Sand Dunes

The kids and I took a mini road trip to the Great Sand Dunes a while back. Mini means under 6 hours. And just for fun, we borrowed another child for the trip. The rules were simple, we had a destination in mind, I was not planning anything, and the answer to almost anything was Yes. It was really freeing, and liberating from the daily "have to" list of responsibilities. I explained that for this trip we were a democracy and everyone had equal voting rights. I had some cash in my pocket and when that was gone, we were done.

Dusk

We arrived after two little detours, (one slightly unplanned, but Siri set us to rights again) and the other was a spur of the moment decision to hike to the top of Zapata Falls. It was amazing watching my little monkeys gleefully scamper along the slippery sides of the canyon we had to climb through holding on to wires bolted to the side.

The fog from a wildfire

Our plan was to camp if we found an open spot. I was extremely proud that I pitched the tent all by myself. Sure, I used rocks instead of stakes, and the rain fly fit on weirdly, but at least it was still standing in the morning. (Chris later laughed that my "rain fly" was the top of our teepee tent thing.) Whatever. I'm still awesome for providing shelter.

The smoke made for an amazing sunset

Our food prep was simple, a trip to Vitamin Cottage to stock up on all sorts of non perishable things. And there was a restaurant nearby. So we had pie and coffee for breakfast, except for Justice who opted for the classic brownies and ice cream.

hiking

It felt like we had landed on another world. And nobody complained that our toothbrushes and toothpaste had somehow disappeared in the car and we had to wash our teeth with our fingers.

Justice being gnarly

Aidan sandboarding like a pro

We waited in line to rent boards behind a fastidious gentlemen with ironed shorts and a belt who was making sure that everyone knew their place in the que. Our little crew was amused by his orderliness and came to the conclusions that 1). He was probably an engineer (bless his heart) 2). He had probably not forgotten his toothbrush 3.) He was not having nearly as much fun as we were.

Yes we did slide down the steepest slopes that we could find

Every few minutes, the wind would pick up and blast us in a mini sand tornado. I was wearing jeans, but had the unfortunate experience of having a whirlwind of sand find it's way down the back of my pants.  Days later, we were still finding sand in our ears.

Chloe was a trooper and hiked just as hard as the bigger boys. She's one tough little cookie.

Taking a break

Chloe and Justice after sliding down

The view from the (almost) top

After a hard day of playing, we drove home. We drove through a town that was later evacuated because of the wildfires nearby.  We managed to hit Denver right around rush hour traffic which meant that we spent an hour in traffic that had Aidan naming a new game called Angry Mommy-it's not quite as fun as Angry Birds. But nobody threw up in the car which is always a success on road trips, and I always saw the kindly policemen before they saw me. We made it home with a few coins left, a car full of sand, and some new stories.

A Little Hike

Yesterday, the kids and I went for a wee (7 hour) hike with a friend.  It was absolutely, stunningly gorgeous, and fed our souls.

Diamond Lake

See waterfall equals want to climb waterfall for my small ones.

That little dot at the top? There's Aidan, with Chloe not far behind. I was just happy they didn't meet a bear at the top munching on some berries.

I did, at this point, decide that we should probably climb up after them

A close up of the awesomeness in action

The view from the top...



I was bummed that I hadn't brought my big camera because I didn't want to hike in with it and everything else I was carrying. Chloe lent me hers instead.

Proof that I was there...

Obviously I missed the photo bomb cue, but if you look close, the holes in my pants look like a face

We walked through fields and fields of wildflowers. I saw magenta colored Indian Paintbrushes, wild roses, lots of ones that I couldn't identify and of course, the Columbine.

 



May 1

Yesterday, Chloe and I went on a walk to capture the little signs of spring poking up, before we got dumped on with another fresh layer of snow.



I confess that I really love dandelions.  I think that they are such a cheerful little flower, like sunshine on a little stick.  Chloe loves them too.  In fact, she wishes that our whole yard was covered with dandelions. It's not, it's covered with another weed that isn't quite as pretty, although maybe Winnie the Pooh would disagree with me.

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." -Winnie the Pooh

Today, everything is covered in a good bit of snow. It looks like the winter we never had outside. But underneath it all, spring is patiently waiting.

Hedgie Takes a Bath

Once upon a time there was a boy who wanted a hedgehog for his birthday. So his mom searched the internet, made countless calls, and (almost) daily emails to a local hedgehog breeder.  Now he is in posession of his very own hedgie with a built in Roscoe defense system. (Sadly, small furry creatures have not survived long at our home). It's hard to eat a mouth full of prickles, at least that's the theory.

Today was Sam the Hedgehog's first bath.


Not quite sure what to think, yet.



Look at the little face!

Today was also a snow day.  Not according to Bruce the superintendent from Montana, but I overruled him. Because in my opinion, if you haven't had a snow day all year and you get a foot of snow, that should be an automatic day off school.

Snow ice cream was on the menu.




Some cream



A little cinnamon bun

Plus a bit of pomegranate molasses, hazelnut, vanilla, and peppermint

Stir

Then charge mom 50 cents for something you won't even try.

The fed ex man politely declined their offer of snow ice cream. I'm not sure why.


Muffin Top

Spring in Colorado is like a tug of war every year. Winter thrashes around and reluctantly releases her hold, finger by finger. One day might be blissfully sunny, tanks tops and sunburn, and the next day has us curled up inside with a cup of tea and a heating pad on our laps.

Chloe spotted the first robin of spring this year. He was sitting on a snow covered branch with feathers fluffed against the cold, announcing with his presence that spring was coming. Chloe gasped with delight, and we were late getting her to school because it was a stop and take a picture sort of moment.

Yesterday I tried to combat the chill (and celebrate the end of Lent) by baking muffins. They were so scrumptious that I made them twice, because the first batch barely lasted past breakfast. I had to hide a lonely muffin away to save for my hard working hubby.



Here's the recipe, adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins
(the original recipe calls for ricotta cheese instead of yogurt, but this last time, I was out of the ingredients to make ricotta so I used full fat yogurt and it was just as beautiful)

2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c sugar
Zest of two clementines
1/2 c butter at room temp
1 c plain yogurt (I used Brown Cow with the cream on top)
1 egg
Juice from the clementines
1 tsp vanilla
Mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin cups with liners or grease

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl mix together zest and sugar.

3. Beat butter, sugar, and orange zest together until light and fluffy. Add yogurt and mix until smooth. Beat in egg, orange juice, and vanilla extract.

4. Add dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Divide between 12 muffin cups.

5. Bake for about 18-20 minutes until tops are dry.

6. Make some tea or coffee with a bit of cardamom. Eat muffins and think happy thoughts.

It's Complicated

Have you ever woken from a dream that seemed so reasonable that you then had trouble disentangling yourself? This morning was one of those mornings as I was startled awake by my children joining me under the covers with my ipad, curling their icy toes against my legs.  My dream was so perfectly ordinary that I had this weird sense of vertigo as if I were juggling two bits of reality in my mind.  Grocery shopping brought me fully back into my day though, I never dream about grocery shopping.



A gorgeous birthday present from a sweet sis in law

I was driving Chloe to school and I caught a whiff from my jacket of garam masala.  (I have a bad habit of leaving my coat thrown over a chair in the kitchen while I'm cooking and then going out in public smelling faintly of whatever was on the menu.  Sometimes, I even cook in my coat, and that's even worse.) Anyway, it reminded me of this time in Texas.  We were looking for a house to rent, and not finding anyone who would consider us because of our big beautiful German Shepherd, so our realtor suggested Frank's house.  Frank drove an older Mercedes that was immaculately maintained, he was short, thin, and fastidiously dressed.  He looked very Baptist-close cropped hair, respectable, with khakis and a polo shirt. As he walked us through the property and explained what he expected from a renter, we began to get a glimpse inside Frank's head.  The house was for rent because the previous tenant wasn't keeping his bargain of maintaining the property according to Frank's standards. A fact that he became aware of when he was doing a drive by of the property and got a feeling. As owner of the property, it was perfectly reasonable to drive up at any time and demand to look inside, and since the guy wasn't keeping it clean enough, Frank kicked him out.  The garage was carpeted so that his daughter (he was a single parent) had a place to play when she had friends over so that he didn't have to worry about them spilling something in the house. (He was extraordinarily proud of his solution to the issue of kids in the house, and suggested that it would be a great place for our kids to play as well.) I'm not sure at what point my politeness started sloughing off into incredulity, but the curry powder pushed me over the edge. Straight faced, Frank said that we would need to also sign a contract stating that we would never use curry powder.  Curry powder, not even once?! It offended him, he said, and I read all sorts of things into that comment. (Houston has a very large Indian population and not everyone enjoyed the diversity) Chris, knowing that my overly sweet tone marked how clearly I was dangling on the precipice of a verbal onslaught, hurriedly propelled us out the door with a bland, "We'll talk about it".  The moral of the story is that we didn't rent from Frank, and sometimes I still wish I could sneak into his house and offend him with some curry, and maybe a few crumbs in the carpet.

Oh, and in case this post was not quite random enough, we have decided on a country to adopt from.  But I don't feel like writing anymore, so I guess I'll spill the beans later.

Happy Snowy Monday

It seemed like I could almost feel the earth breathe a deep sigh of relief yesterday as the snow began to fall and the ground greedily drank in the moisture.  This winter has been so dry.  Our few snowfalls have been tiny dustings compared to our normal Colorado winter.  The sled has sat lonely and gathering dust in the garage.  Twice, we have tried out our favorite sledding hill though the grasses were still peeking above the few inches of snow, and after a few skidding, halting slides down, we gave up and went home to console ourselves with hot chocolate.  But yesterday, the snow began to fall, and kept falling, all day.  Cozy inside, we played games, drank cinnamon, hazelnut cream coffee with our apple crisp, and waited for a break in the snow to head outside and play.  Within moments, Aidan and Chloe had disrupted the beautiful blanket of smooth snow with the back and forth footprints of a snowball fight.  The neighbor's fence this morning still bore the remnants of splattered snowballs that missed their mark and our sled welcomed two screaming kids down the hill. (And possibly a screaming Me. Chris is much too manly to scream going down the hill.)

Smiles

Happy snow days and wishing ourselves many more.