Easter Egg Hunting with an Ironic Twist This was the day that John and I realized our child named GREY is probably COLOR BLIND!  There are so many emojis that I feel belong with that sentence: the one with the shocked eyes and blushing cheeks, the one hiding behind hands

Has Grey had a Tetanus Shot Yet? That’s what I was wondering as he clambered onto this shell of a motorbike sitting in Superpa’s scrap yard. A little biker in the making. Superpa would be so proud.   Then Grey made his own Dada proud by tracking a deer around the

Superpa’s “Vroom Vroom” Recently, Grey saw a man walking by with a black T shit that had a giant white skull on it. Grey promptly made this grumbly “vroom vroom” sound that is his impersonation of a motorcycle and said “Superpa”.  Yes, my son associates all things motorcycle with his

Exploring Superpa’s House We never have any Airbnb bookings of our house in January, February, or March. So our house was a mess and we weren’t prepared at all when we suddenly got a booking starting the very next day that would last 2 weeks with the potential to extend

No Pants, No Problem Grey was very excited to see another round of Spring snow falling on the deck. He was insisting to go outside and play in it, but it was nearing bedtime and I wasn’t in the mood to go through the layering up process with him. I

Easter Egg Hunt at Anderson Park Grey was back this year with a little more of a clue of what he was supposed to do for this year’s Easter Egg Hunt. I really appreciate how this event is organized with different locations and staggered times so that Grey could be

I Confess… I Don’t Jog with My Jogging Stroller Much I ambitiously added the Graco Jogging Stroller to my baby registry all those months ago, picturing myself circling the nearby park getting my sweat on while Grey slept or gazed contentedly around.  And I used it A TON when Grey

I Prayed He Didn’t Lose Teeth… In preparation for Grey becoming the youngest kid to thru-hike the Colorado Trail, we are slowly building up how far he will walk on his own on our neighborhood street.  He’s usually pretty steady on his feet for a not-yet-two-year-old, maneuvering on a moving

Cross Country Skiing the Maroon Bells Road After the muddy beginning of our baby free “ski” weekend, we planned to redeem ourselves at the Maroon Bells Road. It would be an epic day of cross country skiing if we went the whole way up and back, a distance of 12.5

The Snow King Yes, these posts ARE in order. Just 3 days ago we were outside with barely a sweater in the warm sun, working the dry ground to start a garden.  Today it was back into all our layers, including Grey’s Insulated Toddler Snow Boots, to shovel some HEAVY

Baby Free Weekend in Carbondale! You may have read in previous posts about the “Baby Trade” system I’ve set up with a couple other moms on my street. While we do enjoy our “free” time to grocery shop, cook, and clean without a toddler slowing us down, the brief visits

Garden Excavation Grey has really impressed me with his patience as Mama has been working on all things garden these Spring months. He’s usually quite the needy and “uppy” little fellow. But when I’m out there digging and hauling and moving and otherwise being a human excavator, he’s content to

The Simple Joy of a Swing Micro Ventures are supposed to be simple. Just going for a walk at your neighborhood park or planting a garden in your backyard IS an adventure to your little one.  On this particular day, Grey got quite a thrill just from a little ride

Playing with Cousins! Normally our Micro-Ventures are events that occur outside. But we sort of needed the indoors to contain the FOUR BABIES we had once my family joined with my brother’s. That’s right, he has THREE UNDER THREE! And that made for an adventure all on it’s own.  We

Cross Country Skiing- Too Much Snow Well, our wish was granted. It dumped 6-8 inches overnight while we were still up in Granby. We eagerly geared up and hit the trail… But wait… where IS the trail…? That’s right. Our wishful thinking had cursed ourselves with having to break trail

Cross Country Skiing- Not Enough Snow Finally, mom had acclimatized well enough to head up to the mountains to visit with my brother’s family and do some cross country skiing. We were sad to discover when we arrived that the area hadn’t gotten any new snow in a while. The

Trying to Feed a Pebble to the Bighorn Sheep My mom and I biked up Waterton Canyon around this same time last year. It was such an easy bike ride with Grey in his Chariot that I vowed I would go again all summer long. To make it even better,

February Night Hike Our group of 7 from January dwindled to just 3 in February. Hopefully I didn’t permanently scare them away. But BJ and I were happy to take my mom up what BJ called “the leg killer”. I yelled at her for saying that in my mom’s presence,

Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? My mom came to visit from PA for 9 days to see all her grandchildren. She has 4 now here in Colorado, after the recent birth of my brother’s newest little one. We first spent a couple of days in Denver to let her

Delivering Muffins The point of a Micro-Venture is that it is easy to do. While I am fortunate enough to have a lot of specialized gear and live in an area where regular cross country skiing is accessible, that’s not an “easy” outing for a lot of people. Especially with

Crown Hill Walk with Grandma! Grey’s grandma arrived from Pennsylvania to spend some time with her kids and grandkids. We took it slow on her first couple of days, since she has gotten altitude sickness before. She had much better luck this time, probably because we stayed down on the

North Table Hike John and I enjoyed our last chance to adventure baby free while Grey was at Superpa’s for the week. I wanted to push us and go for more distance than I would normally feel up to carrying Grey in the pack. So we headed to North Table

Alderfer/Three Sisters Hike Boy did I feel fast without Grey’s Osprey Poco Plus backpack on! He was having fun tending the farm animals at his Superpa’s house while John and I had a weekend to spend some quality time together. Of course, quality time to me means hiking. There is

Out on the Town Usually my Micro-Ventures are outside and involve my little adventure buddy Grey coming along for the ride. But this evening, Mama got a little grown up time to go out with some friends! I really never drink, not for any noble reason, I just honestly don’t

Zoo Day! Grey and I got in for free with our friend Sami’s guest pass. Grey enjoyed petting the lion cub statue and getting an up close look at the penguins. We happened to be there in time for their feeding which was very entertaining. Grey used his “ah! ah!”

Cross Country Skiing with a Mountain Lion After shoveling a thick snow off our driveway and deck the day before, I was hoping to actually get out in it to have a little fun. It was Super Bowl Sunday, so I was also hoping lots of people would be indoors

Thank Heaven for Neighborhood Kids I have the great fortune to live on the same street as some very responsible young ladies who LOVE taking care of Grey. It’s a win-win-win! I get a little time to do household chores or (what I usually end up doing) blog. He gets

Construction Machines Day! If you read our Micro-Ventures from last month, you saw that I have started doing little mini lesson plans with Grey about topics that interest him. The teacher in me isn’t totally dead now that I’m a stay-at-home-mom. Grey has been OBSESSED with construction machines, screeching and

Spring is Here! We started our day picking up some books from the library for our upcoming day studying construction machines! (See one of the subsequent posts for more details!) I accidentally parked further than I thought from the library entrance and had to carry Grey the several blocks when

The Reason I Have a Double Stroller… It seemed excessive during my first pregnancy to get the double Thule Chariot, but it has been sooo worth it. I have used it multiple times when we are babysitting my friends’ kids to still be able to get outside and kill some

Running Lair O’ The Bear Park With our Yak Traks for extra traction, my friend Sarah and I met for our weekly Wednesday lunch break run. Well, it’s her lunch break and my “Grey is napping” break. We don’t always manage to make our schedules align, but we are trying

“Helping” Mama Shovel I got Grey a set of Toddler Shovels, hoping that he might actually put his back into it and move some snow. No, he might do one load and then he is off, stomping down the snow that I haven’t shoveled yet to make it even harder. 

Grey’s First Time Sledding! He is the CUTEST thing in his little snow pants, which I’m pretty sure were a hand-me-down from our neighbor. So was his coat. And the sled was one we got for cheap, poking around our friend’s stuff before their yard sale began. Thank goodness for

The Seagulls Have Landed We walk Crown Hill park multiple times a week. This year we’ve noticed some different wildlife from previous years. For example, last year there was a big fuss about all the coyotes in the park. All winter long you could see them trying to sneak up

One More Bike Ride Sometimes, when I explain where I live to someone from outside of the state, I get a response like, “Oh! Colorado! Cold!” And ya, it can be cold throughout the winter and it regularly blizzards in May. But! Winter only holds the state in its grip

Baby Trade There are a couple of other full time moms on my street and we have created a system of “baby trading”. It goes like this, “I’ll take your kid before nap for a few hours, and you take my kid after nap for a few hours”. Fortunately all

Bike, Playground, Bike Let me just start by saying we should have started this adventure earlier in the day. Yes, it was a gorgeous day for January, but the sun sets faster when the tall mountains block the horizon. Then boy did it get cold. John and I were fine,

Cross Country Skiing St. Elmo It was our last day of our 3 day cross country ski-a-palooza. (And my last day enjoying some baby free time!) On our way back to Denver, we turned off the highway towards St. Elmo. Just before we got to the ghost town, there was

Cross Country Skiing North Fooses Day 2 of the cross country backup plan found us on skiing some ground I had previously covered on my thru-hike of the Colorado Trail. In the summer, it’s a 4X4 road to a parking area to the trailhead for North Fooses. In the winter,

Cross Country Skiing Cottonwood Pass That hut trip I mentioned got canceled for severe avalanche danger about a week before we planned to go. Thankfully, my friend Debbie and Sarah’s aunt both offered us places to stay (for free!) in the Salida area. We were still able to do 3

Full Moon Hike Every month, a group of gals joins me to hike under the full moon. Headlamps are forbidden except to search for lost objects (like when a Yak Trak went missing) or to illuminate our faces for a photo. This was the first event for the 2024 year.

Cross Country Skiing Eldora Nordic Area In order to prepare for a 3 day cross country hut trip, my friend Sarah and I thought it prudent to at least break in our gear and our muscles for the first time this season in a groomed nordic area first. We like

National Western Stock Show Thanks to my mom friend Molly who got this group going to the stock show, despite our unexpected snow storm the night before. I have driven past the Denver Coliseum (where the stock show is held) every day on my way to and from work for

Bubble Day! The former teacher in me could not entirely rest while I am taking some time away from my career to raise my son. When friends who are still in the profession ask me what I miss about teaching, I say the part that most of them actually dread…

Outpost Every year, my husband’s waterfowl hunting group gets together and invades my friend BJ’s house for a long weekend. Since having Grey, we have taken to also invading their bro time for a night so Grey can see the ducks and play with his friend Ava and I can

Crown Hill Walk Grey and I patiently waited for Dada to have a break in his work calls to do a quick lap around our local park before the sun went down. It was a chilly day, and I was grateful for the hands and feet flips on Grey’s Obermeyer Snowsuit.

Walking Home from a Friend’s House Lots of the Micro Ventures for this month toe the line of being a bit too macro. It cost money to go to the stock show, cross country skiing requires specialized gear and a long drive, Bubble Day took a lot of planning… Micro

Bike, Bike, Goose! When Grey wakes up from his nap and just isn’t in a good mood, a quick bike ride is usually my go to to shake him out of it. Our local park is close enough that we can just ride straight from the house, so it requires

Up and Down and Gourds We started off the New Year wrapping up a visit to Superpa’s house. With 7 acres, we don’t even have to leave the property for a Micro Venture. Grey found a patch of gourds growing and used them to practice his developing throwing skills.  Earlier

Rico Seco Snow Walk For our first real snowy adventure this winter, Superpa and Ma took us up a steep and deep (with powder!) trail at Rico Seco near San Luis, Colorado. The grandparents had snow shoes (I had forgotten my MSR Snowshoes at home) so they led the way

Potty Training and Outside Chores I am taking a fresh stab at potty training after basically just teaching Grey to pee on the floor on my last attempt. It’s easy to do when it’s miserably cold and we’re stuck inside all day. But when the sun is out and it’s

Playing in the Arroyo At my dad’s house near Walsenburg, the winter day was mild and sunny. Perfect for rocking the Baby Sunglasses and Hi Tec Toddler Boots on a quick walk out back to the sandy arroyo. Grey loves an opportunity to get absolutely filthy.  Then he spent some time

Shoveling Snow This is a perfect example of a Micro-Venture! Shoveling the deck certainly isn’t glamorous or very exciting (to me), but Grey had a great time. It got us out of the house and let us have a little fun together in the snow. Plus Grey got to practice

Caroling A frequent failing (in my opinion) of social media, is that it makes you think that everyone else is having such a perfect life, so surely there must be something wrong with you/your family. Well, let me be the first to say it’s not always rainbows and unicorns in

Hike at North Table Today Grey and I met Diana (a mom friend I met on Peanut) and her son for a hike at North Table Mountain in Golden. It’s a real butt kicker straight uphill from the parking lot, but flattens out when you reach the top of the