Too cool for school

One of Micah's classmates wears sunglasses when he walks to and from school.  This morning as we were walking from the van to his classroom Micah asked if he could wear glasses too.  When I told him he had a pair at home in his tool box he demanded that I provide them to him NOW.  He got a little upset when I told him I couldn't snap my fingers and magically transport the sunglasses from home into my hands.
Later in the day I was surprised when he remembered and asked me to get the sunglasses for him out of his closet.  When I told him that sunglasses were mostly just for outside when it was sunny, he told me that he wanted to wear them inside too because they made him look "fancy and cool". 

So here is fancy-cool Micah. 

 

Aspen wanted to be fancy too.

Mason says...

Mom, are you eating a piece of butternut squash just like me? 

Close enough, right?  He cracks me up.

Colorado Springs

This last weekend we took the kids to Colorado Springs for a mini-vacation.  We booked a hotel for 2 nights and figured it would be fun to just have a couple days away from home.
Here are a few things I discovered.

1. There is no such thing as a vacation when you have kids.

2. Babies are horrible little tyrants when they do not get their daily dose of napping.

3. You cannot beat pink eye.

4. Brian snores louder than a train wreck.

5. No matter how much time I spend making check lists and packing, I will still forget very important items such as swimsuits or diapers.

6. Aspen does not appreciate eating processed baby food from a jar.  If she must be subjected to such torture make sure it is some kind of delicious fruit like pears.  No veggies, please.  And not bananas.  NOT. BANANAS.

The list goes on and on, but I will leave it at that.

We left Friday afternoon and checked in to our Ho-en-tel (as Mason would put it) around 5:30pm.  So the first night we just went out to dinner and the boys played in the pool with Dad.

 

Aspen decided to stay pool side in her jammies because she was feeling quite cranky after dinner (and it was her swimsuit and swim diapers mom forgot)

 

After swimming we watched "The Missing Lynx".  Well, Mason and Brian fell asleep after about 10 minutes.  I caught bits and pieces while drifting in and out of sleep (Aspen was bound and determined to keep me awake) and Micah was wide eyed until the end of the movie (about 11:30pm).  

Oh yeah...after swimming Brian also uncovered a special little something.  Also known as...

Pink Eye!  Surprise!

The next morning after breakfast we made a trip to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  It is a pretty neat zoo.  There aren't as many animals as Denver Zoo, but I like the arrangement at Cheyenne Mtn better.  Right after you enter the zoo the first animal display you see is the giraffes.  The cool thing about this is that you are up high on a bridge and you can see the giraffes eye to eye. 

Up close and personal with the giraffes

We bought the boys some crackers to feed the giraffes, but it was pretty hard to get any of them interested in eating. I assume they had all been force fed approximately  20,000 crackers already seeing as how it was about 10:30am and the zoo had been open since 9am.  I think just about every person standing around me had a stack of about 9 crackers in their hands. 

All the giraffes were intersted in doing was this...

 

Yeah, they stand around and lick the wood poles all day.  Apparently that is what they would be doing in the wild...tasting tree trunks and eating leaves.  

Eventually we did get some giraffes to take the crackers, but I wasn't able to get any pictures.

I did get to pet a giraffe on the face, though.  That was neat.  Their hair feels just like a horse.  

We also got to pet a baby wallaby (no pics of course) and Micah and Mason got to help feed fruit bats.

 

This was not the one we pet, but I think it is cute that he has a surrogate pouch to cozy up in.

 

Micah making fruit kabobs for the bats

  

Hanging the food in the cage

 

There was also a cool playground for the kids to play on.

 

The boys used some of their money to go on a pony ride.

 

The boys' favorite exhibit was the naked mole rats.  They were pretty ugly and had a large series of tunnels to occupy their time.  I think the boys just liked watching them scurry up the clear tunnels.  

After the zoo we were all pretty pooped, so it was back to the hotel for some rest (well, for some of us) and more swimming.  We tried to watch another movie after swimming but not even Micah made it through that night.  It's okay...the movie was pretty lame.  

 

On Sunday we checked out of the hotel and decided to visit Garden of the Gods.  The boys were excited to be doing something else before heading home, so we set off.  We got on the interstate and just a couple minutes into the drive one of my front tires blew out.  It being a Sunday, no tire stores were open except for Wal-Mart.  We didn't want to chance driving home on the spare, so we ended up spending way too much money and 2 1/2 hours sitting at Wal-Mart.  Needless to say, a lot of the time was spent in the toy department.  By the time we got to Garden of the Gods it was late in the afternoon and the boys were spent.  After walking for a total of about 15-20 minutes they were done.  It really is a beautiful place, though.

 

My next vacation better be to Hawaii.  Sans children.

Don't judge me...

 

Whatever...like you've never given your infant a taste of your fudge bar when nobody was looking...

Diva

Aspen has definitely learned how to get what she wants.  Brian took her outside with him to inspect the garden and when I looked out the door I saw her happily playing with some zucchini.  I thought, "Oh, that's cute...I'm going to take a picture".  Unfortunately, she spotted me when I opened the door and decided to work her magic.

After taking these pictures I plopped her on my lap to demonstrate how quickly the tide can turn.

 

Yes, she's spoiled rotten...and she does this to me all day long.

Kindergarten!

I had to wake Micah up early today because normally he isn't up by 6:45 or 7am.  When I went into his room to wake him up he opened his eyes and said "Is it time for kindergarten?"  He was excited when he got dressed, excited when he brushed his teeth, excited to climb into the van with his backpack...in fact, he was so excited that he forgot his shoes!  He sat in the car for about 10 minutes while I woke up brother and sister and then we drove to school.  When I opened the van door and got out to let all the kids out he said "Oh, I don't have any shoes."  We had to drive back home and get his shoes and luckily, probably because it was everyone's first day...kids were still waiting outside the classroom when we got there.  

Micah is ready to go!

 

Waiting to go inside

 

Micah's teacher making sure Mom or Dad was there to pick him up

 

A present for Mom

Micah is so glad that he gets to go to school again tomorrow, and for even longer than today!  Every Wednesday is early release day, so I had to get Micah at 10am (pooey, a whole 2 hours of school).  Tomorrow we will both get an extra 45 minutes of freedom.  

And on a side note...Aspen has pink eye.  Not surprised?  Me neither. 

Riddle me this...

What's 3 yrs old, has two pink eyes, and likes to throw tantrums? 

You got it!  It's Mason....with pink eye!

At Last!

Micah's first day of kindergarten is tomorrow!  I have been waiting for this day for the last 3 years!  I am looking forward to first grade even more because it will be full-day.  Oh, yeah...and Micah is excited too (as if that matters).  I have a feeling he will love school...he is such a social kid and things have been pretty boring around our house lately.  The downside?  7:45am.  That's right...that is when school starts.  I have to be somewhere at 7:30am.  NOT COOL.  Also not cool?  Aspen gets most of her sleep in the morning.  I am not looking forward to interrupting her morning sleep 5 days a week.

Mason will be starting preschool in September...which means making lots of trips to drop off and pick up kids.  Preschool for Mason is only 1.5 hours.  Bummer.  It would actually be a lot easier for me if I didn't have Mason in preschool this year, but he really needs to socialize with children other than his brother.  He is so shy that he refuses to make friends even when someone asks him to play.  I hope this will be a good experience for him.

Just think...only 1825 days until I can shove them all out the door together.  Hooray!  Let the countdown begin!

Backyard Camp-out

On Friday the 13th we camped out in our backyard with the boys.  Brian set up a tent and we barbecued brats.  The boys were so excited to sleep outside! 

We could hardly get the boys to eat any of their dinner because they were in such a hurry to eat s'mores

Micah roasting his own marshmallow over the camp fire

Yum!

Aspen was perfectly happy sitting on her blanket all evening.  I guess she just loves the outdoors!

She really wanted to touch that fire.  She kept reaching for the lantern.

Aspen was so tired...I tried to get her to go to bed because
it was obvious she needed to sleep, but she got so mad
when I tried to put her in her crib.  She just wanted to play
outside with the rest of us.  I know, I am such a pushover.

Seriously, how can you say no to a face like that?

"Come on Mom, lets get in the tent!"

Mason having fun with the flashlight.  When I showed him
what to do he kept telling me not to do that with my face. 
I think he was a little scared.

shadow puppets

Unfortunately, Micah also came down with pink eye the same day we had our camp-out.  So he was pretty annoyed with his eyes and the constant drainage.  Brian had to get up early the next morning to go to work, so he ended up bringing the boys back inside at about 5:30am.  I slept inside with Aspen.  The boys had a fun time...and I am happy to report that so far no one else has come down with pink eye. 

Dinosaur Ridge

On Saturday we took the boys to Dinosaur Ridge over by Red Rocks.  Mason loves Dinosaurs so we thought this might be fun for them to see...especially because it was something to do for free!

Here are the boys pointing to some Dinosaur tracks!

 

Here is a better picture of all the dinosaur footprints...obviously they are colored in with something to make them more visible.  I think there were something like three different kinds of dinosaur tracks.

The footprints were the coolest part of the ridge.  There were also things to see like dinosaur bone pieces in the rocks and trace fossils of rippling waves and plant roots.  Nothing too exciting. 

The visitor's center had some dino statues around the entrance.

 

We did end up paying for a bus ride back to our van, because it was a pretty far walk and we were too tuckered out for the return trip!