Trip to CO

Chad and I left our kids for an extended weekend to Colorado. What bliss! I try to do this before we add another kid to the family. Probably to remind us we still like each other and hope those memories last through the 2am feedings, postpartum crazy, and general adjustment that comes with a new baby.
It seems as I have more kids I have fewer issues with leaving them. Before Kiwi was born I couldn't bring myself to leave G-man so we brought my parents with us on our vacation to Canada. This Colorado vacation was the second time we've left our kids with my parents in the past 12 months. I could have stayed away longer but I think it may have killed my mom. Especially since my dad wasn't at full capacity due to two injured arms (he fell out of the back of a truck, breaking one and fracturing the other. Crazy man).
We stayed at a Colorado version of Sedona called Estes Park. It's where all the Denverites spend their summer vacation. There are no skiing areas nearby, but it is right next to Rocky Mountain National park. We perused the shops and found many stores that sold the same things that are sold in Sedona (Chad's home town). But we completely and totally lived the tourist role, buying sweatshirts, ice cream, fudge, and a magnet for the fridge. Plus a few trinkets for the kids
Here are a few picture from the trip:


This is right in front of our room. I was shocked there was still so much snow. I'm sure most Arizonans live in blissful ignorance to the torture that is snow in the winter time.













This is the only picture of us together. Sporting our newly purchased Colorado sou-vies up in the Rocky Mountain National Park.












We drove for about 5 hours to the continental divide. There is a road closer to Estes Park that goes that high, but it was still closed for the winter. We actually drove a ways past this point because the highway went through a tunnel under the continental divide. We had to back track to actually drive into the mountains to find this stupid sign. Stupid tourists.








This was a giant statue of naked people dancing in downtown Denver. I found it amusing. I was surprised by how much land there is in the Denver area. I guess I always figured Denver was located amongst the mountains, and not on the plains West of the mountains. It was so agricultural. Not quite what I expected.

We've always thought Denver would be a fun place to end up in the future. I just don't know if I could handle the cold.

G-man's Monkey

We finally got G-man a monkey. Doesn't every child really want a monkey?



This paper-mâché monkey was for a project about the forest, and G-man created a new animal. I for one love the smile. Quite maniacal.

Fun in the Garden

We planted a winter garden this year and have had mixed results. Something is eating our lettuce. We aren't sure if it's lizards or crickets or squirrels. I'm pretty sure the rabbits living in the alley can't jump our five foot fence. I guess if we see an explosion of any of those populations, we know what we fed through the winter.

I think the biggest problem was we planted too late in the season. Or I expected too much from the garden during the cold weather. Or we need to add some fertilizer to the ground. We planted in mid-September and weren't able to harvest anything until February. We had some very wet spells in the fall, so I stopped watering as much. As a result our carrots weren't able to grow very deep into the ground and came out short and squatty. Then we found this carrot last week that is the biggest I've ever seen from our garden. Mr. S ate the whole thing. He loves to eat the carrots from the garden. Our winter carrots have definitely tasted better than the ones we planted in the spring.
We also had some success with broccoli. I think we planted the wrong variety because none of the bunches of broccoli grew very big. It took four or five plants to get enough broccoli to feed our family.

We also planted beets. I think beets are very pretty when you slice them. My parents always had beets in the garden when I was a kid. We've found a great recipe for beet green that some of the kids will eat. We also were able to make some Ukrainian Borscht soup with beets and carrots from our garden. This is my favorite recipe Chad brought home from his mission. Unfortunately the cabbage wasn't ready in time so we had to buy some. Maybe the beets will survive for one more round of soup when the cabbage heads finally finish forming.
As our winter garden is finishing up we have started again on the spring garden. We cleared out another area of the year and hope to rotate our garden between these two areas. We waited to plant until after Valentine's day to avoid any freezes, and then there was a late freeze. Our tomatoes and peppers survived, but their growth is definitely behind what it could have been. Some new things we've tried for this year is garlic, potatoes, and asparagus. I'm really hoping the asparagus roots produce. That is one of my favorite veggies.

Right now Chad is at a feed store doing some research into chickens. He's been studying some building plans for a chicken coop for the last few weeks as well. I keep telling him if he really wants chicken he has to take care of it. If they die from neglect because he's not around, so be it. I'm not taking care of chickens and a baby at the same time. I guess we can't be like normal sane people and get a dog.

What's Going On

I haven't blogged in a while. Not that we never do anything interesting. I think I've become dependent on pictures to remind me what to blog about. Since we never take our camera anywhere...I'm completely at a loss to remember what we've done lately.

Lets see...

There was the book fair full of tons of people and too many events that overwhelmed everyone so we left. Apparently we missed a circus act that we really cool. Plus we skipped the airshow the next weekend because I just wasn't up to another day of way too many people crowded into one space. Maybe next year.

We ate green stuff for St. Patty's day. I don't think anyone's poop turned green. Although their faces may have turned a little green when they saw the slime colored eggs they got for breakfast. We didn't get around to a spirited reading of "Green Eggs and Ham" that day. I'll have to make sure we do it next year. Although I think I may be leaning towards green waffles for next year. Those looked good!

We went to an awesome park with a merry go round type piece of playground equipment. You know, the type they used to have in parks that would spin you around until you flew off or lost your lunch. Or both. We'll definitely be going back.

We had the ultrasound for baby #4. I sent the picture of the important "parts" to my sister in Utah (without looking). She'll be sending me a package full of stuff that I'll be opening on mother's day. I'm thinking it's a boy based on comments made by the ultrasound tech. Chad's betting on a girl. I think he just likes to be contrary. It's hard for me to talk to Ruth right now knowing that she knows and I don't know. Ya know?

And finally, we've been gardening. I have pictures. I'll have to do a separate post for that one. Since pictures and blogging seem to go hand in hand in my house. Actually, I have to post just one. Here's a picture of the tiling we did at my parent's house. I have to show it off a little bit because it was a lot of work. And I think it turned out pretty nice.

Birthday Girl Drama

A Kiwi birthday would not be complete without a little drama. I have a friend with an eight year old who is also quite the little over-reactor. So I guess I have to learn to deal with it instead of getting annoyed by it. I love my little five year old, drama and all.

On a side not we went to a very fun play area in Chandler to celebrate her birthday called Makutu's island. Perfect for her age. Chad's 3 year old nephew wasn't quite up to it, but Kiwi had a blast. It's kind of like a overgrown McDonald's play land made to look like a tree. We'll definitely have to go back again some time.

This was all in between tiling my parent's back splash in their kitchen. We had quite the busy weekend. Now I think we may have to tile the back splash in our own kitchen. Right Chad....Chad?

News of the G

A few stories and happening in the life of our G-man.

We introduced sport that seems to fit our son's intense desire to perfectly follow instructions. His intense nature seems to fit quite well with martial arts.
Other things didn't seem to quite fit or hold his interest. He lost interest in soccer once he started getting kicked in the shins. We signed him up for a baseball class that actually made him worse at baseball than he was before. He was so intent on following the coaches exact explanation of proper throwing form he could no longer actually throw a ball. Or hit a ball. And since G seriously dislikes being bad at things, we haven't pursued it.
At this point we've only tried Parks and Rec classes, but this is the first class he's taken that he's actually cared to repeat. And this sport doesn't require Saturday games (at least at this point).





We bought a desk for the G to do his homework on. It seems he works much better when there are no siblings pestering him or mom critiquing him while he works. He loves that he has a computer in his room too. We may have him guest blog this summer to build up those typing skills.










The boys working together to get the job done. This is probably the first time I decided to spend more money on the desk I liked the most instead of the cheapest one I could find. I think the red is fun.









We had our first Science Project. I learned a lot. I don't know how much he learned. I let him choose his topic, which involved watering bean seeds with distilled water or tap water. I am a firm believer in letting a child do their own homework. He was in charge of watering, measuring, and recording his findings.
Unfortunately when we reviewed the data at the end I found multiple days where his plants had actually shrunk between measurements. He had no idea what to do with the data he had collected. I felt like I got way more involved than I wanted to.
In the end we were able to put it together in a way that he understood, instead of the way I thought it should be. It was really hard to let his first grade brain come to it's own conclusions when my college educated brain wants to tell him everything I know so he gets the answer exactly right! I wish he had picked the M&M counting experiment. At least he would have known what he was doing.

Out on the Town, Part S

For Christmas we gave our kids the gift of time and a special outing. Each was promised a date with mom and dad, all on their own. I remember doing this once when I was little. I was the 3rd of five, and one on one time with my parents was really hard to come by. Especially both of them. It obviously meant a lot to me because it's something my parents did for me that I've always wanted to do for my own kids.

Mr. S was up first, and he will probably be the cheapest date by far. We rode a little train around the park, went to the zoo, fed the giraffes, and had a treat on the way home. He fell asleep as we drove home, so obviously he had a great time. Here are a few pics.