Mother's Day, a Gem

We celebrated Mother's Day this year with a family hike. We took the Gem Lake Trail which is mostly uphill. We knew that we wouldn't make it all the way to the lake but were still quite impressed with the scenery and our little hikers.

Cruz was very proud of himself and Coop could have kept going. Maybe next summer we'll actually make it to the lake.

40!

It happened. I hit 40! I had a great day enjoying some sunshine. We met some friends that morning for coffee and duck feeding at a nearby coffee shop. Later that night the boys took me to a fancy shmansy restaurant for a nice meal. Mark enlisted Cooper to help keep Cruz in line at the restaurant and it actually worked! Coop took his job very seriously and Cruz was actually pretty tame.

Later in the week I went out to dinner and drinks with some friends. A muuuuuch tamer celebration than my 30th birthday but I liked it. Good food, drinks, conversation and I didn't wake up hungover the following morning. Score!

The best birthday dates ever!







It took awhile for the thought of turning 40 not to sting so much. It started sinking in a couple of months ago so I had time to prep myself. By the time the day actually came around, I was pretty okay with it. No jumping up and down or anything but accepting. It is what it is......

Neglect

Not my children....this here blog. It's been awhile. I told myself that I should just start fresh from today and not worry about what I haven't posted. But the whole point of the blog is to document. So here we go........

Duck Race. We did it again this year. Last year we hung out at the launch site and called it a day after the ducks sailed off but this year we watched the ducks drop and then followed them down the river for quite awhile. We didn't wait to see the finish line because Cruz's nap needed to happen. We had a date that evening for our friend's 3rd birthday pary. It was a Monster Truck party and fun was had by all.

Horsetooth Half Again

Mark ran in his 2nd Horsetooth Half Marathon last Sunday. Of course, the boys and I were at the finish line to cheer him on. Unlike last year, he didn't train much for this one. Work, life & small injuries kind of got in the way. And the jerk only went 4 minutes slower then his time before! I say that lovingly because I can't imagine just willy nilly deciding to go ahead and run without training. They'd have to rescue me from the course. But not this guy.

Way to go daddy-O!

A Whole Hand

Coop turned a whole hand on Thursday and he's pretty proud of that fact. To celebrate the special occasion, we had our first "kid" birthday party and invited a whole bunch of friends and parents. Coop wanted a Transformers theme and so it was. Mark and I decorated for the party the night before after Coop went to bed so that he could wake up to the surprise of all the awesome (to him) decorations.

We had hoped to do a scavenger hunt outside but due to all the new feet of snowfall on the ground we opted for sledding instead. We played party games, ran amok throughout the house and eventually ended the party with sledding outside to burn off all the sugar we fed everyone.

The highlight of the day for Mark and I was seeing the look on Coop's face when everyone sang happy birthday to him. It was the first time a large group had ever sang to him. I wish I would have captured the look of pride/slight embarrassment on his face with a photo. I'll just have to hopefully keep it embedded in my brain.

Winterpark

Spring Break came late this year in Estes Park. I'm not sure why it was so late but it ended up being great timing. We decided to take a family ski trip for Coop's first official spring break and since it was so late in the season, we scored some sweet deals on accommodations and ski passes. We went to Winterpark which is about 2 1/2 hours from us and invited 4 other families to join us. We stayed in a big house with a hot tub and ping pong table and lots of rooms for everyone to have their own space. Plus, it was a private home (not a condo) so we didn't have to worry about the natural noise decibels created when you get 8 kids together. We laughed, ate great food, took turns watching kids so we could ski and even enjoyed some great adult conversation after all the kids went to sleep.

I have so many memories of my childhood taking trips just like this with other families. I hope Coop 'n Cruz will have the same fond memories and that we'll have many a trips just like this in our future.

Coop wanted to ski again and rather than put him in a lesson this time, I decided to ski with him. Cruz still isn't feeling the skiing love so we took turns watching him while he napped. Coop did awesome as the following pictures will show.



















The house.......



The above shot is of the house on the morning we drove home. It started snowing the day before we left and pretty much hasn't stopped ever since. It is for sure the storm of the season with about 3 feet and counting. I'm not complaining one bit. We need this moisture!

The Hunt, part two

Oh ya, Easter happened. Our 2nd Annual Beer/Egg hunt was a success. The weather was perfect for hanging outside which is key to entertaining at our place. We had 60+ guests which equated to a lot of beer and eggs.

With any outdoor event that involves riding toys and pavement, several bandaids were handed out. Luckily, the egg to bandaid ratio was still about 65-1 (I'll leave it a mystery as to how many eggs/bandaids were in the mix but let it be known that it was more than 65 & 1).

There was one injury that I was specifically told not to mention on the blog. Although, I do think enough time has passed where I can at least allude to it. Let's just say that one of the adults in our family may have face planted into the pavement while chasing our brown dog who was off leash for a moment (a no-no in the park). Said adult was completely sober. The dog stopped short and the adult tripped (read: launched) over the top of her. Enough said.

It is now a joke that a full on first aid station is a must for our 3rd Annual Beer/Egg Hunt.