Celebrating a Decade of Eve

On July 10, 1999, following a punishing 3 1/2 hours of pushing (and an excruciating 10 minutes of crowning!), Matt and I had ourselves a princess, the glorious girl we know as Eve, who will always hold a special place in our hearts because she made us parents and rearranged our lives in such a fabulous way. The feeling I had after taking such a beating was that she'd better be beautiful, smart, funny, kind, welcoming, generous and every other positive adjective imaginable because I wasn't EVER going to do that again. And though I obvious did do it again, several times over, she's never disappointed.
Because her siblings have never known a life without her, Eve's golden birthday may not be fully appreciated. But we, as the parents who have vague memories of life before Belly-Boo, have reluctantly said good-bye to year nine (as Matt calls it, Halfway-To-Out-Of-The-House), and are strapping ourselves in as we usher in the tween years with this gorgeous, friendly, funny, sincere, hard-working girl.

As a family we celebrated at the Build-A-Bear Workshop, and followed it up with dinner at Noodles 'N Company (if you're not local, you haven't lived until you've had their Wisconsin mac 'n cheese and a tangerine cream soda. Trust me)...

Eve's had such a great year: did beautifully in school, swim team, student council, choir and piano lessons, which she layered with Activity Days and playdates and horse camp...she's a great friend and sibling par excellence. Your kid is great, too, but I truly couldn't live without this girl: she's just a loving little nurturer who loves to do for others, and every dang day with her is a true gift.

Watching her at Pirate's Cove with the people she loves the most was a true treat. I love watching these pure souls enjoy each other so much; the moment itself was great fun, but the warm fuzzies came from the vision of this gang being there for each other as they enter the thorny thickets of adolescence...it warms my heart to see her choosing to surround herself with such stellar personalities.

One of her many nicknames is the Laugh-A-Nator 2000; what could be more perfect?You hope for the best when you decide to take the incredible gamble of bringing a life into this world...every parent loves their child unequivocally, and can't imagine what life would be like without him or her. But with Eve, every prayer was answered, every wish fulfilled, every goal realized, and it's like our hero Bono says: "I want the lot of what you've got/And I want nothing that you're not." If everyone could grow up to be like Eve, what a wonderful world it would be.

Stars 'n Stripes Forever

Some might disagree, but we had perfect weather this 4th of July; warm and overcast, with an excellent chance of major downpour, which came and left at just the right time in the festitivies...we were kind of relieved to break tradition and not invite folks over for BBQ-ing; we used our 2+ hours of inside confinement for a ripping game of "Life." Shane learned the hard way that college is a good decision for anyone's future...
The Crawfords enter the Meadows Bike Parade...not as decorated as we'd like, but a great time nonetheless.

Snow cones all around, as well as bounce houses, game booths, crafts, and the never-improving face-painting station: I can't be the only one who thinks that more than one person should be employed at their art and that lines should be ideally less than 60 minutes per child, right?

The full crew, all accounted for. This NEVER happens.

After lunch and happy naps, we headed for a wonderful 15-minute swim at The Grange...here, captured for all to see, is Shane's great skill and whatever you call what it is that he is doing.

You might get the impression from this Blog that all Gracie does is walk around with her head in her hands, but she truly is a sunshiny personality. Exceptions: 4th of July at the Grange, pre-rainshower.

Post-rainshower.

We figured the ground was wet enough to accommodate Crawford kids holding sparklers (because somehow, in a semi-rural community with vast amounts of open field, the powers-that-be feel it's safe to allow fireworks)...next year we'll get more adventurous.

Beware: Jedi Knight and his weapon.

Such sparkling personalities...

and that night, from our damp back deck, wrapped in our sweatshirts and blankets, we could see 4 different fireworks shows, the valley covered in the smoke from private explosions.

CSI: Cub Scouts Investigate

Ty's first Cub day camp experience in Colorado...hottest 3 days of the summer to date, and mom got to tag along for two of them. Bricks in that heavenly mansion being laid down as we speak...
As it is every year, the Polson ranch was the place to be for all manner of Cub mayhem and excitement...here, Ty dissects owl pellets (don't be unduly alarmed: it's not anything gross or unsanitary, just owl vomit composed of the hair and bones of the animals they eat whole. It's fine.), and found a high number of intact jawbones and leg bones. I forgot the purpose for this exercise, but turns out that it just doesn't matter.

Building a shelter with fellow Wolves...looks pretty sturdy and would probably protect you if you were the size of a small dog.

Ah, archery. Sport of kings. Or is that boxing?

I couldn't resist this photo; he looks like a concentration camp inmate. Hey, if you came looking for a tasteful, politically-correct blog, keep movin'.

If he could just start obsessing about owning one of these for Christmas, we could have a story for the ages.

Speedy tent assembly turned out to be the fellas' specialty. I'd identify this row of cuties, but if I'm being cyber-stalked (and you know who you are), it doesn't seem quite safe or responsible.

A (gasp)!: craft. If they could just come up with another five-letter word to describe the cool stuff the boys made, it would be advisable. The wrangling we had to do to get them to that particular area of the camp was exhausting. But you can't argue with that final result.

Shane Fell Into a Burning Ring of Fire

Oh, I'm sorry. There must be some mistake: we ordered the LARGE red batting helmet.
So this is Shane's, what? Fourth season of t-ball? How'd we get so lucky?
This year's edition is the Castle Rock Flames, coached by everyone's favorite grizzled veteran, Matt Crawford, and just look at that kid behind the plate. That right there is a ball looking to take a beating.

And in an ever-changing line-up we have Shane, always at the ready; tonight it was first base, and he took no prisoners.

Favorite quote this season: I tell Shane that I tried to get some good action photos of his batting and throwing, but the camera wouldn't cooperate. Shane interjects: "It was really just because I was too fast, right, mom?" Well, sure. Isn't that what I just said?

He's a blur of fire, ladies and gentlemen!

Dino-Miiiiiiite!

In a nod to J.J. Walker...let the dinosaur puns begin!

So on a balmy summer day, the Crawford boys and their mama made the trek to the foothills of Morrison to enter the alternate universe known as Dinosaur Ridge. As a Denver native, I can vouch for the many amusements on offer, but this may very well be the Mile High City's greatest hidden gem.
On entering the tour bus, our guide asked where the boys were from; he was clearly thrilled to find the boys hailed from California, because we were heading for the beach (!) that was Denver's front range some 70 million years ago (see the things you learn while blogging?). And the ocean? Denver, Littleton, Castle Rock and beyond...we've always wanted to realize Ringo's admonition to be under the sea in an octopus' garden in the shade, and we probably are.

When Rooselvelt began his grand experiment in Socialism during the Depression (if I didn't word it in just this way, Dad would come from the afterlife and haunt the be-jeebers out of us), one of the projects used to employ thousands was the blasting away of this mountain face for a road, and all kinds of unknown goodies were uncovered: calcified bones, fossils, and a boatload of dinosaur tracks. Seriously, who knew?

You can always tell a bone in rock because it calcifies to a deep amber color. And having a plastic sign with an arrow mounted next to it doesn't hurt your identification efforts either.

Shane on the hunt. Fossils? Possibly another ladybug? You never can tell.

Me and the boys on the other side of the tracks. Oh, the punning fun need never stop when you're at DinoRidge!

The boys were slack-jawed over the unexpected brilliance of the place (even Shane, who tends to balk at anything that doesn't have a controller attached), and want to make this little trek a summer ritual. And that's what I'm talkin' about.