Freeze a Cold

It seems a bit off to be posting on the blog about our week filled with colds and coughs after hearing of the tragic event that took place in Newtown, Connecticut this morning.

As 28 mothers tragically lost their babies this morning, I was spending a peaceful morning with one of my babies. It doesn't make sense. Life is strange and scary. It sure puts things into perspective.

While Coop was at school today, Cruz and I joined some friends for a little hike to Gem Lake. I decided to try the approach of freezing a cold because if we let a little snot keep us from doing things, then I'm afraid we'll be housebound all winter.

I heard the horrible news after our hike on our way to pick Coop up from school. Coop was extra excited when I arrived and ran to give me a giant hug. He was over the moon ready to brag to me about how he did on his first day of swimming. I hugged him extra tight. Because I was proud of him and mostly just because..........

Here's our little hiker dude......

Fire Friends

One of the perks of having a fire in your back yard is the fire "eye candy" we were able look at.  I'm not referring to the typical "eye candy" one might think I'd be drooling over.  I'm talking about Cooper's idea of "eye candy"; engines, pumper trucks, tenders, ladder trucks, helicopters, sky cranes.  You name it, they were here and the boys loved seeing them everywhere we went.

The afternoon we arrived back home, Mark arranged to have an engine pull up to your driveway to surprise Coop (Cruz missed out because it was during his nap).  Cooper had noticed this particular engine throughout the week because it was WHITE and it stood out.  He felt like a Fire VIP.

The next day we drove past the engine as it was parked for a lunch break and we waved to our friends.  Coop was quick to tell Cruz that 'those were his fire friends and they didn't get to meet you because you were sleeping'.

12.1.12

December 1, 2012 will go down as the day the boys, doggies and I evacuated from our home. Hopefully it will be our last. It went a little something like this;

Friday, November 30: Mark comes home from work at about 10pm and tells me that he is going right to bed because he has to go back in at 4:00 am to gear up for the high winds that were forecasted.

Saturday, 1:00 am: Half asleep, I notice Mark answer his cell phone and say "ok". A call from the night crew on watch.

4:20 am: The phone rings and I notice Mark isn't in his bed. This isn't a surprise as I knew Mark was going in to work. He immediately says 'have you guys gotten the call to evacuate?'. Uh, no.

So the packing begins......I did a much better job packing this time compared to our evacuation scare this summer; clothes, computer, documents, kids, dogs---check.

Cooper was calm throughout the entire process. He asked if we were packing for St. George. I explained that we had to leave our house because there was too much smoke and the fire fighters needed everyone out of their way so that they could work on the fire. I didn't think he needed to worry about our house going up in flames. No child should ever have to worry about that.

Once the car was loaded, I woke Cruz up and told him we were going on an adventure. As we were getting ready to pull out of the garage, Cooper remembered something he wanted to bring with him; a dream journal he made at school the day before. He had hidden it in a safe spot so that he could show his Daddy the next time he saw him. That was the only moment where I got a little choked up. I saw it as a metaphor that the only thing my baby boy wanted to bring with him were his dreams. And then I chuckled to myself that I might be reaching a bit.

The rest is pretty much the same for the next 4 days. We stayed with 2 different families and split it up into 2 nights each. I figured we didn't want to become the analogy of houseguests and fish. I am beyond grateful for our friends and Estes Park family.

As always, we are very proud of Mark and now our town is as well. The community support was pretty amazing to witness. Mark gets to see that all the time throughout his fire season but rarely are we in the mix.

We are home. We are together. Our town still stands. Thank-you Mark, thank-you firefighters, thank-you friends, and thank-you Estes Park for taking care of our family.




----photo collage taken from Estes Park news.

Turkey Leftovers

My use of the word "leftovers" is my not so catchy way of doing a quick recap. It is within this post that I attempt to share the "leftovers" of the past little while. Here's a synopsis of what we've been up to;

Tree lighting ceremony, preschool potluck, round 1 of stomach bug for poor Cruz followed by round 2 of stomach bug----surprisingly, no one else in our household caught it (knock on wood), a quarantine away from our friends due to aforementioned stomach bug, Turkey Day, a Holiday Glow Parade and a BIG OLE FAT FIRE IN THE PARK THAT WON'T GO AWAY!!

You might sense my tone of extreme bitterness in the last tidbit of information I mentioned. That is because I am bitter. Our Thanksgiving plan of a nice 4 day weekend together was snuffed out by the fire. Ugh, the same fire that started when I was in Ireland was burning and pretty much minding its own business until right about the time I put the Turkey in the oven on Thanksgiving day (no joke). Due to unseasonably warm temperatures and high winds, the fire KICKED up and it was decided to no longer let her be.

Before I sound like a bitter fire fighter's wife, I will say that I am grateful that this fire is close to home so Mark can sleep in his own bed and come home for dinner. He is getting pulled in every direction and making a valiant effort to do as much as possible to help at home and spend time with us. He even braved the Holiday Parade crowd and met up with us halfway through. It could be worse.

I'm doing my best to do snow dance voodoo rituals so we can continue on with life in what should be the OFF SEASON.

But enough of this Debbie Downer Stuff! How about some pics of some of the good stuff instead.............




























Let The Holidays begin!

Love Notes

It all started back when we did the trial run "pre-pre school" in St. George two summers ago. In an attempt to ease Coop's nerves and let him know that I was always thinking of him, I gave him a little "love note" to put in his pocket. That way he could take it out and look at it or even reach into his pocket and feel it if he was starting to miss home.

Well it stuck. I gave him a note each day for camp this past summer and now each day for preschool. It gives him a sense of excitement to see what the note will be when I present it to him before we head out the door. The unveiling has become part of our getting-ready-for-school-morning-ritual. I had no idea until recently just how proud he was of his notes. Apparently, he shows them to his classmates and teachers. I'm glad they make him feel special. That was the goal.

Problem is, I'm running out of creativity. I doubt that I'll be able to keep this up through college.

Halloween 2012

Estes Park does Halloween up right! This year was so much fun. Last year was our initiation to EP Halloween and we were excited at just how cool it was. We had only lived here a couple of weeks at that point and we were even more excited about our new town based on how cool the celebration was.

This year was even more perfect. There is such a sense of community and EVERYONE participates. Down Town is blocked off to all cars and all of the shops give out treats (including DONUT HOLLS and CARAMEL APPLES!!!). They even do a Thriller Dance on the hour throughout the evening. It was fun to celebrate with all our friends this year and feel even more a part of our community. Last year we nearly froze once the sun went down but this year it was down right balmy and we could have lingered well into the night. But we had a chili party to head to after trick treating.

Halloween 2012 can go down as my favorite EP Holiday thus far. The whole family (minus one) dressed up. My costume was very last minute. I decided to dress up as Go Diego Go! and wrote Swiper on a t-shirt for Mark so he didn't look like such a Scrooge. A friend of mine was Dora. I couldn't decide if I looked like Diego or a poorly dressed lesbian. You decide. Luckily I had two cutie pies by my side to off set my poor outfit decision.

Side note: someone in our family is OBSESSED with Diego and it isn't myself, Mark or Cooper. I know for a fact that I had one super fan for the evening and that was all that mattered.


Coop, the "fire dog"




Poor hand-me-down, Cruz. Luckily, we can still get away with it. His choices were either a lion or a dragon. He chose to be a "baby dragon".




Diego and "his" number #1 fan.







Bearded lady, ring master and Strong man.
Our Circus Family Friends.



Our little friend, Sofia wore our chicken costume. Her daddy was a chicken too!



Thriller Dancers....











Cruz met a new friend at the Chili Party........

Carving & Painting

Just because I know you are anxious to see the final products from our successful pumpkin patch outing..........