Earth Day (picture heavy)

For Earth Day Dee Dee, Lucas and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Denver Botanic Gardens. DBG has hosted a free day to celebrate the Earth for the last few years.  This year the day dawned rather cold, wet and blustery, it looked like we were going to have to spend all of our time in the conservatory just to stay warm and dry.

Since I was worried about the weather we left a little late and stopped by the dollar store to buy umbrellas and magnifying glasses for some extra fun. We didn't arrive at the gardens until about 11AM and at that point the rain cleared up, the sun came out and everyone and their kid arrived at the parking garage at the same time, like some sort of Earth Day miracle.

The gardens were beautiful, it had rained just enough to wash everything clean and leave sparkly drops on all the leaves and flower petals.  The kids enjoyed the puddles and muddy trails that were left behind.   The drops I liked, the playing in the mud and stomping through puddles I could have done without.
Dee Dee and Lucas were a little disappointed about the weather... new umbrellas beg for a good rainstorm. But then Dee Dee pointed out that umbrellas could be used to, "keep the sun off of us!" and everyone was happy.  Dee Dee used hers quite a bit on the trip, Lucas just wanted to swing his around, so he ended up putting it away so I would stop giving him the evil eye. 

It was hard for Lucas to decide if he was a "sthecret sthpy or a sthcientist", he finally decided on scientist rather than secret spy and immediately got to work observing things just like a scientist would.

This year was especially nice because the gardens are hosting sculptures by Henry Moore. I always enjoy when they have art in the gardens... it's like going to an art show without having the stress of taking my kids to an actual "don't touch that, OMG we can't afford that if you break it" art show  Although, in fairness the kids would really have to try to damage some of these sculptures.  I'm not saying they couldn't do it, it would just take a little more effort. 

The Day was fill with flowers, fun and even a little art.   When we left Dee Dee said her favorite part was the umbrellas.  Lucas said his favorite part was parking in the garage.  My favorite part....... well, all of it!

Lagniappe

Last week my town celebrated Lagniappe. From Wikipedia -Lagniappe refers to "a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase" (such as a 13th beignet when buying a dozen), or more broadly, "something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure."

This was the first year we attended and it was fun. All the little shops were open and had some good sales. Many of them were serving a little treat to draw you inside the store. The kids got to enjoy some cookies and hot apple cider after their visit with the big guy.

The kids really enjoyed talking to him, and even Lucas warmed up enough to give the beard a tug. We got there too late to take a hay ride, or any of the other fun things, but the kids were in it to see Santa anyway.

An Autumn Drive...Part 1

OK, since I had a lot of pictures and didn't want to overload anyone, I thought I would do this entry in the 3 parts, St. Malo, The Stanley Hotel and the Rose Garden in Longmont. This is part 1:

St. Malo

Its this time every year that I get the itch to go to the mountains and take pictures of the aspens. Its hard not to get excited with all the news reports about the aspens and how pretty they are. This year, we decided to include a visit to St Malo in the itinerary. We started off early on Sunday (not as early as I would have liked, sleeping is always nice). On our way we saw some Balloonists on a morning outing, it was a great way to start a photographic journey.

St. Malo is not far from Estes Park on Colorado Highway 7. The drive is very easy and the cute chapel perched on the out cropping of rock is beautiful any time of year, but it seems to glow in the fall. In the past, Chris and I would drive by the church and maybe stop and snap a couple of pictures from the highway. This year, we decided to stop and take in the peace and beauty of the scenic church. ... OK... mostly we stopped because Chris was going to leave the kids there. But we decided to take pictures first and abandon them later. (kidding!)

On one side of the church is a small creek that drains into a small pond. The water was so still it looked like glass and made for some beautiful Kodak moments. We hiked around the church and I took some pictures of Chris and the kids perched on the backside of the giant rock that St. Malo is built upon.

From the other side we were able to see the stained glass windows reflecting the yellow foliage in front of it. Like I said, in the fall, it almost seems to glow.

There is a new building near the old chapel where they hold retreats and the pope even stayed there when he visited Colorado in 1993. We took some pictures in front of one of the older buildings on the property. There was also a small pond with what looks like a pier below the retreat center. It amused me to think of the pope skinny dipping in the pond. (I don't know if it happened, but I'm trying to start an internet rumor.)

Since I originally said we started the trip to find some autumn gold, aspens, here are some of the pictures I took of the stands they have around St. Malo.

It was a beautiful walk around the old chapel and we all enjoyed the beauty and the exercise. We almost turned around at that point to head home, but decided to head up to Estes Park.

To be continued...

A Nature Walk by the Platte River

Labor Day weekend the girls stayed the night with Didi, so after dropping them off we decided to check out a local park located by the Platte River.  It had some nice playground equipment, but even better it had lots of nature to check out and vandalize.   So we went on an impromptu nature hike... otherwise known as a search and destroy mission for preschoolers.

Lucas and Dee Dee found all kinds of interesting things to look at, touch, taste (not really, but they sure thought about it!) and smell.   Dee Dee found a great mushroom (probably poisonous) that she pointed out to Lucas.  (Unfortunately...the mushroom didn't survive the discovery.) 

There were really great seed pods to check out. Some of these fluffy seeds even survived the encounter!

We saw thousands of these luscious, yummy looking Clematis berries (we called them.. Stop-Don't-Eat-That!!-They're-Dirty-And-Will-Kill-You-Berries... I'm not sure what the scientific name is for them)

A terrifying frog... although it wasn't nearly as horrifying as the dragonflies, those things are beyond mind blowing scary!

Whats a nature hike without some tree climbing?  They even posed for a little bit... before they we were off to check out everything else nature had to offer that day. 

Lucas did take a second to have a quiet moment on the banks of the Platte. I can almost hear him thinking, "If I'm really fast, I bet could be in the water before daddy can catch me.." It didn't happen, but not for a lack of trying on Lukey's part!

...And then...WHOOSH, I heard the toilet flush...

My youngest (Dee Dee and Lukey) are now three, and I love them dearly, but the last couple of days I've been wondering about the policy of leaving unwanted babies at the local fire station. Is there a way to bend that 72-hour rule into the 40-month rule?

The trouble started 40 months ag...wait, I mean about a week ago. Lukey decided that floating the plastic boats we used for bath time could also be used for independent fun in the toilet. This, is a huge, "EWWWW NO, NO don't do that, throw them away...GAH!" in my house. So the boats have been quickly disappearing into the trash.
Fast forward to 2 days ago. I hear flushing, flushing and more flushing. WTF... did all the kids have to go at the SAME time? Right at this point Taylor comes into the living room and very angrily tells me that Dee Dee and Lukey have flushed the strawberry body scrub she got from the $1 bin at target (may contain some lead) down the toilet. Whew, I'm thinking...the body scrub is water soluble...right? I told her we'd buy some more (they were out) and chased the babies out of the bathroom with some angry glares and not exactly age appropriate language.

About 2 hours later I use the toilet and it overflows (#1 luckily) we’ve had some toilet issues in the past, so I'm not thinking the worst of my kids...yet. My hubby and I take turns plunging it and eventually the water drains...slowly. At this point, I realize ALL the plastic boats are gone... Hmmmm. Hubby assures me that they had all been thrown away; surly they wouldn't fit into the toilet...

The next day I call the apartment maintenance guy and he comes and snakes the toilet. Out comes two hot wheels, part of a plastic boat, a watch face, a screw and a marble. He snakes some more, but no more stuff comes out, yet the toilet still isn't flushing properly. So, the apartment complex sends out for a 'professional' to come out the next morning at 10 AM.

Bright and early at NOON the guy shows up (hello, cooped up at home with energetic kids, and a second bathroom that is too small to hide in for long!) to get the toilet to work. He snakes, and snakes and snakes. He ends up getting some gravel (WTH do my kids eat?), an earring (not mine...hubby- you have some 'splaining to do), a penny, a nickle ( Woo hoo up .06 cents!) AND another plastic boat piece. It was truly unbelievable, the amount of...ummm...crap... that was in our toilet!

So, yeah, we are now on the bathroom buddy program... and no, Dee Dee and Lukey no longer get to be bathroom buddies!