Pumpkin Patch!

Munson Farms Sweet Cow

Fall is in the air!  Sabrina and Celia decided to don their halloween costumes and check out Munson Farms in East Boulder.  We picked up some pumpkins, lots of squash, and some fresh produce.  We also got to ride on a tractor around the farm.  The weather was amazing and is finally starting to feel a lot like fall.
Sabrina and Celia continue to operate more like siblings than friends.  They are as tight as ever, but they are still 2 and 3 and it leads to some spats over very silly things.  At the farm they fought over a tiny pumpkin and once either of them gets going, it's usually impossible to stop the meltdown.  We're working on all the logical arguments we can and trying to talk to them before and after the battles to see if we can avoid them and learn from them, but sometimes we feel like we're just flapping our gums.  I still believe that our words are sinking in, but it can get exhausting.  The funny part is that as soon as the meltdown has ended and one or the other has gotten over that particular issue, they go back to being sweet and adorable together.  They were particularly adorable riding the inflatable cows that "live" on the lawn outside our favorite pizza / ice cream place in Louisville where we went after the pumpkin patch.  Lucky Pie and Sweet Cow are owned by two guys who were old friends in high school who bought the building then tore up the parking lot, put in sod and a fence around it, then put in about 10 raised bed gardens where they grow a lot of the ingredients they use in the restaurants.  It's a great concept and they make really delicious food and ice cream.
We're planning a big feast soon with all of our harvest purchases.  Yum.

Denver Zoo Carousel

Denver Zoo Sept 2012

On Saturday morning we were sitting at lunch and Brent said "Maybe tomorrow we should go to the Z-O-O" and Sabrina chimed in immediately to say "Yeah, we should go there" Us: "Go where?" Sabrina: "To the Zoo!!"  Yikes!  She's learning to spell.  Trouble.  So of course, we had to go to the zoo.

I promise that we DO see the animals when we go to the zoo, but Sabrina continues to be a magnet to the carousel.  This trip was actually a breakthrough because, despite all of Sabrina's love of the carousel, she always gets nervous and serious right when it comes time to get on the ride.  This time, however, she jumped right on her animal of choice, smiled and waved on every lap and genuinely looked like she was having fun!  It's amazing that after all the times we've gone to various carousels, Brent and I both noticed how different it was when she was relaxed and truly happy to be on the ride.  What a funny girl.

Salida, CO Road Trip

CO Road Trip Sept. 2012

Our friends Rachel and Glenn had a wedding party in Salida this weekend (they got married on a hike in Alaska, but wanted to celebrate with friends) and we turned it into a good excuse for a family road trip to see the fall colors throughout Colorado.  We headed up and over Kenosha Pass on the way there and stopped for a quick hike.  We had Pongo with us and between him and the two kids, frequent stops were helpful.  Pongo hurt his leg about a week ago and has stitches in his leg so he had to take it easy, but it's a good thing we were planning on bringing him anyway since we couldn't have left him with anybody else this weekend.  We found a great hotel in Salida that allowed dogs and Pongo behaved very well the whole weekend.
On the way home we went through Canon City (prison city, USA) and stopped to see the Royal Gorge.  We must have been about a week past "high season" at the Gorge because the entire place felt like an abandoned amusement park!  It was a very weird scene.  But, a very cool thing to see as well.  Even Pongo got to walk over the big bridge.
It was a lot of driving over 2 days but the girls did great.  Sabrina has figured out how to completely zone out in the car by watching shows on the iPad.  Her favorites are still Dora the Explorer & Olivia.  She still gets a little grumpy after watching too much TV, so it's still not our favorite mode of hers, but it has kept her from getting carsick several times now and she'll hang in there for a long car ride so we're going with it.
Sabrina is an incredible "Daddy's Girl" these days and is pretty much attached to him at the hip.  It's somewhat necessary since I'm dealing with Kali so much (and Brent's pretty bad at nursing, it turns out), but it's also getting to be a bit of a problem.  After a long day in the car Sunday without a nap, Sabrina had a pretty major meltdown and was downright nasty to me before going to bed.  I try to tell myself that she's just a silly 2 year old, but the fact is that it's pretty hard to feel like I can't connect with her anymore.  She seems angry with me almost all the time and I'm thinking that it must have to do with Kali, but she just can't verbalize that yet.  However, Brent is probably more fun and more patient than me too, so that certainly contributes!!  So we're addressing it and trying to even things up a bit if we can because neither of us want another blow up like we had Sunday night.  I hope it's just a phase that will get better once Kali is a bit less time consuming, but perhaps by changing a few things on a daily basis will help.  Brent has been taking Kali to daycare this week so I can take Sabrina...just trying to split things up differently when we can instead of always defaulting to him with Sabrina and me with Kali.  I've also noticed that Sabrina and I do just fine if Brent's not around, but as soon as he's there, she only wants him and treats me much worse.  Like I said, we're working on it and I hope it's just a phase.

Kali has really gotten over her hatred of the car these days.  She was a great sport all weekend and only had a few stints of persistent crying.  Usually if she cried it was because she was hungry or tired and she was easy to soothe.  A few times it went on for a while, but nothing like her early days of flipping out in the car.  We're so glad that phase seems to be behind us.  Kali is also an amazing sleeper right now.  I can't believe that I can put her in her crib, all swaddled up, and she'll look up at me, smile and turn her head to the side and go to sleep for the entire night.  Are you kidding?  It's awesome.  I'm sure it won't last forever, but I'm enjoying every single night that it does!

Hot Chicks Dig Obama

This weekend we got to attend an Obama campaign rally in Boulder.  Sabrina picked out her own pin for the day "Hot Chicks Dig Obama" (ok, fine, she chose it because it was pink, but we ran with it).  The crowd was huge - so huge that it took us hours to get into the venue, but when we did, Nana and Poppy were waiting for us with a NYTimes Sunday tent for Kali and a spot to run around while we waited for Obama to speak.  You can see where he was by the bright light in the picture.  Not exactly close, but it was still cool to be in the same place as he was and to have Sabrina get some exposure to politics, as crazy as it may be.  

Hiking takes on a different form

McCullough Gulch Sept 2012

One of our favorite hikes just outside of Breckenridge is McCullough Gulch.  It's close to the condo, a fairly short distance to a beautiful waterfall, and has great fall colors when the trees change.  However, we haven't made it to the waterfall in over a year, I think.  We're slowly realizing that hiking is harder and harder with Sabrina these days.  She will hang in there in the backpack for a little while, but then she wants to hike on her own.  We love that, of course, because she finds everything interesting, but it also means that we move at a snail's pace.  The last 2 or 3 times we've hiked this trail, we've turned back because of weather because the hike took so much longer than we expected!

Kali is still a great trooper and she'll hang in there in the Ergo carrier for a long time, but our frequent hikes that we loved to do with Sabrina during her first year might not happen the same way for Kalira.  We still have many other ways to spend time outside though...just a matter of finding the right activities for keeping a toddler entertained and an infant comfortable.  We love new challenges.