Camping fiasco

I started this post a while ago but never got around finishing it. Since then we've had a second camping adventure worth remembering so this post is a mix of both:

Friday the 13th (July 2012):

We've been planning to take a camping trip for a little while now. We bought an awesome tent last year, never used it. This week-end we decided we were going NO MATTER WHAT. 

Since it was a last minute decision we didn't have reservations in a campground and if you know Colorado, you know you can't get a reservation past January (the campgrounds are booked as soon as they become available). I had heard of a nice trail where backpack camping was authorized fairly close to Boulder so we decided we were going there. That was, until an hour before leaving Russell called the rangers and discovered the fire ban was still on in undesignated campgrounds, so we wouldn't be able to have a campfire (1st sign of bad karma). But we had decided nothing would stop us and since it was impossible to call any campground to reserve a spot (where campfires would be allowed), we loaded the car and decided to try a few campgrounds on the road. 

As we were getting things ready and pulling stuff out of our storage unit, I twisted my back so badly I ran out of air and had to lay down for 5min before I could move again (2nd sign of bad karma). By then I could barely breath without feeling needles in my back, but we COULD NOT cancel (I should say, Russell was not as stubborn as I was, but I told him I'd be ok).

Russell finished loading the car while I struggled to get the kids ready with a twisted back. At last we were on the road, marveling at the beauty of the scenery along the road. This was going to be a great trip! And it was, until William puked up his entire lunch on himself and his carseat 2 minutes before arriving at the 1st campground. (3rd sign of bad karma).

We cleaned up, used the 2nd set of clean clothes we had for William and continued to the campground. Of course the first campground was full, and so was the 2nd (bad karma again, or just bad planning) Now we had to choose between driving 30min to check if there were spots in another campground or, go back 10min on the same road to the trail where we had first decided to go backpack camping. It meant giving up on the campfire, which was a tough decision but we also knew we'd for sure find a place to camp there. So that's what we did.

Our friends who recommended the place were absolutely right about it. It was a beautiful trail and we found a perfect spot 5min from the beginning of the trail, right next to the creek. We set up, let the kids play in the creek a little and left for dinner (we'd brought hotdogs for dinner but now we didn't have a campfire so we had to change plans). We went to the nearest little town where we found some sort of pub (the only "restaurant" in town). Dinner was crappy and overpriced but nothing could diminish the excitement that we were actually doing it! CAMPING Yay!

 The bridge that leads to the trail.

 our campsite: you can't really see it but there were logs to sit on and a spot for the campfire (we were not allowed to light sadly), a small clearing for the tent and the creek just a few feet away.

plenty of rocks to throw...

And that's when the battery of my camera died (Karma?)

After dinner we went back to our campsite just before dark and prepared for the night. We played shadows on the tent and let Josh and William play with their flashlights. We were pumped up about the great campsite we'd found, the royal tent, the boys' enthusiasm and the air mattress we were going to sleep on. The boys fell asleep quickly and so did we. 

crappy phone pictures...

  

Now we could stop here and it would have been a decent experience if you omit the twisted back, the fire ban, the wasted time finding a camping spot, the puke, the crappy food... but no that wasn't even half as bad as what happened the rest of the night. At about 11pm, after we'd been sleeping for about an hour, we heard two kids run to our tent in the dark and unzip our front opening while yelling "we need help, we need help! Our Daddy's drunk!"
It was pitch dark and those poor kids were somewhere around 8-9 years old. Their campsite was about 100-200 yards away, so we'd not talked to them or seen them before. Russell went with them and spent the night with them (there were actually 5 kids there!) after their Dad had passed out and I "slept" by myself with Josh and William freaking out for those poor children and unable to call the authorities because we had no phone service anywhere close by.
In the morning the whole group walked near our tent and the children waved at us while their Dad purposely ignored us.

And that was our first experience camping as a family!

On the bright side the kids slept really well and had a ton of fun playing in the creek and hiking the next morning.

2nd camping fiasco:

Every year for our July event we do a camp out for the Family Housing. We set out our tents in the field near our apartment and have a fun night eating potluck food from all over the planet, smores and singing songs. The last 2 years I worked here, we didn't have a tent (or had a one week old baby!) so we didn't sleep outside. This year I felt it was my turn to sleep out and I signed up for the shift.

The boys were excited:

Josh had a blast playing soccer with his friend Sammy and a French boy who was here for the summer:

William flirting with Clare (our cute neighbor):

The giant bubble game:

The smores (Don and Sam):

With my neighbor and friends Deanna and Miriam:

Kelly and Emily singing camp songs accompanied by Russ:

Quiet time in the tent:

It was awesome right? Well the night not so much. I woke up around 2am to the sound of a deluge pounding on our tent: the grounds crew had forgotten to cancel the sprinkling cycle for the night and we were right near one of the sprinklers. I got out and people were running around moving their tents and emptying gallons of water from inside their tents. One family (the French family visiting) had set their tent right on top of one of the sprinklers. They were completely soaked. I called emergency maintenance and they sent our grounds guy to turn off the water (30 or 45 min later though!)
I couldn't sleep for at least an hour after that, wondering if people had gone home or if they were still outside, if they'd be super mad in the morning... I was pissed off and exhausted. Turns out when I woke up the next day, most of the campers were still here and seemed to have barely been bothered by the incident. Russell and I however, did not appreciate this second night of camping tragedy.

Only good thing about this is now we know our tent is fully waterproof.

Here are the kids having breakfast in the morning. I think most of them slept through the deluge (except William who woke up screaming but went back to sleep rather easily).

Phew! Let's hope the curse is lifted and we can enjoy some normal camping in the future. Or is there such a thing as "normal camping"?

Children's Festival (way overdue)

How cool is it that part of my job involves planning and working awesome events for residents?

My favorite event every year is the children's festival we organize in June. This year is my 3rd year as a resident manager but it seems to me it is the first year both of my boys were actually old enough to appreciate and participate in the event. I was in charge of the cool off station this year, which wasn't too intense (except for the little drama when a little boy stepped on a bee) but boy was I hot! 

Josh had a ton of fun at every stations, but especially the water station and the bounce house.

This smile makes me melt (and those eyes!)

William had been sick the week before. The worst stomach bug ever, poor guy. He was still a little out of it and wasn't able to fully appreciate the event but as much as I hate seeing him sick, it was pretty convenient that he would only be in Russell's arms rather than running around and getting into trouble like he usually is.

The festival was right in the middle of the Euro 2012 and France was playing Spain I think that day. So Russ got William a nice French Flag face painting.

And Josh chose a dinosaur (and played his role with all his heart).

Admiring the police equipment:

The bounce house with Marion and Jackie (and I think you can see Don and Sam in the background)

Enjoying a popsicle while cuddling with Mommy.

Enjoying the entertainment (Manziva Mana I think - a marimba group)

Such a good time spent among friends and neighbors!

Summer randoms

I haven't posted in a long time but I have a bunch of cool pictures and facts I want to keep a record of so this post will be a little scattered.

First and foremost, I give you my pride, my very own garden, my deliciousness and abundance of veggie that I'm really proud to say I started all from seeds! I did not expect such an abundant crop after last year's failure. But it seems my efforts were rewarded this year. I planted tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, swiss chard, lettuce, broccoli, basil and green beans and everything except for the broccoli thrived beyond measure. We also had some strawberry plants left from the previous gardener and they did great.

Between our garden and the veggies we've been getting weekly from the farm (Andrew's farm a CSA we signed up for with our friends the Conkeys), we have been eating healthier than ever.
Stuffed flying saucer squash, caramelized turnip and apple, green beans and cherry tomato salad, roasted eggplant, every recipe of zucchini you could imagine (seriously- brownie-d, cookie-d, bread-d, lasagna-d, fried, grilled zucchini), mountains of tabouleh, salsa, gazpacho, homemade spaghetti sauce. The only low point is I've been spending hours everyday cleaning and preparing veggies in the kitchen, and I can clap my hands in the kitchen and kill 10 fruit flies at once (not really... but they're driving me nuts).

While I was cleaning and cooking veggies the boys were busy playing with their favorite toys (legos and duplos). I love to help them create their master pieces following their precise instructions. Josh always has the greatest ideas. It usually revolves around the story of the 3 little pigs. On one particular day, we built 3 different houses (a house made of straw-with wooden blocks, a house of sticks-with William's duplos and a house of bricks-with his legos). Josh then added a fence around the house, a garden, outdoor furniture and vegetation, ducks and a pond, and my favorite part: stairs leading to the chimney. He then played the 3 little pigs story and added a lego fire truck to put out the fire at the end of the story so the big bad wolf wouldn't be too hurt (William loved to participate in destroying the houses after the big bad wolf's blowing). I loved all the details.

We had playdates and dinners and lots of outdoor play too. Sadly we had to say goodbye to 2 more family friends this month and we already feel the emptiness of their absence. About a week before our friends the Neyenhuis left we invited their children for an afternoon and I had a lot of fun watching them interact with each other. Lately whenever we have little girls come over to play, Josh's favorite activity is to play Mommy and Daddy and pretend to sleep. Go figure. William tags along of course, and I'm pretty pleased when he shows tenderness rather than his usual growling/teasing.



Our friends the Petersen's moved last Friday too and we miss them already. They lived right across from our apartment and we literally couldn't spend a day without seeing them. Josh and Brayden were the most dynamic duo of 3 year olds. They both have very strong personalities and managed to take turns leading each other in some energetic adventure (most of the time).
A few weeks before they moved we had a cheese sampling dinner. It was amazing! Jesse and Deanna brought 2 different types of goat cheeses (one hard and one soft) from the farmers market along with some fresh bread and tapenade, and we bought a Petit Basque, Cambozola (tastes just like Bresse Bleu in my opinion) , Gruyere and a baguette. Accompanied with a strawberry, bleu cheese and almond salad, it was the best dinner ever. Deanna is a chocolate connoisseur and she shared some of her delicious Askinosie chocolate for dinner. I thought I was a chocolate snob but boy was I wrong! Deanna has me beat hands down. I'll think about her every time I eat some good dark chocolate.

A couple of weeks ago we signed Joshua up for his first race, The Pearl Street Mile (actually 1/2 mile for kids). Our friends Emily and Sam (Josh's best buddy) were supposed to run with us but they both got sick a few days before the race. Josh was so excited about it we decided to go ahead and do it anyways, even though we pretty much suck as runners. Growing up in Boulder he has seen several races, and is totally into the "racing" gig.
I can not really explain what happened but it turned out to be a complete fiasco.
Joshua's enthusiasm vanished as soon as we hit Pearl Street. He'd been talking our heads off about how he was going to run so fast, nobody would be faster than him and he was going to win the race, but before even reaching the start line he started tantruming and throwing a fit for everything we asked (didn't want to put his race shirt on, didn't want to walk, didn't want to put the timing device on his shoe...) He brightened up when he saw his favorite mascot, Chip, preparing to race, so we followed Chip with enthusiasm and tried to find him to give him a high five. We didn't realize the kids race was starting right after the mascot race so we didn't hurry and all of a sudden we were 10-20 feet behind everybody and I hear "Ready, set...." I try to hurry Josh to the start line but it was too late, the crowd had taken off in seconds and Josh and I were running 20 feet behind. He was so hurt and frustrated he started crying and crying and refused to run to catch up. He was a complete mess of mixed feelings and disappointment. It was pretty sad.

 Josh before the race

                                            

 Still before the race

                                   

Still pre-race grumpiness...

                                   

 and Josh just after the take off. He insisted he didn't want to run to catch up so I was taking him to the side but that triggered even more emotion.

I didn't want Josh to leave with such a feeling of failure so we stayed a little bit to see the kids finish the race and gladly the girls at the finish line were super nice and gave Josh a banner and an ice cream.

                                    

                                    

 kinda happy post-race Josh

Since then, he's talked about it a lot and insists on wearing his tee-shirt. He doesn't seem traumatized but we'll see how he does if we ever sign him up for a race.

And lastly, Joshua started pre-school a week ago. It is his first official year of pre-school since his birthday is in December and they wouldn't let him start last year. But with our little preschool co-op and his 2 mornings at the Children Center he's already done pretty much an entire year of preschool. He goes to Creekside this year, which is a preschool combined with an elementary school so it's much bigger than what he was used to, but he's in love with it. His teacher Miss Stacey is very nice and competent. He didn't have any trouble saying good bye and asks to go every day (he goes almost 3hrs a day Tuesday through Friday). William would want to stay too, but he won't be able to start until next year. He's gone 5 times already and has told me a lot of stories about Fire trucks, Monkeys, astronauts and dancing. 

William's birthday

Our baby turned 2 on July 16. It sounds a little surreal and we shouldn't call him our baby anymore, but it feels like it was just yesterday I was holding this little peanut in my arms all fragile and squishy.

Too say that he is not fragile anymore would be a huge understatement. He is skinny as a bean but solid like a rock. He is definitely a fun kid to raise with all his idiosyncrasies (thumb sucking-hair puller, bounce rather than walk-er, throwing machine, king of mischief).

Pretty much everything we did to celebrate his birthday was decided on a whim, but it all turned out great. 

A few days before William's birthday we took Josh to the Dollar Store and let him choose a present for his brother. The following days he could barely wait to give William his present. It was so cute to see how anxious he was! At last the morning of William's birthday arrived and we let Joshua offer his present (a set of cars of course).

Then we went and picked up Grandma's present at the store. It was just too good to be true for this little guy. I could see his excitement build up as I assembled the giant basket ball hoop and he realized it wasn't just a box with a cool picture on it!

William's simplified version of happiness: throwing assortments of items into a basket ball hoop.

Later that afternoon we drove to a small kid entertainment center called Jumping Jordy where we met our friends the Conkeys and the Petersens. We'd never been there but I could tell from the description it would be heaven for our little kangaroo. And it was a big hit with all the kids (after a little warming up).

We had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes with Em (that's what William calls Emily), Don and Sam.

I had spent the day attempting to make a cake for the occasion but I kept failing. One cake was too thin, another one got completely destroyed when I removed it from the pan, the last cake was still cooking when we left for Jumping Jordy so I was sure it would be a fail. But it was too late to take care of it when we came home that night so William went to bed without blowing his candles.

The next day we improvised a little birthday party with neighbors and friends in Newton Court (I should mention that we changed apartments in May, we now live in a different complex but only 2min from the previous one). We filled up the pool and took the basket ball hoop outside, and William finally got to blow his candles (well the wind did). I love that it is so easy to get together with neighbors where we live. We all had a great time hanging out with our friends.

I was writing things about William in my journal that day and decided to ask him and Josh to answer a few questions and videotape them. I think it turned out pretty cute:

I should also say that this big guy has been using the potty for a couple of months now. He was only doing it for fun at first (although he actually did something pretty much every time), but we just recently started being serious about it and he's doing great-- no accidents today! Keeping our fingers crossed...

Happy birthday to our Bungalow Bill!