Relaxing in the Redwoods

We had planned on going to San Diego for 5 days. We were going to do the whole Zoo, Sea world thing, and stay in a hotel for 4 nights and drive. The closer it got to the date of leaving we started to dread the trip. Staying in a hotel, eating out every meal, and driving 10+ hours with a toddler was losing some appeal as we got closer to our departure date. Since the hotel was refundable and we hadn't  purchased any of the park tickets yet we looked for other more relaxing options. 

 We looked up and down the coast and found a home in the redwoods in Sonoma county, just about 20 minutes north of Bodega Bay. It was PERFECT!

We enjoyed a few meals out in Petaluma at some great restaurants: Wild Goat and Della Frattoria.

It so fun for us to watch Owen eat at least a few bites of something when we are dining out now.

Together 13 years this month, whoa... We had the best time just hanging out as a family.

Owen was on cloud 9 playing in the rocks and sand.

Our redwood rental in Cazadero (not much more than a general store in that "town")

2 acre property with a creek and a hiking trail- what more could you need? or want?

Oh yea, a hot tub!

Kite flyin'.

My boys!

We hiked a bit on the headlands

What an awesome and relaxing trip. I started and finished a book there, we watched a movie at night, read magazines, cooked, got dinner to go, had some vino, hot tubbed, saw the little river towns, bummed around Petaluma, and enjoyed being together out of our normal routine. Such a good idea to change our trip up!

Dirt ain't dirty

For my birthday we went camping to sly park. It was our first camping trip. For avid campers (Pre-baby) it was shocking to us that we hadn't shared one of our favorite pastimes with Owen. Other than borrowing a larger tent, we are fully stocked in the gear dept. 

Owen was filthy as expected, but he actually did really well. He rolled all around the tent like a crazy worm (pack and play maybe next time?) and doggy Blue also stole Chris's spot on his thermarest, but we had a wonderful time. It was just for the night but so great to get back into something we really enjoy doing. 


We also picked up a new family activity- kayaking. It was so peaceful and a little workout too. Owen had fun singing row row row your boat and a custom mix of other songs that goes something like this... " baa baa black seep... A.. B... C...e...f... Up above he world so high... Hot dog hot dog hot Diggity dog.... Back on the highway...." you get the picture. What an awesome summer!

break it down

where did the week go?
Wuz asking myself this and started brainstorming some numbers... I like numbers although I am admittedly not very good with them (usually do a double check with a calculator).

So.... 1 week= 168hours
Think about it. This is a good exercise on a sunday to look back and see where your time went!
Sleep 5-7 hours per night= 42 hours
Napping when Owen naps=2 hours
Work this week was booming= 25 hours
Driving to/from work (4 shifts)= 7 hours
Exercise= 4.5 hours (training for a race coming up!)
Social= 13 hours including driving time
Playing with Owen= 35 hours
Gardening, watering, feeding/care for animals=9 hours
Preserving, freezing, washing, storing food=3 hours
Therapy for Owen= 2.5 hours
Swim lessons for Owen= 4.5 hours
Inside house chores= 10 hours
                              157.5 hours
 Couldn't account for other hours, probably tacked them onto chores or driving or playing with Owen!
This is a good exercise to do every now and again when you think... Where did the time go???

I want to know where your hours go, if you want to share.

Chris's hours were similar this week but his work days are 14 hours including driving time
Work=42 hours
Sleep 7-8hours p/night= 52.5
Play with Owen= 20 hours
Exercise= 2 hours
House chores=2 hours
Swim lessons= 2 hours
Indoor house project=5 hours
Baling hay=1 hr
Errands=2 hours
                128.5 hours dunno where the rest of his time went this week:)

We did watch Olympics for an hour this week.

Share? Please? I'm curious!

We've come a long way in a year.

Owen has been consistently inconsistent in many things, and eating is one of them. I am very proud to say a few things on this topic:

1. He has been taking his daily 1/2 baby aspirin by mouth for 2 months and now opens up his mouth without any reservation.

2. For the last week/ week and a half the most he has been tube-fed is 4 ounces total for the whole day. (goal for the day =16 ounces=1000 calories)
I'm still making his feed in the vitamix:).

3. He has gone above and beyond in his new eating endeavors. He enjoys almonds, peanuts, soy nuts (crunch theme here!) strawberry smoothies, strawberry beet smoothies (yay!), aforementioned carrot quesadillas, whole wheat waffles, soy bacon, apple chips, peach chips, regular bacon, Amy's organics bean or pizza bites, chicken toast (aka nuggets but not called that in this house!), falafel, and now drinks apple juice! He eats a variety of other kid and snack foods but the foods listed above are ones he will eat most of the time. The trick here is to promote eating yet still provide the variety for him to explore new foods. This is a common theme in children without feeding issues, where parents continue to provide the same foods over and over again because it's "what the kid will eat". We of all people know what that's like. But if a kid with complex eating issues can overcome his preferences then so can any kid! We are so proud of our kid who has gone beyond the realm of banana puffs and sips of water in a years time!
4. The tube is still there and will be there. We aren't rushing to any conclusions as we need to make sure he can hold his own, gain weight, etc. We are giddy with excitement though, as we now feel like he is more of a normal toddler with picky eating habits versus a kid with extreme oral aversions. He still will not consume any raw fruits (except smoothies) or vegetables (except when in the garden, or snuck into foods). He still gags and or makes a nasty face when he touches some of the delights that many people enjoy like a fresh peach or strawberry. But he has been known to take down many a basil sprig when in the garden like he's been doing it for years. This makes my heart smile a big cheesy grin.
5. I was getting all emotional the other night when I was cleaning out the kitchen... Sounds silly I know but hear me out. I found oodles of syringes, glass bottles, caps to the bottles, and endless amounts of feeding paraphernalia. 2 years ago Owen was on 4 meds 3 times per day. We needed a lot of syringes! Now we only need one! The glass bottles are almost on the out, we don't need to measure out the feed to the goal rate any new, because he hasn't needed the whole feed in a while. We are still using a lot of the various feeding stuff: straws, OT spoons, different cups, containers, basically anything that can keep mealtime interesting, and we still have a long way to go, but it's sure nice to look back and see how far we are from where we started! The view looks real nice.

In my mind, I'm going to Colorado...

I just got home from an amazing girls trip to Denver! This trip came to be by many people working together, and HUGE thanks go to Jackie Barthel, Colin Baxter, my amazing husband, and Jac for being so perfect to travel with. 

 Downtown denver has a river running through it, it has been altered to be "safe" with wading pools, slides for rafts, and mini rapids. It was packed every day as we drove by.

 Our teeny tiny mazda buzzed around >500miles in 3.5 days! We rented a duplex in the burbs we found off of airbnb.com. Good deals there!

 Linger was our favorite restaurant, we visited it twice on our trip. They had strict vegan options, and fish and meat as well. Our server took a little while to take our order, and he apologized in the best way- comp wine!

 Right outside Linger is an ice cream stand that seems more of an experience! The line was 50 people deep from 730-11 on Saturday night. They had tables set up, an old film playing on a screen outside, it felt very european. We were stuffed from our tapas style dinner and dessert, so we didn't get to try it. Gave us some business ideas though!

 Our dessert was passion fruit, green tea and ginger sorbet which was so refreshing and made me miss Hawaii and the fresh passionfruit there.

 EWWWW! I loathe rodents! Jac had no problems sharing her peel with one. EWW!

 We had a hard time deciding which hike to do. CO has endless hikes, trails, parks, etc. We made the drive (~2 hours) to Estes Park and then to Rocky Mountain park. We hiked up Deer Mountain with a 1000 foot gain. It was a 6 mile round trip hike, with breathtaking views along the way and at the top.

 The next day we went for a 6mile walk/run combo through Cherry Creek Reservoir, which was just minutes from our duplex. We ended the workout with a swim in the reservoir and a yummy lunch from whole foods. Guac, hummus, chips and tea. Good meal! Ending a midday warm workout with a swim should be mandatory. It was so refreshing for us both. (The workout was midday because we slept in. We slept in. I slept in!!! UNTIL 830!!! We woke up when we WANTED TO! This felt luxurious! We even went to coffee and DRANK some of it there, sipping and chatting like we did it all the time! [we don't])

 It was like old times, when we were roomies, circa 2003/4/5 when we became sistas! Sharing a room, traveling, doing hair! Ha! We had a blast!!!

 On our way to see James Taylor!! This was the center of the trip and the reason we went to Denver. Everything else was a BONUS! We are kinda excited, but VERY nervous. The night before it rained for about an hour around the same time as the concert.

 Driving to Red Rocks was gorgeous.

 This is a photo of the venue from the side.

 SO EXCITED to see our JT! We have seen him 6/7 times, mostly together. We are groupees, have travelled from concert to concert to see him. I have a shrine in my house with my treasured signatures on a shirt, cd, and ticket, three different times. I had my hopes set for a photo tonight!

 It was sooooo windy up on the mountain. In the distance you can see downtown Denver.

 So just to get to the stage area you need to climb ~10 flights of stairs. Then that leaves you at stage level. If you have seats in the back (or want to check out the view) you gotta climb up at least another 15 flights to get to the lookout.

 Ridiculous views!

 Our view behind us

 Thirteenth row view!

 Lighting up the red rocks!
The show was so good, so good to see him after 4 years. He weathered through the wind, there was no rain. We waited very impatiently at intermission and after the show, but he did not come out and do signatures. He may have been on higher security with the recent events in CO. We got a tip from the backstage guy as to where James would come out after his meet and greet with VIP people. We waited but it was hard to see through the darkened car windows at night. We held our t-shirts and would raise them in the air when a "probable James Car" would drive by. When the gate guard left we figured we should as well. Next time, James!!

 Back at Linger for some more yummies! Watermelon mozzerella salad.

 We even got new 'do's.

 Another glimpse of the city river center. The nearby town Golden had one too.

 Out front of our rental for the weekend.

 Estes Park views.

 Deer Mountain Hike!

 FREEEEE!

 Love!

 We stopped in Boulder after our long hike to have some lunch at a vegetarian restaurant called Leaf. It hit the spot and fueled us up for some shopping! Boulder was the place to shop. There was a huge art fair going on with artists from nearby states. There was a great Fair Trade store called Momentum with lots of goodies, of course we both spent our share of extra $ there.

If you want to go somewhere amazing, even for a long weekend (3 full days, 2 nights at a minimum!!, we stayed 4 days 3 nights) check out the Denver area. There are so many little burbs, towns, hikes, etc to explore you will wish you had more time. The flight was 2 hours if you get a direct one, so it is quite quick to get there. I had never seen so many community gardens, and the city planners really include nature and outdoor adventures into the mix. I was surprised and pleased with the diversity and some places had a Berkeley feel to them. I love to travel and go new places and I really feel that that CO is a place where I could live. I don't want to move but it just may be up on the list.