Author: pazmeyer

swings

There is no greater joy in life for my girls than good ol’ swinging. I was watching the pure thrill of the swing on their little faces trying to remember what the heck was so great about it? I remember liking it when I was kid, but it has been a while. So, I hopped on the big girl swing and gave it a go. You know what….it IS fun! B decided to join in too and the 4 of us took over the swing set. The girls are even learning to pump their legs and swing on their own. B and I got in a groove and were swinging together and he said “ooooh, we’re married”. Annabelle chimed in “I married too! I married too!” Do you remember saying that when you were a kid on the swings? Good stuff!

Annabelle loves to go high on the swings.
Too high! She’s not happy until the chain buckles…
My little cheeseball
Gwyneth likes to swing, but starts looking a little sick after a while. I think she gets some motioin sickness going on and has to head for the slides. She’s never happy to go down the little slide – she has to climb all the way to the top. My little thrill seeker!

copper mountain

The Sunsation festival was going on in Copper so we decided to head over for some live music and lunch. The sun was shining, the roads were clear, the crowds were minimal….a fun day to be had by all. WRONG! I will spare you all the details, but we had a lovely time playing with the girls and exploring town and then hit two major roadblocks for lunch. First restaurant was not at all kid-friendly, pocketbook friendly, or appetite pleasing. We quickly bailed and found what we thought was a low-key bar and grill. This is when things really turned sour. After a long wait, bad food, and bad service I excused myself with the girls and we went off to play in the snow. A long while later I was finally joined by Gus, Consuelo and a very angry Daddy!

Anyone who knows B knows he doesn’t get mad very often. He’s easy-going…laid-back….go with the flow…  UNTIL YOU MESS WITH HIS KIDS! Big NO NO! I highly recommend you never, ever do that. Never, ever….

So, that being said, after the girls and I left there was a minor confrontation with the manager at the restaurant that exploded with a b.s. comment about crayons and voila – instant angry daddy! He’s kinda like the Hulk although he turns very red rathen than green. Regardless, you don’t want to unleash that anger.

It’s not my story to tell, but I will share a few tidbits from my point of view – my girls were perfectly well-behaved (for a 1 and 2 year old in a restaurant) and bothered no one….especially since we were in a corner and there was no one around for them to bother. We asked for nothing out of the ordinary, unless you consider crayons out of the ordinary and were pleasant to a rather snotty waitress for the long, long terrible meal. What ensued after our departure is bizarre and prompted a furious Daddy to say “we will NEVER return to Copper Mountain”. You can believe that, because he doesn’t exaggerate and he’s not drama like me.

I’m glad I was able to capture a few photos of happier times in Copper before the Crayon Incident as it will be referred to henceforth and hereafter…..

The girls do so enjoy a bus ride!
Does it get more precious, really?
Our little mountain adventure
We found a fun climbing wall and Annabelle wanted to give it a shot
Showing the girls how it’s done…
Enjoy this pic Gwyneth Grace. It’s worth more because it will be the only one in Copper – EVER
Sweet climbing wall!
Gwyneth and her Godfather
Oh, the memories of a simpler time, before conflict, before Copper was forbidden…
Annabelle took to the slopes. I had a lovely time playing with the girls while the conflict was brewing inside. Aaaah, ignorance is bliss….
I’m not exactly sure what these loops were for but the girls enjoyed using them as monkey bars.
After lunch B and Gus took the girls home to nap and Consuelo and I hit the outlet malls. Several hours and shopping bags later we headed home too. We found some great deals – I got two shirts at the gap for $.61! That’s right. That’s a deal! We had a great trip to the mountains this weekend and have a lot of stories to bring home with us!

vinegar

I attempted to bring up some healthy snacks for the weekend and boy, did I disappoint the crowd with my choices. I found some new snacks called Popchips which are never baked, never fried, no preservatives, and no artificial flavorings. They are popped like popcorn but taste similar to baked chips (at least I think so). I’ve had the original and wanted to bring up a variety so I grabbed bbq, salt and pepper, and salt and vinegar. Not a good selection! I liked the BBQ and Consuelo liked the vinegar chips, but B and Gus didn’t like any of them and the girls felt strongly that I had made an all around poor choice….

yuck, apparently vinegar chips are not for everyone!
After dinner the girls went for a quick swim in Poppy’s tub and then crashed for the night.
We watched the Nuggets game and played a new game – The Last Word. We didn’t follow the directions to the letter, but we got the gist of it. The game is basically this – everyone gets a subject card and we all get the same letter. The person to slap down their card with a cooresponding answer that starts with that letter kicks off the round. Everyone screams out their answers until the buzzer sounds. (Example – boys names that start with C – GO!). The last acceptable answer before the buzzer sounds gets the card. You can only imagine the answers that came flying out from this crew! We had a stupendous time. Gus, look it up – it’s a word!!

lazy day in breck

We had a whole lot of nothin’ planned for the weekend and that’s just the way we like it. We had a lazy morning wandering around town and then grabbed lunch at Empire Burger.
Check out my motley crew….
Gwyneth walked with her hands in pockets to immitate her Godfather
It was about 10 degrees cooler than we would have liked, but no one really complained. We were all just happy to be away for a weekend.
I know I said in my last post that the orange soda was going to be a one-time treat, but to keep the peace and the happy-go-lucky feel of the weekend I let Annabelle order another ‘beer’ at lunch. She only drank about a quarter of it, but just wanted to be able to cheers Consuelo. My favorite quote of the weekend was when she walked away from the table to use the potty and said “oh man, Gus is going to drink my beer”. Such an insightful chidl!
Not quite ready to let my little one have soda yet, but she did get a very watered-down lemonade. She certainly didn’t want to miss out on the ‘cheers’ either.
A fun time was had by all… (this is why Gwyneth has to be strapped in – she’s my climber. It’s amazing how quickly she can get out of a high chair these days!)
After lunch, Consuelo and I took the girls back to the condo and the guys went to play pool. Consuelo got a little work done while I tried to get the girls to sleep. They were so wound up and it took about an hour for them to finally calm down. Consuelo seemed to really enjoy hearing the little “Mommy, Mommy, Oh Mommy!” every few minutes after I left their room. Once they finally crashed, they slept about 2 1/2 hours and Consuelo and I had some much needed girl time to chat and catch up.  

creme soda

Friday night we packed up and headed to Breckenridge. First stop – Tommy Knockers Brewery in Idaho Springs. Oh, that grilled cheese sandwich. How I’ve missed it! It really is delicious and if you haven’t had the opportunity to try it well, you’re just missing out on a little cheesy goodness in your life.

The girls were so sweet on the ride up and so good at the restaurant. Gwyneth was quite pleased to show off her crayons and colored to her heart’s content.

Now, here’s where the story really gets good. Annabelle has never had a soda before. Of course, we’ve let her try ours (very small sips) on occassion and she had a sip of root beer in St. Louis last August. We’ve never allowed her to have her OWN. Not quite sure what clicked in the car, but we decided she could order her own soda at the restaurant. This was to only be a special treat this one time (yeah, right!).

We ordered her the home brewed orange creme soda and it came in it’s very own bottle. Of course she wanted to drink it straight from the bottle. When the waitress set it down in front of her, she said “Thank you. Look, my beer!”. She then proceeded to refer to it as her ‘beer’ the rest of the meal. As if I wasn’t feeling guilty enough giving her a little soda, her announcing to the restaurant that I gave her a ‘beer’ definitely puts me back in the running for Mother of the Year.

When I asked if I could take her picture she quickly agreed, while her daddy ensured that the label was facing out. Apparently we need concrete proof we didn’t actually give her a beer – it’s creme soda, I swear!!

  

We finally made it up to Breckenridge just in time for the girls to get PJ’s on and head to bed. Suprisingly, Annabelle wanted to sleep in a pack-n-play like Gwyneth, which luckily we have two of up there. They fell asleep face to face right next to each other giggling through the mesh.
Gus and Consuelo arrived late Friday evening to spend the weekend with us. The jokes started that night and just kept on flowing the entire weekend….

what a week

We’ve had a full schedule this week and lots of fun. Wednesday we were lucky enough to have Brandon come over for dinner. His wife, Kelly Also is out of town so he hung out with us for the evening. A little background – when we first met she said she did not want to be called Kelly Two so I generously gave her the nickname Kelly Also. The name has stuck for many years. I’ve always found myself  rather funny, but nice was never my strong suit.

My fabulous husband grilled up some burgers, hot dogs, and chicken apple sausages for dinner. We spent the night on the patio watching the girls play in the sandbox and on their playground. Brandon is so great with the girls, but Hannah (his daughter) was none too happy that she wasn’t able to join us tonight.  He left with the promise that he would be bringing Hannah by soon. He has also convinced Annabelle that her daddy needs to get her a puppy. She continues to bring it up and has even told her friends at school that’s she getting a puppy and will name him Red. That happens to be Brandon’s nickname so it might be worth getting the dog just for the jokes! For the record, we are quite happy that the girls are beginning to overcome their fear of puppies, but we will not be getting a dog! Putting this in writing ensures my words will eventually come back to haunt me….

The following night Sarah joined us for dinner.  I had mentioned that morning to Annabelle that Sarah was coming over and when the doorbell rang that night she screamed “Sawah’s here, Sawah’s here!” – quite the little memory. Sarah arrived with many treats in hand including a pie for B, cookies and banana nut bread for the girls (I’ll fess up to eating as much of those as the girls). We had a bit of packing and laundry to do that evening so we decided it was definitely a sushi night. We ordered several different rolls and some pad thai for the girls and we all stuffed ourselves. Delcious!

We are quite lucky to have made many new friends on our adventures in New Mexico, Chicago, and LA, but it’s always nice to know that the friends we made here in Colorado so many years ago are still dear friends today. There’s something to be said for the comfort of an old friend. The laughs, the stories, and the fun come so easily. It’s been a good, good week!

little monkeys

What fun and on a school night no less!! The Fesslers and The Tyler’s met us for Family Night at Little Monkey Business. Now that Melissa is working from home we haven’t seen the Fesslers in ages (we used to have lunch every Thursday!). She’s due with a little girl in July and looking very cute with her little prego belly.

The girls had so much fun with their buds; Rhys, Wyatt and Cade. The bouncy house is always a big hit with all the kiddos. Again, Miss Gwyneth made me a nervous wreck climbing anything and everything and going down all the slides. I’m glad she is adventurous, but it would nice if she would let someone hold her hand on occassion. No matter how high she goes if you reach for her little hand she says “NO, I do it!”. Oh, GG!

Annabelle had a great ol’ time in the playhouse and had her daddy and Mr. Lansing sucked right into her pretend dinner party. They were both eating her up and she loved the attention. She served them pretend spaghetti, coffee, popcorn and broccoli and they gobbled it all up on command.

It’s always a challenge to leave these places, because even though the kiddos are exhausted they never want to stop playing. I think they all had a bit of a meltdown as we were leaving, but Annabelle was really upset. She stood outside and cried and as I told her we’d come back to play another day she said “ok, but I just don’t want to say bye to my friends”. I promised we’d see them all again soon so I have to live up to that promise – this girl is old enough now that she remembers everything!

This little climbing contraption has always been a big hit with my girls. First stop – slide, Next stop – this thing. Gwyneth will climb anything and Annabelle has learned to swing on the monkey bars. They love it!
Pushing her face right up to the glass for a photo.
Mr. Wyatt is always good sport with me and my camera.
He requested a photo of himself with his drink. I’m always happy to accomodate a photo op…
Gwyneth bouncing away. Such a sweet and happy girl!
Annabelle has never really enjoyed climbing but once she sees Gwyneth doing something she can’t be left out. Although she’s younger, Gwyneth is typically the leader (and instigator, I should note!).
As Rob illustrates, Little Monkey Biz is fun for kids of all ages….
Mr. Cade finally taking a break from playing to chow down some pizza. Don’t be a stranger, Cade. The Meyer girls have been missing you.
This is just double trouble. Annabelle and Rhys are just too cute together. We can usually get Annabelle to do what we want with a promise that she can go play with Rhys. He’s almost as good of a reward incentive as the park!
I tell ya, I’d take these girls to Little Monkey Biz every night if I could. They came home, got on PJ’s and went right to bed with absolutely no fuss. They were wiped out!

night at the park

Spring has sprung and we couldn’t be happier to get out and enjoy this gorgeous weather. We have lots of great parks near our house so it’s easy to make a quick trip every night. It’s also nice to have a reward for good behavior….”Annabelle, if you eat your dinner, we’ll go to the park”, “Annabelle, if you clear your dinner plate, we’ll go to the park”, “Annabelle, if you don’t stab your sister with your fork, we’ll go to the park”.  Yes, those last words regarding the fork did come out of mouth and Yes, we only have to use the park to bribe Annabelle to do things. Gwyneth still listens! I wonder how much longer we have of that?
Since everyone ate well, dishes were cleared, and fork stabbing was kept to a minimum we headed off to the park. Annabelle gave all her peeps a wave while heading to the park and seemed to expect people to come out of their houses to wave to her on her adventure. She kinda looked like she was in parade waving to each house as we passed…
This girl leads the way to the park.
This is the first time we’ve been to the park since we’ve seen the new Gwyneth. That would be the wild, crazy, adventurous, show-no-fear Gwyneth. My baby no more. This girl wants to climb and explore.
Annabelle is content to swing the entire time we’re at the park. With my fear of heights, Gwyneth is determined to give me a heart attack. I can hardly watch her climbing around on the jungle gym. She went down this little slide a few times, got bored, and climbed to the very top for the big slide. She went down on her bottom a few times, got bored, and decided she needed to go on her belly. She laughs hysterically the entire time. I usually have to walk away and leave her with her daddy who also finds her very funny, while I worry….
Annabelle may lead on the way to the park, but she gets a nice little ride on the way home.

one rib

There are two kinds of pictures I can’t resist taking:

1.  People sleeping
2.  People eating

I love these shots, but the sad fact is that they are very annoying to everyone else. When do you LEAST want your picture taken? Right – when you’re sleeping or eating! That certainly doesn’t stop me and my quest for these photos will continue. (I don’t know why I like them so much, but they make my laugh. Sometimes that’s enough!). That being said….

BBQ season is upon us and B treated us to ribs tonight. It was his first time making them and they were delicious. Of course, as we’re enjoying our meal he immediately begings talking about how he can make them better, that he has a rub he’s going to use next time, that he needs to brush on more BBQ sauce while they’re on the grill…..I thought they were pretty darn good this time, but the man in a perfectionist when it comes to his BBQ. Fine by me, I get to eat all his tasty creations. Don’t be suprised if you see another post about ribs this week.
I made lots of sides and a salad, because I didn’t know how the ribs would go over with the girls. Boy, was I ever wrong. They loved them. Gwyneth asked for “mo, mo, mo” and Annabelle got right into it and got more BBQ sauce on her face than in her belly. What was I thinking? What kid doesn’t like to dig in and get messy when they eat? This meal was the jackpot.

So, here are the pictures of my kids eating. Luckily they haven’t not found me completely annoying at meal times yet and still let me click away.
Gwyneth got stripped down. She didn’t want to wear a bib and I knew ribs would get messy. Gotta appreciate the girl proving me wrong. Barely a drop of BBQ sauce to be found…
You have a little something on your face….
Annabelle is my salad girl. She loves ranch but tonight she ate an entire bowl of ceasar salad and then moved on to mine.
I had to post this picture. It just makes the memories of my childhood come flooding back to me. Gwyneth’s teachers did her hair at school today and they put those rubber bands in super tight. Her eyes are slightly pulled back and squinty. Not politically correct, but I remember crying to my mom that my hair was too tight and she was making me chinese. I know, not pc, but I feel like GG is getting a little of  that treatment here.