Monday, June 28, 2010
Great Sand Dunes National Park
That's the "Sangres" in the background - and see that all that brown in front? That's the dunes. It's some phenomenon that's occured based on it's location -the wind coming from the mountain range on the other side of the San Luis Valley gets trapped at the base of the Sangres - and here are the dunes. They are HUGE - tall and wide. This (above) is the view from our campground.
And it is WINDY at the dunes - as you climb them the wind whips the sand on your legs, as one woman near us called it, "it's like a bad spa treatment." With CC being so low to the ground, she didn't care for the tall dunes as much. But...
For a couple months of the year, the Medano Creek flows through the base of the dunes. It's incredibly wide - a football field - and maxes out at about 6 inches deep. Perfect for wet sand play, dig, etc.
The dunes....
We stayed for 3 nights, the longest we've ever tent-camped. Also - first time ever camping without a pack-n-play! You should have seen those kids feet by the time we got home...ugh.
We explored nearby Fort Garland for Memorial Day - a fort run by Kit Carson to negotiate with the Ute tribe and protect settlers. This was the view from the fort!
Love this picture. I have memories of the sand dunes in Cape Cod...vague memories in truth. Did we slide down them? These dunes, this time of year, did not really support sleds etc for sliding down...something about the moisture level.
Please forgive the doggie-mom voice in the 1st video...advise to turn volume down. Callie got a good workout!
Brendan's 1st swim meet...and henna
Well, his first this year that is. He joined our neighborhood swim team, the Westbrook Stingrays, last summer. They practice every morning 8-9am, and have 4 meets each summer. These swim meets are crazy events - huge numbers of people (parents, siblings, swimmers) all crammed in around a pool - typically an outdoor city pool. We get there at 7:15am so Brendan can start warm-ups 7:30am - this is on Saturday mornings. The heating area is a madhouse of kids - is that Brendan? Are those the 9-year-olds? Oh, he's sitting down, must be in the next heat. I love his orange goggles that make him stand out - last year I videoed a total stranger the length of the pool thinking it was him.
The backstroke is his favorite, which the coach says is unusual - while adults typically enjoy floating on their backs, kids don't like that feeling as much. For the first time, at this meet, he swam the butterfly in a medley. Such a hard stroke - he was sooooo nervous about it - but he did really well, and after that race, he said he wanted to enter the 25m butterfly in the next meet.The night before this meet, my girlfriend Monica had a 40th birthday party, and everyone got a henna tattoo! It was so fun - never had one before. The artist came to her house, and had a ton of photos and books with designs to get ideas from. I was drawn to a design with a Hawaiian-flowery-feel to it. I combined a couple of designs and came up with this....
So, each part of the tattoo has a meaning. The circle in the middle of the flower represents centeredness (my goal!! daily!! by the minute!!); the flower is made of hearts - love obviously - but the 6 hearts make it an even, balanced love. The other hearts at the bottom show being grounded in love; the other designs represents reaching, growing - and the drops of water, are water - flowing, changing, always moving. She said she guessed I was a water person - I agreed that being by water is one of the few times that I can truly live and just be in the moment without my mind shooting off in various unrelated worries/thoughts/etc. Nice! I'm very sad that it only lasts a couple of weeks or so.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Water
Brendan is on the swim team for the neighborhood (Westbrook Stingrays!) so he has practice every morning from 8-9am. Most mornings CC, Andrew and I watch and enjoy breakfast by the pool before the heat of the day - but Brendan is just starting to ride his bike the 4 blocks or so with a neighbor to practice on the off-chance that CC sleeps in ("sleeping in" for CC - or any of the kids for that matter - is 7:30am. Doesn't matter how late they were up) Big kid stuff!
CC just started her very first swim lessons. She was not a fan the first day - didn't want to get in - but is warming up to the idea. She's fine in there with me and her floatie - it's just the "lesson" idea I guess. Here she is doing a back float!
And then...CC in a bikini. She loves it - although she was confused by it at first (underwear?) - rubs her belly a lot while she wears it.
The whole family went out on the lake the other day - only the 2nd time for that. Guess that 8am swim practice is taking a toll on Brendan....he took a snooze while we were out.
Pretty sunset on the lake....
Did I mention that I LOVE summer???!!!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Endings/Beginnings
Brought my camera to school the last week to take pictures to finally start creating my proto-types of school-year-in-a-book for boys. A couple here. The school year ending always makes me a bit sad - I feel so involved in the school and the boys lives there. Also, Andrew's teacher this year was Brendan's teacher for the 2 prior years, and she's fabulous - hard to imagine not having a child in her classroom!
I thought it would be fun in these elementary years to see both the lunch box and backpack the kiddos used that year...that will be part of the book. I would love a photo of my Apple Dumpling Gang metal lunchbox!!
3rd grade was a big year for Brendan. He was probably most excited about learning cursive. In doing so, however, he's realized how bad Mom's handwriting is, and that it's not really printing, not really cursive - a sad mix of the two. Also got the multiplication tables down - that made him seem so much older to be quizzing him on that!
Now summer's here!! I am so very happy about it. I love being able to relax with the boys more, the green grass and flowers, my garden, the sun rising so early in the morning, eating ice cream, lots of ice cream, sitting outside at night, open windows....ahh.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
End of the (school) year stuff
The boys had Field Day in May at school also - all the kids play a bunch of games outside (shoe kick, frisbee toss, ping-pong ball on a spoon, etc.) - they have a pin that they get colored stickers on, the color depending on if they came in 1st, 2nd or 3rd - or anything else. CC loved field day - for some reason it was all about Brendan that morning - she wouldn't leave his side (had to for the 3-legged race) The field is huge - hard trying to watch both boys events! See video of Andrew winning a 1st place sticker (well, it was a tie but still got that blue sticker) - how happy he is. He is a super-competitor - did not win the frisbee toss and it was not a happy moment!<>
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We've also just learned our awesome friends, Kathy & Mike Maness, are moving to Virginia. We will miss them incredibly - they are our family here in Colorado - but are excited about this next adventure in their lives. We are plotting vacations! The kids are so sad - it's one of those rare situations where everyone gets along awesomely - they've grown up together! That's Brendan and Kailey at age 4 on our annual camping trip - and the bottom picture is of Brendan, Kailey, Andrew, Jackie this month. We love you guys!