Fun at Fifteen

I think all good birthday blogs should begin with: How has my baby gotten so big, so fast?

It was just yesterday she was rolling around in the grass with not a care in the world.

And now we look big and self-sufficient and gorgeous. How? Why? When?

A few days before her birthday she goes from braces (that she's had on for almost 3 years), 

....to braces free. So much change, so fast. But isn't that what adolescence is all about?

One day she's going on a date with Daddy looking like this.

And the very next day she went on a date with Daddy looking like this. Again, I ask the question, how is this even possible? 

It doesn't only happen with Chuck. It happened to me too!

The part I find the hardest to accept in this whole venture is that I am now the shortest one. Not fair!

The day of Chloe's birthday finally arrived. We had been hinting that we would throw her a Quinciñera party. I told her I already picked out her dress and everything. She wasn't 100% sure we were joking. I have a lot of Mexican friends and could have easily pulled it off with their help! It would have been awesome and totally fun - for me. But she would have been embarrassed beyond words. She hates any type of attention on her. So we opted for a small family gathering instead. In this picture she is showing the gift we gave her - 3 delicate stackable rings. I told her that Dad is the bottom ring, she is the middle one, and I am the top one. We are always hugging her. 

We woke up and immediately went to the DMV so Chloe could get her Driver's Permit. Again...why are they letting children drive now? In all honesty though, she is probably the best driver at this point in the process than the boys when they were at this age/stage. She's not as nervous and is cool, calm, and collected. Although, she does tend to veer toward the yellow middle line a little too much for my liking. I think that's because she's left-handed though. The boys on the other hand, felt more comfortable driving on the curb and telling me what awesome drivers they were constantly. Chloe lets any one of us give her constructive criticism. 

After passing the permit test on the second try and grabbing a treat at Panera's we headed over to a local pottery shop to paint pottery for 2 hours. It was cathartic and fun.

We finished up the day by opening presents after 5:10pm - the time of her birth. 

Chloe asked for a yellow cake with white flowers that had a 15 on it. Well....you could say I checked all the boxes, but it didn't turn out anything like the picture in my head. First of all, I couldn't even get the cakes out of the pans. They were literally stuck in there. So that is where they stay. Then, my flowers ended up sucking and not looking anything like flowers. The green icing I bought for the leaves ended dumping out all over the cake. I had to scrape that out and ended up making leaves using a sharp knife dipped into the blob of green icing on the paper towel. This is just how we roll. We know things are not going to go according to plan, we just don't know which things and how. That keeps the excitement and sense of adventure alive. Chloe was very gracious and said she liked her cake. I did score a win on the homemade frosting in the color of her choice.

The day after her birthday, we met Uncle John and Aunt Karen at P.F. Changs, the restaurant of her choice, for her birthday lunch. Then we came home and had a family Chopped competition. It was the Guys vs. the Girls. It was so much fun! 

Spring Break #2

This year the kids' Spring Break was 2 weeks after mine. No worries though, I was able to take 2 spring breaks so I could enjoy it with all the kids. Here we all are in the hallway of the hotel walking 4 abreast cuz that's how we do it.  

We had this trip planned for a long time. Bennett was interested in checking out some colleges in Utah. And since it's one of our favorite places to go, we thought we'd leave early and take to kids to one of our favorite spots...Moab.

The day we left, it was snowing. We drove though a lot of fog and snow through the mountain passes. It still looked very much like winter that high in elevation.

Thankfully, by time we hit Moab the sun was out and snow was an after-thought. Although, it was still quite cold and windy.

We were hoping to take the kids through the Fiery Furnace at Arches National Park - the place where we had our most epic hike to date this past September. But, alas, it wasn't meant to be. You have to get a permit in order to hike there and they had no permits left. Not to fear though, we found a hike that was equal in awe and wonder...The Devil's Garden.

The Devil's Garden has you climb rock outcroppings called "fins". Here are Chuck and Chloe on the first fin we came to. 

It doesn't look too scary from this picture. But I was holding on for dear life. Remember our motto: "It's not an adventure unless Mom's scared." This was an incredible adventure.

From this perspective, you can see why I was so nervous. We were out there on the end of that fin with massive drop offs on either side. It was a huge adrenaline rush - if an adrenaline rush means you feel like you're about to throw up the whole time. 

Do you see all those rocks behind Chloe and Bennett, those are fins as well. They are on the edge of a fin we just finished walking down. I can't even describe the fear. The wind was blowing so hard, I almost lost my hat. 

I had to walk the ledge holding on to Chuck's hand with a death grip. It's hard to tell the perspective in this picture as well...suffice it to say it was steep, high, narrow, with a long way to fall off either side. 

I asked Bennett to hold on to Chloe as they scaled the fin in front of us. He held her by her backpack because it was so windy, I thought she might blow away.

This is opposite direction of the fin we were on. Did I mention how cold it was? It was in the high 30s with a wicked 12-15 mph wind blowing. This is not something you can tell from the pictures, everything looks so serene and sunny.

After making it through some difficult (understatement) terrain with our lives still intact, we came across this beautiful vista. Some nice hikers took our family picture.

We finally made it to the Double O Arch, although you can only see the one arch the kids are sitting in. There is another one above them. Come to find out - after the fact - they weren't exactly allowed to be sitting in the actual arch. Ooops. My bad.

After traversing the 1.2 miles of difficult rock fin trail to get to this point of interest, we opted for the "primitive" trail that circled back around. Mind you, there are no maps or other signage anywhere along this trail that is about a 4 mile round trip. We read at the beginning that our trek could take anywhere from 3-5 hours. We did it in exactly 3 hours, probably the longest hike we've ever done as a family.

Which meant some people were getting tired. Thus the need for a pit stop for Bennett to replenish his dwindling food supply and Chloe to take a nap.

These runes were our only guides letting us know we were going the right direction while on the "primitive" trail.

This was the only place Chloe got afraid. She made it through all the places I was scared with no problem. But it was here, where we had to slide down a bit of a steep ledge where she needed Dad to rescue her.

After eating our picnic lunch huddled in the warmth of the car (because we were chilled to the bone), we decided to head over to Dead Horse Point. It overlooks Canyonland National Park. My people are all perched on the edge of a cliff face looking at The Island in the Sky.

Here we're just chillin. Our feet were killing us from our previous hike. This is all we had energy for.

Proof that I too, stand on the edge of cliffs with people I love. 

This picture just makes me happy.

We stayed at the most epic hotel! This will now be our standard for all hotels in the future. 

Because Bennett is Bennett, he brings his basketball everywhere, even on vacation. You should have seen the look of pure bliss when we pull up to this hotel to see that they have a hoop in the parking lot! Life just does not get any better than this. After a 6 hour drive, he was immediately ready to shoot some hoops.

We finished our day by grabbing dinner at the best food truck in Moab. 

We were in quesadilla heaven. We took our quesadillas back to eat in the beautiful lounge of the hotel we love so much.

As a surprise bonus, Chloe's friend, Sydney from Minnesota also just happened to be spending her spring break in Moab. Her and her mom stopped by the hotel to visit for a while. What a small world!

The next day we woke up to rain and fog. But it didn't deter us because we were scheduled to drive 4 hours down to Cedar City. As soon as we got there we picked up some snacks and went immediately to the theater to watch The Lego 2 Movie.

The following morning Bennett had a private tour of SUU. Our tour guide was so kind and gave us a very detailed tour of the campus. However, Bennett wasn't feeling it, even though they had a lot of great things to offer. 

From there it was immediately back in the car again to drive the 5 hours to Grand Junction, CO - our last stopping point before heading home.

Unbeknownst to us, Grand Junction is home of this amazing national treasure called The Colorado National Monument National Park. Look at that! It was stunning. We ended up following the road at the top of the canyon that wound around and around and around for over an hour. We stopped at every single lookout to admire its grandeur and beauty.

Here was one such lookout.

Here was another. I think Chloe had had it with beautiful vistas by this point.

But Chuck and I were soaking it in!

As a final treat on our way out of the park, we watched a family of mountain goats traverse the steep inclines of the canyon.

And there you have it folks. We made it home by Tuesday afternoon and were able to enjoy the rest of our spring break in "staycation" style in the comfort of our own beds. 

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?