The Springs Experience

This weekend, my good friend Katie came to visit from Seattle. We had so much fun catching up and playing with the kids! Katie has been to Colorado, but never to the Colorado Springs area, so on Saturday, Katie, Danielle, the kids, and I took the afternoon to go to Garden of the Gods and the Air Force Academy chapel. Then another Olivet friend, Angie, came down from Denver to have dinner with us. The weather was beautiful and the kids were little angels (mostly). What more could I ask for?

Too good to last

This morning, the whole family (including the dog) got on our bed to hang out. Ethan was extra-sleepy and wanted to snuggle with us. It was one of those idyllic fabric-softener commercial settings where the family (in matching white pajamas) all cuddles together in the morning. I thought to myself, "This is just so peaceful and perfect. I need to enjoy beautiful moments like this when they come along." 30 seconds later, Ethan threw up.

Correction

Oops, apparently it was Uncle Ted, not Uncle Rob, who wondered if home would still be there after a long vacation (see May 2009 blog). My apologies to all uncles. :)

Anywho, I took a toddler and an infant to Target today to look for some new jeans (logistical nightmare! You know you have 2 under 2 when you organize outings around which stores have shopping carts).

I don't know whether all serious theological minds would agree with me, but I think God cares about small details of our lives too, not just big ones. I'm not really one to consciously attribute every good parking spot or picked-up penny to Divine Providence. But if He clothes the flowers of the field and feeds the birds of the air, I don't think it's a stretch to say He can direct a frazzled mother with a melting-down-needing-a-nap toddler and a sick-of-the-carseat baby to the right pair of jeans in a large department store.

After the kiddos went to bed tonight, I celebrated the successful trip with a bowl of Samoas Ice Cream...delicious. If I keep celebrating all my solved logistical conundrums this way, however, I may need to go back and trade out the jeans for a larger size.

Two in a Row!

Levi is at a CCCA (Colorado Christian Camping Association?) conference, so the kiddos and I are hanging out in Fort Collins with my parents for a few days. Ethan got to play with Aydin this afternoon and with Grandma and Grandpa this evening, so it's a good day! Ethan did not, however, enjoy my dad sneaking up on him with a fuzzy mountain goat hat on.

A Sentence a Day...

So...it's been a while.
I am shocked and embarrassed to realize that my last blog post occurred about 8 months ago. I think this is because I get intimidated, thinking every time I post something, it needs to be thoughtful, informative, and important, and include adorable photos of the kids. Well, it obviously hasn't been working out very well. However, I saw a great idea in a magazine a few months ago that I thought I'd try. The idea is to write just one or two sentences each day that you can look back on and remember later. I guess this is mostly for my own benefit, but hey, if there's anyone else out there who reads this (ie Mom and Angela), a short blog is better than no blog. Well, here goes nothing.

Feb. 21, 2010.
Ethan is really grumpy today, probably because he has eaten approx. 3 pounds of grapes in the past 24 hours.

"When we get home, if we get home, I hope home is still there." -Uncle Rob

For several weeks, I have been wanting to put up a few pictures of Ethan's and my road trip out to Illinois for a friend's wedding. Before we left, I even had grand plans to put a few pictures up every day of our trip... haha. Oh well.

Ethan, Danielle Urfer, and I traveled to the bustling metropolis of Aledo, Illinois (pop. about 3,000), to attend the wedding of one of my friends from college. The 15-ish hour drive was broken up by a stop each way in Kansas City with some other Olivet friends.

This was my first major trip with Ethan, and Levi could not come with us, so I'll confess, I was a little nervous about how it would go. Ethan was a little champ though. Danielle and I took turns riding in the back with him to provide live entertainment, and that--along with some long rest area stops and an ample supply of freeze-dried fruit--pretty much kept him occupied for the whole trip. Really, the freeze-dried fruit saved our hides. We had a great time seeing a bunch of friends and attending a very nice wedding, and Ethan even had a little bit of fun. Success. (He got pink eye somewhere along the way and managed to infect 10 of our summer staff with it the next week, but we'll still chalk it up as a victory.)

So we came back home, feeling exhausted and triumphant, and stopped at my house to unload all the baby travel gear. But opening the front door, we discovered...bare walls and empty rooms. We made it home, but home was not there. Fortunately, home had just relocated down the street a block or so. Levi (and about 20 summer staffers) had spent the previous 4 hours moving us to the camp house we'd had our eye on for the last 2 years! It's much larger, has 3 bedrooms (and a master bath!), and has more kitchen cabinets than I've ever seen in one house before. Amazing. Well done, Levi. Good surprise.


Too bad we couldn't travel like this the whole trip!


We got a little bored at the wedding rehearsal and played outside.


Ethan and travel buddy, Danielle, at the reception.

Summertime

Finally! Summer!

Not much happens at camp in the winter. And as one of the old timers up here says, "The mountains only have 2 seasons: winter and July." This is not quite true, but when mid-May rolls around there are still no leaves on the trees, it seems about right.
Fortunately, the long, boring winter makes summer that much more welcome. On Sunday, about 30 college summer staffers rolled in to camp, so the summer is finally getting underway! We also had our first ridiculously huge hail storm of the season (which Samson was not thrilled about). It must really be summer!

So far, we're all enjoying different summery things. Ethan is LOVING having a whole staff of college girls to dote on him, Samson takes advantage of every opportunity to rub his shedding self all over everyone's legs, Levi gets to be outside all day and goof around with a bunch of college kids, and I am SO thankful to see some old friends and spend the majority of my day with people who can actually talk.

In the spirit of summer, I thought Ethan's first swimsuit picture would be appropriate. We haven't gone swimming yet in the camp pool because it's so cold, but a few weekends ago, we swam in the heated pool at EPIC in Fort Collins with Kara and Aydin and some friends from church. It was a pretty big hit.