happy fourth

Frazer Meadow

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. We took the kids on a hike to Frazer Meadow. Jonathan took Blue there about a month ago and he thought maybe Lion would be able to manage it, too.

It's a beautiful hike up to the remains of a shack where a man named John Frazer had a homestead in the late 1800s. He lived up there and cleared a field for crops that is now a beautiful meadow.


Whenever he needed supplies or wanted to sell lumber to the townspeople, he had to trek (with a bad leg, apparently) up and down the mountain. I kept thinking of Adam Pontipee from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers on the way up to the meadow and thinking that these mountain homesteaders were insane. Give me a place down in the town any day!


John Frazer was killed in 1894 when the logs he was hauling down the mountain broke loose and crushed him. It was really incredible to see where he lived and worked and to admire the meadow where he cleared the land. I love wandering around places where people used to live. My imagination just runs wild. I think that is why I was a history major in college.


Anyway, this was the Lion's first real hike. It is a good four miles round-trip and it is uphill all the way to the meadow and very rocky. I think Jonathan said it is ranked a "moderate" hike. Lion did so well! We took a few breaks to drink water and eat granola bars and he fell down a few times, but he would just get right back up and keep on hiking. Jonathan and I were very proud of him!


After the hike, Jonathan took us to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner to celebrate our mutual success on the Atkins Diet. I have lost 19 pounds and he has lost 21 pounds! So we celebrated with some steak and salad bar. Ruby Tuesday's rocks because they offer mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes on request. And their salad bar is amazing. I enjoyed my celebratory steak, but my back was starting to really hurt by then...

Because I got a horrible sunburn on my back. I was wearing a tank top and before the hike I made sure to spray the kids and me and the back of Jonathan's neck with sunblock. But there was a pretty strong breeze while I was spraying and I don't think any of the sunblock actually got on my back. So now my back is all dark red and splotchy (maybe some of the sunblock hit its target?) and I had to take a sleeping pill to fall asleep last night because it hurt so badly.

Lesson of the day: Do not attempt to spray your own back with sunblock. Have your handy (and much taller) husband do it for you.

Detroit

We woke up this morning and as I was running around getting the kids dressed for soccer, Jonathan got a phone call from his boss. Asking if he would be interested in going on detail next month. To Detroit. Jonathan mentioned that he will be on vacation at the end of July, so he would be unavailable. Sorry.

But then we mulled it over and decided that as long as he could be home in time to fly to Virginia, maybe he should offer to go to Detroit. Because we have nothing else on the calender for July. And because it would be horrible if they tried to send him on detail next year. Our schedule for next year is really crazy because I am going back to school in August. And we are going to be flying to England in April. And going to Disneyworld with his parents in May. Maybe if Jonathan volunteers to go to Detroit now, they will not ask him the next time they need to send people somewhere on detail.

So he called his boss back. And he will be in Detroit for the month of July. It seems nobody else in his office was keen to go!

Sigh.

I hate when he is away.

And it stinks because one of the reasons we moved out to Colorado was to escape Virginia summers. And instead of enjoying a balmy Colorado summer with his family, Jonathan will be stuck in Detroit in the summer alone.

But hopefully his office will remember that Jonathan volunteered to go on this trip. And hopefully they will not ask him to go anywhere next year. Because Blue will be in kindergarten, Lion will be in preschool, they have their little extracurricular activities, and I will be in class in the evenings. I don't know what we would do if they tried to send him somewhere. Maybe I could fly one of our moms out here to babysit the kids in the evenings while I am in school? (Haha. I can see the moms reading that and secretly praying Jonathan is sent on another detail!)

Anyway. Detroit. Blech.

soccer

hungry

I am still doing the Atkins diet. I have lost 18 pounds! I think I look a lot thinner than I did a month ago. But I am still very hungry. This is what I want:


But since those are not Atkins-friendly, this cute print from Sandra Juto would suffice:

happy father's day.

ad infinitum

I have been scrubbing our floors today. Because Jonathan's mother and sister arrive tomorrow. But mostly because they look awful! We got this gorgeous, dark wood laminate floor installed and then someone (meaning me) painted all the walls a creamy white without using dropcloths. Sigh. It is very tedious, very hard work scrubbing all of the paint spatter off of the floors. My hands are killing me. But mostly I just feel like an ass. Since the paint spatter is all my fault.

Most projects we have worked on, we are cursing the former owners up and down because of the neglect and/or shoddy work that led to the project we worked on. But this time, I can only curse myself. And I have been. All day.

The Finding Nemo mural in Lion's room is almost finished. It is amazing how expressive fish can be! I will post some pictures when I finally finish. I think he really likes it. I have caught him sleeping up-side down in his bed a few times, as if he fell asleep looking up at it. Very gratifying.

Blue wants a mural next. And it's only fair that I do one for her, too. I was thinking of a forest scene, with some flowers and wildlife, and of course a princess castle in the distance. She wants me to do something princess-y. The other day she asked me if I could paint her on the wall -- as a princess. I told her that may be a bit too difficult for Mommy's artistic abilities!