Crazy day!

It was a crazy day for many reasons...some of which made the national news. But for our family it was a day of ups and downs and a reminder of what really matters. Whatever the reason, accident or stunt, what happened with the family in our neighborhood is a scary reminder that life is precious. Whether they used their child for publicity or had the wake up call of a lifetime, a lot of people owe them for the reminder to hold their kids a little bit tighter tonight. I know I did.

In the midst of the craziness I got to go on a field trip with Cason's class. School is going much better for him now after a rocky start and it was very fun to see his school world today. He's well-liked and his teachers showed me that they do care for him and are beginning to understand what makes him tick.

We're crazy...

This is what we did today. We had plans to drive to Steamboat Springs. They have an annual air show that would include lots of fun things for the boys. I also found a trail that was short and sweet and would take us to a really cool waterfall. It promised to be a great day. But we woke up and checked the weather and found lots of rain in the forecast and didn't think we'd be able to do the things we wanted. With it being a 3 1/2 hour drive with absolutely nothing in between, we just didn't think it made the most sense. So we revised our plans. After all we already had a dog sitter lined up to come and play with Rio and this is one of the last weekends three day weekends that we'll have.

Instead we decided to go to Estes Park and have breakfast and then proceed all the way across Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake. From there we went to Winter Park and then homeward. We did enjoy the scenery and having never been to Grand Lake or Winter Park it was nice to see those towns. We would go back to Grand Lake, probably won't to Winter Park. It was a mostly fun day, but we did still experience a bit of rain. I think it definitely satisfied the itch to get into the mountains that comes around every couple months.

And he's off...

Cason was very excited for his first day of school. I was also very excited but as the time to go got closer and closer I realized it was going to be harder to let him go than I thought. It marked the end of a stage and the beginning of another. Those transitions always hurt but are good too. Now Cason can blossom on his own, out of the shadow of his brother.

His first day was great. "Mommy, I did circle time. We learned how to sit." His favorite part was playing on the teeter totter with a little girl. They also had snack and potty time and singing and play time.

Thankfully, my little man is not too grown up yet. We're loving four and all of it's inbetween-ness ( I know I made that up). He's grown up so much and is showing some new maturity, but there are still some hints of his babyhood. Since it may be his last baby word, I'm savoring one little mispronunciation he does. For "because" he always says "puz". "Mommy, I like my teacher puz she's nice."

I love school!

It's been a long time since I had a first day of school picture. Josh snapped this just before I walked out the door on my first day. I left an hour early. We'd been warned parking spots might be difficult to find and well I take those warnings very seriously. I, however, found a great parking spot right away and had 45 minutes to kill. I called my parents. I might be 32 but it's still nice to get some last minute reassurance from Mom and Dad. Armed with a few more "you can do it's!" I wandered the campus for a bit. First making a beeline for my class, just to make sure I knew where it was and then trying to act casual by wasting the last few minutes in the bookstore. I'm sure I looked like I needed to take a deep breath and relax a bit.

My first classroom was very unintimidating. It's half of a modular building. Tiny, with long narrow tables. It was surprising to me how easy it was to chat with the other students coming in. I thought I might stick out as the "old" person, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. I'm happily in the middle of the age range. There were three grandparents in that first class.

When it was time for the second class it was a pleasant surprise to find out that half a dozen people from my first class were also in my second class. There are lots and lots of people going for nursing right now. But the great thing is me and two other gals have already banded together. Now I can look forward to study sessions and knowing if I miss something I have someone to go to.

I told Josh last night that I felt like an old part of me was coming back. But then I realized that wasn't quite true. It's an entirely new part of me that I've never really experienced before. In three days I've grown in confidence. I've discovered that I can still learn and I really enjoy it. I don't think I ever sat through a class without daydreaming and staring at the clock. Now, I'm interested and excited to learn new things. Last night in my biology class we were learning about chemistry..atoms, nuetrons, protons, electrons, etc. My brain was exploding. I asked a lot of questions. My new friend Lindsay leaned over and said "you ask the best questions." I beamed inside. I love this!

The best part is I get to come home and share it with Josh. He's had three great nights with the boys and I'm so glad they get to have that father/sons time. His support and encouragement is what makes this such a wonderful experience.

Catch up

I have a feeling I'll be playing catch up a lot over the next few months.

Jonah's birthday last weekend was wonderful. He went to bed Friday night with happy noises and a declaration that he had gotten everything that he wanted. Which meant he got a lot of transformers. Those things are tough! It's always the arms...where do the arms go! He loves it though and if he's happy, I'm happy.

Transformer cake.


Opening his package of presents from Nana and Papa.


A new scooter from us.


Saturday we went to the Downtown Aquarium at his choosing. Mark and Lorrie and the kids joined us to make it extra fun. If only there was a way to have our own private visit of the aquarium. Jonah quickly became overwhelmed by the crowds, the lights, the noise so in the end everyone else had a great time, but Jonah was just anxious to get through it as fast as possible. I think the best part for him was playing around with Ethan in the gift shop at the end.

7 years

I still can't wrap my brain around the fact that I have been the mother of this wonderful, unique and special boy for seven years. What a honor! Every year just keeps getting better and I'm excited to see all that he will achieve this year.

Happy Birthday, Jonah! I love you so much.

Like giving birth

I feel like I'm nesting. I'm not prone to super organization, I tend to clean just enough to not live in a pig sty. But these last two days I'm slowing cleaning out and organizing. I feel an overwhelming need to get things in order before August 24th. I only have 19 more days until I step foot back into academia. Back to that awkward first day of school. Searching for my classroom, walking in the door, scoping out the best seat, checking out the people around me.

I feel like it's going to be the start to a very long and difficult but rewarding labor. The day I begin to give birth to this dream that has grown for the last six years. I have no idea what lies ahead and it's guaranteed to get messy at times. I'm excited and terrified.

Josh made bacon for breakfast this morning. The sun was streaming in from some windows and Cason and Jonah were fascinated by the look of the smoky sunbeams.

Later after breakfast, Cason runs over, stands in the sun and declares, "I'm standing in the sunburn!"

Two more parks

I haven't been keeping up very well with our park visits. I'm afraid I'm already conceding defeat and admitting that we will probably not make it to all of Fort Collins parks before school starts (only 7 more weeks, yikes!). I'm amending my goal to visit all of them in the next year.




First up, a couple weeks ago we met up with my cousin Cara and her three kids at Troutman Park. This was one of the parks we had never been to before. Again, I'm struck with how blessed we are in Fort Collins to have so many really nice city parks. Troutman has a nice sized playground. Small enough to spread out a blanket on the grass and let the kids go. Another common feature with other Fort Collins parks is the playgrounds are built on sand. Somehow I keep forgetting to bring our sand toys, but luckily Cara brought a few shovels for the kids to dig with. The playground is at the center of the park surrounded by green fields, trees and two ponds. Cara told me that the ponds were good for fishing too. Josh has only had one good chance to fish this year, so we may have to make another visit for his sake. The kids had fun while Cara and I caught up on each other's lives. We brought a picnic and it was very relaxing.

Jonah, Cason, Ethan, Aly and Lexi playing in the sand.



The playground.


Unfortunately for the next park, I forgot to bring my camera. This time we went to Landings Park to meet up with other member's of the Mom's Club. One mom brought a 4th of July craft for the kids to do on a break from playing. We've been to this park before and again it's a nice one, though not one of my favorites in town. It is close to a busy street so I'm glad my guys are a bit older and don't wander off. The boys had a great time and I enjoyed chatting with the other moms.

Overdue Update

Do you ever just need a week off? Who doesn't? Being in a vocation that doesn't allow for vacation time means stealing moments of restoration from other areas. We had a good week, a much needed quiet week. And now I'm back, feeling rested where I needed rest. Now I can recap Cason's birthday and our camping trip.

We had so much fun celebrating Cason. Josh was able to take the day off. We were expecting Mark and Lorrie and family for dinner, but got a pleasant surprise when they called saying they could come early since Mark had less work than expected for the day. We met them after lunch along the Poudre River for some wading and rock throwing fun. Then back to our house for dinner, presents, games and cake. Then the big highlight was the boys first real sleepover with Ethan and Owen. They were awake until 10 talking and messing around...having fun. The next day I took Cason, Ethan, and Owen to story time at the library while Josh took Jonah to the doctor. One of the ear tubes he had came out during a bath and he had gotten an uncomfortable amount water in his ear, which then became a waxy seeping mess. Thankfully no infection though. We met up with Lorrie just before dinner to return Ethan and Owen and headed back home to start preparing for our camping weekend.

Click to be taken to an album of photos.

Cason's Birthday

Friday morning we quickly packed up our van for a two night camping trip. We had been invited to join Josh's new friend Rob and his two sons and it was great timing for us to so we jumped at the opportunity. All in all we had a great time. We are very much looking forward to the next chance we get to go camping again. The boys did great, especially when it came to sleeping which is always my biggest concern. We mostly just hung out around the campsites. Rocky Mountain National Park is really restrictive when it comes to dogs, so we weren't able to do any hiking in the park but we did drive to one nearby trail just outside of it for a short hike. Cason and I took a drive to the top of Trail Ridge Rd (12,220 feet). He napped for the hour and a half that I drove and woke up when we got to the visitor's center at the top for a pit stop. We saw a yellow bellied marmot, elk (of course), and a fox. It rained a little, but we didn't mind because that just gave us an excuse to go into Estes Park for dinner and ice cream. Sunday morning we woke to gorgeous blue skies. We would've loved to stayed in the park for the day to enjoy the beautiful weather but by then we were feeling more than a little grimy and thought it best to just get home. If it's the only bit of vacation we get this summer, that's fine with me because it was a great memory making trip.

Camping June 2009

Of course there is more to write about, but I'll save that for another post.

Busy Week!

I want to write so much more about Cason's fourth birthday but I'm short on time. We've had a wonderful week celebrating his life. Now we're packing up for a weekend camping trip, so I'll just leave with this...




How I love that kid!

I can't make a cake to save my life...or

to celebrate my son's birthday, evidently.

I followed the recipe perfectly. No it wasn't a box mix. It started to go wrong when I opened the oven as the timer went off and discovered that the cake was overflowing. I let it finish baking in hopes that it could be salvaged.

Cason wanted a chocolate cake with orange frosting.




You might be thinking that's not so bad. Maybe if I just wiped up the crumbs around the bottom a bit.




But then there's this side.




What would you do? Eat this incredibly ugly, but actually yummy cake or run out to the nearest grocery store for a Diego or Transformers cake?

Weekend Fun

We're on our way with this park quest. Saturday was a great day, finally a small break to all the rain we've been having lately. You'd think this was Seattle. Rain practically every day for the last month. Anyhow, this weekend was the Taste of Fort Collins. And while we didn't actually go into the Taste we did go to Old Town to hang out for the afternoon. I really wanted to go to the Taste but there was an entrance fee and then I could just envision us standing in long lines for hardly anything, the kids would get bored, we'd pay outrageous amounts for two minutes in a bounce house and so on. On the other side of town there was a classic car show going on so we went that way. The boys loved the cars. There was live music on the plaza near the fountain so we also stopped there for a bit before going for a late lunch/early dinner. On the way home we were passing by one of the parks on our list so we decided to stop. If you haven't guessed from the picture above, it was Spring Park. It's a nice small park along Spring Creek and the Spring Creek bike path. Lots of open green for lounging and playing. Some baseball diamonds and a basketball court.

Swing Flyer


A classic Cason look.


Sunday was equally as great. We took care of household stuff. The boys got messy painting. We grocery shopped. The big event of the day was a trip to the movies. We've only once before taken Jonah to a movie theater, when he was probably about Cason's age now. This was Cason's first time going to a movie. We choose UP after hearing a lot of good reviews on it. It was so fun! Cason was just so enthralled by it all. The big screen, the huge tub of popcorn, the contraband candy in Mommy's purse. The movie was great, what a wonderful story and Pixar does it again with their amazing animation. We made it through the whole movie without incident, no potty breaks, no melt downs. It was just a delightful experience. There was one point during a scene change that the screen went black and Cason says out loud "I can't see the...oh!" Another quiet point in the movie he empathetically said "The man is sad." and then he got tears in his own eyes. Jonah was on the other side of Josh so I didn't get to experience his reactions as much, but I think he also loved the movie.

This picture doesn't really show how big that tub of popcorn was. Cason was sticking his whole head into it.


I think this is how Jonah was through the whole thing. This was during the pre-movie entertainment and he was already mesmerized.


What a great weekend and a great kick off to Cason's birthday week. We've got lots of fun stuff planned for the week, including more park play dates, puppet shows at the library, a birthday party with Cason's favorites, a Transformers sleepover with Ethan and Owen, more parks and other fun.

Allow me to introduce...

My Man

Enjoy!

City Park

We've begun our park quest. Yesterday was the "end of the year" picnic event for my Mom's Club and since it was meeting at City Park I thought it would be a good time to get going on our list.

As you can imagine from it's name, City Park is THE park in Fort Collins. It's located near Old Town and includes a lake, huge open green spaces, a playground, a nine hole golf course, an outdoor pool with waterslides, a train, a trolley that goes to Old Town, and plenty of picnic shelters.

We were looking forward to spending a few hours with other families from the Mom's Club. The club had even reserved the train for an hour of unlimited rides. Unfortunately, earlier in the day we were struck with a classic Colorado spring storm. A storm that included a lot of hail and lowered the temperature by about 20 degrees. It meant that fewer families showed up than originally planned, but I think those of us who did still had a good time. The unlimited train rides turned into only two rides due extremely wet tracks that were making the train work too hard. It was a bit disappointing, but still fun for the rides we did get to take.

This is what the park looked like when we arrived. The picnic shelter we were in was also flooded with curtains of water dripping from the roof. This was about 3 hours after the storm had passed through. The amount of hail was impressive.


My cold toes.


The boys enjoying themselves despite being cold and wet.


Cason peeks from the "dangerous animals" car.


Jonah choose the caboose.


All in all it was a fun start to our summer season even if it felt more like winter.

Weekend recap

Our weekend actually started last Tuesday with the arrival of Josh's parents and his brother's family. Steve and Tessa are moving from Japan to Hawaii (Air Force) and they have a couple weeks leave time in between. They flew into Kansas City, had a short two day break and hopped into a van to drive here to Colorado. They got in late Tuesday night and so stayed with us that night. It was serendipitous because it gave Josh and I a chance to go out to breakfast Wednesday morning for our anniversary. Midday Wednesday they headed to a cabin in the Red Feather Lakes area about an hour and a half away from us. We stayed here because it was Jonah's last week of school. It was a good last few days for him and we're already enjoying summer break.

Friday Josh's folks drove back into town for some provisions and also to pick up Jonah and Cason to take back with them to the cabin. Josh and I then were able to attend a reception in Estes Park that was given in honor of all the contractors at Della Terra. It was a really fun evening. Better than any work Christmas party we've attended. Also nice to see my husband recognized for the quality of the work he did for them.

We got a night to ourselves and then joined everyone else at the cabin on Saturday. It was a quiet relaxing weekend. My sister in law Tessa is into henna art so she practiced on me and Josh's mom.



This is what it looks like after it's dried and you've scraped off the paste.


We took a little hike on Sunday.
Josh gave the pre-hike talk, reminding the boys of the trail rules.


Later that day the guys played football and set up races for the kids. Our boys love running races.



All in all it was a nice weekend visiting. Especially since we know we probably won't see Steve and Tessa and their kids for another four years.

I took that list to town!

I crossed them all off, every single thing. I took the test, where, by the way, I wrote a pretty nifty essay on cell phone technology and it's effect on our society. I went to First Step Advising. Then Second Step Advising, where I met a lovely woman from the nursing department. She told me that she doesn't always see the "nurse" in the students she meets, but that she sees it in me. It was a very cool moment that I won't forget. Then I came home and registered for my first two classes. Human Growth and Development and General College Biology Lab I. Then I finished my FAFSA application. Then I took a deep breath, followed by another. I've thought and planned for this for so long and it's finally happening.

Now I just wait it out until August 24th when my first class begins. They are both night classes. Monday and Wednesday nights I'll be in class from 5:30-8:50 and Tuesdays from 7-8:50. Cason will be in school on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30 to 3, so that will be a nice junk of study time each week.

Back to school at 32!

Cross that off the checklist

I just got back from taking my college placement test. I have a mild headache, but came through it okay. Actually I did great. Okay so I bombed the algebra section. Thankfully, algebra doesn't seem to play much of a role on my quest for a nursing degree, so I think I'm okay. Can we all just take a deep breath? There that feels better.

Next up, this afternoon I'll go to the first step in Advising. Then I'll have one on one advising, then I'll register for classes and well it's uphill from here. This test was probably the biggest hurdle for me and now I'm getting excited.

More deep breaths needed!

9 years

Gym teacher fail

I have wonderful memories of field day. It was the end of the school year and it was a day of running and being free. Usually there was water of some sort involved. And suckers. I don't know why but from my kindergarten memories the two things that stick out are tater tots and big red suckers on field day. I'd sit there eating my sucker while they announced all the summer birthdays over the loud speaker. "And last but not least...July 31st...Amy Hostetler." I can't quite figure out now why my birthday was the last one, surely there would have been other birthdays in August before the start of the school year. But that's how I remember it. The other great part of field day were the ribbons. Everyone got a ribbon. Oh sure, maybe the blue ones where better, but getting a yellow or green one still felt pretty special. The blue one's would say 1st place, but the yellow or green ones would say something equally as great like "great effort" or "most improved".

At Jonah's school field day for the 1st and 2nd graders was last Thursday. I didn't get to attend, but Jonah seemed to have really enjoyed it. Favorite part for him..Tug of War. I think times have changed and there are no sticky treats associated with field day anymore...too bad. Jonah did not come home with a ribbon. I really wish I could scan his "award". What he came home with was a piece of green card stock titled "Field Day Certificate' To the right there is a clip art picture of a heron or stork sitting in some reeds. Next to that it says "A stork brought me the good news. You did a great job today!" "Thanks for all of your hard work this year and remember that PE is important for everyone!" Signed Coach J. Umm, stork? Is it just me, aren't stork's usually associated with bringing news of a new baby?

I can just picture the stork union.

"Louie, you're headed to California, the Johnson's are having a girl!"
"Sally, off to New York, the Smith's are having a boy!"
"Clarence, you're on special assignment to Colorado, deliver the news to Coach J, his 1st graders did a great job on field day."