SUNDAY STROLLIN'

i love all the patriotic spirit we see around Denver, so many American flags and red, white and blue flowers.

the old airport tower. will be interesting to see what Stapleton decides to do with it.

Central Park in Stapleton. best. playground. ever.

gorgeous red tailed hawk giving us an eyeful. my pictures don't do justice to how neat the experience was.

our sunday was lovely, spent almost entirely outside. we wandered over to the farmer's market and picked up some very ripe very discounted tomatoes, because that's how i role and i like a good bargain. we also grabbed a beautiful cabbage, really night and day compared with those you see in the grocery store, some incredibly fragrant dill, fingerling and red potatoes, beautiful young red onions with their greens, and some poblano peppers. i may or may not have eaten an enormous almond croissant. 

after we let hudson run around a bit we walked to Central Park. not THE central park, but the one in stapleton. i can not believe that it's taken us over three months to discover this gem. it is a-mazing. it's walled in so there isn't fear of the little ones running into a busy street. there are free fountains for kids to run through, a nice alternative to the pools. there are rock climbing walls, some that were quite high and looked rather challenging. of course there are swings, slides, monkey bars and the usual suspects. i guess what made it stand out was how expansive and creatively laid out it is. you can see in a couple of the pictures above, they have purple mountains and a blue "stream" running through the park for kids to explore. the hills were pretty steep for hudson, but he still enjoyed it. his favorite part without a doubt though was the slide. i will leave the details of this slide for another post since it was such a big focus of our morning. we will certainly be visiting Central Park again. 

the rest of the day was spent eating, napping and time at the pool. a perfect sunday in my book. made more perfect by some homemade pizza, created with the red potatoes, and young red onions that we'd picked up earlier in the day. there is something very rewarding about making dishes with items from the farmer's market. even more so with items you've grown yourself. i can't wait for our three tomato plants, two squash plants and three pepper plants to really start producing. we planted late so things are a bit delayed. but, we've got some promising looking fruit and veg on the vine. as for the pizza, i could have baked it a tad longer, but the boys seemed pretty happy with it. hudson ate an entire big piece. that boy has an appetite! all in all, it was the perfect end to a wonderful day.

MARATHON TRAINING UPDATE

today begins the 11th week of my marathon training. it's also the first week of measuring my daily runs in distance rather than time. there is something about that that feels more rewarding to me. it feels more concrete in some way. like at the end of this week i will have racked up 15 miles, and next week 16 and so on. i feel optimistic that this slow build will keep me motivated and injury free. i woke up this morning with a strange soreness in my right knee, but thankfully it felt strong during my three mile lunchtime run. this 26 week training schedule that i'm on, which began with many weeks of a jog/walk mix, really allows the body to get in shape without forcing things too quickly. i find each week to be challenging but not impossible. this to me is the perfect balance when you're working toward a specific fitness goal.  i'm looking forward to 16 weeks of physical and mental growth that i know will be required if i'm going to run 26.2 miles, in a row.

FATHER'S DAY WEEKEND

saturday morning was one of those mornings where you leap out of bed and are so ready for the day ahead. it was not in fact one of those morning for J. anyway, after getting mad at J for wanting to start the day slowly on the couch, i popped H  into his car seat and we were off for a coffee, Target, sandbox run. i should know better than to try and leisurely peruse the aisles at Target with a toddler who is working on perfecting his high pitched scream. the bribes of two squeezy fruit & veggie pouches and some cheesy puffs only worked for so long. but i have to say that the screams refocused me on getting the "needs" versus the "wants". we're working on this as a family. when shopping we ask ourselves, "need" or "want"? it works...sometimes. 

post Target, H got some much deserved sandbox time. then we swooped J up and headed to the pool before lunch and nap time. H loves the fountains in the pool and the water table. he would stay there all day if i'd let him.

 

after a gloriously long nap (H's not mine), we went to Coldstone Creamery for ice cream. for J and i, that is. H is the strangest child. he doesn't like ice cream. or sweets for that matter, beyond fruit. i'll gladly keep that going as long as possible, but it's still weird. we ate by the nearby fountains, but H kept running off per usual so we headed home.

sunday began with  J sleeping in until nearly 10 o'clock! this is quite the feat for a dad who has a little rooster of a toddler, up with the sun. H and i ate crepes for breakfast with butter and powdered sugar, mmmmm. i have to say that i think every weekend should include a homemade pastry or baked good of some variety. i eat really well all week and believe that weekends are for indulging. once J was up we headed over to the first farmers market of the season on the green in Stapleton. there didn't seem to be that many booths of actual produce, i'm guessing since it's so early in the season. but we did sample some delicious kombucha and let H run around on the grass with the other littles.

we made sure to get some face to face time with our own dads, thanks to FaceTime. it's not the same as being together, but definitely helps shrink the many miles between us. i don't know what it was, but this father's day felt so different from the last. i don't know if it's because H is such a little boy now and adores his dad so much. or because we are living somewhere new and all depending on each other so much. or because i feel like J and i are in a good place with each other after some challenging times. or because i see J and H's bond growing stronger every day. whatever it is, i cherish my boys so much and loved spending this weekend recognizing how far J has come as a father and how excited i am to embrace this life with my beautiful family.

{WORDLESS WEDNESDAY}

YBIKE

just a little vine video of hudson riding his yBike

MY LIST

awhile back i was inspired by a friend who makes a list on every birthday of things to accomplish in the coming year. the list grows by one each year, so 30 things when you turn 30, 31 when you turn 31 and so on. recently i've been thinking about creating one big fat list. and as i've mentioned before, i feel more inclined to actually DO things if i put them out there on the internet. i found numerous bucket lists online to pull inspiration from. i included some that i've already done so i can cross at least a few off from the get go. plus, doing so reminds me of what a wonderful life i've had thus far and how much i've been fortunate enough to experience. so here we go...

1. figure out how to use my dslr using the manual setting

2. learn to use Photoshop

2. travel to India with my sister

3. learn to ski

4. have another baby or two

5. find spirituality 

6. grow my hair long

7. make a quilt

8. skydive

9. scuba dive

10. get a tattoo

11. perfect making homemade pasta

12. take a ride in a hot air balloon    

13. visit all seven continents: North america, South america, Europe, Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Australia 

14. learn to speak French

15. complete a mud run

16. run a marathon

17. go on safari

18.visit all 59 national parks (Acadia, American Samoa, Arches, Badlands, Big Bend, Biscayne, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Carlsbad Caverns, Channel Islands, Congaree, Crater Lake, Cuyahoga Valley, Death Valley, Denali, Dry Tortugas, Everglades, Gates of The Arctic, Glacier, Glacier Bay, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Great Basin, Great Sand Dunes, Great Smoky Mountains, Guadalupe Mountains, Haleakala, Hawaii Volcanoes, Hot Springs, Isle Royale, Joshua Tree, Katmai, Kenai Fjords, Kings Canyon, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark, Lassen Volcanic, Mammoth Cave, Mesa Verde, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Olympic, Petrified Forest, Pinnacles, Redwood, Rocky Mountain, Saguaro, Sequoia, Shenandoah, Theodore Roosevelt, Virgin Islands, Voyageurs, Wind Cave, Wrangell - St. Elias, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zio)

19. visit all 50 states

20. go to the olympics

21. learn to swing dance

22. speak in front of a large crowd (doubles as tackling a big fear)

23. see the northern lights (aurora borealis)

24. see the great barrier reef

25. go on a helicopter ride

26. practice yoga at an ashram

27. sleep under the stars

28. build a cabin on our land in Alaska

29. ride on an elephant

30.learn to play a musical instrument

31. see the new7wonders of the world

32. get married

33. tour the white house & see the oval office (just me and the secret service)

34. learn to play bridge

35. learn to make a signature dish

36. donate blood

37. see a broadway play (new york) saw phantom of the opera with my sister

38. create a loving and happy home always a work in progress

39. mush a dog sled

40.travel to Finland with my mom

41. drink a $1,000+ bottle of champagne 

42. milk a cow or goat

43. bungee jump from the royal gorge bridge, Colorado

44. travel to England with jeremy to see where he lived

45. go to the airport and board an international flight with no notion of what comes next

46. travel to Greece

47. see an iceburg

48. go to Burning Man

49. go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans

50. travel to Ibiza with jeremy before we get too old

51. join the peace corp

52.watch all of AFI's 100 years 100 movies

53. go to Brazil during Carnaval

54. learn how to keep bees

55. get a bachelor's degree

56. build a record collection and listen to the records regularly

57. cross a country on a bicycle

58. rock climb outside, not in a gym

59. cruise the Amazon river

60. see Mount Everest

61. ride a mechanical bull

62. go for at least one month without internet

63. create a list of my top 100 albums of all time

64. become a collector of something that interests me

65. start my own business

66. eat at The French Laundry

67. volunteer at a homeless shelter

68. run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain

69. climb one of the world's seven summits

70. go to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany

71. go to a drive-in movie

72. go on a real honeymoon babymoon

73. fly first class

74. travel to Fiji

75. climb all 53 14ers in Colorado

76. fly on a trapeze

77. buy a house with a wrap around porch

78. pay off all my debt

79.  get naked on a nude beach

80. build a piece of furniture

81. live in a foreign country

82. learn to ferment food and then make delicious fermented food

83. drive cross country

84. spend New Year's Eve in Sydney, Australia

85. learn to juggle

86. hike to the top of half dome

87. go spelunking 

88. travel to The Maldives 

89. build a tree-house

90. find a four leaf clover

91. be part of a flash mob

92. complete a century bike ride

93. have a 50th wedding anniversary

94. own a pair of Louboutins

95. watch my children get married

96. throw a dart at a map and go wherever it lands

97. go to the tulip festival in Holland

98. eat at Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark

99. learn to ride a horse

100. attend FIFA World Cup

101. buy a round of drinks for the whole bar

102. participate in a polar bear plunge 

103. celebrate St. Patrick's day in Ireland

104. stay at the Icehotel in Sweden

105. go to a world series game (with dad and eri)

106. attend a Cirque du Soleil show

107. fly a kite at the Cervia International Kite Festival

108. visit a Buddhist temple

109. complete a triathalon

110. write letters to my child(ren) for them to open when they are older

111. visit Havasupai at the bottom of the Grand Canyon

LOWRY BEER GARDEN

after checking the usual boring things off of saturday's to-do list, we treated ourselves with a trip to the lowry beer garden. we hadn't been before, but it's definitely been on our list of denver spots to try. and talk about kid friendly, there was a child's birthday party going on while we were there. there were the traditional long tables, ping (beer) pong and even a little play house. the menu looked great, but we stuck to beer (and possibly a soft serve that i promise i tried to share with hudson, he wasn't that interested) since we're on a budget. i was feeling indecisive so the bartender let me taste a few, including the really interesting and delicious denver beer kaffir lime wheat. i ended going with the dry rock brewing co apricot ale. and jer had a belgian style white and something else, but i can't recall. we were happy campers all around and can't wait to return for some more brew and perhaps even some food!