Fourth of July and Other Adventures

We enjoyed a quiet fourth of July at home.  The boys lit sparklers and a few other (mostly) legal fire works with Justin.  I made ribs, corn on the cob, and grilled peaches.  Peaches, you ask?  Why yes, we're happy to have these back in our diet, along with oats, coconut, pumpkin, plums, cherries, olives, and a few others.  Anyways, we also went out to see the city fireworks, which were quite impressive.

Justin flew to Pittsburgh on Friday, so the boys and I decided to set out on our own adventure.  As a meeting planner, I frequently get asked to visit hotels and about a month ago I received an invitation to stay at a newly renovated hotel in Louisville.  I initially thought it was silly, but when Justin booked his trip to see Jared, I decided the boys and I would have a sleepover and visit some of their favorite places in our old neighborhood.  We had a great time at the library and their favorite park, and we spent most of the evening at the pool.  It was a great time.

Here are some pics:

 Trying out sparklers with Daddy

 They had a good time with these

 I left the boys a note before leaving for work about our adventure...

 They were thrilled to visit some of their favorite places, including the library.

 They've asked to visit this park several times, so we went before dinner and before going home the next morning.

 Having a picnic dinner in our hotel room

 And a picnic breakfast too...

 And then we decided to have a little holiday cheer in July, so we got out the Polar Express train for a few days.

 And we of course had to watch the movie too...with hot chocolate and marshmallows

 Play dough time

I had to take a sample of our ghetto grass to the local nursery to get a diagnosis, so the boys explored the fountains.  Ghetto grass has been diagnosed with a fungus.  Sigh.  I'm about over trying to grow grass in Colorado.  But I do love spending time at this nursery!

I got a wild hair this weekend and decided to do something about this bathroom.  I blame the curtain rod.  The old one broke and fell down, so I bought a new curved one.  And then noticed our almost 12-year old shower curtain didn't look quite right.  So out came my paint brushes and a can of paint given to us by my parents!  I sort of go into withdrawal if I haven't painted in a month or so.  (:

I think it's off to a good start so far.  More to come on this space!

Summer Activities

Happy summer to all of you!  All is well in the Barber household.  We're busy with summer activities and enjoying some unscheduled days now that our medical appointments are behind us.  

We went camping last weekend.  Jacoby came down with a croupy cough the night before we were supposed to leave.  And since the croupy cough has landed us in urgent care on more than one occasion, we decided that Morgan and I would head to camp and Justin and Jacoby would come the following day.  I donned my girl scout britches and Morgan and I set up our tent, ate dinner outside, and really enjoyed some good one-on-one time together (although, by morning he was definitely anxious for his brother to arrive).  Mother Nature brought rain, hail, thunder, and wind part of the day, but then it cleared up nicely.  We had a good time.

Other than that, the boys enjoy being home together.  Jacoby continues to advance his reading skills.  We're trying to keep up with math and writing, but it's clear reading is his favorite.  Justin leaves for Pittsburgh on Friday.  He's helping Uncle Jared move into a new place.  Speaking of moving, we've been in our home for one year already!  The boys and I have a couple of fun activities planned while we're on our own.

Here are a few pics from the week:

 Morgan and Mommy's handiwork.  He was a great helper with the tent!

 The headlamps were a big hit.

 This child has a relationship with dirt the likes of which I've never seen before.  I literally had to scrub him down when we got home...there was dirt in all sorts of interesting crevices! (:

 The brothers together and playing by water, of course.

 The tall and the small...all my favorites.

When thunder was rumbling, the boys preferred the car to the tent.  Morgan and I played silly games, which he requested even when there wasn't thunder.

I took today off of work to spend some quality time in my house...b.y. m.y.s.e.l.f.  This was my first attempt at freezer cooking.  I think it went pretty well and stocked our freezer with enough meals to last us through Labor Day, more or less.  I'm hoping this is both a money and time saving effort.

And here's the mess that accompanied all of the great food.  But it was well worth it!

Justin went to a Rockies game with friends tonight, and since I'd spent all day in the kitchen, the boys and I went for a picnic and some fresh air after I picked them up from school.  

It was a lovely evening on the Boulder Creek.

Father's Day and Other Happenings

We're doing really great.  I think I'll let the pictures do the talking this week.  (:

Morgan is in soccer with some preschool friends.  He really enjoys it.

And while we're on this subject, here's Morgan's routine after preschool.  He conks out mid-snack while we're on our way to pick up Jacoby.  I'm not sure you can tell, but he's also the dirtiest little thing you've ever seen after a busy day at school!

 We went on a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was a beautiful day and the boys hiked three miles with minimal whining/fussing/complaining.  It was really great to get out and spend time together.

Bierstadt Lake was our final destination

We were so proud of these guys!

Almost done!

After the hike, we picnicked in the car and drove up to near 12,000 feet where there's still lots of snow!

We celebrated the best dad in the whole world on Sunday.  Grandmanette and Grandpa Michael were here for a visit.  Grandpa Michael treated us with a trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  We saw a planetarium show on the solar system, which both boys loved.

Happy boy...

The boys are crazy about frisbee right now

Jacoby is perfecting his catching skills and really enjoys our time together in the evening.  And I keep thinking that all is well with the world when we're outside playing together as a family.  He carried the frisbee the entire hike in case we had the opportunity to play.  I sat by his Kindergarten teacher at a meeting last night and got to share with her how much Jacoby loves reading.  He's on to book four of the Mercy Watson series.

Here are a few of the lovelies growing in our garden and around our yard.

 The boys go in for a bunch of fresh food allergy testing tomorrow.  Morgan is getting tested on a lot of foods already in his diet just to make sure everything is ok with his system.

Jacoby is getting tested on a few foods we hope to be able to add back into his diet:  stone fruit, coconut (oil, milk, etc), pumpkin, oat, soy butter (which will be a stretch for me to get my mind around since it looks and smells just like peanut butter), and some others.

Another week

We're off to another busy week.  Jacoby had a bone scan this morning, so that should be the end of our medical appointments, with the exception of some fresh food allergy testing in a week or so.  The boys get to go to the Boulder Reservoir for swimming on Wednesday with Morgan's preschool friends.  They went to the recycling center a few weeks ago and had a great time.

Justin finished up his class and is finally enjoying a bit of down time.  He's gearing up for dissertation writing and reading.  He's riding the bus to work now, which gives him quite a bit of time to read and also saves us a bucket load on gas money. We're looking forward to spending Father's Day weekend with Grandmanette and Grandpa Michael.

The boys are busy!  I converted our downstairs hall closet into an art center, all under the assumption that these two are old enough to have markers and scissors within reach and won't destroy the house.  I think it's working out pretty well--today they apparently spent the whole day playing "school".  They were the principals disciplining kids who were misbehaving.  Not that any of my kids have experience with that...ahem.  (:

Jacoby is reading his way through the Mercy Watson chapter books.  We're just about finished with book two, and Morgan brought him books three and four home from the library tonight.  They're really good books for his level and we're all enjoying having him read to us.

We have lots of things growing and blooming in our garden and yard right now.  I'll have to get some pictures posted.  I love being out in the yard.  Tomorrow the lawn is getting aerated in an attempt to help it recover from some neglect.  I had hoped it would make a come-back this spring, but such is not the case so we talked to some experts at our local nursery for some advice.  We're crossing our fingers this helps!

My yard sale went well last weekend and I got rid of plenty of stuff.  The thrift store comes and picks up the rest in a few weeks.  We visited the Longmont museum on Sunday and enjoyed the new Lego exhibit.

Here are a few pics.  Enjoy the week!

 One of my favorite Lego displays

 The boys really liked this excavation model

 I love this picture of my second child.  He's on his tippy toes joining in with all of the big boys so he could race his Duplo car down the track along with all of their serious Lego vehicles.

 It took around 66,000 Legos to build this

After getting stuck at Lowes with Mommy again, Momo got to spend some time on the tractors.

Here are the boys in front of the giant Legos outside of the museum.  It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Busy Times!

We've transitioned right into our summer routine and its been busy around here!  We're getting caught up on appointments that I pushed into June so Jacoby wouldn't have to miss school.  Monday was an eye exam for him, which came out fine.  Today was an allergy appointment for both boys that lasted two hours...sheesh.

Jacoby started his summer program at a new school last week.  It's ok--I don't think we love it, but we'll make it through the summer.  I'm less than impressed so far with how they handle food allergies.  I think Jacoby will be safe but he won't be included.  Sigh.  Other than that, we're in swimming lessons, gymnastics, and soccer, which the boys enjoy.

Justin has papers to grade and then he'll finally be done with his awful class on Friday...so glad to have that behind us!  We're having a yard sale on Saturday with the rest of our neighborhood.  I actually have quite a bit to sell, so we'll see what our profit margin ends up being.  (:

Here are some pics from the past week or so:

 This is Folsom Field at CU--the finish line for the BolderBoulder.  Members of the armed services ran the race and then went off to the side to do push ups.  (:  I had the Graham family in mind.

 Here are my running friends--they signed up for the Bolder Half Marathon with me in September.  And so did my youngest sister!  So excited to run a race with her!

 Here's our Big Summer List.  We had fun coming up with all the things we wanted to do this summer.  Jacoby makes a list everyday and likes to cross things off...takes after his mom that way.  Yippee!

 Showing off the popsicles they made last weekend

 After being cooped up in a doctor's office for two hours, the boys ran and ran tonight during our bike ride.

Jacoby documented our time at the allergist's office this afternoon with my phone.  Here's a little photo collage.  Most of the time was spent discussing Morgan, his recent diagnosis, and how we should proceed with his treatment.  They tested a few things today to get a base line started, and there were some interesting results (i.e., super allergic to chicken, which he's never, ever eaten, and negative to peanut...?!?!..I so dislike skin testing).  We go back for more testing in a few weeks.  Crossing our fingers we'll be adding in some new foods to our diet!