Photo Shoot!

Ok, so I got this fancy camera- might as well put it to use right? Since my mom is in town, I enlisted her as my asistant and tried to take some pictures of Lauren. Day 1= disaster. We got going too late and the lighting was too tricky. I didn't realize how hard it is to get "head shots" when the sun is overhead. It was about 9:45 am and way to bright or too shadowy depending on where we were. Also, in the shade she was dull and the bright sunny spots in the background stole the show. It was too hot, and my mom started wilting. We bailed, hit the playground for a while and went for slurpees.  Day 2= a bit better. Despite my best efforts, we still got out too late= 8:50 and the light was really tricky. She isn't reliably happy in the early evening, so I am thinking morning is my best bet, but  I think it needs to be before 8am.  I ended up with about 450 shots, which I tailored down to under 200 and think I havea few really nie ones. I really like my new camera, but still think I need to take a class to understand how to use it. If she were 20 years old and held still I think I could capture some fantastic shots, but since she runs full speed in whatever direction suits her.... I need to be prepared. I find that I cannot focus fast enough, and sometimes just dont know what I want to capture till it is too late.  I will go through and crop and pick some to share- here are a few that caught my eye at a glance!

Grandma V

Bring on the Grandmas! Last night Lauren told Jeff that she wished Grandma would never leave. I think that she should move to Colorado, dont you?

Keyring App

I love this new app for my phone- called Keyring. You load all of your "value cards" into the program and they keep the barcode in your phone. So, I have all of my grocery store loyalty cards loaded, my Gymboree, Sephora, Aveda, etc- all in my phone. So I dont have to carry them with me or have them look me up by my phone number. I just click the app and my card barcode shows up, and they can scan my phone. So easy and fun!! And it is free. You have to try it!

Lakeside

Last weekend we went to Lakeside Amusement Park. It is a "vintage" amusement park that has tons of rides for young children, and is inexpensive and "low maintentance". They allow you to bring in whatever food or drinks you want, so most people picnic. The children's rides cost 1 ticket ($0.50 each) and the adult rides are 2 or 3 tickets.  There are tons of classic old rides, and many feel like they might fall apart at any minute. I assume if they made it this long, they must be OK. 

They had tons, at least 20, of the little kiddie rides. Lauren was in complete heaven, the only thing that could have made it better would have been a friend to ride with. She kept hoping kids would get on with her. She wasn't scared a bit and just kept jumping on more. Then we took her on some big rides- it took a bit of fudging because she was about an inch too short- I poofed up her hat and asked "please!!" and they let her ride some of them. She rode "The Whip" first- which was kind of like a "Tilt-a-whirl" and I was unsure what she would think. She loved it, and started to raise her hands in the air and scream on the fast parts. Jeff was in shock because he would never ride any of those rides. She wanted to ride the real "Tilt-a-whirl" but the height restriction is 48 inches, so they would not let her. She is still talking about how she has to finish her dinner so she can grow up big and ride the red ride. We also took her on the Scrambler, another one that Jeff just couldn't believe we would try. Well, the kid screamed and raised her arms in the air and did not want to come off. This was a great day for us all. I am elated to know I now have a buddy to ride on rides with- bring on the summer fairs!!!


Look Grandpa!



Screams of pure joy!

Jeff's favorite part was that many of the rides had machine guns. Not very PC, but the kids seemed to like it!

Wild Chipmunk! Holy Cow! Mom and I rode this, and screamed the whole time. Super fun!

Summer Brew Fest

Friday night was Summer Brew Fest. My mom is in town, and we got a sitter and all headed down there. It was the second year for all three of us, and a lot of fun! We hung out with some friends (same as last year) and tried lots of good beers. It is a small festival consisting mainly of local breweries, and they bring out all kinds of unusual small batch beers that you cannot buy in the store. FUN!

Fruit Dip

13 oz jar (or two 7 oz) Marshmallow fluff
8 oz cream cheese (regular or light)
2 tsp vanilla

Bring cream cheese to room temperature.
Mix all ingredients with a mixer and serve with cut-up fruit. Keeps well in the refrigerator, so great to make ahead. Sweet and simple and always a favorite, great for brunches or pot-lucks. You can spruce it up by using strawberry cream cheese as well.

Penny

Meet Penny- she is the horse at the grocery store, and costs 1 cent to ride. The picture is blurry- its hard to capture a moving target with a cell phone! On this visit to King Soopers, I actually had to get cash back of $0.02 when I paid for my groceries with my debit card because I didn't have any pennies in my purse!

Dont Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

This is an excellent children's book! We actually have this one, "Don't let the pigeon stay up late" and "The pigeon finds a hot dog". Lauren and I both enjoy all three - her favorite is the hot-dog one. It is very simple and funny, and tickles your sense of humor. The pigeon shows a lot of emotion (for a cartoon pigeon) and I think it is great for a toddler who gets frustrated sometimes, to discuss the pigeon's feelings. I actually am thinking about getting another book by Mo Willems - he has a series of Elephant and piggie books that are supposed to be good, and recently read about  "Hooray for Amanda and her alligator" and it sounded good too.

Family Friday

Friday Jeff was off work, and we all went down to the Zoo. It was fun, but busy.

 A nice woman kindly offered to take a family photo. It would be cute if I werent in the light.

 About to pull a fast one...

 While Lauren napped we brewed a batch of beer and bottled a different one. It was Jeff's night to plan dinner, so we ate at The Spot. Some friends who live nearby stopped over for a drink and hung out on our porch. Lauren was so sweetly entertained by their 3 month old daughter~ she is really sweet and gentle around babies, it was cute! I wish Jeff had Fridays off more often!

Let's Go Rockies!

Not one bit afraid- she has gotten less shy, almost overnight! I plan to print and frame this for her~ she is so proud of her picture with Dinger!

Colorado sunsets are awesome~ some of the best are seen from right field at Coor's Field.

"Corn Dog" dairy -free and egg-free

Recipe:
Hot Dogs (Hebrew National all beef kosher is what I buy).
Refrigerated Crescent Rolls- the kind that come in the tube (read labels, most are dairy and egg free).
Wooden kabob skewers

Spike the skewer through the inside of the hot dog, then wrap the hot-dog in crescent rolls. I tore them into strips so they would wrap better, and I made sure the hot dog was peaking out between strips. I am sure you could do it so they were totally covered, too. I used about 1 1/4 of the triangles per dog, by my hotdogs were pretty large. Then, lay them on a cookie sheet and bake per the instructions for the crescent rolls. I found I had to cook it a couple minutes longer, but I watched closely so it didn't burn. The hotdogs were hot and the bread was crusty.

Lauren ate one and a half of these- I could hardly believe it. She likes hotdogs but has never eaten more than a half of one of these big ones. I was in shock when she chowed it and asked for another. I had only made a second one in case one didn't turn out, I never imagined she would eat more than one. Now, I am not saying this is a particularly healthy meal choice, but it is a source of calories and meat~

Love and Logic

We are attending a "Parenting with Love and Logic" seminar tomorrow. Jeff is grumpy and irritated, I am pretty excited. Life with a 2 year old is tough! Jeff doesn't realize it, but he needs it more than me. She can turn on those tears and cries like a light switch to get her way- especially when he is around. He also has never put her in time-out, just threatens it. She has him wrapped around her little finger, I hope this helps! I am not a saint, we both are struggling~ but I at least am reading about it and trying to learn. We will see how Jeff does. He already flat-out told me that he will walk out if there are any role-playing exercises. I might need to call a cab to bring me home, because after paying for the seminar and paying for a babysitter to watch her while we attend it- I will NOT be leaving with him. Wish me luck!!

Running Stroller

Lauren getting to go for a ride in the jogging stroller- doesn't she look like such a big girl? Well, she is. The combined weight of her and the stroller is over 60 lb, not including any stuff that is stashed in there. It was quite the work-out to go for a jog pushing her! To top it off the running app on my phone had malfunctioned and I ended up running a whole lot farther than I planned because it mislead me to think I barely had run over a mile! We ended up walking back home singing the Star Spangled Banner and the Sleeping Beauty song (someday I need to put up a video- she sings the entire Star Spangled Banner by heart- people cannot believe it!!). In the end, we went on an hour-long jog/ walk on a hot humid morning- crazy to say it was kinda fun!

Happy Bastille Day!

Today is our annual Bastille Day celebration! It has been a tradition in the small pharmacy satellite where I work to celebrate with tasty French treats- it started over 10 years ago with just myself and the technician I work with- and now is celebrated annually by our little group. We have fattening treats and invite people to stop by our office for a croissant and jam, cheese, fruit and crackers. Bastille day is also called  La Fête Nationale and is basically 4th of July for the french. None of us our particularly interested in french culture, it just happened to be an odd tradition that we find fun- another excuse for a mini-pot-luck of sorts. So, grab a croissant and celebrate the liberation of France!

Hungy Hippos!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 large cans Chicken breast meat (or 1 rotisserre chicken shredded)

8 oz package Reduced-Fat cream cheese

1 c. Frank's hot wing sauce

1 c. Blue cheese or Ranch dressing (I like the Blue cheese)

(optional) 1/2 c. shredded cheese or blue cheese
celery and carrot sticks

crackers (Breton or wheat thins)

Drain and rinse the canned chicken and then mash/ shred it to break it apart. Mix in the next 3 ingredients in a bowl and microwave for a minute or two to get the cream cheese soft enough to mix. Then either put it in a crock pot and simmer it to mix together, or put it in a casserole and bake on 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. I have seen it with melted cheese on top, or mix 1/2 cup of cheddar or blue cheese into the mix- I dont do either since I like it spicy and think it has enough fat already, so I skip extra cheese. Serve warm with celery, carrots and crackers for dipping. Delicious!

My email address has changed!

Newsflash! The name of the hospital that I work at has changed, and therefore so has my work email address. If that is the only contact you have for me, please let me know and I will give you my personal email and my new work email address. My work email account will continue to work for about 3 more months, then voila! Dont you love marketing and PR people? A hospital known by name and reputation for over 100 years will be changing their name. To me it is like rebranding "Coca~ Cola" or "Tiffany's" - but hey, that is just me. I just work here.

Follow by email

Oooohhh.. check out this snazzy little gadget I added to my sidebar. You can plug in your email address and it will send you an email update of what I have posted on my blog. I tried it out yesterday and it sent me an email with the pictures included in it. Pretty spiffy! You might have to try it out and let me know what you think. On second thought, if your email updates you with my blog posts, will you ever come to my blog again?? You might have to check it out soon, if I dont think you guys are coming to visit me I might just have to ditch it! (heh heh heh- evil laugh here heheheh).

From what I can tell, it only emails you once a day and only if I have posted something new, it is annonymous (no one can see that you plugged in your email), and you can unsubscribe at anytime. If anyone tries this, let me know if you like it. :)

Chop Stick Training Wheels

I dont know what these things are called- but at sushi restaurants they give Lauren this little clip to hook her chopsticks together so she can use them (without stabbing out an eye). I call them "training wheels." I carry one in my purse just in case they dont have them someplace we go. Too cute, right?

To the sushi naiive- yes that is a fish tank at our table. Oh the irony of the sushi restaurant- they usually have many beautiful tanks full of fish....

Candy Land!

Lauren loves this game! We keep it up in Winter Park so she doesn't see it too often, but still always remembers how to play. She was talking to my mom on the phone last week about her upcoming visit to Denver with Aunt Susie and she told grandma V that she can play CandyLand with her, but Susie cannot because their aren't enough "guys". She is certainly too big for her britches sometimes- she is only 2 1/2 - I cannot believe she would think about their not being enough game pieces! There are 4 pieces- and usually Jeff, Lauren and I play- so she knows there is only enough for one more- WOW! Kids are much smarter that I ever gave them credit for.

Anyone else have little kid board games? I was thinking Chutes and Ladders was for little ones too? We never go to the big toy stores (out in the 'burbs ya know) so I am not sure what the options are. She definitely likes board games though.

Coke Bear at Winter Park

If I wouldnt keep loosing my harddrive I would have a ton of pictures of her with this bear throughout the years and seasons.

Rained out...

I am really trying to be better about exercising and getting back into running. Tonight after a very long Saturday at work I really didn't want to run. But, I got on my clothes, ponytail holder in, and fired up my music. As I was walking out the door, the sprinkles turned to a downpour! Oh darn, I changed into a sundress, cracked a Coors Light and played with sidewalk chalk under the covered back deck with Lauren. Can't really run in the pouring rain, can ya? Glad to know us chics got each other's backs- thanks Mother Nature!

July 4th 2011

Lauren's first parade - we went to the parade in Granby~ there were lots and lots of firetrucks, she got a yellow balloon, and could not believe that they threw candy at her! Poor child could not handle the fact that she was allergic to most of the candy (she missed a lot of the parade due to sneaking off to try to eat vanilla Tootsie Rolls made with milk). Isnt she a doll with her braids?? For some reason she thinks braids are for princesses...

Those legs!

Some times I cannot believe my own eyes when I look at pictures I have taken. Who is this tall young lady?

See below- same chair, two years earlier. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Born to Run

I just finished the book "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall. Loved it! The general premise, it is a story about running and ultramarathoning and how we are physiologically created to run long distances. There are many references to the Leadville 100 (Jeff's dream race I hear about all the time) and many of the characters in the book are very entertaining.  A bit of a change from my usual genre, but I really enjoyed it~ although I find that non-fiction books take me a lot longer to read usually.  I told Jeff that he must read it, and he is not really loving it so far. I have had so many people recommend the book to me, I cannot imagine him not loving it- we will have to see.
If anyone does decide to read it, check out some of the blogs of the author and book characters, I found it really entertaining to see pictures of everyone.

Hiking



I had forgotten how fun it is to blow the seeds of dandelion puffs!



On a little hike with my beauty...

Hula Girl

making her grandma proud!

Rodeo

The  rodeo is back! Opening night was this weekend, and my little cowgirl could not miss it. This has to be one of her favorite things!

Run for Independence

Our third year, and best yet! They changed the course a bit and we liked it a lot better this year. Also, it ended at the farmer's market and there was a beer garden too. The best news is that I ran the entire 5 miles (at 9200 feel elevation) without stopping! Check out pictures of our prior races here: 2010 and 2009

How to get a toddler to eat

Ok, so I am a mother to one child, just trying to figure it all out. I dont have too many tricks up my sleeve, but here is one that I would like to share. The power of the toothpick- yep that is right. TOOTHPICK. I have found that Lauren will eat just about anything if I make it fancy and spike it with a toothpick, preferably with a small pickle or slice of green olive. Pretty snazzy, right? Pictured are rolled up slices of turkey and ham, topped with tiny pickles. All of which she ate- BEFORE the strawberries. Yep, that is right- I got her to eat a source of protein and THEN chow down on berries and buttered noodles. This also works for us with small triangle shaped sandwiches, sliders, regular burgers cut into pieces, and just about anything you wanna spike with a pick. This trick has been working for me for a while- I waited to blog about it because I thought it may be a temporary victory, but it seems to be a keeper. Huh! I love it when I feel like a mom!

Quote of the day

"Come and play with me~ you puke in there and I will be doctor kit" ~ Lauren