Spring Break #1

It's been 3 whole months since we've seen Gavin. I was so happy when he said he wanted to come home for Spring Break. Thankfully, he's break also coincided with mine. He arrived home on a Sunday. We spent the rest of that day just sitting in our room visiting. I love how everyone loves to congregate on our bed. Chuck and I were sitting on two chairs that face the bed. Some of the best conversations have taken place here!

On Monday Gavin and I headed to Boulder. I had previously purchased a Puzzling Adventure activity for us to do so we could learn more about the city. Thankfully, it was a quiet day in Boulder. We enjoyed walking down Pearl Street and learning the history and checking out the bookstores. 

We found a great Indian buffet for lunch and then continued on to The Flatirons where we intended to hike up as far as we could.

Our plan kind of backfired once we got half way up the Chautauqua Trail and there was snow and ice covering the entire trail. We weren't dressed to hike today and certainly were not wearing hiking shoes that might have better traversed the snow-covered path. I'm still wondering why, upon first noticing the snow/ice we didn't just say, oh well, too bad, let's turn around. I'm also wondering why we didn't say, if it's this hard getting up the trail, it's going to be a bear trying to get down, while slipping and sliding on our projected course uphill. Yet we pushed on. Once we finally reached more tree cover of the mountains and the path got even worse from the constant shade, we finally decided to turn around and go downhill. Hard. To. Do! It was like walking down hill on a skating rink with smooth-soled sneakers on. Another adventure neither of us will soon forget. 

Tuesday was Ski Day! It turned out to be the perfect day for the boys to head up to Snowy Range to enjoy the mild weather and slopes. Whenever it's 45 and sunny, you know you're going to have some great skiing in store!

Wednesday brought us the much anticipated Bomb Cyclone Blizzard of 2019. The winds reached as high as 60 and 70 miles an hour. It rained, then iced, then snowed the entire day. This was the view from our front porch. Visibility was zero. It was a complete whiteout - you couldn't even see one street down.  As a bonus, schools were closed for two days straight, so Chloe and Bennett got a lot more time to spend with Gavin. Chloe used her extra time to work on her online driver's ed and hang out with a neighbor friend while Bennett and Gavin watched some 007 movies.

On Thursday, we were still stuck at home most of the day. However, we did brave the roads in honor of Pi Day. You can't let 3.14 pass without a piece of pie.

Chuck took Friday off and the three of us hit the town looking for fun things to do. We went to Old Town Fort Collins and browsed a bookstore and found an art museum.

We enjoyed lunch at Whichwich.

And ended up at The Summit playing video games and air hockey.

On Saturday, the week culminated in the matinee showing of Captain Marvel. Apparently we were only allowed to watch movies the whole week long with the name "Captain" in the title. Somehow I was suckered into watching all the Captain America movies (there are 3). I thought we had to in order to better understand Captain Marvel. At least that's what I was under the impression of. Then, come to find out, it has nothing to do with the movie. They just wanted to watch it. We've always been a superhero loving family. That still hasn't changed the older the kids get. 

And by the way, the kids are mortified in this picture. They absolutely HATE it when we take selfies at the theater by a movie poster. They are so embarrassed! You'd have thought we asked them to sing and dance with a sombrero on their head in front of everybody. Yet, they still smile cuz they don't want to look stupid in a picture either. But we have exactly .7 seconds to take this picture and there will be no retakes! People are looking! You can't be seen looking happy to be at a movie with your parents! Even though these are the same goofballs who happily lay on my bed talking with me until I force them to leave because I'm so tired. I love these people so much!

The Three Mysteries

This is a post that will baffle even the most judicious of my readers. There are three mysteries in this house that will forever remain unsolved. 

Mystery #1 - The Case of the Vape Cartridge

This little guy showed up at our house at one of the most busiest times of the year for us...this past Thanksgiving. We were hosting my brother-in-law and his family (4 total) and our friends from Utah and their family (6 total), plus Gavin flew in from North Dakota, so we were our usual 5. Fifteen of us total. People and kids were everywhere and it was a blast. 

After one of our many outings we come home to find this thing-a-ma-bob. Actually, we found two of them. One was downstairs on the floor and one was upstairs on the entry table. Legos, Playmobiles, and toys of every shape and size were strewn all over the basement. When I saw it, I honestly thought it was just a lego part. So did Chuck. I think I even threw one in with the toys, while Chuck took the other and set it aside. We didn't think anything of it.

That is until after everyone left. One of them is still sitting up on the entry table. Then we realize that the little orange part comes off and it has a nice fruity smell. Hmmmm....that's odd. I don't remember legos smelling like fruit.  We ask each of the kids if they know what it is. Not a clue. We text the picture to our friends. No idea. So, in the age of social networking, we throw it out into cyberspace and let more knowledgeable people than us clue us in to what this little thing could possibly be. 

Seriously, mere minutes later, Chuck gets a private message telling him it's a vape cartridge. The person didn't want to embarrass Chuck incase it was from one of our kids. We were aghast. A WHAT?!? This is so far out of the scope of our world, we were floored that not only did we find one, but two of these babies in our house.

So we texted our friends that were visiting and told them what we learned. They were just as incredulous. If you knew them and their kids, it is preposterous to think that one of their little ones could have anything to do with this.

We grilled our kids over and over. We knew vaping was a big deal at their high school. But both of our kids have very strong moral objections to this activity and don't even hang out with anyone who vapes. Gavin had already gone back to North Dakota. We quizzed him about the origins of the cartridge. He had zero clue. I asked if one of his friends could have put it in his bag as a joke and then one of the little ones in our house over the week might have accidentally found it. Nope. None of his friends vape. 

The only possible explanation I could pull out of my brain after thinking it over super hard was that when we were out on one of our excursions, one of the little ones might have picked it up thinking it was a lego or toy of some sort and brought it back in tiny hands unseen by any adults. That's the best we can deduce. Yet, it still remains a confounding mystery. Weird.

Mystery #2 - The Case of the Blue Toilet Seat

I can't believe I have stooped so low as to post a picture of one of our toilets. And with the lid open! Argh! But therein lies the mystery. This toilet is in the bathroom that sits between the boys' room downstairs. That is not a shadow you see on the toilet seat (like I initially thought it was), it is an honest to goodness blue stain. Chuck is forever on Bennett about keeping it clean. Bennett was like, "Dad, that blue stain won't come off. I've tried." So I took my favorite cleaner, the one that gets any and everything out and scrubbed. Nothing. It's like some alien sat down on the toilet and left its mark. Weird. 

Mystery #3 - The Case of the Leaf Blower That Turned On By Itself

Now that the grass has turned brown for the winter, Ninja has decided that it makes a great back scratcher. She absolutely loves to go outside and roll on her back until she is covered in it. After weeks of painstakingly brushing her for a good 10 minutes each and every time she wanted to come in, Chuck had the genius idea of just blowing her off. When we take her up to the pet store to wash her, they have a blower to help dry her off faster and she likes it. So, in the same vein, she should like the leaf blower that blows off all the grass. She actually does. She sits there wagging her tail and smiling. It's pretty adorable actually and takes half the time as brushing her. Win/win. 

However, after coming home from being gone for about 5 hours, we hear a loud blowing sound coming from the back of our house. I follow the sound and notice that the blower is on full blast out on the patio. We keep it out there for convenience sake. It's just sitting there blowing into the side of the house. For how long? We've no idea. All we know is that when we left, the blower was not on. When we got home, the blower was on. Weird. Why?