Treasure Falls, Pagosa Springs

 On Monday we took another drive (this one was much shorter - and earlier in the morning so it was cooler) to Treasure Falls. If you asked the kids about this waterfall they would probably tell you all about the chipmunks that ate sunflower seeds out of their hands. Bekah, Jacob and Beau all fed the chipmunks, but Marianne was equally fascinated and scared of them. She loved to watch them but didn't want them to touch her.
The hike was short but steep and Marianne did a great job of walking the whole way up. She rode on my shoulders down but would have preferred to walk, she was just too slow and distracted. Can you spot Jacob in this picture?

Piedra Falls, Pagosa Springs

 On Sunday, after realizing we had missed the only church meeting at 9am, we decided to go on an adventure to find Piedra Falls. It was a little bit of a drive to find, but the hike was short and manageable for all of the kids. I didn't have room to take the kelty pack for Marianne, so she rode a little bit on my shoulders but actually walked quite a bit. The drive to find the falls was beautiful, lush and green. A fire was burning somewhere in the distance and it made the sky just a little bit hazy. Louise spotted this regal hawk on a road sign, and he was kind enough to stay and pose so I could get a picture of him.

 Soon after that, Jacob yelled, "fox!" I looked off to the left of the van and there was a coyote running in a field. He was very proud of himself for spotting that first.

 Nana and Cutesy and Marianne made a good team. I loved how they laughed and marveled over every little thing Marianne did. I love Louise and my mom so much - there were some hairy times on the trip where I really lost my patience with the kids and then felt embarrassed to show my face to Louise and my mom. But they were always loving and kind with me, reassuring me that I wasn't the worst mom in the world.

 We stayed at the falls for about twenty minutes, playing in the water and enjoying the spray.

 Marianne's favorite thing to do was plant her padded little bum hiney on the ground and throw rocks into the water.

 And here we all are. If you'll notice, Beau is wearing an eye patch on his good left eye, a daily ritual that will hopefully help his right eye get stronger. I learned, though, after two days of hiking on trails with large rocks to climb on and narrow drop offs, that eliminating Beau's depth perception while hiking was not the brightest of ideas. He didn't get hurt, thankfully, but Nana, Cutesy, and I each took turns fearing for his safety as he blindly navigated the trail.

Pagosa Springs, CO

 Rus is a scout leader to the 14-16 year old boys in our ward. Last fall he found out that he was going to be able to attend Philmont scout camp this summer with the young men he is over. He was delighted, and when I didn't show adequate enthusiasm, he said, "It's like Disneyland for boy scouts!" I soon realized that an invitation to Philmont entailed the purchasing of hundreds of dollars of equipment, like boots and gear and more gear. I also learned that Philmont would be two weeks long...effectively draining Rus of any additional vacation time to spend with me and the kids. So, being the proactive person I am, I called up my Uncle Casey in January and asked if we could use his time share in Pagosa Springs this summer. I will love him forever because he made it happen, almost effortlessly it seemed, and within a few days I had an email in my inbox with my reservation. I guess I should clarify that I made the reservation for when Rus was going to be gone at Philmont (because he wouldn't be able to come with us anyway, no matter when I made it). In a stroke of genius I decided to invite my mom and mother in law, reducing the adult-child ratio to almost 1:1.

Anyway, enough of an intro...Our trip was really fun. Everyone was such a good sport when my air conditioning in the ManVan died the day before and we had to travel with the windows rolled down and warm wind in our faces. Rus could've fixed it, and he will have to next week, but he wasn't around then! But the trip went by fairly fast, only four hours, and before we knew it we were in Pagosa, looking for our vacation home. The section we were in was called "Eagle's Loft" and I think you can see why:

Would you like to hazard a guess as to what was in the bottom of that odd little structure? A gigantic whirlpool bathtub. Why not. The kids loved bathing in it, all four of them at once.
The unit also had two bedrooms with a queen bed in each and a loft with two more queen beds. It had a living room and a "full size" tiny little kitchen and dining area. It was perfect, really. The kids loved the loft...I mean they loved throwing pillows down and running up and down the spiral staircase...they didn't actually love sleeping there because Nana and Cutesy and I were "too noisy" at night. This picture is such an accurate portrayal of my children it's scary.

Right outside our unit (rental? loft? apartment?) was a little lake hemmed with geese and swarms of gnats. The kids really enjoyed chasing the geese, and watching a hot air balloon land just across the lake.

One great thing I have to mention about the place we stayed - they had a fantastic activities center. There were free activities everyday for the kids to take part in - like making "chia catterpillers", painting birdhouses, and making smores. There was also a miniature golf course and a badminton net that we took advantage of. And there was a pool, which was indoor and huge and not too deep. Marianne learned to love the water, Jacob proved he was a good swimmer - under water - and Bekah improved her swimming skills as well. Beau happily shivered and dog paddled wearing his life vest the entire time.

Pagosa was a fun town to explore - my favorite shop was the Choke Cherry Tree because the ladies there let you sample any or all of their delicious sauces, jellies, vinaigrettes and syrups. And they had the best caramels I have ever tasted. I don't even really like caramels, but these nut-packed ones were GOOD. We also ventured into a few antique stores and a great second-hand store. My mom somehow discovered a "blackmarket" turquoise dealer (a native american woman and her grandmother selling jewelry from their car), who talked me into buying an opal ring. I think opals are beautiful because they sparkle and capture light so well.

The other thing I loved about Pagosa was the river than runs through it. And the bakery. Whoops, that just slipped in there...must be the amazing molasses cookies I tried. Twice.

Anyway, the river was really fun. Louise, Jacob, Beau, Marianne and I played on the bank for at least an hour one day...scooping up sand and building little rivers and dams for a piece of bark to travel through. Marianne loved having her feet buried in the sand. We enjoyed watching people raft and inner tube past us. One day that will be my family...when they all know how to swim. (Bekah and Cutesy were busy at a delicate butterfly painting class.)

I'll have to tell you about a few other adventures...in another post...

Why not paint with your feet?

My kids are in bed - all of them - finally asleep. I realize that I haven't posted anything here for (what is today?) sixteen days, and this blog is in desperate need of being caught up. The last few weeks have seen the last hectic days of school, complete with teacher thank you gifts and parties. We also "celebrated mediocrity," to quote Rus, (because he's a pessimist/realist), by hosting a graduation party for Beau and his joy school classmates. I have to say that I am officially not a fan of joy school. I will spare you my soap box worthy thoughts on the matter, and instead just say that I will happily and diligently find a preschool for Marianne to attend when the time comes.
Beau, second from right, with a graduation cap that is too small for his off the charts head...

The other major thing that has been occupying my time and thoughts is a project I am doing for a friend. She is paying me to draw a comic book for her husband for Father's day. The comic book will contain "stories" of some of his greatest moments as a husband and father over the past thirty years. It is a really fun project, but also really intense as I am trying to convert memories into stories complete with humorous dialogue and pictures. When I'm done drawing and coloring everything I will take it to a company that will scan in all of the drawings and turn them into an authentic bound and published comic book. I am SO excited for the finished result...but I admit I am a little stressed about getting it from rough sketches to finished product. I just keep thinking, "this will be EPIC, this will be amazing, this will be priceless, I have plenty of time!" Positive thinking, right?
I guess I'll share a few random thoughts as I wait for the 300+ pictures on my camera to load. (Rus has been photographing the birds in our backyard so he can identify them with one of his two bird books. Nerd. I love it. And Jacob has been taking pictures of ants and lizards and rocks in our backyard. Junior Nerd.)
A few days ago Jacob came inside from the backyard with a 1"x1"x four foot long piece of wood. He said, "Mom, is it okay if just you and me go to the garage for a minute and use the sander and we sharpen the end of this to a point?" I replied, much to his frustration, that sharp, pointy sticks are dangerous. He countered, "But if it's not sharp it won't stick in the ground when I throw it!" And I reiterated that throwing sharp pointy sticks was really dangerous. This really mad him mad and he stomped out of the house with his dull, flat stick yelling, "you NEVER let me do things I want to do!" I'm afraid he's right. I never let him make wooden weapons, because I'm sure if I did he would somehow accidentally wind up maiming one of his siblings.

Also: Marianne's arms seem to be permanently covered in permanent marker. I am not sure how she does it - I can't seem to find a permanent marker to save my life when I really need one, but she finds them all over the house in random places. And then she colors her arms and her legs and if I'm really lucky, nearby books and furniture. My cousin watched her a few weeks ago and she was wearing long fleece pajamas. I changed her into cooler clothes later and found that she had completely colored one of her legs. I'm not even sure my cousin knew she did that because the pjs covered it up!

Here is Marianne "smiling" for the camera in the dress my mom bought for her when she was just a few months old.

Marianne is certainly the prime source of entertainment in our family. She loves to sing (it sounds more like an indian chant), and if you ask her, she'll sing you the happy song or the doggy song, where she sings that particular word over and over. She loves to twirl and fall on the floor, and her vocabulary seems to increase hourly. She still loves my ipad and I find myself hiding it from her all day long and sneaking away from her to check emails when I think she's distracted. If she sees it, she has to have it, and she has a disturbing ability to operate it as well as my other children.
Lastly, I have to admit that I am not afraid to get dirty. In fact I sometimes invite it, like when I ran the Dirty Dash last September, or when I laid out paper and dumped paint on it and let Beau and Marianne skate on it with their bare feet. We needed large sheets of painted paper to make collages in Jacob's class on the last day of school. So Beau and Marianne were my helpers and we painted three large sheets of paper with vivid colors and lots of texture. The kids in Jacob's class made good use of the paper and his teacher proclaimed it the easiest last day she'd ever had. Success.
(Note our finished raised flower beds and fountain in our back yard!)

Hair cut!

I decided to let go of my long hair...it was time. Luckily I recently found an excellent stylist who I knew would do a great job. She started by literally sawing off about five inches from my hair with a really dull pair of scissors. Then she laid the sad looking bushy tail on the counter in front of me. I had a few minutes of really conflicted emotions while a sad montage of "pictures" of my long hair ran through my head. And then I told myself I was being dumb, and this shorter hair is going to be great, and it will grow back anyway.
The end. (Of the ridiculously detailed account of my haircut).

Funny Faces

Last night we were having a little bit of fun with Marianne at the dinner table. She is such an expressive little girl, and we exploit that as regularly as possible for our own amusement.

The best part about last night, though, was taking the pictures of Rus making the face, and then Marianne making the face.

Priceless, I tell you.

Lucky for Rus, he knows every picture I take is fair game for the blog, so he totally saw this coming.

 

Rus: "Marianne, show me your teeth!"

 (sorry for the mess on her face, we didn't take care of that soon enough...)

"Marianne, show me your lips!"

"Blowface!"

 "Fishy lips!"

 

And then the fun ended because Marianne wanted the camera, and I wouldn't give it to her...So sad!

Please don't let me be a mean old lady...

 I was at the grocery store a few weeks ago and Beau and Marianne were happily chasing each other around the produce section. I visit the produce area last, and by that time they are usually done with being in the cart and I am done with them playing with my newly acquired food items. And honestly I think they are both super cute and fun, so I allow them to run free while I quickly grab the last few things that I need. While they were merrily running around, they found themselves in the path of an elderly woman and her cart once or twice...and I apologized and smiled. But only a few minutes later I saw the same grumpy old lady whisper and roll her eyes with another old lady...about my children. It really made me grumpy. And self concious. And I couldn't help but pray, please help me not be a mean old lady someday! Please don't let me forget that children are loud and careless and slightly wreckless, but that's just because they are bright, happy little souls who haven't had to learn to quiet themselves because of mean old people. Please let me be one of those sweet, doting old ladies who tells young mothers that their children are so beautiful and so precious!
Anyway, there's my rant. On to more important things, like Jacob losing his tooth. It was epic. Rus tied a piece of floss to his tooth and then to the back door, and then Jacob slammed the door shut...and experienced a little yank, but the tooth hadn't budged. So he opened the door again, stepped back again, and with help from dad, slammed the door shut again. And before it even slammed, the tooth was out and Jacob was suddenly scouring the floor, saying, "Where'd my tooth go?" Then he grabbed it and ran to the bathroom to see the gory mess his victory had caused him. He was so proud. Rus and I were so proud. We recorded the whole event on the ipad and I had to watch it a half dozen times that night. I still had little chuckles escaping my mouth when my head hit the pillow that night.
He's such a handsome boy!

It just so happens that Beau and Marianne are becoming great friends. I have enjoyed capturing their little moments together the past few weeks. Marianne adores Beau, but if anything in her world goes wrong, she'll exclaim "Beau!" in a chastening tone. She's really got the intonation down on that one.

Beau is great at reading to her...if I were able to photoshop the boogers off his nose, I don't know that I would. Those boogers are an accurate representation of four months out of our year...Marianne loves hats and shoes. She is constantly pulling on hats and kickinf off shoes. She prefers Beau's boots (which incidentally are light up - how cool is that), to her own mini-tennis shoes. If you can't find your shoes in our house, you're not crazy - Marianne has relocated them for you.

 A few weeks ago Bekah had to dress up as a person from an autobiography. She picked Laura Ingalls Wilder - her favorite person, pioneer, and author. She wore an old Laura Ashley dress of mine from England that is missing half the buttons in the back, and we sewed her a bonnet. We knew Marianne would need a bonnet of her own.

 

 We also made a corn husk doll to mimic Laura Ingalls Wilder's doll Charlotte. Bekah wanted the doll...the boys wanted hawks and jaguars. I am now convinced that corn husks are not the proper medium for making hawks and jaguars.

 Marianne will be really grateful when she is older that she has a super stylish aunt who can't resist buying her clothes. That is how this beautiful dress came to be Marianne's. DeAnn bought it for her at Target. I am so in love with it. I want one in my size, please and thank you. I'm also in love with the adorable little spitfire in pigtails. She totally ROCKS that dress.

 As you saw in previous posts, our backyard is a work in progress. This past weekend it progressed a little further, thanks to Rus and his mad muscles. While I cut bricks on the tile saw and shuttled kids to and from birthday parties, Rus laid the bricks. He paid the kids a dollar each to carry the bricks from the pallets they were on to a location nearer to Rus. It was comical seeing Jacob book it from one spot to the other, running as fast as he could because the brick was so heavy.

But by the early afternoon, our work was done! Here are our gorgeous raised beds, with chair and bucket decor provided by the kids. Our fountain is half up in this picture...the top of it is on the ground to the left.

 Next up: Dirt! We need to order dirt to fill those lovely boxes. And between now and the time we actually plant something, we need to come up with a plan to deter the deer and rabbits from eating whatever we plant.