10 Pin

I love lane bumpers.  I would have been schooled by a 2.5 and nearly 4 year old at bowling today were it not for lane bumpers.  I am a rotten, rotten bowler.  But boy, did I have a good time.

It was really cold and rainy here today so an indoor activity was the choice for the morning.  This was the first time bowling for both kiddos, F's done play bowling before, the kind with plastic pins and balls, but announced at dinner tonight that he did "not pretend bowling today, Daddy."  It's the first time I've been in a bowling alley in more years than I care to remember.

Here we are, me helping to safely roll the 6 pounder down the lane.  FFM loved, loved the nifty shoes.  I think he would have taken them home.  Don't you like our coordinated bowling outfits?  We totally did that on  purpose.

After about 1.5 tries together Mr. Independent said no more and bowled all on his own.  Each toss ended with a characteristic F-flourish, a little leap into the air and hands way up high above his head.  He even ran from way, way back just like Aunt Suzie.  No sedate standing at the line for him.

 Suzie and Audrey giving it a go.  Audrey managed her swirly, shiny ball with finesse.

 Happy bowlers!

Camping Kickoff

It's camping season!  We're off to a slow start in CO this year.  While the plains, Denver included, had a dry, dry winter, the mountains had record breaking snows that still haven't melted.  Back in January when I made reservations I thought we'd be safe camping mid-June at a relativley low elevation, but we found out that all that snow is still making camping a bit tricky.We traveled not so far and headed out to our local attraction, Rocky Mountain National Park, with Suzie and Audrey (F's aunt and cousin) from Pennsylvania.

F showing us exactly how big Long's Peak is.  We didn't climb it this year.  Maybe next time.

 This rock was more our speed.  Happily our campground was littered with great climbing rocks.

 We promised Suzie and Audrey a hike.  Audrey's about 1.5 years younger than F so we looked for a short hike around a lake.  It started out nice and easy.

 We had some fun encounters with wildlife along the way.  That's a chipmunk on the edge of the rock.  F calls all wild mammals smaller than marmot 'critters.'

 Then the hike got a little more interesting.  This hike was the easy, 'wheelchair accessible' hike.

 Then it got downright adventurous.

I did not take a photo of the section where we had to balance on a log between a giant snow bank and a 5' drop into the frigid lake.  Travis was holding F's hand and slipped and luckily I was behind to snag F's jacket.  We nearly had a cold, soggy mess. Audrey got carried for the 2nd half, aka snow and glacier half, of the hike and that was a slip slidy adventure all of its own.

 Later that day we did a much different hike.  What a difference a little elevation makes!

Taking a break for some Tootsie Pops.

 Dessert back at camp that night.  What else but S'mores!

 Father and Son hauling wood for the campfire.

Breaking camp F asked why we couldn't sleep in a tent all summer and Audrey kept telling us all how much she liked the tent and hiking.  Even gritty, sticky, and wiped out at the end of today everyone agreed that they wanted to go camping again

I Scream for Ice Cream

Our city finally got a new piece of sidewalk installed that connects our neighborhood to a major bike path.  It's made a huge impact on our neighborhood, so much so that it was a major topic of discussion at a party we went to yesterday.  This sidewalk does another important thing, it gives us a safe and easy pedestrian or bike route to ICE CREAM!

F and I have been carefully watching the construction and awating the removal of all the cones and "sidewalk closed" signs.  After the thunderstorms moved out, the party was over, and F had a little rest, he woke up and asked Daddy,
"Daddy, can we ride bikes to Query Deen?  I mean Queen's Dairy?  I mean that place where the ice cream is in the CONE!"

So they went for their first ride on the new path and made it safely to Dairy Queen.

Losing Stuff

I don't lose stuff.  I'll add to that by saying I do sometimes misplace things, forget where I put them for awhile, but they always turn up (knock on wood).

Early last fall I couldn't find a favorite pair of earrings.  I was pretty bummed about it and did a thorough top to bottom of the house search several times.  Then, I decided to let it go, that they would turn up.

It took a really, really, really long time.  I'll admit, I was starting to think my curious, handsy, loves all my jewelry little boy might have done something untoward with them *gasp!*  But last week my long lost (diamond!) earrings showed up in a jewelry storage bag that I know I searched at least fourteen times before.  Thank you sprites/fairies/leprechauns, for continuing to look after me!

Fishy Bits

I don't eat fish.  But the rest of my family does.  So when lobster tails and mussels went on sale at our local market I snapped them up.  F has had mussels before but this was the first time he got to shuck (is that the right term?) them all on his own.  I've never seen anyone shuck and eat quite so fast, you'd think they were sugar dipped in chocolate and sprinkles the way his hands blurred between plate, mouth, and bowl.