Mormon Tabernacle Choir at Red Rocks

Chris and I purchased tickets for a Mormon Tabernacle Choir performance at Red Rocks way back in January or February. The tickets hung out on my shelf above my computer screen for months and most of the time we just forgot about them. We then began planning a trip to Canada to visit my parents and to attend Chris' family reunion. When we finally began putting events into our calendar, I noticed that the concert was on Monday, June 29 and we had a flight scheduled from Calgary, AB to Kamloops, BC on July 3. We wanted to be in Canada for Canada day on July 1 which meant that we either skip the concert and make the loooooooong trip to Alberta beginning on the 29th, or we attend the concert and cram the loooooooong trip into a one-day drive. We opted for the second scenario, but we weren't looking forward to it. The trip is about 13 to 14 hours without stops--kids usually add time to stops.

We had planned to attend the concert with friends, but at the last minute we had two extra tickets and decided to take Amy along--Misha would have been bored in the first ten minutes. We left early since Red Rocks is about 45 minutes to an hour away in good traffic, and we also wanted to have dinner. Chris' favorite restaurant was our first stop--Texas Roadhouse--and he is quickly convincing our daughters that steak is the way to go as well!

We had well over an hour before the concert started and I suggested that maybe we could stop at Colorado Mills mall. While there, Amy's sandal broke and so we were on a mission to find her new shoes. No luck, so we cut the straps off and made them into flip flop type shoes. Cool at first, but they worked some blisters by night's end.

We shouldn't have stopped at the mall, and I felt so awful. We were miles away from Red Rocks when traffic backed up and it took us forever to make our way. We later found out that the choir was late and had the road blocked off for half an hour to get their buses through. We were at least a half hour late for the concert and since it was our first time at Red Rocks we had no idea about the climb we were in for. I should have taken a picture. We climbed hundreds of stairs. I grabbed on to Amy's hand and just pulled her along behind me. We finally were seated way up high (65th row and there are only 70 in the venue). The music was beautiful and the view was amazing. My pictures don't do it justice.







I had most of our stuff packed, but I knew there was still plenty to do once we got home and we wanted to be on the road by 5:30 am. Probably for those reasons, I didn't enjoy the concert as much as I could have. As we were nearing the end of the final song, I leaned over to Chris and said, "I think we should leave now." I usually regard those who leave events early with a little disdain, but it was 10 pm and there was still so much to do at home. Chris nodded his head and we began the long descent down the stairs. We saved ourselves at a minimum an hour in getting out of the venue and parking lot; I was relieved. Since we didn't go to bed until 12:30 am and my alarm was set for 4:30 am, I am glad we left a couple of minutes early.

Yell Mode

I was getting after Misha today for yelling at her sister. Her reply, "I asked her nicely a couple of times to give it to me and finally I had to go to yell mode." Frankly, I understand completely.

Slivers

Kristen was in the middle of her nightly bedtime routine when she noticed some funny little things all over fingers, "Look Mom. What is it?" She walked over to my rocking chair where I was patiently waiting for her and enjoying the sunset. Her fingers were covered in slivers.



She asked me to remove the slivers and calmly held her hand in my lap as I poked the little slivers with a needle and tweezers to remove them. That's pretty amazing when I consider that Misha or Amy would cringe and cry if I started poking around their hands with a needle. I got most of the slivers out but there were a few stubborn ones that would have to work themselves out.

Tomatoes

The other morning we were kneeling for family prayer, Kristen was saying the prayer and out comes "please bless us with no more tomatoes". Hmmm, I know she doesn't like tomatoes, especially the diced up kind that I put in some casseroles, but we haven't really had any lately... I peek around and no one else seems to think that her tomato comment is curious. When she closes the prayer, I ask, "You don't want any more tomatoes?" Amy pipes in "Tornadoes, we talked about it last night on our bike ride." Ahhh, that makes more sense.

Knock Knock

Like typical kids, my girls love to tell Knock Knock jokes. Sometimes you have to just look at them and think, "Hmmmm." Kristen is getting into the spirit of it as well, but rarely makes any sense. I laughed in the front seat as she kind of messed up Misha's joke the other day. This is how the conversation went:

Misha: Knock Knock
Kristen: What?
Misha: You're supposed to say "Who's there?"
Kristen: Hoodalehoo (in a singsong voice)
Misha: No, I say Knock Knock and you say "Who's there."
Misha: Knock Knock
Kristen: Who?
Misha: Aggh, I don't like this game anymore.
Kristen: What?
Misha: Just stop.

Then Misha tried to pull another joke on Kristen later. The goal is to get the person to say "Under where?" with the joke in a 7-year old's mind being that the person just said "underwear." Potty humor.

Misha: What's under there?
Kristen: What?
Misha with more emphasis: What's under there?
Kristen: What are you talking about?
Misha: What's under there?
Kristen: What? (Curious but confused)
Mom: Misha, she's not going to say it so you might as well stop trying.

Misha's New Do

It looked a whole lot cuter before she ran through the sprinkler!

Picnic Preparation

I mentioned to Kristen that she could maybe probably have a picnic on the front porch the other day. She quickly assembled a few of the necessary requirements:



Don't forget Sasha the stuffed dog!

FREEDOM!!!!

Amy got her braces off today! She was excited, and her teeth look great. The Orthodontist attached a little wire to the back of her teeth to act as a permanent retainer--permanent until he determines that it is no longer necessary. That could be a couple of years as the remaining adult teeth come in. If you remember, she had quite a gap between her two front teeth, such that they would not allow the teeth on either side to descend.



The braces achieved their desired goal in eliminating the space AND allowing the other two teeth to descend nicely into their space. Beautiful.

Dogs

We were driving home from Amy's orthodontist appointment this afternoon. Amy and Misha both had their heads hung out the window with the wind rushing through their hair. Amy commented, "I can see why dogs like this."

Hiking without Children

As promised, Chris and I headed out to go hiking on our own this weekend. The weather has been rather ominous in the afternoons lately so we decided to stay a little closer to home rather than going all the way up to Rocky Mountain National Park. This time we chose to hike up to Flatirons 1 and 2 above Chautauqua Park in Boulder, CO.

The Flatirons are rock formations near Boulder, Colorado. There are five large, numbered Flatirons ranging from north to south (First through Fifth, respectively) along the east slope of Green Mountain, and the term "The Flatirons" sometimes refers to these five alone... The Flatirons were named by pioneer women after the flat, metal irons used to press their clothes. Wikipedia

We have hiked above Chautauqua Park in a different direction on a number of other occasions. In fact, this is a picture I took of the Flatirons from our hike last September.



These hikes were suitable for children with some effort; I would not take my children up to the Flatirons until they were older. We so recklessly (read stupidly) ignored the fact that our car was pelted with hail and huge raindrops as we drove toward Boulder. By the time we arrived the rain had stopped; we decided to forge ahead even though thunder rumbled around us. (We had a babysitter. You can't waste such an opportunity!) We began our hike as the thunder continued, the sky darkened and rain drops began to fall about five minutes later. We only had small hail pelting us--but we were okay because we stood under a big, tall tree!!!!!! Chris lent me his rain jacket to stay a little dryer.



Chris pulled out his trusty Blackberry--that'll save us! Not really, but he was able to check Doppler radar for Boulder to see how long the storm would last. So comforting to be right in the middle of the storm. Yet, we forged on after the rain dissipated and encountered this Flatironette--yep, that's what it was called--a small, trickling waterfall.





Here's Chris at the second Flatiron. The rocks and views were amazing.

Last Day of Swimming Lessons

and my legs are fried--we finally had some nice weather. The last couple of days either the weather or the pool (the heater went out) have been cold. And today, my girls convinced me to stay and let them swim for free swim--them and a couple hundred of their closest friends. Ok, really, only Audrey, Jonah and Sophie were their friends at the pool today, but they groaned each time they saw another bus pull up!





Lessons were staggered between 10:30 and 11:20 and free swim didn't start until 1:00 pm, but the lifeguards let us stay and lounge around while we ate lunch and waited. We had a lot of time to sit and chat and watch the kids. Thus my legs are a brilliant red tonight. Every five minutes I'd hear, "How much longer?" Since they don't let the free swimmers in until 1, we had most of the grassy area and sand to ourselves--nice. Tasha and I got smart and moved to a shadier place before the crowd poured in, and finally at 1:00 sharp, the lifeguards blew their whistles. Whew. The slides were open and Amy and Misha had a blast.









Misha and Jonah got tired of swimming after awhile. This particular activity would give my claustrophobia, but Misha didn't seem to mind. I finally extricated her from the sand so she wouldn't be too sunburned. She had sand in her ears! That's almost as bad as the crunch of sand when you accidentally eat it.

In My Backyard

Misha and I had fun watching this hot air balloon fill and rise this morning in a field close to our house. There are many reasons I love living in this rural setting: the peace and quiet, corn fields, good friends, mountains, beautiful Spring mornings...

More Crazy Weather

We've had some crazy June weather this year--tornadoes, hail storms, thunder and lightning.

Another Hike

My girls are not fans of hiking, yet we still make them do it. And usually you will hear Chris telling them sometime during the hike that these are the experiences they will remember and tell their children about when they make them go on hikes. We chose a different hike than Alberta Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park. We were still in the park but chose instead to head up toward Lawn Lake. Round trip, it would have been about ten miles, so we chose a shorter version. We paralleled the falls (Alluvial Fan Falls) and the river above for over a mile and a half up. Kristen is getting big enough that she can do some walking AND that Chris doesn't want to carry her on his back--she only got to ride part of the way!!



Chris promised the girls that if they would hike WITHOUT whining, they could do something fun in Estes Park when we were finished. They did really well and when we reached our stopping point, there was an OSHA non-compliant bridge that they crossed over to check out the other side.





Our trip down was a lot quicker, though part way down Kristen announced, "I need to go potty." After her second announcement, Chris and I figured we better do something about her need. We stepped to the side of the path, assumed the position with me holding her legs and Chris her upper body when she said, "There's no pee in there, it's poop." We quickly pulled up her pants while laughing and took off at a faster clip to make it to the potty in time.

It was a beautiful hike and Chris and I hope to go sans children next week and try the ten mile hike up to Lawn Lake.

No Whining Reward

As noted above, Chris promised the girls if they would hike without whining, they could do something fun afterward. It worked because there was minimal whining.









If you can, click on the picture of Chris and Kristen and check out the fantastic expression on Kristen's face.

It isn't every day...

...that you are interrupted in the middle of teaching Primary at church and told to quietly go to the gymnasium because there is a funnel cloud forming close to the church. But that is exactly what happened yesterday. Most of the kids weren't aware of what was going on and happily left class for a different experience. After about five minutes of singing primary songs, the bishop gave the all clear and we headed back to class. It was nice to be watched over.


Picture is courtesy of Jeff Love, taken from the west entrance of the church.





A hail storm commenced, and when we arrived home, there were spots in our flower beds that looked as though they had been snowed on. One of our patio stools did not fare so well and our trampoline mat is pretty beat up all the way around. But we are safe. I never expected Colorado to be in Tornado Alley!

Best Friends

After swimming lessons, the girls' best friends spent the afternoon playing at our house. We started with a picnic lunch in the back yard. They said the trailer was the warmest spot in the yard (might have been since the wind was blowing from the other direction and the house blocked it in that area).

Swimming Lessons

We are trying something different this summer for swimming lessons. Normally we have signed up at the Rec Center in Frederick (about 10 minutes away) and the girls go once a week for 8 weeks. For beginners, the instructors have never been that great, so we decided to sign up at an outdoor pool in Longmont with some friends for a two-week intensive session. WHEN the weather is nice, it is a lot of fun and we stay afterward and have a picnic lunch. Most days, it has been overcast and some days it has been downright chilly. And today, the pool heater wasn't working right. The kids opted to get in the pool but all got out of the pool with blue lips.







Kristen could use a little help keeping her goggles in the right place.

Kristen

For the past two nights when I have told Kristen that it is time for bed, she will hold up her arm, pull back her sleeve and say, "Look at my watch! It is NOT time for bed."

She doesn't have a watch.

Misha

Sometimes I wonder if Misha intends for her comments to be a sarcastic slam or if she is simply awestruck. Yesterday I was in the office reading my email and she was supposed to be practicing her violin--and I think I had mentioned that one of her jobs for the day would be to clean the girls' desk--when I heard her ask, "Mom, do you like being a mom?" It took me a second or two to answer since I was still reading, but I gave her a, "Sure sweetie."

She then commented mostly to herself, "It sure would be nice to tell other people what to do." I started laughing, because she didn't sound as though she was being sarcastic but rather looking forward to that day.

It's a Monday

You know your day is getting off to a bad start when your credit card company sends an email requesting that you call immediately and you can't logon to your credit card website. Yep, someone stole our number and tried to use it online a number of times. They were successful once but the card was denied other times alerting the fraud department that our card had been compromised.

Then, we have had a lot of water pooling in the lower corner of our yard and Chris discovered the lovely fountain in the back yard from a cracked sprinkler head. If your stomach is queasy don't read anymore.

AND, to top it all off, one of our children hastily shoved a box of chicken nuggets into the freezer last night but didn't check to make sure that the freezer actually closed behind them. All I hear from Chris as he walks in to the laundry room this morning is, "No, no, no...." I go investigate and find popsicles melted all over the inside of the freezer door and puddling on the floor....along with blood. Elk blood to be exact. Ugh. I wasn't thrilled to have the frozen elk meat in my freezer to begin with, and I wouldn't have actually cooked with it, but thawed elk meat is so much worse. The bonus, it was quickly dispensed to the garbage but the blood was all over the place. Let's talk about disgusting.

So, it's a Monday.....and my kids have 11 1/2 weeks left until school starts.