Fire

When we left for Colorado on June 22, the closest wildfire to our rental house was about 40 miles away.  Four days into our vacation, two more started: one in Estes Park 25 miles NNW and one in Boulder 10 miles SE.  

High Park Fire in Fort Collins; We were in downtown Boulder when lightning started the Flagstaff Fire.

Owen set up a firewood drum kit and held a concert for us one evening.  You can see the Flagstaff Fire (and a thunderstorm) in the background.  We even dubbed his band Owen and the Wildfires.  Dark-slash-inappropriate humor is a family specialty.  

So, yeah, the fires cast a figurative and literal haze over our vacation.  We watched the news obsessively and fled to the windows with binoculars every time there was a close lightning strike.  Growing up on the gulf coast taught me how to handle hurricanes, and living in Birmingham has helped me develop my tornado M.O., but I have no idea how to be smart about a wildfire.  I now have a much greater respect and empathy for those who do.

Our rental house itself survived a wildfire in 2003, and most of the ridge we were on still looked more like a moonscape than a forest.  I found a lot of beauty, though, in what the fires left behind.  When we looked to the horizon, we saw ongoing destruction, but we could also look right outside our window and see rebirth.  Cacti growing in burned out stumps.  Tiny but dense groves of birch trees fighting together to come back.  Birds, field mice, rabbits and (of course!) chipmunks moving in to repopulate.  Maybe I'm just stretching for an obvious truth here, but I did feel hope.

America the Beautiful

Thought today would give me a good excuse to share some landscape pics from Colorado.  Happy 4th!

Colorado Critters

After our hike at St. Vrain, we came home to discover signs that a critter visited the house while we were out (stuff knocked over, little poops in the master bathtub, pee on my suitcase... ). We checked the house thoroughly, discovered a window without a screen, crossed our fingers that our visitor let itself out the way it came in, and went about our business of playing cards/watching Euro Cup soccer.

About half an hour later, from where I'm playing cards in the kitchen, I hear the soccer bunch erupt and even see a few of them jump up on the couch.  My first thought:  England scored a goal.  

Not exactly.

The brave among us (ie. not the ones who are still up on the couch) set out to liberate one petrified juvenile chipmunk.

Strategy 1:  I'll corner him, pick him up with a towel and put him outside.

Result:  Fail.  I get the chipmunk shiver when he springs from the towel, runs up my right arm, down my left and leaves me holding only the tippy tip of his tail.  Which is no longer attached to the rest of him.

Strategy 2:  Coax him outside with a trail of peanut butter crackers.

Result:  Fail.  Chipmunks lose their appetite when in fear for their life; rabbits, however, love free dinner and a show.

Strategy 3:  Joe will corner him in the closet, pick him up by (the rest of) his tail and deposit him outside.

Result:  Phew... success

These last photos are courtesy of Joe too, since he found these antlers while hiking behind the house.  Definitely more fun to make your own Colorado critter than to be visited by real ones.

Rebecca + Jennifer; Coach + DD; Owen

Update: Owen's Summer List, Colorado Edition

Make popsicles  (Thanks for the cute monster pop kit, Beck Beck and Joe!)

Hike with friends (err... family?)

Ceran St. Vrain Trail oustide Jamestown, CO

We're back from a week in Colorado with my side of the family.  Lots of tales of life 'off the grid', wildfires and random critters, but I'll save that for longer posts (with lots of pics!) this week.  Spending today catching up on work and laundry.  Happy Monday!

Update: Owen's Summer List

Play in the creek with friends

Needle/Haystack

I'm helping Owen reassemble his LEGO fire station this morning.

I just spent 10 minutes looking for this...

in the middle of all of this.

And when I looked back at the instruction booklet, there they were taunting me:

two little symbols next to the image of the pieces I'd just valiantly hunted.

x2

Pickin' and Grinnin'

We took a gaggle of kids down to Morgan Creek Vineyards yesterday to pick blueberries.  Good times.  Thanks friends!

Rainy Days

The weather has been yucky here for the past two days, so Owen and I have spent lots of time at the dining table.  He's practicing his letters, and I'm doing a paint by number.  Does it surprise you that I looked everywhere for directions when I first opened the kit?  As if they could get more explicit than the hundreds of tiny numbers and corresponding numbered paints...

Update: Owen's Summer List

Swim

This isn't one of those one-and-done items; we'll be going to the pool at least a couple of times a week all summer.  But I figured I would go ahead and mark it off the list.

Owen's never had official swim lessons.  I told myself if I couldn't help him learn by midway through this summer I'd sign him up for classes.  Right now he's somewhere between actually swimming and having what looks like an underwater seizure.  But even when he's seizing he makes forward progress, so I have hope that he'll figure things out on his own.  And he's having a blast, so that's what matters anyways!

Outdoor happenings

Owen made a friend while we were out walking in our woods today.  That first photo disturbs me a bit because Owen's holding the little guy like a cheeseburger he's about to devour.  I think the turtle was wandering and out of sorts from the big storm we had yesterday.  The storm had us out of sorts for a bit too.

Luckily this pin oak only dealt a glancing blow to our house.  It was wild sitting in the living room and watching that thing come down out side the window.  The insurance company will be out tomorrow to check out where it damaged our covered porch, roof and gutters.  Fingers crossed that they will cover most of it!

It's like riding a bike

Guess what?  Balance bikes aren't just hipster kid nonsense.  They really work!

Eight days ago, Owen got his new bike.  Right away he could balance and pedal if we got him started.

Two days ago, he figured out how to start off and coast until he could find the pedals with his feet and then take off on his own.

Yesterday he figured out how to use the brakes to stop.

Today he's spent the whole morning riding up and down the street, and he looks like he's been on a bike forever.

Now there were definitely some McEnroe-worthy fits early on.  He couldn't stand not being perfect at it right away (wherever would he have gotten that trait?), but he was never that scared of falling.  And I think that's because the balance bike had taught him the feel of riding.  It's so much fun watching him learn new things.

And hopefully he's figuring out that you have to be willing to be bad at stuff before you can get good at it.  And that's perfectly okay.

Dinner buddies

Terribly cute.

Not terribly sanitary.

The angle of the shot makes me think of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Congratulate yourself for not being a dork if you've never heard of it.

Remembering