A Feast for the Senses

Natalie and I spent the morning in the garden.  Our poor neglected garden is full of volunteers, (either seeds from our compost or remnants from last year) and weeds!  My plan was to make a salad from all the volunteer lettuce and arugula we have in the beds and the path.  Natalie has a ball in the garden  

She loves to play in the beds when the drip line is on and always manages to get soaked.  She also likes to move the rocks from the path to the beds and back... and pull the leaves off of stuff!!  

She's always right at my feet playing, and I'm able to keep her from putting too much dirt into her mouth!! (I don't know what's so appealing about wet soil, but I'm almost tempted to try it one of these days.)  

Well, this morning she was working on something, and I asked her to spit it out.  Out popped a strawberry!  I let her have it back, and eventually she spit out the stem and leaves... then I watched her for a minute and this is what I saw:

She quickly learned a lesson in colors when the green strawberry was yucky and hard, but the red one was delicious.  

I don't think there's a red or partially red berry left in the patch!  The birds finally have some decent competition for the fruit which I'd given up to them and the weeds!  

Once the berries were caput, we moved onto greener fare.  Natalie tried lettuce, arugula, mustard greens, nasturtium, cilantro, and chives.  

Since she still has no chomping teeth, the greens are a bit tough for her to take, but she worked on everything (except the cilantro) until it was mush and then spit it out.  

After our salad was made, we worked our way back to the house with a pit stop at the patio garden... Natalie explored the pig, (in desperate need of a paint job) and some flowers.  

What the camera can't capture are the smells and sounds... Natalie's looking around because she hears kids playing in the yard next door... there are always planes going overhead, (and she always points to them), and there's a bird feeder on a post behind the irises so the finches are all over the place!  

And those irises smell like grape candy!  Really!  It's crazy but they do!  Behind them is a big flowering sage bush that when you brush it smells like the prairie.  And in front of all of that is a bunch of thyme, oregano, and savory.  

I really hope Natalie grows up to love being in the garden as much as I do.  Right now I'm satisfied to watch her enjoy digging her hands in the mud, pulling flowers apart, and sticking fresh strawberries in her little mouth!  I think the seeds are planted!

Her own little chair

Natalie has been finding cute little places to sit lately... I guess it goes along with standing - she just needs to get off her feet every once in a while!  One of her favorite places at the cabin was on a case of water bottles in the mud room that was just the right height. 

She was also pretty entertained by this little ledge in the closet.  

Well, we remembered seeing some cute little baby sized chairs, so the other day Natalie and I took them for a test drive and ended up coming home with one... 

Now she's got her own little chair... what a big girl!!  I think she might need a little end table now to keep her books handy since it's a bit hard to get into it with a book in hand.  

And in some non-chair-related news, Natalie has FOUR teeth breaking through on the top in the center!!  She's been very cheerful, so I was surprised to feel them coming in when I checked to see why she had her fingers in her mouth so often!!  When you hold her upside-down she smiles nice and big and you can see the white ridges all lined up.  One of these days she'll have a mouthful!

Seems like someone else likes the new chair too!  

A rainy rainy weekend in Southern Colorado

On Wednesday we took a 5 hour drive South to visit my DH's mom, Sally at her cabin.  It's a great place to visit, right on the Conejos River, with beautiful trees and trails.  We packed everything we'd need for adventures in the great outdoors.  My husband packed his fly fishing gear, and we brought the baby backpack for hikes.  (Can you find Natalie in this picture?  I'll give you a hint - she's preparing for the car-ride in her usual way.)  

Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, and we spent much of the trip indoors.  It was still a great trip to the cabin, full of the usually good food and good conversation.  Luckily my husband brought his fly tying gear, and I brought my sewing stuff, so we had plenty to do indoors when Natalie wasn't keeping us busy.  

The drive there is pretty long, and our little one is full of energy these days, so we stopped in Fairplay about halfway through and had our lunch.  We found a quiet little gazebo with a picnic table in it and parked ourselves there.  Minutes later, we were swarmed by third graders and their teachers and parents on a walking field trip through town.  Can you spot the baby in this one? 

This ended up being really a good thing.  Natalie played with these little girls, and was very entertained.  She crawled after them in the grass and they talked to her, picked her up and gave her toys to play with.  
Here she is demonstrating her newest trick!  

She's getting more and more confident by the day.  It's very exciting to watch her.  She's so proud of  her new walking skills!  

Once we got to the cabin we quickly settled into a routine.  Natalie slept great in her pack-n-play at the foot of our bed.  In the morning we all had smoothies.  

Here she is waiting with the dogs for her share of the banana-nana-nana in the morning.  

The first day we were there we took a drive to Taos.   Our first stop was this huge toy store.  They had a terrific play yard out back that I helped Natalie climb through.  She liked the slide at the end, and probably would have done it again, if I hadn't lost confidence in the structure carrying my weight.  Next time we go she'll be able to do it on her own!  

 She's really starting to like these trikes too... we'll have to get hers down from the garage where it's been hanging soon. 

   

We had some tasty Mexican food at Michael's Kitchen while we were there.  We will soon take the hint that Natalie is getting to an awkward restaurant age... this picture does not show the demon child that she was impersonating while we were trying to eat.  

The next day we got some chores done at the Conejos Ranch down the road from Sally's cabin.  They were very nice and let us use the printer there to print out some huge refinance documents.  We were working on a mail-in refinance and had to get the paperwork signed and notarized by Friday at the latest.  Tomorrow I take them in and we'll see if it all worked!!  

Natalie enjoyed all the Western paraphernalia at the ranch as well as the mules and baby goats!  

It was a good trip, even though we don't have pictures of panoramic mountain vista to show for it.  We got to spend some quality family time with Mama Sally which is what it's all about.  

Here's Natalie saying goodbye to Sam, her new best friend, before we left.  I think she will mostly miss Sam for helping her clean her plate when she is done, (or maybe just bored) with eating.  

And one last picture.  Three generations!  

Erie Days Balloon Launch

Last weekend was Erie Days. The festivities include a fair downtown with music and events for the kids. Bigger kids might enjoy the airshow at the local tri-county airport, (we were able to see some of the planes in formation from our house that day but didn't attend). This year we were determined to see the balloons launch, even though they started at 6:00am. There were to be three days of balloons.

We didn't bother with Friday, but went out on Saturday morning to join the undercaffeinated crowds. The weather was pretty grey, but that didn't phase us. Once we got there it became obvious that the balloon launch that morning wasn't a given. The chilly crowds were milling, but there were no balloons in site. It was announced over loud speakers that the launch was delayed 30 minutes due to wind. About 30 minutes later it was announced that the launch was scrubbed for the day.

We went out for breakfast, promising that we would try again the next day.

Sunday morning dawned much clearer than Saturday. No wind and clear skies. We packed our coffee and dressed in warm layers.

The field looked much more promising than the previous morning. Trucks with balloon festooned trailers were all over the place, and the crowds were beginning to mill about. We found a hill in the middle of the field, and were quickly surrounded by 4 or 5 different trucks.
Once they began unloading baskets and testing their fire-power we knew we were in business.

Natalie was intrigued by the balloons in the air. A good lesson in "up".


We had front-row seats for one of the balloons. We had to move out of the way as they rolled out and filled the balloon using a gas engine-powered fan.

Once the balloons were full, they would turn on the fire and the heat lifted them right up.

Soon after the field and sky filled with balloons.



Here's a view after all the balloons had launched and were moving away. Many are on the horizon, so you can't actually see them all there. The only bad part about the experience was that the wind was blowing the balloons off towards the low morning sun. If it had been blowing the other way, the balloons would have been perfectly lit with a snow-covered Long's Peak and the whole front range spread out behind them.

There were supposed to be 50 something balloons launching that morning. I didn't count though.

We will do this again for sure. There were balloons from all over Colorado, and we saw a couple from Wyoming as well. Very cool.

Walden Ponds

Last Thursday we went for a leisurly walk around Boulder County's wildlife preserve at Walden Ponds.  The area is a reclaimed gravel pit.  After the mining was done in the 70's the county spent some money and moved some gravel to create islands and peninsulas in the pits that were filling up with ground water.  They also allocated a certain amount of water to be allowed into the pond from the adjacent Boulder Creek, (from what was left after all the prior water rights were observed.)  This new marshland would be a refuge and nesting ground for migratory birds and other wildlife.  There are often egrets and herons as well as some of the more common birds to Colorado like the blackbirds and robins we see all the time.  

Today the ponds have suffered from three years of drought and are very low.   

We still saw some interesting wildlife, including a pelican (far away - it was just a white speck in another picture), red-winged blackbirds (below), robins, turtles, a really cool yellow-tailed bird that might have been some kind of goldfinch maybe... I couldn't find it in my book.  

These robins were very bold.  I could have reached out and touched this one. I know they're not rare or all that interesting, but it was neat to see them so close.  Natalie was intrigued.  

On our walk we spotted some horses.  definitely not wild.  I imagine that certain ranchers have grazing deals with the Boulder County Open Space people.  

On a little hill where we stopped we got to see a glider plane being pulled up and let go.  They took a few circles of the area on their way up, and on the first one they went right over us and were so close we could see the cable.  

After all that excitement Natalie took a little nap.  She'd skipped her morning one, so I was surprised she made it this far!

She didn't get to see these painted turtles we spotted sunning themselves.  See the little baby one in the middle?  

But she was up in time for some lunch at the end.  

Nupur gave my stab at an Indian meal her seal of approval.  Always room for improvement, but I think I'm getting there.  

She could be a FARMER in those clothes

Last week I went thrift store shopping with my Nan, (she and her friend go every Wednesday when seniors get half off - she gets Natalie some really cute outfits there!), her friend, and my mom.  

I picked up a few things.  This kid needs more clothes like she needs a hole in the head!  

Anyway, one of my favorite finds was this little pair of overalls.  

They're Cherokee, which I think is a Target brand, but I'm not sure.  

Natalie put them to good use with some yard work.  Of course, the first thing she did was find some mud.  

And sit in it.  

Luckily, they washed up very nicely, and were dry and ready to wear again in a couple hours.  

Not bad for $1.50!

Out to Lunch

Yesterday, my dad and grandparents took me out to lunch for my birthday.  I just wanted to share a couple of pictures from lunch.  

Isn't Natalie lucky to be able to spend so much time with her great-grandparents?

More Dirt

My little helper and I were at it again.  We loaded up her cart with flowers and did some planting around the house.  

She's still not walking, but she stands more and more often without any help.  Especially when she's examining something, trying to get it into her mouth, or, as in this case with a flower, tearing it apart!

She loves it when I turn on the drip line... I'm not sure how many onions we'll get since that's the row she's got her fist buried into...

And on this occasion, she did get a bit of mud into her mouth.  She wasn't too happy with it, so maybe she's learning.