Ahead of Schedule and Under Budget

FINALLY it's seems spring/summer have arrived to Denver. I finally was able to stop bringing in my plants a little over a week ago, I finally broke out some sandals, and the biggie, last week it was finally warm enough to put Mr. Man in some shorts. Bring it on, we're ready for summer!

Due to the belated start to our warm season this year and as it's our inaugural spring in the house we're learning all the ins and outs of our outdoor space. This entails things like tweaking the sprinkler system, learning the best place to put the patio table on the deck, and how often we'll have to mow. It also means some outdoor projects, a la the rocks/bush/new flower bed, drip lines for my container pots, and of course tweaking the sprinklers.

There's been a big push to get projects done because we're planning on having fun this summer. The mountains are calling our name, but we're going to get our chores done first. However, we had to get one last one done first before calling it quits - the privacy fence.

We requested permission* from the HOA to add a privacy wing fence and gate to 1) to screen the playhouse so it can't been seen from the street 2) make it harder for FFM to escape out of the yard and 3) to screen Travis' little pile of junk that's accumulated over there on that side of the house. We planned to use our garage sale proceeds and use the 3-day holiday weekend to complete the project.

Travis got up at his normal work time on Saturday and was about this far along by the time I finished breakfast!
FFM got permission to use the camera and snap some shots at the end of day 1.
By the time I got up on day 2 (and I don't sleep in, Travis was getting up really early) the gate was up.

Then the fun part, pickets go quickly!

Voila! Completion, end of day 2. One whole day ahead of schedule and well under our budget. We went out for pizza to celebrate.

*Our neighborhood encourages open fencing like split rail to maintain the open greenbelt feeling of our neighborhood. We totally agree with this philosophy but in our opinion a wing fence doesn't really affect that feel and apparently the board agreed. Plus our neighbor is on the board and is a big fan of FFM and wants to keep him extra safe, too ;-)

Moab

Ah, camping. We MISSED camping. Yes, we could have done it while we lived overseas, but it's one of those things that actually requires quite a bit of equipment. And it was ALL in Colorado. And there wasn't any cost effective way to get it to any of the places we lived (trust me, we did the math a lot of times). And while we did buy a lot of duplicate stuff while we lived overseas, buying a whole other set of camping gear was just more than we wanted to spend and more than we wanted to haul around the world with us. So, while vagabonding from place to place we gave up camping for a while.

Enter May 2010. It's been a chilly winter here in Colorado, so not wanting our very first camping trip with F to be a disaster, I chose Moab, Utah for our first destination. Utah's a great place to go this time of year. It's a little lower, a lot warmer, not too far away, and Moab is a town so if for some reason camping goes seriously awry you can always bail out and retreat to a motel without to much difficulty.

I needn't have worried, our little boy is an outdoor natural. Night noises? I don't think he heard them at all. Dirt, bugs, critters, rocks, sticks, peeing in dirty/stinky/holes in the ground? AWESOME!!!

F's intro to camping wasn't as cut and dry as we'd hoped. Our first night was a scorcher, but was so windy we left our tent fly on to keep the dust out. The next night was cold and so windy we had sand dunes inside our tent, even though it had been zipped up all day. The third day it was chilly and windy and rained mud. Yup, it rained mud. My mom didn't believe me until she saw our car when we got back. There was just that much dust in the air. Other than the incredible wind, the cantankerous weather didn't bother us. And to fix the wind, we all just strapped our hats to our heads and charged forth (hanging tight to F whenever close to the edge....) Simultaneously Travis and I commented that the wind was great because it was keeping all the little buggies away.

In case the previous paragraph leads you to think otherwise, we had a great time in spite of the weather. We haven't been to Moab since 2005 and that was in November and quite different. Sharing some of our favorite spots with our child was such a great experience for us. As a family we've gotten to see so many new things together that taking F to familiar trails and familiar sights is a new treat. And to have him be excited and enthusiastic is icing on the cake.

Now, if we can just figure out how to get him to take naps during camping trips it'll be perfect! With all the exercise and on a lot less sleep the little guy was a bit of a wreck by the end of the trip. Sort of like jet-lag.... ;)


Click through the slide show to see F's inaugural camping trip.

Strawberry Pie

Just in case you're worried about us, it's not all been work around here. Well, it has been on the parenting homefront, we seem to be smack in the middle of a case of asserting-my-two-but nearly-three-year-old-independitis, but as we say around here, this too shall pass.

Some of the not-so-much work stuff that's been happening has been strawberry pie. It was so pretty I had to take a picture. Travis and I also made a couple of batches of organic/non-organic (depending on what berries were on sale) strawberry jam and seedless blackberry jam. We are inhaling it and if you stop by we'll share some with you. When Q and Karen were here Q took Karen on her first bike ride since she was a kiddo. It's true, you don't forget - it's just like riding a bike! They were gone longer than expected and pulled a dirty trick on me when they came back. Karen hid while Q asked where the nearest ER was. Then Karen jumped out and said "Just kidding!" Then both pointed at each other claiming it was the others idea as I backtracked from wondering how a terrible bike accident would affect Karen's burgeoning acting acting/screen career...
Speaking of bikes, FFM has mastered his balance bike. Jack across the street will now set up the mini ramp on the sidewalk (because F's not allowed in the street) so he can ride his little red bike over it. There is some elaborate game called rollercoaster that the boys all play that involves taking turns. That's about all the rules F understands, that and getting out of the way, but it works.
This is a photo of the long awaited LAST TOOTH. I have been getting requests to check for this tooth from Mr. Man himself. This means we are finally done with teething!!! I'm sure you can't really see it in this photo, but trust me, it's right there, by that arrow. Right along with the speck of oatmeal left over from breakfast on his chin.
Today marked another of the parenting challenges that you hear about from every parent and wonder if they will actually happen to you. Today was nudity day. I put F down for his nap, an ever increasing point of contention around here, and went outside to survey the yardwork. 20 minutes later I heard feet pitter pattering on the wood floor inside. I peeked, but didn't see anything. Then, all of a sudden, a little nudist clad only in sunglasses and a Broncos baseball hat jumped out from behind a chair, "Mommeeeeee, want to go outsiiiiiiiiiide!"

Trying very, very hard to stifle the gales of laughter bubbling up, I failed. My laughter caused F to burst into tears (remember, he's tired because he's supposed to be asleep AND he knows he's being naughty!). So, we go on a hunt for the missing clothes, which are for some unknown reason hidden in the master bathroom bathtub. Back to bed, but there's been no sleep at all for the wee lad today, *sigh*.

And the Rock Pile Continues

So the rock pile project isn't really getting much smaller. Travis shovels and shovels and shovels and shovels and it still is just there. We're convinced it's a magic rock pile and we've got enough rock for the entire street. However, the bit that's done looks GREAT. Most of our neighbors are now contemplating replacing their rock. Wisely most of our neighbors are pretty sure they're going to pay someone to replace their rock after watching us rake and shovel for weeks.

One weekend we made significant progress on the rock pile when it turned into a neighborhood game. I was tossing single rocks that had rolled into the street onto the bed when one of the boys across the street asked if he could do that, too. Before we knew it most of the kids on the street were standing on our pile tossing rocks into the bed. It actually worked and covered about half the bed in about 20 minutes.

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In the way projects go around here (see: The Dump Truck) as we decided to do the new rock around the front door we decided it was a good time to take out the massive 25+ year old juniper bush that was taking over the sidewalk and driveway. If you have a car on one side of the driveway you can't even open the door that dang prickly bush is so big. I had it pruned back a bit last fall, but it was still annoying. So, we trotted across the street to visit Mr. Jim who has 1 bay of his garage full of tools and asked to borrow his chainsaw. The first weekend Q and Travis got about 1/3 of the bush out and it filled up 10 trash bags. I'm not sure that taking out a prickly juniper was what Q and Karen had in mind when they came to Denver for the funeral but I bet it was at least a little therapeutic. Travis sharpened the saw and went after the next 2/3 the following weekend.

Then there was a lot of work where I didn't take pictures, we hauled bags and bags of dirt and needles, put in edging, amended the soil, I planted, Travis shoveled more rocks, and I did mulch. F did a great job entertaining himself since this weekend he wasn't allowed to play with the kids since he's boycotting naps.

So now the entire world can see our milk box and anything UPS leaves on our doorstep, but you won't have to tackle the bush on your way up the walk. The rocks and bed were all on Saturday, Sunday Travis installed a drip system for my plants in the backyard. We decided to take a break on yard projects for a couple of weeks, there's still the rock pile (will it EVER shrink?!) but it's mostly off the sidewalk now so I don't feel bad about ignoring for a couple of weeks.

Mother's Day

My Mother's Day:

My child threw up on the table after gagging on a tiny cupcake at our fancy brunch.

My child crawled in, out, and all over a giant muddy patch in his fancy brunch clothes making them utterly and totally gross.

My child refused to take a nap and sang at the top of his lungs and snuck out of his room three times before finally sneaking out the backdoor into the backyard.

My child told his first 'story' when he told me that yes, his nap music was all done so it was OK to get out of bed. Then I heard the nap music wafting out of his room.

My child unrolled and then shoved an entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet in 17 seconds and upon realizing that was a bad idea when it wouldn't flush stuck both arms into the toilet to try to pull the mess out.

It's not even dinnertime yet and I think I'm ready to call it a day on Mother's Day 2010!