the first sled of the season

The first snowfall of the year is always sooo exciting. Even if it's not much more than a really heavy frost. Poppie, of course, was so thrilled to wear her blue flowered snow pants. Cody was just thrilled. And the tradition of coming in for hot chocolate is becoming a joke. Poppie says, "let's go outside and come back in for more hot chocolate!"

mini road trip

We went on a little get away to our favorite mountain town, Leadville. Every time we go through we love it more and talk about moving there. It's a lot more rugged than Aspen, and a lot higher and colder. The highest recorded temperature ever is just 85 degrees. That sounds good. The leaves along the drive were spectacular.

This is going up over independance pass. The road becomes one lane, which is pretty crazy to go around some of the corners. The drop off is sooo steeep!

little witches

The picture was much cuter. I think who ever made these for the magazine didn't have a three year old and a one year old helper.

new thrift store

There is a great new thrift store in Basalt. This morning we went and found all these goodies for just a few dollars.

Two hand made baskets, hard boiled egg slicer, screw nut cracker, real silver plate, tea party set that comes in it's own wicker suit case, unusual wooden things - whisk, hollow spoon, rake, spaghetti server, screw top glass jars - maybe salt and pepper shakers?, and a cowgirl hat for Poppie. Among the great finds we saw but didn't get, there was lots of funky vintage clothes and designer leather pants. Why are designer clothes always size 6?

this green pumpkin is the one from our garden. We harvested it early because jack frost has been coming around.

the golden leaf half marathon

All I can say is, YELLOW. well, that's not all I can say, and I will say a lot more, but I'll start with yellow. Parts of the trail were heavily blanketed with fallen aspen leaves, they were the cheeriest shade of bright yellow. The morning sun glowed through the leaves still on the trees, the scrub oaks were a deep orangy gold, and the sky was deep bright blue. A perfect day.

The race started at the bottom of Snowmass mountain, and the first mile was straight up the ski run. Boring, I walked. There were a bunch of insane people who ran up. There were 650 people entered. That's a lot! Especially once we got on the single track. I was waiting to hear a moo. The first maybe 2 or 3 miles of single track were so crowded. If somebody stopped to walk, we all had to stop. It was pretty annoying. I'm used to trail running with a few friends, and that has a whole other sense of peace and solitude. Mile 4 came quickly. Probably because I was so focused on not giving the runner in front of me a flat tire, or get one from the person behind me.

Somewhere around mile 5 things started to space out a bit. My friends Kristi and Kristina who I was running with stayed together, and that helped to have friends to talk to. It was during mile 6 that we ran through a big open meadow. I wished I had my camera. Grasshoppers were flying all over the place, everything was... well, yellow, and the air smelled like sweet grass and clouds. I was more than half done, and feeling pretty good.

I think I spaced out a bit then. The next thing I knew was we were all bunched up again in the herd, and pounding down steep switchbacks. Every once in a while you'd hear "oof", "shit", "wooow" or "aaagh". (those are the sounds a runner makes when they wipe out.) By then, mile 9 or 10, my knee was hurting, and my feet felt blistery, and I wasn't quite so peppy.

Then we came out of the woods and ran a short distance on the road. ouch. Luckily our friend Jim from work was there with big smiles and Gatorade. That helped. Than we crossed one of the most scenic foot bridges in Colorado, and were back on the dirt. We puttered through the open space outside town and eventually came to the 12 mile marker. One more mile to go. I could run one mile, right?

That last mile went quick, and before I knew it we were running down the sidewalk in town. That was kinda fun because there were people there cheering us on. When I got to the finish line, Gene, Poppie and Cody were there yahooing me through. I almost cried, but didn't.

Now I'm home, cleaned up and in my comfiest clothes, and really hoping both kids take good naps. Phew... that was a big accomplishment for me. I feel tired, and glad I survived

getting ready for the race

On Saturday I'm running in the Golden Leaf half marathon. I'm pretty excited, and starting to get a little nervous. If you want to read the course description (very interesting) google "golden leaf half marathon" you can read all about it. I just re-read it for the third time, and it still is interesting to me. but then again, I'll be living it in 2 days. Gene said he'll meet me at the finish line with the kids and a big cold drink. I'll let you know how it goes!

Like a good western gal, Poppie can nurse her baby (cowie) while riding her horse!

I made a kite but there just wasn't enough wind in the backyard.
So we hiked up the bluff across the street to see if we could fly our kite up there.

This is the view from up on the bluff. Do you see the dirt trough looking thing running down the mountain? That's the newly expanded super pipe at Buttermilk mountain (half pipe for skiing and snowboarding). I think it's the biggest in the state, and maybe in the country. The green apartments in the foreground that you can't really see because of the trees are ours.
And all the hiking around put little guy to sleep.

our new friend

Meet Scarecrow. We made her this morning to protect the one small pumpkin growing in the garden. Poppie and Scarecrow were instant friends. We took her to the grocery store (in her headless state) and she sat at the table with us while we ate lunch.
Here are some pictures of our garden. The plot next to ours is wicked mint... (if you're from Massachusetts you'll get that joke) Oh, and Cody is happy as can be to sit in the garden and eat dirt.

i want my daughters clothes

Getting Poppie dressed is one of my favorite times of day. I love opening the drawer and seeing it stuffed with bright colors and wonderful textures to put together and layer. All of her clothes are cute. I'd wear any of them.

peaches

The Palasade peaches are here. They are so juicy that we have to eat them outside, and every night is a bath night durring peach season. I can't buy enough. Two days ago I bought 8 peaches, and today they are gone. I hope this is a memory Poppie and Cody will keep.

our big boy is 1

Cody is now one year old. It's fun to think, "one year ago we didn't have Cody". It doesn't feel like we've always had him, but I can't imagine life without him. His good nature and easy smile is just what our family needs! Thank goodness for Cody!

I made a sugar free cake. I was sceptical, but it turned out really good. Good enough to pass along the recipe:

Oat Cake:

1 C water

1/2 C butter

3/4 C honey

2 C oat flour (oatmeal in the blender until floury)

1/2 C flour

1t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 1/2 t cinnamon

2 eggs

1/2 C yogurt (I used vanilla flavor yogurt)

1 C chopped fruit (I used peaches)

Combine water, butter and honey in 3-quart sauce pan. Heat to boiling; remove from heat. Stir together dry ingredients and add to heated mixture, mixing well until blended. Add eggs, yogurt and peaches; mix well. Bake in greased 9x13 pan at 375 for 30-40 minutes.

I frosted with cream cheese frosting, and tried to get fancy with a cake decorating kit I found at a garage sale. notice there are no pictures of my handy work.... I still need practice

camping at Lost Lake

Keeping busy on the hour and half drive. Most of the ride was on beautifully scenic dirt road, but it's hard to get a two and half year old excited about looking out the window at more mountains and trees. We even saw a bunch of cows hanging out along (and in) the road.
This is the old L.L. Bean tent I camped in with my family. It still has that sweet smell of canvas, and it's full of fond memories... maybe even a few friendly ghosts. It's huge and weight about 60 pounds. I love the sound of the zipper. It's a real wide heavy duty zipper, that sounds more like sssssssss than today's zippers that say zzzzzzzzzzz.

I had a flash back when Gene and I tried to sneak into the tent after the kids had fallen asleep. I remember so well being on the "other side of the zipper" and hearing mom and dad talking around the fire until all is quite, then sssssssss creep in to bed, trying to be quite, but it's impossible to be quite with a plasticized canvas floor and nylon sleeping bags.
The tent was Cody's little entrapment. Not quite walking, and a speedy crawler, and still eating everything makes for a hectic time in the woods with this baby. But he was thrilled to have the whole tent to himself and play obstacle course with the sleeping bags and therma-rests.
Hop on Pop. One of our favorite books, and now a favorite game.
Sun set on Lost Lake. Do you know how many Lakes are called that? I know of three in Colorado, and I'm sure there are lots more in other states. And the funny thing, only one of the Lost Lakes I know is actually kind of hard to get to. All the others are popular destinations that you can drive to.
Early in the morning... I mean EARLY. Here we are trying to warm up around the fire. I can't imagine what we would do without fleece.
It was obviously too cold for a swim, but we looked for bugs and played around in the sand.

There are only a few things that are truly as good are you remember them, wooden roller coasters, the first warm day of spring, and a perfectly toasted marshmallow. You know, when the outside is all crispy, but not burned and the inside is warm... So good! An easy way to make s'mores is smush your perfectly toasted marshmallow between two Barbara's chocolate chip Animalsnackers. (organic animal crackers) But if you are a s'more purist, then of course it's got to be Hershey bars and Graham crackers.And this was our food masterpiece.

summer?

It's August 16th. It snowed today. Didn't stick, but it still fell from the sky. We were going to go camping today. Oh well, we'll try again tomorrow. I guess we max out on five weeks of summer this year.