around town: A Day at the Beach.

Earlier this month, a handful of us high-tailed it to Bear Creek Lake, a beautiful park in Lakewood with a great swimming beach and good bike trails. The sun was blazing and the water was ice-cold- a perfect combination. I was too excited getting my toes sandy that I forgot to take some good shots of the scenery, but I think the typical "Smile and Say Cheese!" ones are pretty good.

Mary put up her own pig-tails.

Grandma. :)

Love love love.

A Sick Day.

When a baby gets sick, it feels like the whole world falls apart. Whether you're loaded up with aspirators, herbal rubs, and baby Tylenol, or just a warm hand for a soothing backrub, sometimes there's really nothing you can do but divert their attention and make them comfortable.
Last week, Gabriel came down with a bout of sniffles and sneezes, a mild sickness to deal with, but definitely un-fun no less. I thought a nice morning walk would warm Gabriel up, fresh air is usually a good trick, but to no avail. All he got from the walk were a pair of watery eyes and an even more watery nose. So we bid fairwell to the sunny day outside and accepted a day indoors. After snack time, some listening to Fats Waller, and a modest puppet show, we were spent. Should we watch TV? In the middle of the day? Eat a whole bowl of pistachio pudding? Should we get in our slipperiest socks and slide around the hardwood floors? And then it came to me: we have to build a fort! I guess it's saying something that I actually do remember the last time I built a fort, which means I was well oiled and ready for crafting.

Once our new fort was built, we filled up on Grand Junction peaches, had a few tickle sessions, read our newest Library book, a sweet and simple one from Beatrix Potter (one of my favorite children's authors/ illustrators), and watched the Tale of Desperaux, which I highly suggest.

I'd say it was a very good day, all things considered.

Soup and Silliness.

A few weeks ago, we had Mary, a seven-year-old family friend, come to stay overnight at our house. Well, she actually stayed overnight in a tent in the backyard, after a few gooey s'mores and a ghost story or two. We spent Sunday at the beach, but Saturday afternoon was full of splashey fun in the backyard baby pool. After we got tired of swimming, Mary decided to help get some chores done and get rid of some of our grass for us. Five minutes of frantic grass-tugging later, Gabriel's wagon was nicely padded and ready to be pulled around.

Then, Mary wanted to do the "grass dance" and have some grass rain down over Gabriel in his newly redone set of wheels. I'm not sure how he felt about it.

Afterward, we decided to make a tasty summer soup with all that dead grass. Mary is quite the little chef, she knew everything that was going into her stew; notice the balls, "watermelons," the floaty toys, "onions and potatos," and the extra water from the sink, "grape juice." Sounds soup-ah, no?