Lagoon in the life of a two year old

Earlier this summer, we ventured off to Lagoon. Everyone enjoyed getting back to the amusement park after a season. Elsie, however, was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. 

She wasn’t so sure about riding Puff the Magic Dragon.

The cars were a bit disconcerting. You can tell in this photo that Ansel’s just glad he can actually fit in the ride, while Elsie is like “what did I just get into?” with her hand under the belt buckle. 

Then she tried other rides and started to warm up to things. Or maybe she was just glad I took off her hat. Ha!

Then she really started to get the hang of things. Ringing the bell on the boats with vigor and vim. 

Until she reached total joy in this Transformer ride. The face, the wind through her hair, the exhilaration!

I think she’s ready to go back soon. 

The other kids are too. 

Boulder Colorado

To welcome summer, we took a family road trip. Everyone did a great job with the 7.5 hour drive! It’s still not my favorite way to travel, but when you get to stop at The Little America in the middle of nowhere, it’s ten times better. Ian loved his sleeping mask. Never really used it, but it was a great traveling accessory. 

We added a new state to the kids’ lists. Colorado is a beautiful place. 

We went hiking around the Flat Irons and took in the views. 

We also smelled the trees. This one smelled like butterscotch. It’s crazy how these trees can take on a smell. 

We found creatures too. 

We also stopped at the Carousel of Happiness in Nederland, CO. It promised happiness, and I felt it. They had a big band music machine that was awesome. I bought a t-shirt. Yep. 

This was one of the kids favorite stops. They had quotes all over the walls. Stuff like: “the world awaits your wonder.” It was very hippy + happiness + peace + joy. I loved it. 

We visited the Buffalo Bill Museum and gravesite. The kids dressed up while Jess and Oliver read all of the plaques. 

I had them give me a synopsis of everything they learned since we were busy riding fake horses. 

We took in the views. Can you see Denver?

The final day there, I ran the Bolder Boulder, which is a 10k race I’ve always wanted to try. As luck would have it, I could walk to the starting line from the hotel. 

My race photos are hilarious. That’s one of the funnest parts of a race, to find out how dumb you look in the photos they took. Here’s my best. Ha! Not only did I finish with Waldo, but I also appear to be a very serious runner. 

It was a great time with just our little fam.

In Search of Greatness

I just watched a documentary called “The Greatest of All Time,” about what makes pro athletes amazing at what they do. It was so good. Fascinating really. If I were to sum up what makes them great it would be creativity. 

Studies have shown that sporty kids who have had an opportunity to have free play are better at the game than their counterparts. Mind blown! 

Studies have also showed that people who come up with new ideas and inventions,  breakthrough performances and skills, are people who ask the question, why? 

What’s more, every pro athlete had a passion for what they were doing and they were having fun while doing it. 

Over and over and over again, as a parent, I think we have to find the line between pushing our children to do something and letting them figure things out on their own. Man, it is a balance and I am constantly trying to fine tune it. My inner dialogue on the regular: “Does one child need a nudge to do this? Wait, he or she really doesn’t like that? Maybe I should stop nudging and try something else.” Or “He or she is loving what they’re doing. Maybe the practices were less than ideal, but the outcome is good.” And then I have to do this differently for every kid! Whew!

I recently attended a baby shower for a friend. We were asked to give advice. Mine was lame and I said something that had to do with getting a pack-n-play for vacations. Wow, a parent of four and that’s all I had to give? Anyhow, I digress. My friend sitting next to me saved the moment and gave some great advice. She said, “Never compare your child to someone else’s.” Can I get an “Amen!”?

There are things that are extremely popular in some cultures, neighborhoods, whatever and there are other things that aren’t as celebrated. Football in the South, academics back East, free thinking in the Northwest. These are generalizations and Jess would tell me to be wary of what we assume is true about a group. And he would be right and that’s just the point. Sometimes as parents we assume the one thing our kid needs to be doing is what everyone else’s kid is doing and we fail to see the magic and amazement that is original to them. 

At the end of this documentary, one of the experts being interviewed said that sometimes we glaze over individuals who have amazing skills because we want them to fit inside what we’ve deemed the pathway to success. However, we are a diverse group, humankind, and there are so many paths. 

Lots of rambling, but getting to the point. I’m learning that we must let our kids play, we shouldn’t over schedule them (if they don’t want to be), and we must let them be themselves. Okay…wait! I think I now know what advice I should give at the next baby shower.

Whirlwind weeks

Man! We have packed in a bunch these last two weeks. Our almost-done-with-school, pre-summer days have been full. A good full!

We visited the zoo on a Saturday after soccer games and the weather was good.

We attended Oliver’s final symphonic band concert. It was awesome. The kids learned all kinds of songs and the finale included every member of the music program: band, orchestra, percussion, and choir!

Jess and I went to the Ben Rector concert with friends. Two days later, I went to the symphony with friends. For that one week, I was a concert-going fiend!

We went to the elementary school fun run. 

Ansel ran the whole 5k with his friends and me. I was amazed at their stamina! I never would have run over three miles in third grade. 

Ian and Elsie had a picnic with pals. 


Amidst that, my sisters and I put on a tea party (woot woot!) with our company Five Pence and a Crown. It was so fun and new and oh so nerve-racking, but mostly wonderful and delightful and exciting. 

Then it was off to a swimming party for a friend of Ian’s. Ian had no fear and jumped!

Ansel perfected his diving. 

Then we celebrated Oliver’s birthday! We have a teen in the house. We celebrated with Indian food and chocolate cake. He’s one awesome kid. As the timer counted down to take this photo he said, “Hopefully, this is my only birthday with braces!”

Ian had his preschool program. He did such a great job saying his part and introducing the song “What a Wonderful World.” I took so many videos but no pics, so here’s Ian at another party living the dream at the candy bar.


School was then out and our neighborhood had a rockin’ party with bounce houses, games, food, music, and all-around good times. Elsie was living’ it up until dark. 


Then we were off on another adventure, but I’ll leave that for another post. Here’s to summer!

NYC with friends three

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to get together with my greatest of friends, women I have known since elementary and middle school. We visited NYC and saw the sites, took in the sounds, and ate the foods. And we talked, nonstop. I tried to stop talking long enough to learn from them, their experiences, their epiphanies. I loved it! They are wise people indeed, and hilarious too!

The photos I post here are going to look like I actually took a solo trip to Manhattan, but its all out of respect for my pals’ privacy. I won’t post pics with them, but believe me, they were there. I promise. Come on, I do! Ha!

I’ve been to New York City many times, but I’ve never visited Liberty Island or Ellis Island. They are not one and the same. I only came to realize this when a National Park Ranger told us not to miss Ellis Island. I was thinking to myself, “We are here, dude,” but held off and listened to his explanation of how to get back on the ferry. See, it was good I focused on listening during this trip. 🥴

Below is the Registry Room at Ellis Island. To think Jess’s great grandfather passed through here! It was an awesome experience to visit. 

The views of Manhattan were superb from the ferry. And of course, it was windy! We had pizza and doughnuts and went to Phantom. 

The next day we ventured to the Met. We then hurried into the New York City Library and barely squeezed into the Treasures Exhibit. We stopped for Thai Food and Levain Cookies then swung by Bryant Park and Times Square. We finished the night off seeing Dear Evan Hansen. 

The next day we went to church and then visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Speaking to a docent who was a survivor of 9/11 helped to make the visit of the museum special.

We had a couple of surprises on the way home (we were locked out of our hotel room and then the security line at the airport was at a standstill in order to get the K-9 unit set up) but we got on our plane with maybe 2 minutes to spare. Whew! It was surely an adventure until the end! It was a great time in great company. Cheers to good friends!

Go For It!

As I was scrolling through Instagram, a person I follow tagged this post. 

 

Did you read the whole post? At the end, I was like, yes! I was (am) like this girl and did some of the very same things. Fear has such a hold on us sometimes, maybe a lot of times. But I loved what she said, “…the greatest memories I have from every single year I spent in school happened when I was afraid and I did it anyways.” Do you find this to be true? Do your best memories result from doing something hard? A lot of mine do!

I have nieces and nephews that do the hard a lot more than I was doing in college. They try out for things, sign up for challenges, set their sights high. They go for it! I have many family members that go for it! My kids sometimes go for it (fist pump!). I have many friends who do the same. These are not people who are necessarily free from fear. Nope. They’ve embraced it and use it to their advantage. It’s amazing! 

Time and time again I hear this message and I love it. I’m making it a part of my life one small step at a time. Baby steps over here, but steps nonetheless!

Spring means Easter, eggs, and egg launching(!?!)

Celebrating Easter with my family and the extended family got me all teary-eyed this year. The good kind of teary-eyed! I think this happened because 1) I’m getting older and thus more sensitive and willing to let the emotions flow, 2) its definitely nice to take EXTRA time to celebrate that He lives!, and 3) a weekend with my family is always a reason for those emotions. I feel so much for my immediate and extended family. Spending time with them emphasizes that feeling. 

Here’s my own little family in our Sunday best. Is it bad that Elsie is the only kiddo wearing new springy clothes? Life’s moving fast over here. The kids are growing and time seems to speed by. So much so that there’s no time to look for Easter clothes. Or dye Easter eggs.

Still, we held the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt in our yard and it was so fun! The weather showed up for us - a sunny afternoon sandwiched between rain, and the 50+ kids found 700+ eggs with the most exciting part being the finding of the special silver egg. It was great to get back to it after we took two years off due to COVID. 

On Sunday, we did an Easter Egg hunt at Grandma’s house. Her yard makes for the best hunt. Up hills, behind boulders, even up in trees. It was funny because the easiest eggs to find, those hidden among the grass, were the last to be found. 

At one point, I was pointing out an egg to Elsie and right then Ian swooped in and grabbed it. But Elsie didn’t really care. She was enjoying all of the other good things in the yard like the chimes, birds, flowers and the swing!

Later that evening, we had dinner at an Uncle and Aunt’s house. The kids played and played. Did they get enough dinner? Probably not, but they did have fun. We finished off the night with an egg launch. We didn’t dye eggs, but we did hard boil some and shoot them far across a field to be caught by family with baseball gloves on the other side. The creative ideas my brothers come up with! I mean, come on! Here Oliver launches one wayyyyy across the field. 

Elsie just wanted to eat an egg. I guess this answers my previous question, she didn’t get enough dinner. Ha!

It was a beautiful day and perfect way to end a great weekend. Happy Easter and welcome spring!

Age 2

Elsie is a character at age two. 

She calls out “Dad, dinner time!” at the top of her lungs when we’re sitting down to dinner and waiting for Jess to come down from his home office. 

She does everything Ian does. Legos, scooter riding, sweeping, book reading, drawing. And Ian is a good brother…most of the time.

She likes to choose her clothes and most specifically loves her rainbow sweater and her dress with printed cats. She loves to wear dresses and likes to dance when we put them on. She like having “ponies” or pigtails in her hair and prefers a bow. 

She loves all critters. Dogs, cats, lizards, ants, bees (got her first sting yesterday because she tried to grab one), and crickets. We have a lizard and as a result we keep crickets to feed him. Elsie once found the container of live crickets, grabbed a handful and went about playing with them. By the time Ian alerted me to this, she had squished one and had another four alive in her palm. I put her in an empty tub and let her play until all of the crickets had been handled more than they could handle. It was a fun twenty minutes for her while Ian and I went about catching the few crickets who had gotten out during the fiasco. 

She loves to swim, run, jump, ride, basically be on the move. 

She always wants to be playing. She and Ian have the busiest social schedules of any littles I know!

She gives some of the best hugs and will say, “Mom, I love you,” in the sweetest and most sincere voice ever. 

But then there’s this: She likes to call every woman around my age, “mom.” Ha! She really loves everyone.