With three kids, finding opportunities to do something special with one kid at a time can prove challenging. However, with the older two kids back in school, Violet and I are enjoying some time "to ourselves". This past Thursday we joined some friends for a trip to the Chaffee Zoo. Here's Violet with her friends Mya and Janelle in the new rainforest exhibit. The girls loved searching for all the little frogs, lizards, and other creatures. I'd never seen this little guy before! On Saturday, I spent some time with just Audrey as we visited the Squaw Valley Herb Gardens. We had a wonderful morning as we took a tour around the gardens, snipping herbs, smelling them, trying to identify them, then learning their many properties and uses around the home! Here's Audrey with her little packet full of herb clippings. After that we sat for a sip of lavender tea while hearing a short talk and demonstration of how to use our lavender stalks. Audrey and Andrea rolling out the lavender, separating the bud from the stalk. Myra's getting her aggression out on the lavender! Our morning ended with a wonderful brunch of vegetarian quiche topped with herbs de Provence, lavender scones, fruit salad topped with lavender-infused whipped cream, and iced mint tea! Thank you Myra for arranging our tour! Audrey and I had a bloomin' good thyme!
Violet had her first tooth cleaning yesterday. She did great! She looked so small in the big chair, with the big bib, and then a big blanket (that she requested since she said the fans made her cold). She sat quietly and played while I got my teeth cleaned, then opened her mouth wide and didn't fuss or cry when it was her turn. I am so proud of her! And she was very excited to get her bag with a toothbrush, tootpaste, floss, and rinse. Plus she got to pick something out of the treasure chest. Her choice? A plastic cricket.
This post is for my mom. She started her own blog and posted recently about clouds. The clouds can be pretty awesome in Kansas! She asked for others to "show off" their cloud pictures, so here's a few from Randy. This first one he took in Rocky Mountain National Park this past July. We don't get many cool clouds here in the Valley. If it's gonna rain, we usually get a thick layer of grey. It doesn't even seem like separate clouds. But every once in a while... this one (and the next two) was taken August 2008, on a week of strange summer weather. Last, these funny little clouds were found over Utah, August of '07. I don't picture Jesus coming again on any of these types of clouds, but they're still neat none-the-less.
Yesterday was the first day of school for Audrey and Isaac. Both kids were up before 6:30, super- excited to meet their teachers and the students in their same room! Isaac has the same first grade teacher that Audrey had, Mrs. Elkins. Audrey has Ms. Darmanian for her third grade teacher. Hard to believe that school is starting already. The nine weeks of summer just flew by, it hardly feels like a "new" school year, just more of the same. I'm sure that is not true for the kids, however!
We fully enjoyed our last two weeks of vacation. We (the kids and I) went to see Space Chimps at Edwards Theater (part of their Free Family Film Festival that they do each summer). Their friend Jackson started out in the theater with us but lasted a short 10 minutes (it was a bit too dark and loud). We did meet back up though for lunch and playtime at home! We joined our mom's group at the Fresno Metropolitan Museum to enjoy the Bob the Builder exhibit. We went with some friends to Fig Fest 2009 (see our post about going last year here). Once again we sampled lots of yummy food, enjoyed live music, and relaxed with friends. Our favorite this year? Cracked Pepper Bistro's double fig bread pudding...scrumptious! The last two weeks of vacation also included swim lessons. Violet was old enough this year to do lessons at the public pool! All three kids had a great time in the water every night, improving their breathing, their strokes, and their jumps off the diving board!
As promised, here is my post about the drive home...especially Rocky Mountain National Park! We left my parents' house on Monday morning (July 27) and had a smooth drive, stopping for a stretch at Cathedral of the Plains (one of Kansas' historic landmarks). It is a beautiful building with gorgeous stained glass windows depicting the 12 stations of the cross. Also, it was a great chance to talk with the kids about some Catholic traditions and what a monastery is (the inside courtyard of the Cathedral is reserved for the monks, although we were able to peek in at the grounds, and could see their large garden outside the gate). The dark clouds started dumping on us just north of Denver but stopped by the time we got to Boulder, with a huge rainbow stretching across the sky. I even managed to take a picture of it from inside the car! We arrived at our campground just as the sun was disappearing behind the hills. We stayed at Olive Ridge, a campsite in the Roosevelt National Forest, just a mile from the Wild Basin entrance. It was a great campground, with spacious campsites full of white birch and pine trees, a kids' playground, raised and leveled tent squares, and built-up fire pits! The kids complained a bit about the pit toilets (we're so pampered with automatic flush ones in Kings' Canyon), and of course there were no showers. But who can complain about 2 days in such a gorgeous setting? And highs near 70 degrees...in July?
Tuesday we headed into the park through the Beaver Meadows entrance (the park is so large there are 5 entrances), stopping in the Visitor's Center to pick up a Jr. Ranger packet, then taking the shuttle to Bear Lake. From there we took the trail to three other small, mountain lakes. The kids did great on the 1.8 mile trail, stopping first at Nymph Lake (full of lily pads, flowers, and duck), then on to Dream Lake (clear, deep, and full of cutthroat trout), and finally to Emerald Lake (a chilly, green pool at the edge of a glacier)! We got some light sprinkles on the way back down, but they cleared as we returned to Bear Lake. Our last stop in the park for the day was the Moraine Park Museum, where the kids had a chance to check in with a ranger about their progress on the Jr. Ranger packet (there were 8 tasks and/or written activities to complete), and to look at the next day's schedule for Ranger programs (1 of the requirements to earn their Jr. Ranger badge). We had a great night at the campsite, a dinner of Kansas-made bratwurst and veggies from my mom's garden, a campfire, and clear skies with millions of stars!
We started Wednesday morning at the "Skins and Skulls" ranger program. The kids (and Randy and I) had fun feeling the skins of black bear, elk, cougar (or mountain lion), coyote, bobcat, marmot, and beaver. After the program the kids went inside the visitors' center to show their packets to a ranger on duty. Then she presented them as the newest Jr. Rangers at Rocky Mountain National Park.
They were so proud of themselves! And Randy and I were really proud too; they did a lot of work to complete their packets! And it was so great to see their big smiles as other rangers, parents and kids congratulated them throughout the day. They make a big deal out of the Jr. Ranger program at RMNP and I think that's great! Ask them to tell you about all they did next time you see them!
After the kids were presented their badges, we got back in the van to drive the Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous highway in the United States. It reaches 12,183 feet! The views were spectacular, with elk, marmots, and pika wandering over the tundra. We arrived at Alpine Visitors' Center (elev. 11,796 feet), and ate lunch inside our van since it started hailing as we pulled in the parking lot. Randy, wanting to test his lung capacity, decided to jog to the top of Fall Ridge (a short trail behind the Visitors' Center). He succeeded, in that he made it to the top and didn't get struck by lightning. He did not succeed, however, in jogging the entire way up. Hey, I'm not judging, I didn't even attempt it. Here's his short video at the top.
After lunch we headed into the visitors' center to look around and to hear a Ranger Program about lightning. After that we headed back down Trail Ridge Road (I guess we'll have to come back someday and visit the west side of the park) to visit Sheep Meadows. RMNP is home to some herds of bighorn sheep. Unfortunately, none of them were grazing in the meadows that day. As we pulled back into our campsite, the steady drizzle and clouded skies was making for a cold evening. After letting the kids play an hour in the sprinkles, Randy and I made the decision to drive into Estes Park (about 10 miles away) for dinner. Cooking and building a campfire in this rainy, 50 degree weather wasn't sounding fun at all. Our evening turned out fantastic, with a yummy pizza for dinner, a stop in a candy shop for the kids' dessert, a stop in a Starbucks for an adult dessert (aka white chocolate mochas) and a gorgeous walk along the river. Oh, and a black bear sighting...in the middle of downtown Estes Park! Our tent kept us nice and dry through the very wet weather all night. We packed up in the rain on Thursday morning to start our 2 day trip back home. And, as you know, we got home safely and uneventfully (well, without power in the front of the van, meaning no DVDs, no radio, no iPod, and no GPS, it was certainly an interesting drive home). Rocky Mountain National Park was definitely a stop worth making! And I hope we make it back sometime soon!
After 6 days on the road, 13 days in Kansas, and 2 days in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, we are back home in Fresno! We had such a fantastic 3 weeks of vacation! I'll have to do another separate post about Rocky Mountain National Park (it was absolutely breath-taking), but I wanted to post some pictures from our time at my parents' house first. I've posted lots of pictures from places we visited, but there were lots of fun "everyday" things we did while there too! One of the things Randy enjoyed doing on vacation was working with my dad. Here they are starting on the back deck. The weather the first week was pretty hot and muggy with thunderstorms, so most of their work time was spent putting up paneling in the sunroom. But the weather the second week was perfect for completing this project. Leveling off the dirt and laying gravel for foundation. Setting the framework. The deck was done in time for the kids' "Kansas birthday party" on Sunday night. Since my parents don't ever get to come to any of the kids' birthday parties, they decided to throw one for all three of them while we were there. It was a lot of fun! My mom invited a few of their friends from church that the kids had met and played with over the past two weeks. They played water games in the backyard, then had cupcakes and ice cream for dessert! Dressing up was a fun thing to do at Grandma and Grandpa's. Isaac had fun being creative with chalk and race cars in the garage. The kids loved drawing with Grandma and Grandpa too. One of things they drew were Native American symbols. Interesting thing to draw, right? Well, every night before bed my mom read them a portion of Indian in the Cupboard. So they had fun checking out some books from the library about Native Americans and drawing symbols. This activity actually reminded Audrey of our last drive out to Kansas when we stopped in Utah at the Sego Canyon Petroglyphs. I love this picture of Audrey and Violet with my mom's friend, Bonnie. They were feeding the coi in the pond. Ed and Bonnie and their two college-aged daughters invited all of us over for dinner one night and we had a wonderful time! Violet kept asking to go back to "her friends' house" the rest of the time we were at my parents. We thought at first that she was talking about all her friends in CA that she missed. Nope, she wanted to go back to Ed and Bonnie's house! So we invited them to join us for the kids' birthday party on the last night. Here's Violet and Bonnie reading a book at the party. Here are the kids in their museum/store/school that they created in the basement...they even sent out flyers that read, "No tuching. 5 cents to enter." The main exhibit. Hey, they didn't say no photography! Isaac loved "building" while at Grandpa's. My dad has lots of scrap wood, so Isaac hammered, nailed, and even painted a bunch while Dad and Grandpa worked. This is the Reno County Farmers' Market. We visited the last Saturday we were there. We bought some FABULOUS cinnamon rolls from a Holdeman baker, a watermelon, some swiss chard, some local honey (from alfalfa fields right down the street from my parents' house), and Violet found a beautiful bracelet to buy from Julia's Jewelry. And last, I included a video of Grandma Janice singing to Violet as she rocks on the Wonderhorse. Violet couldn't get enough of it!
Here's Violet with her friends Mya and Janelle in the new rainforest exhibit. The girls loved searching for all the little frogs, lizards, and other creatures. I'd never seen this little guy before! 
On Saturday, I spent some time with just Audrey as we visited the Squaw Valley Herb Gardens. We had a wonderful morning as we took a tour around the gardens, snipping herbs, smelling them, trying to identify them, then learning their many properties and uses around the home! 
Here's Audrey with her little packet full of herb clippings. After that we sat for a sip of lavender tea while hearing a short talk and demonstration of how to use our lavender stalks. 
Audrey and Andrea rolling out the lavender, separating the bud from the stalk. 
Myra's getting her aggression out on the lavender! Our morning ended with a wonderful brunch of vegetarian quiche topped with herbs de Provence, lavender scones, fruit salad topped with lavender-infused whipped cream, and iced mint tea! Thank you Myra for arranging our tour! Audrey and I had a bloomin' good thyme! 
