Marie Audrey

Family Fall Fest

2011-10-29T22:41:00.000-07:00

I first heard about the YMCA of the Rockies – Estes Park a few years back from my fantastic fellow nurse and friend Sharon. It has been on my radar since, and we FINALLY went last weekend!

We booked a spot at the Family Fall Fest one month prior, and within a few days it had sold out. Because it’s AWESOME! It was very fun and actually relaxing! (“What – did you say relaxing? With a preschooler and an infant?!”) Yes, relaxing! Meals and activities were included, so all we had to do was bring ourselves and choose what we wanted to do.

We checked in Friday afternoon amongst a swarming sea of energetic college students who were there for a Navigator conference. Brought us back, Graham and I, to our ol’ college days. It was good to be around all that energy (minus all the honking of horns as kids pulled up and the fire alarm that was set off in our lodge. *smile*) It just so happened that our friends the Hannemans were there for the conference, and Drew and Stacy Frazer, so we got to meet up with them in the cafeteria at mealtimes. Small world!

At three, Audrey is in the “I make my own choices” stage so it was fun to let her choose between different activity options. It also reduced that perpetual, inevitable whining. (Not eliminated mind you, but reduced.) There were multiple activities available during all waking hours. The options included a campfire with s’mores, ghost stories in the library, a scavenger hunt, blowing
bubbles, painting/carving pumpkins, sugar cookie decorating, fingernail painting, fall crafts, square dancing, an enchanted forest (too scary for Audrey), archery, bubble blowing, horse drawn hayrack rides (the only activity that cost extra) and a roller skating party, to name a few.

Mealtime was buffet style in the cafeteria and all the guests ate at the same place. The food was ok (you know, it’s like being at camp) but there were vegan and gluten free options available, which was impressive. (BTW, why is it that in a buffet line I load my plate with 20 times my normal amount – and eat it all?! Multiply that times five meals and we’ve got a situation on our hands ladies…) Interestingly, as I walked toward my table on the last day, kids chasing kids around tables of college guys, I saw a mom give her kid a bowl in which to puke. He did. Must’ve had a bug, because the food wasn’t THAT bad, trust me.

There were elk that made their way into the lawns around the camp buildings every evening; beautiful, graceful creatures. Apparently it’s the largest herd in the area, or this side of the Rockies or something. They ate grass, lounged around and did their elk call thing. All while completely ignoring us curious humans, snapping pics and sneaking ever closer. It was fun to see.

Audrey LOVED roller skating. She wore her little princess outfit (all the kids were dressed up) and when she first got into the rink, she insisted that I take her right back out. Then dad joined in and we each held a hand, which changed everything. Around and around she skated until the final song!

We went square dancing on the last night. What fun! You KNOW I was right up out of my seat, holding Neve and do-si-do-ing with the best of ‘em. Neve was in my arms facing out and just staring at the scene as she bounced to the music, but she wasn’t crying so it worked. Very cute. :o) Graham and Audrey took a little coaxing but they finally got out there and cut a little rug (after they finished their caramel apples). It was a fun mixture of kids and adults, and I could have kept going all night!

Sunday morning we checked out and went to a church service at a chapel on site. No nursery, no Sunday school (weird, huh?) just a crowd of retired folks listening to the minister tell anecdotes on life. Neve started babbling loudly halfway through, and I could feel eyes boring into me (Graham’s included). SO she and I hung out in the ladies’ room for a while until she finished saying whatever she was saying. Afterwards though, everyone oooh-ed and aaah-ed over our kids. I’d go back for that!

So, YMCA of the Rockies Family Fall Fest. We will be there next year, hopefully bringing along more friends. It was a blast for all of us!

Audrey said...

2011-10-16T16:09:00.000-07:00

"Wow mom, look how big you're getting!" (As I viewed my 5 month post partum self in a mirror)

Treasure Hunt

2011-10-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

Audrey’s 3rd birthday party was by far her BEST party yet. Searching for ideas for her big day, I came across the blog “From the Blue Shed”, in which blogger Robin Gage sung praises of a recent treasure hunt party for her little girl. She had me at hello!
Initially I thought “Ok, keep the cake/food/decorations low key, no presents. Replace all the birthday fluff with a simple treasure hunt in the park, ta DA! Easy for me, fun for everyone!” Then I started planning and shopping and it got complicated, fast. Lots of brain cells burned on this one, folks! I quickly lost track of how many trips to Hobby Lobby, Target and Michaels I made until I felt good about what was in each kid’s treasure chest. All that AFTER I had researched, bought, reconsidered and returned a piñata, which was originally the final ‘treasure’. Bless little Audrey and Neve; they were so patient with all our trips to the store. Surprisingly Audrey didn’t pay much attention to what I was purchasing and was just as excited as the other kids when she got her treasure on the big day.

As I continued to plan, I started to think that the activity promoted materialism too much, so Graham and I decided to incorporate a bible verse about treasure. At the start of the hunt, we briefly mentioned that Jesus talked about ‘treasure in heaven’ and what that means for kids… sharing, being kind, obeying parents, etc. stores up treasure in heaven. In each kid’s treasure chest was the verse Mt 6:20. Not sure if the message stuck (those 11 kids were sooo ready to go!) But maybe it did.

To start, each child got a tote bag, a tool for digging and copies of a hand drawn map of the park that revealed where the first clue was hidden.

At each location, a rolled up paper 'clue' was near or attached to the object. It was set it up so that everyone heard the clue in a group before rushing off to the next location so the smaller kids didn’t fall behind. I found smooth round rocks in our back yard (we have a plethora of rocks to choose from!) and painted designs on them. These were buried in the sand for clue #1.

Little Neve was content with my friend Shawna for most of the hunt, which meant I could participate!

Graham and I (laaaate one night) test-popped a glitter filled balloon with a clue inside. Rrrouch! Warp speed glitter stinging eyes and face? I’ll pass. We ended up filling 11 balloons with 11 pieces of paper, one of which was clue 2. Much better. Clue 3 was rubber banded to a pine cone under a pine tree. I bought packs of splash bomb balls for clue 4 and scattered them in the grass around a big beach ball. All the kids ran excitedly from one location to the next, it was so cute!

The adults followed behind...

For the final clue, pink feathers were placed on and around a tree at the far side of the park. (Someone accused me of kidnapping a rare bird from the Denver zoo, a-la a recent news story. Nope, Hobby Lobby.) Audrey ran with dad - precious!

Finally, the BIG surprise! In the volleyball court, name tags attached to string were sticking out of the sand everywhere… and buried beneath were individual treasure chests filled with all sorts of fun stuff! The kids LOVED it! So fun!

Note to self: I couldn’t have pulled this off if every single detail wasn’t in place ahead of time. Maybe YOU could, but if I feel ill-prepared and guests start showing up, I’m a deer in the headlights man! But thankfully this time the details were all in place and it ended up being a really fun party – for kids, adults, and the hostess too! I most highly recommend this type of party for kids ages 3 – 10 and maybe even beyond (city-wide scavengers hunt anyone?) Good times, great memories. Happy 3rd birthday, Audrey!

Dog Blog

2011-02-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

Don’t get me wrong, I love our dog Maya. It was I who found her online six years ago at a shelter in south-central Iowa, and knew she would be ours. It was I who convinced a skeptical husband that adopting her would be emotionally healthy for our family and foster an invaluable sense of responsibility, preparing us for the arduous task of raising children when the time came. I took it upon myself to convey to him a joyful new life together with our well trained, beautiful canine specimen that would enrich our lives and turn our house into a home. This made sense to Graham, and he conceded.
God bless him for never complaining about and rarely pointing out that it is he who remembers to feed her each day and reminds me to buy dog food. Graham is the one who knows when she is due to go to the vet, and Graham prompts her grooming appointments. He also takes 15 minutes every day after work to play with her in the park.
Maya adores him for it, and herein lays my issue. Once two years ago, I awoke to her staring at me with her big brown Michael Jackson eyes from the corner of the room. Graham had left for work and it was still pretty dark out, so I had to glance twice before knowing for sure that she was, in fact, staring me down . So I stared back. I didn’t get her to break her stare for a long time, and to this day I am confused as to why she did it. It sort of scared me, man. How long had she been looking at me, and with what motive?
Sometimes when I am on my way home from work in the morning I try to guess whether she will be sprawled on the futon or curled into a cozy ball on MY pillow, next to MY husband. When the latter is the case, I will quickly shoo her out of my territory. She needs to go outside and I need to sleep, plus she knows it is against the rules to be on my pillow – gross. And every time she slowly (deliberately, mind you) rises to get off the bed, she grunts and gives me a scowl as if to say, ‘I don’t like you right now, and I’ll do this again next time.’

And yet, despite our routine tiffs, we love each other. Although she is woman like me, she is first a dog who quickly forgives and forgets. One affectionate word, one pat on the back, or one dog biscuit later she’s happily wagging her tail and smiling at me. Do I take issue with her behavior at times? Of course. Do I still wonder why she stared me down that morning? Definitely. Does there even exist a little competition for Graham’s loyalty? Indeed. But there IS a place for her in my heart, and in our home. In the big picture, I’m glad we have our lil’ gal.

New house!

2010-03-25T02:57:00.000-07:00

New to us, that is. Over the weekend we learned that the seller of our future home accepted our offer, and we close on April 23rd! Our realtor came by with the counter offer and surprisingly found our mood to be rather somber. "Why?" we later asked ourselves. Purchasing a house is a stressful experience, but ours (hereafter referred to as Juniper) needs work. Lots of work. Work we labeled 'fun' in pre-contracted conversations. We used phrases like "A ton of potential" and "Make it our own", ideas that actually increased our desire to own it. And there we sat, minutes after signing the offer, surrendering to feelings of impending doom as we imagined our sweaty selves working nonstop, arguing and running our bank account dry in the pursuit of our HGTV dream castle. Buyer's remorse? Probably. Attempting to quell my get-after-it-until-I-drop-dead excitement, a line in my journal reads, "My house is not my god." Will I live by those words in the coming months? Stay tuned.

She's a scooter!

2009-09-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

At nearly one year of age, you may be wondering if Audrey walks, pulls herself up on things or even crawls. And the answer is no, no and nope! We'd certainly love it if she did these things, but she's a scooter, and for now it suits her just fine. Why walk or crawl when you can scoot around the house like THIS?

Lil ham

2009-04-28T22:39:00.000-07:00

Same day, Tuesday, April 28th. More of the little ham (the safe kind!)

Family time (this ends badly - for mom!)

2009-04-28T22:26:00.000-07:00

Our favorite time of day is when Graham gets home and we get to hang out as a family for a few hours (before Audrey gets cranked and needs to sleep, which is usually by 7:30). Dad was feeling a little adventurous - I promise he doesn't toss his little girl in the air every day! She turns 7 months old on Sunday. What a fun age!

Morning babbling

2009-03-23T09:22:00.002-07:00

Audrey is in her best mood in the morning when she's rested and full. I shot this clip this am after dad left for work. She gets lots of attention from mom and dad first thing in the morning! This contented babbling is a welcome respite from her recent evening crankiness. We pray that she's just teething.

Audrey's hat

2009-03-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

March 19th was a beautiful day in Broomfield! So nice in fact that Audrey got to hang outside in the sunshine wearing next-to-nothing (besides her great big hat!) We live next to a park with soccer fields and a baseball diamond and it's fun to step outside and hear kids laughing and shouting nearby. Audrey loves being outside and I had to share her babbling with you! :o)

Pink Roses

2009-02-24T09:59:00.000-08:00

We discovered Audrey Ellen's love of pink roses at 4 1/2 months!

Jumperoo footage

2009-01-28T16:22:00.000-08:00

Audrey chatting with mom

2008-12-24T07:21:00.000-08:00

Audrey is a morning person! (no sound, sorry)

2008-11-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

Audrey’s first update

2008-10-31T10:27:00.001-07:00

Audrey's Update

October 31, 2008

Hello and welcome to the first edition of 'Audrey's Update', a monthly publication covering newsworthy events in my first year! Hope you enjoy it!

I had a lot of new experiences this month, but the big event was…drum roll please… being born! I was introduced to the world exactly four weeks ago, October 3, 2008. It was an amazing experience; it brought tears to my eyes. To moms and dads too, although I think moms were tears of pain, and dad was thinking about the college fund he'd be starting. Regardless, I was born into a family full of love and so far everyone's having fun but Maya! I'm pretty sure she'll come around though. She loves me; she just doesn't know it yet.

Since birth, there have been many exciting things happening. Too many to count - so I'll just list the big ones here:

I learned to nurse (and I'm REALLY GOOD at it)

My first sponge bath and my first tub bath

Family visitors! Two grandmas, a grandpa, two aunts, and my cousin Ryan

Trips to Flatirons mall (You HAVE to come – plenty of baby stores!)

Friday lunches with dad in Boulder's Scott Carpenter Park

Walks around our neighborhood with mom and Maya

My first hike – Chautauqua Park (Mom and dad heard sounds that could have been a baby bear cub. Since dad was carrying me, he sent mom ahead to check it out – turned out to be a bunch of kids playing hide and seek.)

I lost my umbilical cord stump

My first Halloween party – Dad went as a 'chick magnet' and mom and I were chicks

Spitting up – every so often, I spit up VOLUMES of milk, and it's usually right after I eat. Just making sure the parents get good at cleaning couches, jackets, car seats, futon covers, blankets, sheets, rugs…

I met my daycare provider Wendy, and fell asleep in her arms right away. I think we'll get along great!

Tummy time – when mom lays me on my tummy, I can lift my head up a little!

Tracking - I can follow objects with my eyes and can even focus on faces – sort of.

My first 'well baby' visit. I was GREAT for the nurse, and TOTALLY CRANKY for the pediatrician. Mom asked about spitting up and he wasn't concerned at all because I'm gaining weight. I also had my heel pricked during that visit. Mom was holding me and felt really bad when I cried. As she very well should have.

Cloth diapers – I use these during the day, and we do disposables at night. We figure, better to be semi-green than not green at all, right?

My first trip to the library – I got a welcome baby packet with a free book and a t shirt! AND mom's going to take me to story time soon (stay tuned next month and I'll tell you all about it!)

Sleeping unswaddled! This doesn't happen very often, but when it does my FAV thing is to cover my face with my hands. Yes, I can still breathe.

New this week: Pacifier AND bottle – I dig 'em!

Also new this week: No more alarms! I cry really loud at night when I'm hungry so mom doesn't need to set her alarm to feed me!

Well that concludes my first update. Glad you could read about my fun experiences. For those of you I've met, I miss ya! For those of you I haven't met, I hope to meet you soon!

Mom, dad and I send you our love,

-Audrey Ellen

New to blogging!

2008-10-31T10:09:00.001-07:00

Ok, here it goes... I am going to try out this blogging thing! Living in Colorado and being on maternity leave presents the perfect opportunity to start blogging because a) I have time and b) I need to keep my family and friends updated on our life out here! So here it goes!