Colorado

In the many times I’ve flown, there has always been an unhappy child somewhere on the plane. I consider it part of the experience. The discomfort of air pressure changes are a big deal for little kids, a strange ear ache that arrives in a crowded and unfamiliar environment. But those crying children were never mine, and while I seldom felt annoyed, and even felt empathy for the children, I never experienced feeling responsibility for those unhappy kids – until this week.

In the flight to Denver, we managed to keep Oliver busy with a sticker book. Zaeda fell asleep just before we boarded and so she snoozed a good part of the way. Oliver was concerned with just one question: ‘Are we in the air yet?” I realized as I looked out the window at the passing tarmac, the blurring landscape, that he couldn’t see any of it; his point of view was just too low; it was all sky for him out the window. So he had to take our word for it that we were in the air. When we hit turbulence and the plane dropped a bit, he was thrilled and said “Whoa!!” and giggled in a way that some people on the plane may not have appreciated.
The kids were only challenging the last 10 minutes as we heading in for landing. They were just squirming in the limited space, and that ended soon enough as we got out of the plane, and soon enough, the kids were with grandparents to spoil them.
The flight back seemed to take three times as long. Zaeda was tired and well past her naptime, but she didn’t sleep. She crawled over the three of us, either squealing and giggling, or moaning and crying. Oliver was fidgety. He’d placed all the stickers he was going to bother with and he wanted to move. He was kicking the seat in front of him. “Are we in the air yet?” he asked, again and again. We were all exhausted by the time we got home.

Back to Colorado: While in Denver the kids played in the back yard. We got out to a Natural History Museum (Dinosaurs!!!)

Jenny and I spent a couple days in Estes Park in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Beautiful. Relaxing. We slept in. We ate. We goofed off. Just right.

Goofing off at Restoration Hardware

Walkin on Sunshine

We proudly attended a local chili contest in Vancouver’s Esther Short park, where our own Mike and Karri brought home an award. We stopped by the local farmer’s market and bought some produce, including my favorite, Gravenstein apples, which have a limited window of availability because they don’t store well once picked. We had Gravensteins on the family farm and I try not to miss a chance to buy them when I find them. I took a bite and of course Zaeda saw me eating and was at my side in seconds, waiting for her turn, so I gave her a bite. Then Oliver saw her eating, and in no time the two were passing my apple back and forth, and though I’d lost my apple, I’d gained an adorable moment.

A Sunday at the World Forestry Center -- that place between the zoo and the children’s museum that we hadn’t been to in years. It was actually a lot of fun. Unlike the other places, the WFC was practically empty, and they had plenty of stuff for the kids to play with.

In general, Oliver and Zaeda are playing together more and more. She’s at a stage where they can have little games together, like hiding in the closet or a bit of wrestling. Recently we had some kid music CD playing in the house, and when it ended, the next CD started and it was “Walkin on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves. The kids immediately started dancing.

What can I say? The song is classic!