Garden of the Gods

While Melissa was visiting, we took her to see Garden of the Gods. It's one of my favorite places in Colorado Springs and since the weather was so beautiful, it was a perfect day to go. Evan and Elisabeth had work and school, respectively, so it was just Melissa, Julia and me.

Julia really wanted to push the ginormous rocks down. She tried very hard.
Melissa helped her, but the rock was "too heavy, Mommy."
She then found a cave to climb through.

I seriously took about 200 pictures of her while we were walking around.







Julia decided she needed to climb this rock. I need to tell you that the other side was quite a steep drop off for a two year old. Melissa and I made had quite a few "Oh my god, she's going to fall off, quick! grab her!" moments.


Julia then decided she needed to slide down the path.

We found a beautiful little group of trees. They were like a Julia sized forest. She loved it.


Apparently, she was tired.

It was a beautiful day. And, since I got turned around about three times trying to leave the daggum park, we had a lovely scenic drive to end the morning.

Waiting.

We are waiting. Any day now, we will know for certain what happens to us in the summer.

Will we be here another year? Will we be moving? It's a very strenuous wait. Sometimes I think about it all day long and other days I won't have pondered on it at all and then the thought will randomly pop into my head.

I like our life here. I like our house. I like our school. I like our routine. I love our friends.
But there's that sense of adventure that's gnawing at me. The want to live somewhere new, see a new part of our country, live in a place I've never even visited. The adventure was part of why I was eager to have Evan join the Air Force.

We could live on the east coast, a different country, a state closer to Illinois and our families.
So, I wait. I try to appreciate where we are right now. I try to soak in how happy we are right here. I try to memorize all the things I love about this gorgeous state that I've fallen in love with.

I wait.

Friends.

My friend, Melissa, left today. She's headed to Denver to visit a friend from college and then she'll be back in Illinois on Sunday.

One of the lovely things about having a friend who has known you forever is the ease with which you can be around each other. There are no big secrets, no personality flaws that aren't known.

Melissa is fabulous in that she is so easy going. I'm the one with the kids, so she knew we wouldn't be able to sight-see and shop all day long because there would need to be naps and homework and early bed times. She also loves my kids and will pitch in and help out without being asked. Even when Julia would give Melissa her famous stink eye, Melissa just pretended not to see it and continue helping out. Not to mention that she and Evan have gotten along since forever. She's watched Evan and I go from having crushes on each other to her being a bridesmaid in our wedding. I am beyond ecstatic to be her matron-of-honor next September.

I also love the memories that come flooding back when with old friends--teachers we used to have, classmates that we mutually loathed, songs we sung together in junior high.

One thing about this week that meant the most, though, was that Melissa met my friends out here in Colorado and loved them. They loved her too. They talked and laughed and teased. It felt normal having her at our Thursday dinner and talking books with my book club friends. My friends all told me how much they loved Melissa and Melissa, at a completely separate time, told me how much she loved them.

It seems like no matter how much time has gone by between conversations, Mel and I pick up where we left off. I'm never surprised to find out that a book I've just discovered and need to share with her, Melissa has already mailed and has been dying to tell me to go read. It's a comfortable and easy friendship.

My cup is full.

Just Another Day

*I have been reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series lately. First off, I super love mythology. I took a class on it in high school and have always regretted not taking it in college. And while this series is not nearly as well written as the Harry Potter series, I can not put the books down. I had to dig out my old mythology book to use a reference for some of the characters I hadn't read about in years. If you have children who read chapter books or are a grown up who reads, I definitely recommend this series!

*I have lots of sweets at my house. Please come over and eat them all for me.
*I like it when Evan gets Veteran's Day off. It's a random day in the week and it's nice to have him home. Next week it's on Thursday and that works out very nicely. He can go to story time with us and take Ebeth to dance class and watch for a bit. Lots of excitement on Thursdays, I tell you!
*Melissa leaves tomorrow. I am sad. I enjoy having a friend around who is much more like family, who doesn't mind helping out, who enjoys quiet reading time and a good glass of wine. If only Chicago was a floating city and it would float near where ever I am more often.
*Julia has been a beast. A BEAST I tell you! I'm 98% sure she is jealous of me giving attention to Melissa. She does not like it when she is not the center of my attention. That's a lot of pressure. I'm going to whisper to her when she sleeps that she needs to make Evan her favorite parent. I will start that tomorrow.
*I love framboise. And kriek. And peche. Yum.

Patience

Patience. Not my strongest virtue.

Especially when dealing with a certain two year old.

Now, I know that I am lucky because Julia is a very sweet girl who enjoys being cuddled and has a beautiful smile and blah blah blah.

Here's the deal: she drives me freaking crazy!!!!!

Her new favorite thing to ask, "What you talking about?" WHILE I AM TALKING!!!! I can not have a conversation with anyone without her rudely interrupting me to ASK ME WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!!! Do you realize that I haven't had a complete thought in weeks?!?! Maybe even months!!!! My friend Melissa is visiting us for a week and she's had to help me finish sentences because I have lost all ability to finish them on my own.
I swear she senses when I am weak and vulnerable. I know she can smell when I have not had my coffee, have a headache, am grumpy, am burned out and she preys on it. She finds my weaknesses and she goes for them with all of her 2 year old strength. She's vicious, people. Vicious.
I need to regroup. I need to bulk up my defenses. I need to get those paints out more, rotate the toys more often, get some more outside play time in. I need to make my coffee stronger, make sure my purse is equipped with all the necessary tools to pacify a melting toddler, I need my camera battery charged to take pictures of unbelievable events that occur in my day. I need my game face on and be on my guard at all times until the reinforcement comes home from his dreamy/cushy/easy job as a lawyer in the Air Force to take over as the defense coordinator of our Toddler Takedown team.
Oh, and patience. I need more patience. And then I need to find even MORE patience.

But mainly, I need a lot of coffee and occasional alone time.

Virtual Coffee--The Elisabeth Edition

Hi. Welcome back to another coffee date. Please check out all the other coffee dates over at Lucky Number 13.

Today, if you were coming over for coffee...I would tell you that today is my Elisabeth's birthday. She's 8 years old today.

I would then, of course, need to reminisce about when she was having her first birthday and how it felt like just a few years ago.
I'd whip out her baby books and the scrapbooks I've made for her. I'd tell you that she was such a beautiful baby.
Always smiling and so happy. She was a talker even as an infant. She'd make so many noises in her sleep that we'd have to turn the monitor on as low as possible because her gabbering would keep us up.
I'd share some favorite Elisabeth stories and tell you our plans for the day. I'd tell you that we're taking her horse back riding as a gift because she's been waiting to turn 8 to go on the horse trails. She wants a birthday pumpkin pie and to eat at McDonald's for dinner.
I'd tell you how she was the reason we decided to pursue the Air Force. That when Evan was applying, we both agreed that with Elisabeth's sunny personality and social butterfly ways, moving around the country would an adventure for her. We were right. The girl makes friends where ever she goes. She's sweet and out going. She's weird and kooky and we love her. I can not believe she's 8 today.

I would then ask you how you were doing. How your Halloween was and what your plans are for Thanksgiving. I would tell you we're hosting Thanksgiving at our house again and Evan's parents are coming out to visit us.
As you were leaving, I would thank you for listening to a Mommy talk about her oldest baby turning another year older. I would send you off with some left over cupcakes from Elisabeth's Halloween/Birthday party. I would tell you how i have presents to wrap and a pie to bake. My 8 year old is going to come home from school ready to tear into her gifts!!!!
I'll see you next week!!

A Happy Halloween

Ah...Halloween. I'm so sad to see you go.

You are my favorite holiday, hands down.

This year there was so much Halloween festivity that I am *still* exhausted. In fact, I am going to finish this post, persuade my rather active 2 year old that we should probably nap, and then go crash for a while.

We started Halloween with a party on Saturday night. My lovely friend, Rachel, hosted and I got to help decorate and organize!

I love decorating and organizing.

Rachel went as a Cougar (the old lady predator type, not the big cat). For some reason, the only picture I have of Rachel is this blurry one of her with her friend, the Love Bug.

My best friend since the church nursery, Melissa, is visiting us out here in Colorado for the week. She went as a bunch of grapes.
Evan went as a mummy dressed as a pirate. He was most flabbergasted when the Queen of Egypt showed up. Silly mummy.
Do you like Evan's pirate hat? It was his when he was 5.
The mummy loved me. I went as Miss Havisham. She was kind of like a mummy.
My dear friend Melinda was a masquerade ball attendee.
Her boyfriend, Bryan, was a Garden Gnome and it was my favoritest costume of the night!
The party was a lot of fun and we stayed out much later than I thought we would. Especially since all of Rachel's and my kids were spending the night at our house during the party and we had to wake up with them in the morning. Which was Halloween day. And Elisabeth's birthday party.

It seemed like a good idea when we planned it all. We didn't think about our tiredness.

But, Elisabeth's party went off without a hitch!

I baked some witch's fingers.
And some candy corn cupcakes.
Elisabeth was most grateful for the gifts her friends brought. I was grateful that we know so many sweet, fun children.
Elisabeth wanted a pumpkin flavored spider cake for her birthday. Thankfully, my Grandma Sandy bought me a fabulous cake book for my birthday and I found a recipe for a pumpkin cake. It was delicious! (Yes, there are only 6 candles on that cake. I forgot to buy more. We all pretended that I had 2 more candles. Shush.)
It was a great party, but I was utterly exhausted due to only 5.5 hours of sleep the night before.
So, we all took a nap before heading to Peterson base for some trick-or-treating!!!!

I must tell you how wonderful Julia was when we went trick-or-treating. Her costume was a bit cumbersome, but she loved every minute of it.
I totally did not get a good picture of the girls together in their costumes. I am sad.
A side view of our Winnie the Pooh.
The weather was absolutely perfect in every way. The older kids were running from house to house and it was hard for Julia to catch up. Thankfully, the person at this house was slow to answer their door, so I was able to get a good picture of all the kids together.

As you may have guessed, we are already talking about what we're going to be next year. I have plans of being Cleopatra. Elisabeth is going to be Hermione from Harry Potter. Julia's still talking about Winnie the Pooh, but I'm sure she'll have changed her mind.