A Social Week

We've had quite the social week and we are exhausted-but in a good way.  We had a pretty quiet week until Thursday when mom hosted my Daisy Troop meeting.  Mom had the brilliant idea of having us work on a cooking project to earn our cooking badges so we made pancakes.  There is nothing quite like trying to cook with seven 6 year old girls.  Thank goodness there are two troop leaders because without the other leader to help, we would have had complete chaos- flour flying everywhere, strawberries stuck to the ceiling etc.  But we held it together and the pancakes turned out really good and mom sent everyone home amped up on maple syrup.  Good times!

On Friday, after an exhausting week for dad, we just stayed home for dinner with dad looking forward to a good night sleep in his own bed.  Unfortunately for him, I had other ideas.  I decided I wanted a camp out in the basement.  With dad.  So dad, being the softy he is, got our tents set up.  I got my flash lights and my "stuffies" and we spent the night in the basement.  Mom asked me how it was the next morning and without hesitation, I said it was the most awesome night ever!  Dad didn't describe it exactly the same way, but I'm sure it was awesome for him too!

Saturday night, we had some of our old neighbors over for dinner and had a really great time.  We invited our neighbors that lived behind us with the little boy I always played with and we invited my other good friends parents too.  5 kids and 6 adults and it was great!  Mom was sure everyone would be  heading home by 8:30 but we were still going strong at 10:30.  I finally made it to bed about 11 and mom and dad about 11:30.  Needless to say, Sunday was a day of not getting out of our jammies until noon and watching Scooby Doo all day!
Hope everyone has a great week and a good night's sleep!

Another Relaxing Weekend

Another very low keyed weekend gone by.  We still haven't had enough of these to be bored yet- they are still a novelty and we are enjoying them so very much!

We had a good week.  Mom and I both had Monday off for Martin Luther King day.  Instead of doing something constructive like learning about civil rights and equality etc., we went out for breakfast and a movie.  Breakfast was at a place called Snooze and I'll be ding donged if it wasn't the best darn breakfast we've ever had.  I got chocolate chip pancakes and a scrambled egg.  I'm still talking about the egg today and am demanding to go back for more.  Mom hit the trifecta with her breakfast of a flight of pancakes- one buttermilk pancake with pumpkin creme, carmalized pepitas and chile-maple syrup, one pineapple upside down pancake and one red velvet pancake.  It was the first time she was ever stopped in her tracks by a pancake.  Soooo good.  I helped her finish the red velvet pancake and I am still talking about that pancake too.  After mom recovered from her sugar coma, we went to see "We Bought a Zoo".  It was a really cute movie but maybe just a bit old for me.  I got a tad fidgety about half way through but we made it and had a good time.

The rest of the week was nothing special and Friday night was dinner at my favorite bar- Lodos.  It had been closed for remodeling for awhile so I was very excited it was open again.

We had a good sleep in morning on Saturday and then in the afternoon, mom and I headed over to my friend Sophia's house.  Her mom and my mom are our Daisy Troop leaders and they got to spend the afternoon in a freezing cold garage, sorting and passing out our cookies for our big cookie sale.  I had a really fun time but I'm not so sure about the moms.

On Sunday morning, mom and I ventured out to actually sell my cookies but it turns out that Sunday morning at 11:30 isn't a great time.  Either no one was answering their door or else they weren't home.  We managed to sell 4 boxes to the neighbors and 15 boxes to family.  Mom even let me buy my own box of Savannah Smiles, the new lemon flavor which I love.  We might head out Monday after work to see if anyone is home then- we'll see.

So, after a disappointing morning of sales, we headed out for a nice long walk with the dogs.

(This is Halie, kind of missing the mark on her frisbee)

We walked to a pond about a mile from our house.  It was terribly windy and pretty danged cold as you can tell, but our new motto is "There is no bad weather, only bad clothing."  Mom must have had on really bad gloves because she couldn't feel her fingers by the time we got back.  Makes it a little hard to open your beer!

We had a nice evening and everyone hit the sack early.  Hope you have a great weekend!  And buy my Girl Scout cookies!

A little normalcy

Aaaahhh- finally!  A "back to normal" weekend.  Things have been so crazy around here for so long, we kind of forgot what it was like to have a weekend without painting, patching, packing, unpacking, cleaning, organizing, working etc.  We were all getting a little crabby around here and it was just no fun!

We had a good week here although dad was working some crazy late days and not getting home until 7 several times.  He "snuck" out early on Friday but conference called in to work on his drive home.  At least he got home before 6!

We had a mess of a snow storm come through on Wednesday.  It didn't snow that much but it rolled in at rush hour and everything came to a stand still.  It took dad over an hour to get to work and it took mom an hour and a half to get to her first patient- normally a 35 minute drive.  It sucked.  However, on the bright side, mom's last patient of the day cancelled so she scooted home to give her new cross country skis a spin.  It took her a bit to get clipped in but once that happened, she skied on down the road (literally) to the park by our house and toodled around the park for about 30 minutes.  It was only about 25 degrees but she worked up a good sweat and had a great time.  She could probably use some pointers on form but should be Olympic bound in no time!

On Thursday, we had my first official Girl Scout meeting.  We learned about being helpful and friendly. (Don't think mom isn't pulling that one out every time I pitch a fit).  I got my Daisy uniform and some patches to iron on.  Since we don't own an iron, it required a trip to Target to purchase the cheapest iron we could find.  Mom still doesn't have the patches on yet but I keep reminding her, gently.  The next meeting is at our house and we will be earning our cooking badge.  That ought to be a hoot!

Friday, we went out to dinner and Saturday we slept in- finally.  Mom went for a nice long run and dad finally got outdoors on his bike for a few hours.  He is much less grouchy now.  We hunkered down to watch the Broncos get their rear ends kicked.  Good thing we aren't real fans of the Broncos yet.  Maybe some day.

Here is a picture of the moonrise from our backyard.  Pretty amazing.


On Sunday, we all slept in again and then headed to the Littleton Historical Museum.  I've been there on a field trip with my school but mom and dad have never been.  I was an awesome tour guide. There was a photo exhibit of the Grand Canyon which sucked mom and dad right in.  I thought they would never leave but they were trying to figure out when and how they could get back there for some backpacking.
Outdoors, there are two farms.  One from the 1860s and one from the 1890s.  There are farm houses, school houses, barns, animals, a blacksmith shop and today, lots and lots of mud!
It was a great day to be outside.

After we got back from there, mom and I headed to the park to play a little softball and enjoy the sunshine some more.
We rounded out the evening with a rousing game of Smurf Dance Party on the Wii and then headed off to bed.
Mom and I are off tomorrow for Martin Luther King Jr's birthday but dad has to head back to work for more of the grind.  The VP is in town this week, so it could be another long one for him.
Have a great week everyone!

Welcome Sophia! (And a few other things)

Wow!  We have a ton of things to report and a ton of pictures too.

The biggest and best news is that my newest cousin finally arrived!  We went to Albuquerque for Christmas with big hopes of seeing her before we left but she had different ideas.  We left on the Monday after Christmas and Sophia made her entrance into the world on Wednesday.  Auntie Erin was in labor for 18 hours and after all that work, baby Sophia came out weighing only 6 pounds and 4 ounces.  She sure does pack a lot of cute into that tiny package and we are so happy she is here and healthy.  (You'll have to scroll down to see pictures because mom can't figure out how to rearrange these)

So, now lets rewind 2 weeks.  We have had an incredibly hectic two weeks.  As you may remember, we bought a house and dad has been spending every spare moment at the new house, getting it ready for us to move into.  Well, mom decided that she would rather move before Christmas and be all settled for the new year than come back after vacation to face the daunting task of changing houses.  Not her most brilliant of ideas but it all worked out in the end.  Soooo, the weekend before Christmas, when everyone else was shopping, baking, sending out cards etc., we were unpacking boxes and rearranging furniture.  We didn't even have Christmas decoration because our little tree dried up and we had to throw it out.  Ugh.

We did manage to find some time to take in the light show at the wildlife museum near our house which was very cool.

I got to meet Dancer and Prancer.  Did you know they are girls??  I had no idea!!

And then I met Santa!!  We stood in line outside in 25 degree weather for an hour and it was so worth it!  I loved him and asked for some Hex bugs, a Pucci pup and a remote control helicopter.  He was awesome!

We left for Albuquerque on Friday but we had to contend with a monster snow storm on Thursday which dumped about 13" of snow at our house.  Dad shoveled the drive way and made me a snow fort.  All the neighbors knew we were new to Colorado because mom was out snapping away with her camera like this was the first time we'd seen snow.  It was actually the third time we've seen it.  So there!

We also managed to squeeze in dad's birthday celebration with a pumpkin pie for breakfast after the hard work of shoveling.  It was the best breakfast ever!

On Friday, we left for Albuquerque and arrived safely despite some yucky stretches of road.  Auntie Erin, her sister Kristen and Uncle Adam came up to help us celebrate dad's birthday again.  Ms. Kristen is just as cool as Auntie Erin and kept me occupied all evening while mom and dad drank all the wine.  Ms. Kristen is welcome here any time!

This is dad cutting up his birthday roast beef.  It was darn tasty and I had three helpings.

The aftermath of dad's dinner.

Christmas Eve- Mr. Walker and I headed out to leave food out for the reindeer- a most important task.

Getting Santa's cookies ready- an even more important task.

Christmas morning- I actually slept until 7.  Santa was true to his word and brought me some Hex bugs, a Pucci Puppy AND a remote control helicopter.  As an extra surprise, Santa brought me a sled too!

After opening presents, we headed up to Uncle Adam and Aunt Erin's house and used their driveway to test drive my sled.

When we got back, mom took her new cross country skis out for a test drive in Nana's front yard.  She can't wait for snow!
We headed back to Denver on Monday and continue to unpack and organize.  It has been an awesomely fun time for everyone.  Not really.  I did find some time to exercise my artistic talent and drew mom some vampire bats with blood dripping out of their mouths.  Merry Christmas!!

Dad and I took my sled out to a park near our house and really broke it in.  I tried to get dad to pull it up the hill for me but he wouldn't fall for that trick.

Finally!  Baby Sophia pictures!  Look at that hair!

We had a good New Year's Eve.  We actually left the house which is down right insane for us.  We headed down to the zoo for the zoo lights.  Mom and dad have discovered that most outdoor family events in Denver come with hot chocolate and for a very nominal fee, those hot chocolates can become grown up hot chocolate.  Mom and dad added a shot of cinnamon whiskey to theirs and all was right with the world.  We got home from the zoo, ordered a pizza, popped open the champagne and settled in for the night.  We were in bed by 10 but it was still a great night.

On new year's day, mom and I headed out for our annual new year's day hike.  It was a little different here in Colorado.  We were cold and the trial was too icy to really go any where so we spent a ton to time climbing the rocks.  That was just fine with me.

 Uncle Adam is looking just a wee bit tired.

More Sophia!  Don't you just want to eat her up??!

More climbing.
We are all settled into our house and we love it- it already feels like home.  Dad and I played some basketball in the side yard with the hoop that was left behind by the former owners, mom made a decent dinner and we had a great first day of 2012.
We hope everyone has a healthy, happy, fulfilling year!