6/8/08 Our best buds.. Ryan & Conner..

Before leaving Boulder for the rest of the summer, we spent 3 days with Ryan & Conner.. my kids best friends here. Lots of legos, swimming, hiking, biking, Wii games, hooping and of course hide from Luc and plot against him, the best game.. Reese and Conner met when they were 2 and have been friends since of course coming to Colorado was a much easier sell since they moved here a few years ago, nothing like best friends for years and years.. oh yeah and i am in love with Martha their mom too.. she has great stories of law school, her new internship and being in love.. i really like those stories.. it's so nice that we don't talk just about breast feeding and nursery school anymore.. we've blossomed!

6/6/08 Homeschoolers go hiking..

A spontaneous hiking trip posted on our homeschool loop, we showed up ready for fun, excited to explore a new hike in North Boulder (thanks to Sarah Kate) and got to bring Ryan & Conner (our best buds) who are out of school. We had 15 or so kids aboard for a nice 3 mile hike, it was ideal, mostly shaded, creek crossings, and we found and caught a snake! Well Reese was not up for the whole hike, he made it a little over 2 miles.. good that he made us turn back early as i had to carry Luc on my shoulders most of the way back.. better at the beach than on the trail these boys are.. But I still completely enjoyed myself and plan to come back without them to make it all the way to the waterfall at the top.

6/3/08 It's Summer!!

We headed for the park today and ended up swimming in the lake! Yes, technically there are signs saying no swimming.. but it was hot and we had these inner-tubes in the car.. and well no one seemed to mind, especially my boys.. they had a great time!
They are definitely in their element in bathing suits and bare feet, much preferred to thermals & a snow suit! It is so nice to just to hang out the 3 of us.. mom gets to read a book and they play so nicely with each other, then we made bows with sticks and fishing line.. natures treasures!

5/30/08 Boulder Creek Festival

A 3 day huge affair.. the best shopping.. great kids games and fun, live music for 3 days, yes a good time had by all! Luc was a total stud on the bungee trampoline and Reese and Martha were big hits at the Henna booth. We ate, we walked, we chilled for a few hours one afternoon at the Tea House, Martha & I.. great girl talk, i cried.. all in all a great day!

Have I mentioned lately what incredible friends I have.. truly.. I feel that this last year has been so healing for me.. and I have been so blessed with loving friends who listen & hold the space for me to really feel the feelings, talk all about what is happening, unravel completely.. all the stories, beliefs and judgments that are no longer serving. Yeah.. lots of unraveling.. lots of crying.. it seems to be what opens the heart..

Recently I've had a few massages and had full on crying sessions on the massage table, very healing, great release, lots of letting go, feels great!

5/22/08 International Towne

Reese had such a great experience with Ameritowne a few months ago, we were very excited to do the next event, this one was much more advanced and we spent almost a month learning and preparing for the day long event where the kids are in charge of running the globe. We studied global economics, trade, tariffs and embargo, natural resources and the lack thereof.. They have 4 regions representing 13 countries and the kids do currency exchange, buying and selling and exploring each countries cultural activities. Reese was in Greece and they were in charge of shipping products to every other country so he was a man of many travels. We learned a lot about geography, population and the vast disparity of wealth and resources.

We studied the material just about every day for a month and it was awesome. Reese was given a special acknowledgment for his awesome customer service and attitude. Luc got to join in the fun and his big brother bought him some great gifts to remember the day.

5/19/08 Miller Farms

Yes! I finally set up a Homeschool field trip and we had a blast, 20 or so of us.. wondering around Miller Farms, a real working farm with lots of fun stuff for kids.. they have awesome tractors the kids can drive and race around a track, a model plane & many giant tractors they can climb on, a pond full of mating frogs (that was fun to watch), a giant dirt mound and a sled to slide down it (that was the big hit, kept them busy for over an hour), .. we got a tour of the farm, they grow vegetables and sell to 25 local farmers markets. We planted flowers, visited the huge greenhouse and watched the kids have a ball for hours.. a perfect field trip.. relaxed, unscheduled, flexible, rollin... and best of all, we shared it with NIcky, Will, Tim, Joey, Miranda, Ali, John & Lora..

5/5/08 Mango & Arugula and Inga & Valentine..

We've made some very special friends here in Boulder.. my girlfriend Ali for one.. a true unschooler who actually cooks complete meals every night (that don't come out of boxes and are not frozen.. truly inspiring) .. who has 2 amazing boys Nicky & Will both born with days of my boys.. their house is just blocks from ours and we spent lots of time at their house shooting baskets, playing legos, shooting marbles, building tracks for cars & trains, buying & selling whatever with the 100 million tickets they had, burning stuff, hula hooping (mostly me), hiking up the hill into Chautauqua Park, digging for worms and climbing on the roof.

Another highlight was playing with their poodle puppies Mango & Arugula the sweetest, cutest, dirtiest, happiest, most alive & lovable dogs ever.. mostly we got to look for them when they wandered the neighborhood on their own.. calling out Mango... Arugula.. where are you????

We also got very attached to the dog who lived right next door to us.. Valentine.. Luc said she was his most favorite dog ever.. he would compare every dog we met to her.. and conclude that yes, he loved Valentine more. She was not used to kids so we decided to socialize her and bring her over to our house for immersion.. she eventually climbed right into bed with us for a big cuddle..

And then there is Inga.. Inga was our friend Zoe's dog who got to live with us for a month or so.. a beautiful boxer with stripes who was the most loving loyal friend you could ever have.. We took Inga everywhere with us.. a member of the family.. she attended every baseball game, AA meeting, hike, park day, you name it.. Reese took her for many walks on his own and it was such a treat for us to have our very own dog for awhile. When we gave up our place and decided to travel for the summer Inga moved on the share her love with another family.. we miss you Inga..