Memorial Day Memories

Today was a wonderful Memorial Day spent together making memories, I took the day off despite it being the first official day of summer and Jeff never needs more than one reason to take a day off.  It was nice to spend a day together just being us, no plans no schedule just being.  Clare of course wanted to go to the park and I of course wanted to run errands, Jeff of course said ‘I don’t care’ to all suggestions of things to do.

After a rather whiny morning we loaded up and headed out. Our first destination was the park, until Clare fell asleep, so shopping it was.  Jeff and I both wanted to get new glasses so we seized the day and headed to the mall, Jeff’s least favorite place.  Clare was great at the mall, her first trip without a stroller; she carried her baby the entire time and listened pretty well.  Jeff and I took turns in the glasses place; there was a small carousel just out front, which was far more exciting than looking at glasses. 

Once the glasses were picked out, sized, ordered and paid for we headed for lunch.  Again, Clare was perfect, even with the 30minute wait for our food to arrive.  Towards the end of lunch Clare announced that she was tired and needed a nap.

Jeff had the great idea of taking the long way home in hopes that Clare would fall asleep, too bad Clare wanted to enjoy the view as much as we did.  We drove thru Clear Creek Canyon and enjoyed every minute.  Clare kept talking about how the water was dirty and we told her baby that she couldn’t go in.  Eventually Clare did fall asleep, in her bed at 3:30pm.  Oh well, the drive was nice and we all enjoyed it.

After naps and a little quiet time it was time to play!!  Jeff started a small fire on the deck and Clare roasted her first marshmallow.  Clare is a pretty cautious person, wanting to watch before trying something new, roasting marshmallows was no different.  She seemed to enjoy holding the marshmallow close to the fire, but had no interest in eating them. 

Clare loves to play both inside and outside, she can open the door herself and more often than not remembers to close it behind her.  Inside there was a wild tea party going on.  She likes playing with her new wildlife, especially the goat and the caribou.  Much like the dog that Sarah and Andrew had when they were little, the caribou seems to like tickling Clare, and only Clare.  Every time she goes to pet the caribou it runs up her arm and tickles her, interestingly it doesn’t do that when Jeff pets it. 

Jeff had a bit of an adventure this afternoon; he climbed his new ladder all the way to the top to replace the smoke detector battery that’s been beeping for the last few days.  I'm not sure who appreciates this more, myself or Kai.  Kai is pretty freaked out by the sound of the beeping, it's pretty funny.  If you’ve ever wondered why I refer to our new house as the Tree House you can see why.  Hopefully that battery lasts until March 2016 like is says and he doesn't have to climb the tree again anytime soon. 

It's a good thing he stood there and waited, the darn thing kept beeping even with the new battery!

Bitty decided she wanted to see what the ladder was all about.

Today was a wonderful day; I wish we had more days like today.  I love spending time with my two favorite people.  As we drove around today I kept thinking of all the things I want to do as a family this summer, I can’t wait for our next day together. 

The Bistro

Saturday evening Jeff made reservations for us at The Bistro, probably the closest restaurant to our house.  We don’t go out to dinner very often, so when we do it’s a treat.  The Bistro is a pretty fancy place, far fancier than anyplace we typically frequent, but that didn’t stop us from having a wonderful evening out.  The food was pretty darn good; I imagine we’ll be going back for another occasion.  This Saturday we were celebrating Jeff's Birthday. 

Clare enjoyed listening to the man playing the piano; she even attempted to accompany him.

Clare was a perfect little lady, saying thank you when the waitress brought her come crayons, trying everything on her plate, including calamari, and completely cleaning her plate of ‘noonles’.  

A Package from Maggie!

Clare loves to check the mail and will frequently ask if we need to check the mailbox, she also likes going to the Post Office to pick up packages.  Much to her surprise Maggie sent her a box full of dress up clothes, skirts, animals and a book.  Jeff made the PO run, but she immediately spotted the package when she got home.   

There's no convincing her that some of these clothes don't fit yet.  

I have to think she’s one of the only little girls to be able to correctively identify a caribou, moose, buffalo and mountain goat (she has correctly identified each after the initial correction of the moose).  She’s quick to point out the deer, elk and horses as we drive each day.  Not every little girl gets to see deer, elk and horses on her way to daycare each day.

Wedding Dress Up

I need to find a better way to store stuff in the closet, Clare LOVES to go thru all the drawers and boxes of stuff.  One of her current favorite items from the closet are my wedding shoes; I can’t stand to donate them even though they are 1 ½ sizes too small.  

Park x2

Today was a beautiful day, a perfect day after a long week.  Clare and I loaded up early and headed for the park.  I decided we wouldn’t run any errands today and we would simply enjoy each other and the world around us, it was wonderful.

Clare was in a great mood and happily played for more than an hour running from slide to slide, climbing every step at the park, pushing her Baby down the slide, swinging, and climbing some huge steps that made me pretty nervous.  Clare insisted on playing with her Baby the entire time, she even let another little girl hold her baby as they took turns going down the slide.  

When we arrived we were one of three groups there, it was nice and quiet.  As the morning went on the park filled up, it was a busy place when we finally left.  At one point I was calling Clare’s name and another woman asked me if my child’s name was Clare, apparently her granddaughter’s name was also Claire, although spelled with an ‘I.’ Not 5 minutes later Clare decided she wanted to swing and began running towards the big swings, as I called her name to stop (she was going to run right in the path of the little boy swinging) another woman asked me if her name was Clare.  I guess it was Clare day at the park; there were three of them!   I asked the second mother if her daughter spelled her name with an ‘I,’ we both thought it was great that our Clare’s didn’t have an I in their name. 

Finally after playing for more than an hour Clare said she wanted lunch, so we picked up our things and headed for the car.  While walking to the car she decided she wanted to walk over and see the dinosaur, so off to see the dinosaur we went.  On the way home we talked about what to have for lunch, she announced that she wanted yogurt, cheese and PB&J. 

I was hoping she would take a long nap after such an active morning, but I heard her talking to her baby after only 2 hours.  When I walked in her room she was jumping in her bed and holding her baby, she was ready and rearing to go again.  

After feeding her baby we loaded up again to head down the hill to see Jeff before his Softball game.  We’ve been to Cornerstone park a few times, it’s a fairly large park and typically isn’t that busy, apparently it hadn’t been that busy because the spray ground hadn’t been on, today it was packed!  I wasn’t as excited about this park with so many people, especially since there was a large group of ‘big kids’ running around with HGUE squirt guns shooting everything and anything in their way.  Clare wasn’t thrilled either; she just stood there and watched the people.  I tried to convince her to go to another park, but she wasn’t having it.  While waiting for Jeff two little boys, maybe 3 and 18 months, came up to her and proceeded to be not so nice.  After a few minutes of my having to tell the older boy that he couldn’t tell her what to do and that he needed to move so she could walk on the bridge a guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth came over and said in some not so nice words that it was time to get some sunscreen (the younger boy was bright red – I think it was a little late for sunscreen) and then took them by the arms and led them away.  Thankfully they were gone, but that wasn’t the best part!  We walked over to the little play structure when Jeff finally showed up, Clare walked a few more steps towards the playground while I was looking at Jeff, when I looked back another little girl had taken Clare’s Baby!! I immediately walked over to the other little girl and asked for the Baby back, to which the little girl said ‘she gave it to me’.  Um, no I’m pretty sure she didn’t.  Needless to say we immediately left and I have no desire to go back to that park. 

Jeff and I both agreed we should just go to dinner and be done with the park so we loaded up and headed for dinner at the South Platte Bar and Grill.  Sitting on the patio was the perfect way to end the evening.  Clare enjoyed some chicken fingers with lots of ranch while Jeff and I ate some chips and quac. 

I’m so happy we had such a great day, it made the long days recently a little more bearable, and I’m already looking forward to next Monday.