rachael and Jody. Here's B hiking over:


First stop, the fire engines, of course:

Actually, B is a little jaded about fire engines. My brother is a firefighter, so B has had a few opportunities to hang out at the firehouse with him. I guess fire engines just aren't so cool after you spend that much time around them. I still think they're pretty cool...

Then there was water safety (will you look at those lashes?!):

Being silly with Rachael:

And Rachael looking pretty:

This is my favorite part of the Fire Muster. The kids dress up in "bunker gear" and then run a few yards, stop-drop-and-roll, and get up and run some more. It's hysterical to watch those little tiny kids all tricked out in that heavy gear, trying to run.


Last stop of the day was shooting the fire hose:

The long walk home, after a full day in the hot sun:

That's my backyard mountain in the background. And B is stopping to get a closer look at a bug, probably a ladybug. There are a bazillion of them up there right now. I kept stopping to get a closer look at these:

They are all over the mountain (in fact, the whole mountain is just covered with wildflowers right now), but I'm not sure what they are because they're not in my field guide to the flowers of Colorado. I'm guessing some sort of wild orchid?

And last but not least, here's B after I told him we needed to start hurrying in order to get home before the daily round of thunderstorms started:

That, my friends, is the face of a tired boy at the end of a long day who does NOT want to be told to hurry.

Tomorrow (assuming I can get my lazy self to do two blog posts in two days): Our big trip to the top of Mount Evans with my friend Nia. There was lots of wildlife, and believe it or not, a snow storm!

Pictures from the last few weeks

I just dumped the contents of the digital camera, and found a ton of pictures I've been neglecting to post. Here goes:

A good way to while away an hour on a hot summer morning:

Playing in the sprinkler in our backyard:


This is how Z sleeps:

And this is how she wakes up:

Dog pile!

Dressing up:



B and I go to Heritage Square, a puny and ratty little amusement park that's just about perfect if you're four:



B pouts, and Z throws a fit:


Because he loves me:

And one little story about love: B and I went for an evening hike last week to check out the burned part of the mountain. As always, we ran down the trail to get back to the car (B loves a trail run, and so do I!). Somehow (maybe the margarita I had at dinner?), I tripped and fell HARD when we were almost back to the car. I was pretty banged up -- bruises and scrapes -- and at first was afraid I'd dislocated my elbow again. I was also fairly shaken up. As soon as we got home, B ran downstairs to tell his dad about it. While I sat down on the couch to recover, B ran upstairs, pushed a kitchen chair over to the cupboard, got a cup, filled it with water, and very carefully brought it downstairs to me. As he was coming down the stairs, he said, "Mommy, I'm bringing you this to help you feel better. Know why I picked the pink cup with the hearts on it? Because I love you." You know what? I did feel better.