skiing vs. snowboarding/backpacking vs. car camping

my poor in-laws. i rope them into all kinds of trouble with me. i feel bad. i don't mean to but somehow i get them to say yes and then half way into it i see the look on my father-in-laws face. it's somewhere between "why did he marry her?" and "how am i gonna live to the end of this?" my mother-in-law, i think, secretly loves it. because i'm roping them into things that she loves to do anyway but never had an accomplice to carry through with.

skiers always ask "skier or snowboarder?" and when you admit that you truly love to snowboard and not ski they usually say "well, it was fun being friends for a while." skiers hate snowboarders because apparently we ruin the ski runs with our boards. especially moguls (those bumps that skiers love to maneuver around). i've found this summer that much like skiing vs. snowboarding it's the same thing with backpacking vs. car camping.

and i discovered i'm not a good car camper. in fact, i gave paul permission to divorce me if he felt the need because i completely understand. i just don't have the energy to car camp. i like it to be condensed, just what you need, on your back.

this last week i called my in-laws and said "hey-wanna go camping with me and the kids next weekend while paul's gone?" of course they said yes. today in talking we discovered my father-in-law was under the impression he had signed up for car camping. (pulling up near a camp spot, pulling everything out of your trunk, and camping right where you are.) i was under the impression we would backpack. (putting everything on your back and hiking in somewhere and setting up camp in the woods.) my mother-in-law says in the background "we can give it a try" which i think means "ya! let's do that!" (she loves to backpack) with a hint of "if you want to" implied for my father-in-laws benefit. i'll update you next weekend after the escapade to let you know how it went. i'm sure they'll have something to tell their co-workers about by monday morning.

here's a picture from the last time i schnookered him into camping and really we hiked from breckenridge to copper. this picture was taken shortly before i started questioning if he'd ever say yes to me again.

girlfriend can HIKE!

today i took the kids hiking. i have realized if i don't write something on the calendar, we don't do anything. so on days that are blank i'm writing in "hiking" or "swimming" or some activity. i gotta keep these kids moving.
anyhow-today it said "hiking", so we went hiking. me and the kids and tatum tu-tu. i put peanut in the back pack and decided this time i'd let sweet pea hike on her own two feet. she has tons of energy-why should i carry them both? she did AMAZING! we went just over a mile and all of that (except a couple little parts where i carried her because it was uphill) she hiked on her own two feet! i was amazed. gravely, rocky cragy, dusty, solid rock, all of it-she hiked. it got pretty windy and she loved the way the weeds waved in the breeze. she went to walk into them and i told her she needed to stay on the trail. i wasn't sure if there would be snakes in the weeds. we then spent the next 5 minutes pointing to the weeds and saying "nake!....nake!....nake!" finally i said "let's talk about something else." i kept thinking she'd just seen one and was tired of jumping out of my skin. then later a HUGE gust of wind came and about knocked us over. i said "whoa! windy!" and then everything was "ndy!....ndy!....ndy!"
tatum thoroughly enjoyed getting to go and take a nice looooong walk.
seriously, i couldn't ask for more perfect kids for me.
here's a picture i took on my cell phone of us looking down on our car.

Yellowstone

Everyone's been telling me that I should save Yellowstone for last because it's so beautiful. Well it is beautiful, but even if I went every year for 10 years I could still not see everything there is to see there. It was really beautiful. The first day we hit old faithful and some geisers because i didn't want to get to the last day and not have seen it. we met a geiser groupie and she told us all about this particular geiser. she went on and on and squealed in delight with every spout of steam then begged it not to leave her when it started to dwindle. passionate, yes. odd, very much yes. she was thrilled when i asked her if she was the groupie for that particular geiser and told me she sneaks into the park every chance she gets since she lives close by and times it so she can see it fill up, go off, and drain. she was full of some very helpful information.
then we saw old faithful, which really had me puzzled since it wasn't near as big as some of the other geisers but it was very reliable thus the name old faithful. not old big and faithful.
the next day we went to manmouth springs. paul had been telling me how gorgeous it was and no matter what we did we HAD to go see manmouth springs before we left. it was quite a drive. it's 30 miles between spots and we were staying about an hour away from manmouth springs. i told him it'd better be some spring for the drive because sweet pea was sick and tired of her car seat and it was only the 2nd day. we got up there to find out that it's different week to week, month to month, and year to year. i thought well, surely it's more beautiful from the bottom. let's go down there and hike up instead of hiking from top to bottom. well. um. it was one of those weeks apparently because it was pretty dry. as in bone dry. except for a couple trickles. we did get some cool shots nonetheless. it was kind of a let down to Paul and i laughed and said "is this your central city?" when my parents came out to colorado my dad kept RAVING to my mom about how wonderful central city was. the last time he was there was in the 60's and it has since become a gambling town. it's great for those who vacation in vegas. it's not for anyone else. it was a major let down to my dad when he went as an adult. paul suddenly felt his pain.

in sweet pea news-she did very good. she's a very good traveler. she did get bored saturday on our way between yellowstone and casper. i caught this shot of her, which i can share, when she got ahold of the paper towel roll.

she loved camping and sleeping in the sleeping bag. i wrapped her up in her quilt, then shoved that down into the sleeping bag so she was a little burrito. here's another shot i can share. tatum got to come along at the last minute and she was very certain to stay close to sweet pea. the first night sweet pea slept in the pack and play and tatum slept right next to her. no blanket or sweater. she froze. but would not leave sweet peas side. after that i kept sweet pea a little closer so i could check on her easier during the night.
she did really good every night but one. one night she had some night terrors and screamed bloody murder. i picked her up-she was sleeping right next to me-and talked to her and paul talked to her and finally i turned on the light and realized her eyes were still closed. as soon as she woke up she did fine.
everywhere we went i would hear women cooing and talking baby talk and wonder "what language is that?" and i would glance over my shoulder to catch them talking to my backpack. sweet pea loved it. soaked up every bit of it. one time i heard "oh there's that cute baby again." it was so cute. no matter what nationality you are or what language you speak this baby melts your heart. she learned to smile for the camera this week-which people thought was adorable. and she learned to wave and have people wave back. that was especially a thrill for her. she has started saying "hi" when she waves now, but it comes out as "eye!" it's super cute. but then, everything she does is super cute. so all in all for our first family vacation i wouldn't change a thing. it was sooo sooo sooo much fun.

what did i do?

today i'm having serious doubts about this whole going to work and leaving tatum thing. do you see that ticker? the hoola dancer is all the way down to one day!? i think doggie day care will be good. thankfully she passed her interview saturday morning. whew! i felt like i should have dressed her up in an argyle sweater vest and knee socks. i had no idea it was so ivy league to get into a doggie day care out here. so she'll be spending her tuesday mornings with Mrs. Doolittle and i'm still working on rocky hill ranch for thursday's. oh man i hope i'm doing the right thing going back to work. =(
after her interview we took her camping this weekend with our church group and had a LOT of fun. when i went to pull the camping gear out friday night to get ready tatum started hopping waist high. i told her not to get so excited, we weren't gong until the next day. AFTER the interview with mrs. doolittle. it didn't make much difference. when i pulled out the tent she started running laps around the basement. then i went upstairs to check email and she was whining so bad i thought she had to go outside. so i went down there only to find her staring at the heap of camping gear by the front door and sighing as if to say "i wanna go NOOOOOOWWW!!" again i explained, not until tomorrow. she had SO much fun once we got there. there was another dog there, kanga. tatum and her had to work out some kinks but in the end tatum understood that kanga has a much bigger personal bubble than she does. she was dirty when we got home so paul combed her out.

she hates to be combed out but she does much better when paul does it because it means undivided attention from him so she behaves much better.

then she fell asleep for a couple days like this.

CDT Hike

this weekend we hiked a 13 mile section of the Continental Divide Trail and paul's parents came out with us so it was fun. we brought tatum and she loves hiking especially if she can find snow out there. i posted some pictures to our flickr page. tatum's feet got pretty sore. she's still laying around the house now. we've given her 3 baths so far and i think the mud is finally out of her hair except for a couple spots on the backs of her front legs.

on baby news. thursday and friday were really tough baby wise. i have an appointment with a specialist on july 18th. we'll see what they have to say. i had to take another preg test this morning because STILL no sight of the ole period. but i wore a white skirt to church and sat down and thought "what was a i thinking?" and sure enough, got OP when i got home. thank GOD she waited for me to get home and didn't bust a move on day 37 of my cycle while sitting in church. whew.