It's Autumntime

Time to insert some Fall photos . . .

Picking out Pumpkins

 

 

Posing with the Beehive girls from church

 

Painting pumpkins is serious business

  Raking Leaves

 

 

 October Loving

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Autumn to all!

Grandma Onboard

Last week for about three days Grandma joined us for a ride on the Dixon train.

First stop: She came along for the Music Makers class I help out with at church. There is lots of singing . . .

 . . . props . . .

 

 . . . and sometimes parachutes!

 

Second stop: We borrowed Daddy from work and Grandma took us all out for sushi
Third stop: Grandma played dolls with Ramona and Mika for most of an afternoon so I could catch up on chores and go for a run free from the jogging stroller

Fourth stop: We took Grandma to Estes Park for lunch

 

(then went on a mini-hike in Rocky Mountain National Park, because Ramona thought it was absurd to drive all the way through the canyon and to the mountains if we never got out of the car to walk around)

 

 

  

 

Final stop: All of us spent a day snuggling on the couch, watching conference, and eating food.

 

Thanks for coming aboard, Grandma!

I Heart Denver

Walking over to the warm-up courts

Forest's tennis league qualified to play a tournament in Denver this past weekend. He had a match scheduled for Saturday morning, so we turned the event into a family outing. I don't mind an excuse to hang out in Denver and love that it is only 50 miles away.

Our plan was for me and the girls to sit and watch as much of the match as attention spans would allow, then to try to kill some time at a nearby park until the game was over. Although I watched a very minimal portion of tennis playing, we ended up staying for the entire thing, never requiring an escape to the playground as previously thought. Between a court side Mika nap, snack distribution, a trip to the potty, a request to have a book read, and some (unintentional) heckling by the fence, the hour-and-a-half long match was suddenly over. Time really flies sometimes around those two little hooligans.

 

 

 

After the match we met my dorm-era friend Jen at a deli downtown. I last saw her in November, when she obligingly wandered around the Cherry Creek Mall with me, Ramona, and two-month-old Mika as we tried to carry on tidbits of adult conversation in the midst of my children's tiny demands. As I observed us, at certain points, I seemed so tied down and Jen seemed so . . . free. Even now that we both lived in the same state again, it was as though we were both from two completely different worlds. In the five years since we were both in school in Urbana, Illinois, she had traveled far and wide, changed jobs multiple times, and just appeared to be her own uninhibited, expressive person. I felt like, compared to the last time we saw each other, I was suddenly defined by my motherhood, and that I had distracting, squirming appendages hanging off of me (small children) that made me anything but individual, mobile, and clear of mind. I was apologetic and a little embarrassed--but then realized that Jen was watching me with my new additions in a kind of awestruck wonder. She was far from scornful or arrogant toward the new "me," and graciously acknowledged what a difficult and important job I had each day as a mother. It was a sweet experience and filled me with gratitude to have friends who build me up, no matter what my station in life.

Ramona loved carrying on conversations with Jen

Our next stop was the Denver Aquarium. It's no Shedd Aquarium of Chicago, but Ramona was still thoroughly impressed and we had fun exploring everything the place had to offer.

Ramona pretending to be in the Octopod control room from "Octonauts"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It was so helpful to have an extra set of adult hands. Thank you, Jen!

By the hands-on stingray pool

Taking a spin on the carousel on our way out

Both girls fell asleep almost simultaneously on the ride home--Ramona mid-sandwich and Mika clinging onto PEZ dispensers shaped like Santa Claus and Count Dracula.

  

 

Dixon family outing to Denver: Success.