Weekend O' Fun

Our weekend started Saturday morning with cleaning house. No, that was not the fun part of our weekend. That was just the neccesity of the weekend. I like to start the weekend with a nice clean house so Saturday morning has turned into Clean The House Day.

M, Ta, and A met us at our place at around 11. From here, we headed over to the Mile High Flea Market. The kids and I had been once but Aaron had never been. There is nothing really special about the flea market. If you have been to one, you've been to them all. We didn't care though. We were outside in 50 degree weather in January and we were sharing the time with our cool new family members. While there we did the traditional hotdogs, funnel cake, and cotton candy. Aaron has decided that cotton candy is his new best friend. He was reading the calorie count and discovered that a large bag of cotton candy only has 114 calories. That's practically health food folks.

Later that night Aaron and I met M and Ta downtown while Poppie babysat for us. We had a fabulous night out without kids. I can't tell you the last time that I went barhopping. I'm not sure that what we did was considered barhopping but hey, we went into 4 different establishments. We had a great dinner of shrimp. It's not fresh off the boat shrimp like you would get in Carolina but it was still good.

After dinner we headed to the bars. Ta wanted to go into Coyote Ugly so she could say that she had been to one. We had a great time talking about the dancers on the bar. We even did some heavy drinking. Aaron had a beer and the rest of us had water. Once we finished our drinks we walked down for some more bar fun. We walked through one place but decided we didn't want to stand the entire time and we would like to talk to each other. Boy! are we old or what?!

Sunday Aaron and I were going to take the kids up to Breckenridge to see ice sculptures. We chickened out though. There was a 20% chance of snow up there. We did not want to get snowed in in Breckenridge. They close I70 all the time up there. Instead we went to the redneck show. Actually, it's the Internation Sportsmans Expo bla bla bla. They had a bunch of fishing and hunting stuff there. Campbell and Aaron did climb the rockwall though. We were so proud of Campbell for going all the way to the top. She didn't let the height scare her for once. She is growing up way to fast.

After our fill of sportsman bla bla bla we were going to go to an outdoor shopping mall. As we passed the zoo, though, Campbell asked to go there. So we did. We spent a couple of hours just walking through the zoo. Campbell wanted to see it all. She did. Caleb wanted to see Giraffes and Elephants and Zebras. He did. We all had a great time.

That folks, was our weekend. Now we are preparing for it to snow, AGAIN. We have had our fill of snow.

Weekend Out of Order

I know this is a bit out of order, but the Tooth Fairy post was much quicker to type up. This week has been a bit buys. Campbell's doctor called us back on Thursday to let us know that the quick test they do for Strep in the office was wrong. The big test showed that she did indead have strep throat. She has been on antibiotics for almost a week now and is back to feeling like herself. She ended up missing three days of school though.

I already told you about the Indian Market and birthday party so let's jump to Sunday. On Sunday we went to Aaron's cousin house for lunch. We had a wonderful time. M and Ta cooked some delicious food. I am doing overtime at the gym to work off the cupcakes, though. The three kids played together so well. We harldy heard a peep from them the entire afternoon. That's saying a lot considering Caleb hadn't had a nap. We spent about four hours there and had a fabulous time.

On to Monday....We all had the day off to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr Day. Aaron had completed the rocking chair he made for his co-worker, so we took that over to her. We all got to hold the precious new baby. Even Caleb held her. She is such a cutie.

After showering the baby with attention we went to the Colorado History Museum. We needed an indoor activity since the temperature outside and noon was 11 degrees. Campbell thought that was just way to cold. I had to agree. It was our first visit and we all really enjoyed it. Caleb's favorite part was the tractors. Actually it was mining equipment but it was close enough to tractors. Campbell of course loved all the dresses from the 1800's. It was really a nice way to spend a couple of hours on a very cold day.

Tooth Fairy Comes to Colorado

Yesterday Campbell had to have two teeth pulled. This is one of the steps the orthodontis is doing to get her teeth to come in as straight as possible. She was such a big girl. I had both kids with me, but when we got to the back and she got in the chair she said I could take Caleb out to the waiting room to play. She didn't mind being back there by herself at all. Ten minutes later the nurse came out and said that she was all done.

This was a very quick visit to the dentist. Her appointment was at 1:45. We were home by 3:00. The office is a 20 minute drive from our house and we stopped for cocoa and coffee. She had a completely numb mouth but she still managed to drink her cocoa.

On the way home she started talking about how excited she was for the tooth fair to visit. Uh oh. I forgot about tooth fair duties. Luckily I had some cash in my wallet. Daddy tooth fairy is much more generous than Mommy tooth fairy. He said she should get $5. I said $2. We settled on $3 mostly because that's all the cash we had between the two of us. We need to prepare better for these things. Campbell was concerned that the tooth fairy might not be able to find her what with the move and sleeping in her brothers room. The tooth fairy did indeed find her.

Markets and Birthdays

Yesterday Aaron was gone all day finishing a rocking chair that he has been building for a co-worker. Poppie was spending the day with some family friends. The kids and I needed something to do. We saw a commercial on the tv about an Indian Market that was being held here in Denver this weekend. Campbell said she would love to go, so we went.

When we arrived, we found that it was basically a craft fair for Native American Indians from around the country to sell their products. We walked through the market and saw a bunch of really neat things. Campbell was looking for a unique yet inexpensive birthday gift for her friend back in Greenville. We found a few really cute items like barretts and carved animals. She finally settled on a cute little doll for her. To make it even better the dolls were $3 each or 2 for $5. I let her get two so she could have a doll too. I do spoil my kids sometimes.

While we were there we got to see and Indian dance. The dancers were all dressed in their tribal costumes. Campbell loved it. We also got to see an owl and an eagle up close. They were alived and were tethered to their stands. We've seen these at the zoo but not that close. Caleb slept through the entire trip at the market.

After the market we headed over to a friend's house for their little boy's birthday party. He turned seven yesterday. He is the cutest little kid. We just did cake and ice cream and pizza at their house. The kids just had a blast running around the house playing with each other. There were about ten kids there and only two of them were girls. Campbell and Arianna held their own with the boys though. I liked seeing Campbell play something besides dolls and ballet. Caleb was in heaven with all the boys around. He didn't care that he was the youngest boy by five years.

Also Kids

When Campbell was about 3, Nanna and Poppie came into the possesion of three little kittens. These kittens became Campbell's and she got to name them. She named the girl kitten Zoe. The boys were named Little and Little Too. We tried to convince her to give Little Too a different name but she was not budging. The cat's name was Little Too. Little Too is the only surviving kitten and still hangs out at Nanna's house.

Fast forward about 6 years. No, we did not get kittens for the kids. Before Caleb was born he was given a frog luvvy. He became very attached to his luvvy and still has it today. A few months ago we purchased a second frog luvvy just incase the first one becomes lost. Well, he has ended up with both of them in his bed and he has named them. What are the names? Wait for it....we have Frog and Other Frog. Frog is the original. Other Frog is the backup frog.

Where do my kids come up with this stuff.

15 degrees

The high today is 15 degrees! That is just silly. We have had to venture out a couple of times today. Just to go out of the house we have to put on 20 pounds worth of warm clothing. If I had it my way, I wouldn't even leave the house on days like this.

Since I had to take Campbell to the bus anyway I decided I'd still make it to the gym for my daily torture, I mean exercise. When I finished my workout I showered and got ready for the day. As we left the gym I noticed that I had a missed call on my phone. It was the school letting me know that Campbell was in the office complaining of a sore throat.

We headed over there to pick her up. To make her feal better, we stopped at the store to get her some hot tea and the majical chicken noodle soup. We came home and let her eat and rest while waited for her doctors appointment at 2:30.

We had to start getting ready at 2:00 because of the one thousand layers of clothes we needed to put on. It only takes 2.5 minutes to get to the doctor from our house. Normally we would walk but not in this weather!!!

Her strep test came back negative. We were instructed to keep an eye on her. If she doesn't improve by Monday, we need to take her back for some blood work. Apparently mono is going around. I hope she's better by Monday.

But yeah....15 degrees (0 degrees with wind chill factored in). And it's suppose to drop to -1 tonight.

Nemo Fish

Today we were able to go the Denver Aquarium. It was our first visit. Being in a land locked state we didn't really know what to expect. Aaron and I have been to aquariums on both the East coast and the West coast. This one wasn't too bad though. It was not huge and we were through it in about an hour and a half. That was with a lot of stopping and just looking at things. We didn't hurry at all. It was nice though.

They had a couple of things that we didn't expect. They had an exhibit with four real life tigers. They were right at the glass. You can't get much closer than this without being in danger of being eaten. All the parents in the area did take a double take to make sure that the glass wall was high enough. It was and on top of the glass they also had netting. It would be next to impossible for those tigers to get out.

They also had the requisite Dori and Nemo fish. These were the only reason that Caleb went to the aquarium. He did not like the flashflood exhibit. I guess he thought he was going to be washed away. He also felt that the place was much to loud. Campbell got to touch the rays so she was happy.

After visiting the fish we went out to lunch. Because the Italian restaurant we went to was not busy, we got to sit in the kitchen booth to eat. Sitting in this booth you can watch them cook your food. The kids thought this was very cool. We will just ignore the minor choking incident. (Caleb turned blue and everything.)

After lunch we went to a large store that sells outdoor gear. We didn't get anything but we sure did make our wish list.

Alrighty Then

I was just standing in kitchen. Caleb walked up behind me and planted a big kiss on my behind. I asked him what he was doing and he just said "Diss Mommy's butt." You have all been warned. Never invite him to kiss your behind. Most likely he will actually do so.

Discrimination?

Our baby girl is being discriminated against. That's how she feels anyway. You might wonder why this is. She is a very popular child. I don't think there is a child in her class who doesn't like her. Everybody we know only has nice things to say about her.

The problem is size discrimination. You see, she is the smalles kid in her class. At age nine she wears a size 6 child's clothing. She is 46" tall and 44 pounds. These stats put her firmly in the 5th percentile for height and weight for her age.

The other day in class they were doing an experiment with a fulcrum. They needed one child on one end while the rest of the students had to try to lift that child. When the teacher asked for volunteers, Campbell raised her hand like a good little student. The teacher thanked her but told her that she needed a larger student to do it. They couldn't use her because she was too small.

That day she came home from school practically in tears. She said it wasn't fair that she didn't get to do it just because of her size. Her dad and I tried not to laugh and explained why it wouldn't be a very good experiement with her on the fulcrum. We also told her that we would set one up here at home and let Caleb try to lift her. Hopefully our little talk about everyone being different and everyone having something about their bodies that they don't like worked. This is tricky one. We don't want her to have a body issue complex at 9. We know when she's 30 she'll be glad to be small and petite.

Finding Family

Yesterday we had the opportunity to meet family members. Mark's brother D, his wife T, and their daughter J came to visit. Also their son M came with his wife Ta and their 3 year old daughter A. It was really neat to meet them all.

A reminds us so much of Campbell. She has the cute little blonde hair and blue eyes. She is very laid back and quiet, just like Campbell was at that age. A and Caleb played very nicely together. She didn't seem to mind Caleb's boyness at all. She would just go another direction when he became too much for her. It was very cute! She also followed Campbell around a lot. She was enamoured with her. It took Caleb a few minutes to accomodate sharing. He eventually decided that it was more fun to share than to sit in the chair by himself.

M look's like a smaller version of Aaron's brother Adam. It's amazing how much the two look alike. I think it's really cool to see these family similarities. Aaron looks more like his mom's family but is built like his dad's family. Adam looks like his dad's family but is built more like his mom's family. All very interesting. M's wife is a very cool person and I can see us hanging withthem a quite a bit.

J who is 29, according to Poppie, has cerebral palsey (not sure about the spelling). She is such a cute person. She is very chatty and will talk for hours if you let her. She also has a deep love of jewelery. She told us all about every piece of jewelery she was wearing as well as each piece she wants to buy in the future. She is a lot of fun!

It was a lot of fun to just sit and visit with Aaron's family like that. We plan to get together with M and Ta a lot more. They are about our age and A just couldn't be any cuter.

XO34

Wow! What a week. We have had an interesting week. We were suppose to be on vacation in Utah Tuesday through Friday. That didn't happen. We have Poppie here with us so we have had a pretty low key week.

Aaron has spent a good bit of time doing woodworking. Campbell had a playdate and a sleepover this week. We were suppose to find me a birthday present on our trip to Utah this week. I like unique gift items and we can usually find some cool stuff on our little trips. We didn't go on that trip so we hit the mall on Thursday to shop.

Poppie visited with some friends while the four of us went and walked the mall. We ended up finding a really nice necklace for me. After the mall we went home to get Poppie. We then all went out to dinner. We had a terrific dinner! We went to this Italian restaurant that serves family style. We got so much food! It was all delicious too.

On Friday, the actual day of my birthday, we sent Poppie with his brother. The four of us headed down to Colorado Springs where we took a terrific train ride. The train took us to the top of Pikes Peak. This is the 2nd mountain over 14,000 feet high that we have been up. The train ride was a lot of fun. Caleb slept most of the way up, but the rest of us got to see some beautiful scenery. The ride up took about 1 1/2 hours. At some points the grade was 25%. Once we reached the top, we got off the train and attempted to look over the fence. The wind was blowing at 40 mph so we were getting pushed pretty good by the wind. Campbell was really having a difficult time with the wind.

After spending a couple of minutes outside we went into the observatory to grab some lunch. By this point, Campbell was feeling the effects of the altitude. She was feeling rather ill. Caleb's lips were a little blue. Apparently, these little southern babies don't handle the thin air too well.

We spent about 30 minutes at the top of the mountain before getting back on the train. We later learned that with the wind chill, the temperature at the top was -30 degrees. That is the type of cold that just hurts.

Campbell slept half way down the hill. Once we got below 12,000 feet she was feeling good again. She even felt well enough to her her special "high altitude doughnut". They told us that regular doughnuts don't cook well at the high altitude so they had to create a special recipe. I don't know if that is true or not, but of course we had to buy the special doughnuts.

We all really enjoyed our day on the train. When we got home Campbell made me a necklace for my birthday. She is such a sweet kid! The jury is still out on whether I have hugs and kisses for 34, though. If I can ever get over this killer cold maybe I can be more objective about being 34. Right now I just feel tired and old.