5 Years Ago Today...

Happy 5th birthday, my dear, sweet, beautiful Marie. 

You, who first made me a mother; 

You, who first revealed to me that this gift for which I'd dared to hope--the ambiguous dream of motherhood--would so greatly exceed every last one of my expectations... 

You are a marvel and a mystery.
You are mischevious, energetic, persistent, and wildly imaginitive. 

You feel deeply and fully with your whole self. 

You desire to help and to teach. 

You also aim to lead and direct. 

Your silliness precedes you. 

You have so many radiant hopes, unblemished by the reality of the world we live in, and your capacity to love others so unreservedly is simply astounding. 

Your ideas inspire me. 

Your innocence renews me. 

Your grasp of the infinite and trust in the divine 

reaches beyond most adults' self-limited understanding and meager faith.

Including mine.

You teach me new things about yourself, about myself, and about the beautiful gift of motherhood 

every single day. 

So especially today, 

I will do my best to keep my eyes dry and your smile bright. 

I love you with all of my everything, sweet girl. 

Keep shining always.

First glimpse of our sweet darling's beautiful face!

 

Last day as a 4-year-old!

*                    *                    *

A week and a half ago, we squeezed in a Princess "beach" party per the birthday girl's request:

And today, we will surprise her with her very own new big girl desk and computer (my old mini laptop). She's constantly pretending to do "homework," and has told us for quite awhile now that playing on the computer is one of her very favorite things to do. So her thoughtful daddy came up with the idea to give our almost-kindergartner her own special space to be a big girl.

I don't think I've ever been so excited
to give a gift in my life!

And the verdict is....she loves it! So much, in fact, that she couldn't be bothered with my silly attempts to get her on video. She just ignored me and got right to work creating masterpieces on Paint!

And while daddy (who took the day off) took her to the movies, I got to play interior decorator and re-arrange her room to put the desk in its new home:

And Marie immediately set to work coloring, cutting, glue-sticking, and taping up her first "project" (after I told her no more computer because she'd had enough screen time for one day). I think it's safe to call it a success!

Tour De West, Round Two

My family decided they loved Colorado so much when they visited last year that they decided us to join us  again (for almost two weeks!) for Round Two of their grand Tour de West. The house is now unusually quiet, the dishes are piling up in my sink again, and I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not really in withdrawal. The kids aren't much better, having said a very sad goodbye yesterday [<--apparently I wrote that 2 weeks ago] to their super awesome aunt, uncle, and grandparents. But it was a ton of fun while it lasted. Peter and I got pampered with two (TWO!) date nights, and I'm still scheming ways to get my sister back out here as our live-in Auntie Extraordinaire; she spent every day changing diapers, playing with the kids, cleaning my room and organizing my closet, and putting a sign on our door to keep the kids out (which they're actually respecting!). We packed in a lot of activities and quality time, and I can't wait for round three--hopefully sometime soon!

Some of the highlights (picture dump warning!):

Quality Time
Thankfully the fire restrictions dropped enough to allow us a night of backyard fun, s'mores, and fire pit:

Dinosaur Ridge and Mother Cabrini Shrine
My Dad spent a day golfing in Golden, so my mom, sister and I took the kids to some attractions in the area. At Dinosaur Ridge we learned how fossils are made, how the Rockies were formed, and how all the dinosaur fossils were exposed. Then the kids got to dig for some:

After that we made a stop at the Mother Cabrini Shrine on Lookout Mountain. I stayed in the car with a sleeping little Ethan man while Marie and Erik raced Grandma and Aunt Chica up a few hundred steps to the statue of the Sacred Heart at the top. Once Ethan woke up, we spent some time checking out the gardens and natural spring before extracting my father from the golf course.

UNCLE Q!
On Tuesday my brother, Matthew (aka Uncle Q) flew in to join us:

 It was his actual birthday, and since my sister's was at the end of June and Marie's is at the end of July, we decided to celebrate all the birthdays in style:

At the oldest restaurant in Denver, the Buckhorn Exchange. Where six hundred eyes stare at you while you eat, as my sister so aptly put it.


4th of July
We went to our local parade, hung out at the festival afterwards, then tried to rest up a little before driving into the city for some fireworks (our town cancelled them again after some devastating wildfires in the area--no complaints here since our house is still standing!). Ethan loved the fireworks, even if it took him awhile to get the fact that they were not, in fact, called fire trucks.

Coolest float of the day.

Seriously need to own one of these.

Skydiving
So, my brother is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. He went skydiving for his 30th birthday, and even conned my (retired jumpmaster) dad into joining him, much to my mom's chagrin. This year for his birthday, he thankfully chose a much safer (albeit just-as-thrilling, in my opinion) form of skydiving in which everyone could participate without wetting themselves. There's an Indoor Skydiving company just a few miles away from us, and it was definitely as fun as it sounds. We got to wear some sweet skydiving garb, and I was happy to spend so much time floating through the air again after (smartly) leaving my diving/gymnastics days behind. Also, for my fellow Airbornes out there, it was WAY better than checking static lines and doing PLFs. Just saying.

Marie decided that she wasn't up for it once we got there and got the crash course from the instructor. But Erik was a trooper and floated around like a little stork baby with the instructor's help. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. He declined his second turn, though, so we'll have to try again when they're both a little older. Ethan man wasn't quite old enough, or that kid would've been all over it!

Rocky Mountain National Park Tour
And last but certainly most awesomest, picture this:

3 kids + mom & dad + aunt & uncle + 2 sets of grandparents + 15-passenger van = Grand Family Tour of the Rockies. 

It was definitely as crazy awesome fun as it sounds. In case you're having trouble picturing it:

Griswold Hjelmstad-McQuaig Family Vacation

Pit Stop

The bug that hitched a ride between stops on the mountain ridge.
We took bets on his resiliency vs. our speed; I won at 55+ mph.
(No tears, people - he survived)!

Also, some amazing of the most incredible views in the country [more picture dump warning!]:

Simply no adequate words.

Ethan Oompa Loompa...
because I forgot his hoodie
so Daddy had to step in
and save the day.

See those suspended lakes waaay across the pass?
(No? Squint real hard and pretend you do.)
We vowed that we'll hike them together someday

Everyone Looking. Everyone smiling. While standing on top of a mountain.
 Let's all take a moment to soak in the miracle of this picture.

Oh, and we stopped at Beau Jo's on the way back for a nice late dinner and uber late bedtime.

Mmm...Beau Jo's...

(Of course, the next day we woke up bright and early to get our smile on for the Family Photo Shoot...planning at its finest!)

Missing my family again as always now that they're gone, so as a distraction I'm diligently planning Round Three of Tour De West(ern Caribbean? ...anyone?).

Here's to next year!