Strawberries and Bees

An adventure is not as memorable without some catastrophe, right?  Julia, her 3 boys, Tate, Chase and I all headed out about 10:30 Thursday morning for Berry Patch Farms, which is a small farm out in Brighton, CO where you can pick your own veggies and strawberries. We get there, see the fantastically large pet big in the yard, sword-like sticks, feather-footed chickens…great stuff! Then someone disturbs a group of bees and the fun begins! The boys were so loud with excitement about just being there and together that it took me a few seconds to realize the excitement had turned to shrieks of pain! Bees were swarming and stinging them all (except Chase, who was casually observing from the sidelines).

We finally get away from the buzzing creatures and the farm owners come running out to help…”aftersting” medicine and ice packs in hand. Luckily the bees were honey bees, which apparently don’t sting quite as bad as other varieties. The boys howled and whined and then the owners gave them each a treat from their store (freeze-dried fruit) and they were miraculously healed! Not another  word was said about the bees.

So we started picking our strawberries at noon (AKA eatin’ time), so no one really lasted that long. That is OK, there weren’t too many strawberries to pick anyway. We ate our lunch with the ready-for-bacon-makin’ pig and chickens hanging around the benches and then drove home…a little tired and sun-beaten, but happy nonetheless. Ahhhaaa….adventures with the boys!

Victory Weekend

This is what we called this past weekend – Victory Weekend! After a long, overly-busy last few months, we finally had a weekend to just be. We didn’t do anything (except go to church), just basic survival…food, sleep, play. It was fantastic! Very restorative and something our family needed. The boys set up a tent in the living room, we had movie night on Saturday and Tyler and the boys went sledding in the 8 inches of beautiful white snow that feel over the past two days. Pastor Jeff reminded me of the Isaiah 1:18 on Sunday,

"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

What a wonderful verse. Our sins are washing away and they are made as white as this beautiful snow that is all around us. I goof up so often, I fall short so much more than I like, but God’s grace covers me like a blanket of snow.

Talking about snow, the boys went sledding and had a ball. Well, Tyler and Tate did anyway. First, I stuffed Chase into these snow clothes, boots and all. He didn’t mind. He reminded me of Ralphie’s little brother in the movie A Christmas Story. He could barely move. After he was all suited up, he started to walk around, unfortunately in the area where there is still cement floor and BAAAMMM, face plant. He couldn’t get himself up because he was so stiff with all the clothes and split his lip open (and later I found he chipped his tooth too!!!)….OH GOODNESS the Mommy-Guilt!! Tyler kept reminding me “he is a boy!” He was fine 2 minutes later, he didn’t really seem to notice all that much. You can even see the red lip in this picture…ugggg..

Chase did head out with Tyler and Tate for sledding, but Tyler said he was a little overwhelmed and wasn’t really smiling and having fun, so he came inside with me and played with his trains and cars instead. Next year he will be much more into it, I am sure.

First snow

The first snow this year kind of snuck up on us. I sent Tate to school with a little sweatshirt, without a hat or pair of gloves. The first thing Tate did was get on the warmest items we had at hand and went out to shovel the deck.

Last night, Tyler trekked it out to the shed to pull down our snow totes. Tate wore his last pair of jeans that fit to school and, of course, when I picked him up they were ripped at the knee. So bright and early this morning we hit Target to keep up with Tate’s wardrobe needs for the coming colder weather. Can you believe, Tate is now in the big boy section at Target!

Buried

We have such beautiful evenings in Evergreen during the summer. A light breeze, perhaps a few sprinkles here and there to cool things down. Our family was out in the front yard the other night enjoying one of these exact evenings, chatting and being a family. The boys were busy in the sandbox, Tate on one side digging a big hole “to China” and Chase just roaming around touching things and waving them in the air. Tate walked away for a few minutes and Chase crawled over and found Tate’s hole and proceeded to sit in it like a little baby cubby. Of course, Tate started to freak out that his hole would now be demolished by Chase…until Daddy came up with the idea of burying him in the sand! Tate got on board right away with this little mischievous grin, and here was the result!

Gettin’ messy

The Allbritton boys are not at risk for Nature Deficit Disorder (as described by Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods), that is for sure! They love the outdoors, getting dirty and just being out in the sunshine. And, oh yeah, any excuse to get messy works for them!

When Chase and I walk outside, he immediately points to the sandbox and says “pl…pl” for play.

I dumped some old potting soil in our need-to-be landscaped spot next to the house and Tate saw it right away, gathering his supplies and started digging.

Chase is just starting to work with the fork…he has a ways to go.

 

Here is Tate outside helping Daddy with the footing for the shed, it is complete and shed assembly is next.

OK, Chase isn’t exactly messy in this picture, but it is cute. He is about to eat waffle pieces and his yummy morning milk. Breakfast is his favorite meal of the morning! :)

 

Long lost video clips

The computer saga has ended. We waited and waited for my new computer to be put together. Dell had run out of some special piece  and kept pushing out the ship date. Finally, they called Tyler and said “would you like to cancel the order?” He said no, yet a week later the computer was canceled anyway. It all worked out for the best. We have other places to put that money right now with the new remodeling job and the up-and-coming adoption. Regardless to say, I have my “new” computer, which is Tyler’s “old” computer, and now I can download and do everything like normal – including get video from the flip. So the other night I downloaded 60 clips to the computer and loaded several of them up onto YouTube. I will put my 3 favorite below, and you can check out the others on YouTube.

Here is Chase playing at the beach in CA, he just loved every second of it! This little boy is a total fish, he loves water!

Here is another of Tate driving the tractor all by himself!

Here is that doggie ride I have mentioned before, totally hilarious!

OK – one more!

Tate had a ball helping Daddy build sand castles in CA, he looks especially adorable in this clip with his little hat all crooked.

Maybe a Tiger?

During one of the small pockets of sunshine this past weekend (we have had a lot of rain), Tyler pulled out Tate’s little plastic golf set Uncle Blake got him a few years back. Tate took to the game like fruit flies on an old batch of bananas! Now he carries it around like a little “pro” and says, “I am going to go play golf.” Of course, secretly we are hoping this does not turn into a lifetime passion for the sport, as it is so expensive to play, but hey, we’ll roll with it if that is case.

Look at the swing? Looks like Tiger Woods to me (regardless of the fact I know next to nothing about the sport)!

Sandbox time

The boys are having tons of fun in the sandbox Tyler put together last year. Dirt, sand and flowers are all new to Chase, so it has been fun watching him explore and experience the outdoors. My two nature boys!

Tate has a new friend, Jordan. He moved in next door a few months ago. He is 8, but plays so well with Tate. He keeps him out of trouble and is gentle with Chase too if he is hanging around. It is fun to see Tate play so well with a friend. And right next door, WOW, now I see why people like living in neighborhoods with other kids down the street.

Chase really does play with the sand and toys, I haven’t seen much go in his mouth. Isn’t he the yummiest baby you have ever seen! I just want to eat him up every time I see him!

I gave Chase a summer-cut the other day, he sure does look different without all those precious little curls around his cute little head; he has more of a little boy look about him.

Chase has been going through about 3 outfits a day with all the outside play, dang kids get dirty fast! And Tyler had to perform splinter surgery the other day on his baby hand, he took it like a champ.

Project Progress

The boys have been hard at work. Here they are moving a big pile of dirt that was delivered via dump truck (Tate thought it was the coolest thing ever!). It will make the foundation flat for the shed in the backyard. [Tyler Edit: 3 days; 2 Allbritton boys; 30,000 pounds of dirt; 'nuf said.]

Next is to dig the foundational beam holes in the dirt they just laid. Of course, during all this construction, Tyler has other home projects going at the same time. He built me two new gardens, which will are going to start planting this weekend. A beautiful book shelf is mostly done in the workshop for upstairs to help manage all my book piles. And he has made a table that extends off the kitchen counter so I can feed the boys up there or they can do homework or color closer to me while I am in the kitchen. I know, Tyler is one amazing husband/father/woodworker/construction guy/…you name it, he is an expert! My super-star husband!!

U.S.N Tate

The big blizzard left us with a full, deep creek. So we have been down to visit its beauty almost every day. Last weekend, Tyler and Tate built a boat and had some fun.

Blizzard 2009…Tate Won!

Our snow day turned into a snow weekend! And Tate won our prediction game with 29 inches; we topped out at around 40! Amazing!

Starting Friday evening, our “snowed in” experience became a little less fun. Around 7 PM that night, we lost electricity.

No big deal, right? We have a generator. Well, being the experienced mountain folk we are, we had about 1 gallon of gas in our canister in the garage to run the generator and snow blower. We needed to snow blow the drive way to get out to the gas station so we could keep the house warm with our pellet stove (yes, that incidentally runs on electricity!). Tyler worked on the driveway until about 9 PM that night, but when he got to the end, the road was unplowed!

Saturday morning, we had no heat, so nut bar, cheese and pudding was breakfast. Here was the scene outside:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then Tyler got back to work. He decided the gas in the MV was our best bet. One would think siphoning gas is easy. Unfortunately, the hose option did not work, so Tyler had to rig up this pump tube so we could literately SPRAY the gas from the MV into our gas jug. It takes a lot of time to siphon gas in this manner. When Tyler had enough, he would run it out to the generator to keep it running and then go snow blow for a while until more was needed. I even took a turn once the baby was down for nap.

So all Saturday was spent keeping the generator going as much as possible and keeping the driveway clear. The county never plowed our road on Saturday. Our friendly, totally prepared neighbor was out with his truck with chains on all 4 tires (he is a firefighter) and offered to go get us some gas. What a blessing! However, he was gone for ages and we had to start bundling up (the house only got down to 60 degrees, but with 3 feet of snow outside, it felt about 20 degrees colder). Everyone had on at least 2 layers (Chase had socks on under 2 long outfits). We had lots of indoor fun, Tate driving Chase around in his car, kisses, and tunnels downstairs with plastic balls.

 

Finally, around 5 PM Saturday night, the electricity came back up and we were sung as a bug in a rug. Even though the sun popped back out early Sunday morning, things were still crazy and many families still stuck in their homes, so church was canceled. Our phones and internet connection were down until about 3 PM Sunday.

As I write, the snow has dwindled to about 1 1/2 feet, the sun in Colorado is pretty strong. The boys have been out sledding, here is a fun clip Tyler caught on one of their runs.

It is times like this past weekend that I am reminded of my reliance on technology. We have a corded phone for times like these, yet, most of my numbers were in my computer or on the electricity-dependent phone! Little things like this popped up all weekend. I like technology, I totally dig the internet and use it daily, but maybe I need to do a little techno-detox or something! The best part about being without electricity is all the reading I got in over the weekend! 

Weather extremes

We had some beautiful weather this week, Chase just loves crawling around the deck. He can’t fall off with all the railings, so he has some freedom to roam (his pants take a beating, but it is worth it!).

Tate is loving riding his Big Wheel and running around the deck and in this picture, he is hiding a surprise…

Kitty! With just overall wear and now with some outdoor time, Kitty is looking pretty gnarly, but Tate doesn't seem to mind. I think one more wash and she is going to fall apart! Maybe I should start looking into a kitty crochet pattern and try to swap her out.

This week, we were eating a snack of strawberries and cheese chunks and I looked down and noticed Chase’s little feet hanging so far out from under the tray…my big little guy!!!

As I write, a storm is making its mark on Evergreen. At dinner we took a prediction on what the storm will drop: Tate says 29 inches, I say 18 and Tyler says 3. Things are not looking good for Tyler. More updates later.

The Allbritton Boys Sledding

Our latest blizzard dumped around 14 inches in our backyard. It brought much needed moisture, but most importantly, the boys – well, at least two of the boys – got their chance to get outside and sled! They have been waiting for this opportunity all winter. Tyler grabbed the flip and caught a few cute clips.

Mickey, the woman who delivers our milk most Saturdays, arrived and found the boys in the middle of their fun. Mickey chimed in and said something about the sled run being dangerous and Tate was quick to say “we’re Allbritton Boys, we do stuff like this!” It gave everyone a good chuckle.

Reward Chart Surprise

Reward charts have become quite the feature in our home as of late. It is a win-win for everyone and such a positive way to encourage behaviors in Tate. The Jorgensen’s sent Tate these very cool fuzzy monkey stickers. We wanted to find a special way to use them. So Tyler and Tate drew a jungle chart and each time Tate obeyed the first time  - right away, all the way, with a happy heart is what we call it - he got a monkey and a high-five! When he got all his monkey’s, his surprise was a big wheel (this is the “original” but without the hand break, which Tyler said was the best part!).

Another cool thing is, we wanted to get Tate a big wheel anyway to have something fun to ride outside on the deck this Spring and Summer. Worked out perfectly! I find all kind of “surprises” that work beautifully – books are my favorite, a new playdo color, a board game the family can play all together, or sometimes it is just a big ol’ fat kiss! He loves them all!

Outdoor Fun!

It has been just beautiful – mysteriously beautiful for winter! I like winter actually – the snow covered trees, snow angels and being cuddled up inside with a mug of cocoa when it is just too blistery to venture out. This year I actually have plans to make snow ice cream with Tate, but wouldn’t you know, it just hasn’t snowed enough! 

Tate, Chase and I went on a fun hike around Evergreen Lake yesterday and out to lunch, both boys did famously. Tate lead the whole way and loved it…couldn’t stop talking about it. He is becoming such a little boy. I was wondering if he was going to dig the hike on our own, but colored me surprised, he was totally jazzed about the adventure and was happy to be the “man” of the day and just laughed, ran and talked the entire time! Great fun, something we will have to repeat regularly! It was the perfect length too, sometimes we have attempted hikes that I think are a touch too long for him yet.

We have been playing on the deck – here Tate is showing Chase how to ride on his toy, totally adorable! Chase loves going down the slide…he giggles and giggles, I will try to get it on video.

And this little guy! It seems like in the last few weeks he has really chunked up. I don’t know what it is, but when I pick him up lately he seems to be more solid, more musculy or something. He loved the hike we went on, too. I am getting pretty good with putting Chase on my back in the Ergo. At first, I thought for sure if I did it alone he would pop off my back before I could get him snug. But I think because he is strong, he just holds himself in place pretty much (well my back is pretty flat) until I can clip him in. 

Happy boy!