day 9 cont. - Cook Forest fun

I just had a thought: my dad was the only male in a houseful -literally- of 7 females for 4 days. Poor man.


a rare smile
Snick skipped so many rocks she made her arm sore
another fabulous find -TADPOLES!



my 'rents AKA Oma & Grampa
is this what it means to "get a leg up"?

animal sightings galore

so Nikki & I started watching out for wildlife on our trip starting in KS when we saw an owl fly over our car late the first night. We saw: some deer including a couple many point bucks, a stray dog along the desolate highway, three owls, a couple hawks, a couple falcons. A coyote in my parents back yard as well as a fawn (not at the same time). a couple condors. many blackbirds and a red-winged blackbird. A chicken hawk (yes, it was circling) & some chickens & a rooster. A porcupine. a beaver. a quail. a woodchuck (AKA groundhog). a fox. peepers. minnows. hummingbirds. baby cows carrying on. zoo animals -did I tell you about the polar bear exhibit that enables one to walk threw a glass tunnel with the bear swimming overhead? Very cool. What else? ducks. pigeons. huge carp. lesser exotic stuff like horses & cows, cats & dogs. (Snick has the official list; I'll have to consult with her about the depth of my list here)

The most outstanding thing I noticed was the sound of wind in the trees -& nothing else- at my parents's house. I never realized how very noisy it is at our house in Denver until our first morning back & I woke to the sound of traffic & other "city" sounds. It made me sad & a little homesick to think that we tell ourselves the quality of life is so much better here because we have so many more "opportunites" -cultural & otherwise. Really? What about the added quality of life when one grows up living closer to nature rather than closer to one's next door neighbor. You know it's a worthwhile trip when Fi tells Nikki "this is a really good vacation". An astute observation from a 4 year old. I only wish we could do it more often. Or rather that we too could live a little farther out of the city. (bet my parents never thought they'd read those words.) Then again, it has always been my wish to live closer to the mountains here. Remember when I graduated from CU & I had to look for new housing for Nikki, Maddie & me? We looked first in Ned. Thought about Rollinsville. Considered a remodeled old schoolhouse b/t Boulder & Longmont. Settled on Longmont at the very edge of town. I forget how much I need more space, more nature to feed my soul -it never hits me until I've been there & then return to the 'burbs. Gah. The noise alone is enough to stifle my cries for freedom. The best we can do for wildlife is an occasional fox & assorted woodpeckers, crows, robins, starlings. Next summer can't come soon enough...I'm already jonesing.

flashback

Cook Forest cont.

I don't remember the Clarion River being quite that low.

the whole fam -Fi is actually standing right next to my mom on the other side

Ooh what do we see here?


I come in peace little peepers





first time wading in a river (here fishy fishy)


they noticed their dresses getting wet & so decided to remedy the situation

plan C in the battle of dresses vs river water

Fiona was freaking out & shrieking to get OUT of the water b/c she "saw a crab & he was pink with yellow pokey fingers for pinching people". She would not go back in.

day 9: Cook Forest

on another note, I was looking for Polish pickles today (literally today, real time, 18 August 2007) to make German potato salad. Not one. I could find not one Polish pickle in the Safeway here. Oddly enough, I can find Beano's sandwich dressing. You know Beano's pizza in Blawnox? Yeah, that I can find in the deli section. I think it even says "Blawnox, PA 15238" in the address part of the label. Beano's. but not a Polish pickle to save my life. Had to go with the kosher dill. I will continue my quest. Neither chipped chopped ham here for my barbque'd ham sandwich. Gawd. What is wrong with this place????


So tell me, at what point in this video do you think Jack bites it? Ah the wee life of a wee frog in the perilous hands of a mighty pre-school frog catcher.

Yeah so the vid plays sideways. I thought I could shift it on my computer at home. I can't. Deal with it. Just crank your head a little to your left shoulder & quit yer belly achin'. Today, I bring you Jack r.i.p. 18 July 2007.

day 8: day trip night trip

Tuesday, we drove down to the PGH zoo. The girls had a blast. I hadn't been there since they had done all those renovations. It's quite nice. I never realized how small that zoo is. But it's got a great design in that you walk in one way & loop all the way around to see everything & then head out. We can never see everything in one visit to the Denver zoo. It's not set up like that; we end up looking at the west end exhibits one day & then the east end on another day. Yeah, it's that big. Anyway. The zoo in PGH. Unfortunately it was freaking HUMID. and HOT. Maddie is by nature a hot kid so that day she was particularly miserable. "I'm too hot" "I want to go home to CO" "I'm not used to this humidity" "I want to go home now" sigh -whine -sigh -whine -drag feet -refuse to walk -complain -nearly hyperventilate -complain some more. OMG. MAKE_IT_ STOP. She is the kind of kid a good whooping was made for. But I'm not that kind of mom. My mom -AKA Oma- was concerned and fussed over her a bit when I stopped trying to pacify her (she was in no way in danger & she had everything she could need for calmly continuing our outing.) But then my sister very succinctly told her that Maddie is just the middle child trying to get whatever attention she can. After a good bit of ignoring, she got over it & actually enjoyed herself.

It was a good day.

Made even better by the fact the my sister & I were able to go to a Bucs game that evening. SWEET! I hadn't yet been to the the PNC ballpark so that was a treat. Icing on the cake was that the tickets were free. The cake was that we were 7 rows back from the 3rd base coach! Extremely sweet! The pics are on my cell, so again, as soon as I get the pics off there, I'll post them on here. Sad that the Bucs couldn't pull off a win for my visit, but the consolation prize was that it was the Rockies in town & they did win. And just my luck, we didn't get rained on. Apparently there was a massive storm in the area that skipped right over us. The super loud thunder & lightening bolt out towards the outfield just before the first pitch couldn't have been better timed. Excellent f/x!!!

Oh and my camera battery died, hence the lack of visuals for the day. Yeah & did you know there isn't a car charger for a camera battery? at least according to Best Buy. Bizarre, huh?

We were going to stop in at the old stompin' grounds Dee's in the South Side to have a drink w/ my friend Rick. But I was so tired after the game ended that we chose not to. Stopped in Blawnox to pick up Snick from you-know-who's house & drove the hour & a half back up to Strattanville. Yeah, good thing we didn't have those drinks. We wouldn't have gotten home until the 2 or 3 am range. Not that I haven't done that many a time before. But before was 11 years ago. Time does take it's toll on one's ability to party all night & then drive a couple hours to get home. Or rather on one's desire to do so. hmmmm, maybe wisdom does come with age?

So then another beautiful day in the neighborhood :)





OMG! WATER! Mine were the only 2 who had to be SOAKED b4 they would leave the misting area. You know, those land-locked girls from arid CO -can't get enough of the wet stuff. And what is with the hair in the mouth all the time lately???

day 7: hanging out

Monday we just hung out at my parents'. Went in town to meet up w/ Carol whom we've known since she was an art student dating our friend Mark. & their son Noah whom we've known since birth -a year after Nikki. Too bad there isn't such a thing as parental matchmaking anymore. Sorry Snick, just had to mention that. You know what I mean. Lunch in the park was Bob's Slob -another yearly must-eat & drool from 1500 miles away. I've been eating here since I can't even remember when. Same friendly faces, same tasty subs. The best! Sadly, I forgot to get a snap for yinz.

After that we all went to see the new Harry Potter movie. I need to see it again without children -two separate potty breaks caused me to miss integral parts. Then again, in comparison to the book, what I did see was not what I expected. It was hurried & left out huge chunks of what could have been fantastic fun. True, the movie is never as good as the book & this is no exception. But still. I was really looking forward to the quidditch/Ron Weasley scenes. And the "headmistress" wasn't nearly as sinister onscreen as she could have been. Bah.

My sister had arrived at our parents' while we were at the movie. We spent the evening catching lightning bugs. We don't have them in CO, so it was an adventure for the girls.

getting the mail with Grandpa...it's a little different than at home




Who is that hippie & how did he get up on that statue? Where are his parents??



it's the lightning bug brigade

Sioux!

day 6: cont. in Strattanville

Maddie has fun with the camera

and testing the self-portrait setting

day 6: sunday supper

we had spent the night at our good friend -Fi's godmother- Denise's new house. We had the honor of being her very first overnight guests. The next day we hung around waiting for D to get off work. The girls played outside & ventured just a bit into the woods. It was new & exciting & a little scary. Needless to say, they didn't go far. Maddie asked if maybe she should take post-its to mark their way so they wouldn't get lost. Post-its. It's a 21st century version of Hansel & Gretel. We drove to Denise's parents' home for pasta & meatball dinner. (Stopped in McKee's Rocks on the way to pick up yummy homemade pierogies.) A good bit of reminiscing about when Nikki was little. Some catching up on what's new. Delish meatballs. And of course cupcakes for dessert! Barbara makes the most delectable cakes you will ever taste. I can only drool from 1500 miles away & patiently wait for the yearly pilgrimage to PA to enjoy a bite. I have yet to find a comparable cake out here in CO. It's been 11 years. And the house smells of batter still. It smells like home. I miss it. I miss them.

We also stopped at the PGH Mills Mall to go to H&M (yes, again!). So lucky to have another good friend Angela (Lib's godmother) & her brother Michael drive over & hang out with us for a few minutes. Well, probably more like over an hour. Thankfully there's a movie theatre located there so we didn't have to leave when the mall closed at 6pm. The girls played while we caught up. It was relaxing & all good. Sad to say goodbye & make the drive up to my parents'.

funny how when you live someplace, you don't notice cool things b/c they just all become part of the background? This statue is over there near whatever lock that is in the Allegheny River (I'm soooo out of touch with the location names...I know it's somewhere in the recesses of my memory) at the intersection of Washington Blvd & Allegheny River Blvd. Anyway. It's cool -city crest, etc- & I don't think I ever paid any attention to it, if I even noticed it at all when I lived there.



Nikki is now just a little older than Denise was when we first started hanging out! Hard to comprehend sometimes. OMG. memories.... When Nikki was a newborn D would come over to our apartment occasionally when she wanted to skip school. Nikki & I would be asleep in my bed. D would come in & fall asleep on the recliner LOL!




Always the lady's man -wasn't Michael 12 yesterday? And Nikki was 3?

no stage fright here

look closely -Madster sighting in both pics. The day was hot beyond belief. There were clouds in sight but not a one came far enough east to give us any break from the heat. Bennett School did 3 performances that day. Maddie participated in the 2nd & did very well for her first public performance in 3 years. Her teacher says she's progressing well & will soon be ready to compete in a future feis. In fact, we'll be making the drive up to Estes next month for the Highland Festival in order to watch a feis in action. Maddie will make a 2nd public appearance later this month in another performance with the school.

happy birthday dear Snickerdoodle

happy 19th birthday to you! Yes, I remember the time you were born b/c there is a jet of the same number. And Wheel of Fortune was on in the background. And yes, you tried to come out arm first. That was a bit painful, having the doctor push that arm back up in there to make room for your head. So far, that's been the worst grief you've given me. And no, you didn't cry when you were born. You were talking. Non-stop. The doctor warned us that we should keep you away from the phone. And yes -as indicated by the last six years of monthly phone bills- he was right.

to maximize your noodle enjoyment...

day 5: cont.

We also drove up to Grandview Ave. to see the sights & ride the Mon. Incline. Remember last year, Snick said of the incline day "do we have to ride it now?" And so we didn't. This year I made a point of taking the girls on it because, well, it's a unique form of travel that yinz also take for granted. Ice cream after was a perfect ending to the day. (as soon as I can download it from my phone, I'll post the pic). It sucks being away for so long & forgetting about all the not touristy restaurants...would have eaten somewhere on Mt. Washington instead of at Station Square, had I remembered that there's more to PGH than tourism. Ah well, it was meant to to be a touristy day. Besides, we probably wouldn't have had the fun Libby video footage elsewhere.