Family Sandwich

(photo courtesy of Grammie)

Grammie and PaPa Visit!

My parents arrived for their first visit about a week ago. We had been counting down the days for over a month! Mom kept saying how happy she was to be able to "picture us" from now on where we live. We shopped in Old Town, ate ALOT of ice cream (rotating our loyalties between Cold Stone and Kilwins), and played at the house. Mom and Dad brought the kids an old black and white Rin-Tin-Tin movie, and we enjoyed a few episodes each night before the kids went to bed. Darin and I loved playing card games and visiting with mom and dad late each night.

"Cheap entertainment": forcing Grammie to play MarioKarts on Gamecube with Caleb. I wish there could be sound effects for this picture. Mom SCREAMS at every harrowing curve! (mom, you're such a good sport!)

Meghan discovered that PaPa was more than willing to "share" (i.e., "take so she didn't have to eat") the hominy from her chicken tortilla soup.

We interrupt this visit to bring you Caleb's first stitches: During a run-in with an icy slide on the school playground, Caleb got a nice little 1 cm laceration to the chin. 3 stitches later, however, his smile was still up and running! Getting out of school the rest of the day, and going to a movie with PaPa and Meghan while Grammie and I went shopping seemed to speed along his recovery. 

Look who's ALMOST 5! We had a little cupcake celebration almost 2 weeks early, because Meg wanted "Grammie to be there to see my presents and meet my friends!"

Dad, Meghan, and I discovered a rather unique rock-carving at a nearby park. (reduced to mere toe-jam? ugh.)

Trip to Estes Park with Grammie and PaPa

We thoroughly enjoyed showing my parents some of the beautiful sights of Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday. Mom had started feeling flu-ish the previous evening, but after a quick trip to the urgent care clinic (and a negative flu test!), she was a real trooper! Some of my favorite memories from childhood are of our camping trips to Tyler State Park, in Texas. We blazed more than a few trails there (don't worry, dad, I won't tell them we got lost alot, too!), and it was fun to hit the trail again with my parents. 

Sprague Lake

strong wind = cold day!

We saw several elk and mule deer. These were ambling through downtown Estes Park, evidently on their way to the liquor store across the street. (?)

Around the house...

It has, admittedly, been a long time between posts. Several conditions have affected my all-around efficiency the past week or so. See if you can relate:

1. chickenus-decapitus syndrome

2. estrogenus-overloaditis

3. plain old insomnia

Regardless, the kids have kept me smiling. Meghan was mortified to see a paper cup in the gutter as we walked home from Caleb's school. "Mama, somebody glittered!" she said in a very disapproving tone. 

God gave me a big smile today, too, as I looked up from some mundane task to see my kitchen window framing this:

Tree Squirrels

Meghan and Caleb enjoying the tree in our backyard.

(pre-construction)

Darin and Caleb in the tree with lumber and various power tools.

More to come when the Satterwhite tree house comes to completion!

(Should I worry when Darin talks about a crow's nest?)

Lest I paint too sunny a picture...

So. You've seen mountain vistas. Trailblazing kids on a winding path. Pristine mountain lakes. 

Presenting: The "Other" Colorado. (all in good fun, and in the interest of full disclosure...)

Rocky Mountain National Park is only about an hour away, but for a hike in our town, here's about what you'd see. Though our actual town has abundant and beautiful trees, the natural areas are a bit, um, barren? (Though I'm coming to see them as beautiful in their own right...)

Sign posted about every 0.5 miles on a nearby paved trail. Dog was sorely disappointed.

I noticed this sign just after we had spotted prairie dog town and Meg was scampering over for a closer look -- Off. The. Path. (Have I mentioned that I majored in microbiology in college?)

The Campaign Trail. (Posted for my good-natured democratic friends. If you are having a grumpy day, please disregard this political jab.) 

Was that P.C.?

Moments worth magnifying...

~Helping Meg try on a fancy Belle dress for our upcoming trip to Disney World... trying to "find" my little girl under so many layers of yellow... hearing her giggles of joy...

~That same princess gone pirate: clothes covered with dirt, climbing the cottonwood tree in our backyard with big brother's ninja sword clutched in her teeth...

~Under pursuit by Caleb, who was armed with two buddies and a ball of yarn, yelling, "Tie her up! Don't let her escape!"

~Going in this morning to wake up that same little wild man, brushing back his shaggy I-want-to-grow-my-hair-out hair, and catching a glimpse of my baby still in there, gently smiling...

At least a couple of times a year, I become aware (sometimes painfully!) of having fallen into a default mode of hurried living. Of frantic doing. Of staring into a day (or even afternoon) at home with my children with fear. Fear of having to shake off that grown-up mode of planning and doing, and enter their carefree world of playing and being.... Well, I thank God that at least once in a while He gives me that awareness. I thank Him that today, although there is still a ring around my tub and a list of errands a mile long, when Ashley the Polly Pocket broke her leg riding horses, and when Ariel and Eric ran off to get married at the castle, I had the privilege of being there.