Fangs for the Memories...

 Only a little behind...Fall break put us a bit behind the 8-ball with pumpkin patches this year...luckily, the Castle Rock Safeway tricks out their storefront just enough to make it festive on a Saturday night when you're just straight outta luck for find a pumpkin in a timely fashion before the Sabbath is upon you...

 Always have a soft spot for the Great Pumpkin believers out there. Talk about keepin' the faith.

 Not a fan of the gutting. No one quite has texture issues the way I've got texture issues (what a difference it would have made for me as a kid if they knew then what they know now...), but Grace and Ty are reasonably gut-averse. I'm exploiting her pain. Bad mother.

 Shane has no fear of guts or seeds or knives or, anything, actually. That's a boss carving job if I say so myself.

 Took the elder princess two days to create this masterpiece...can you see Cinderella inside the carriage? Yeah, we copied from Pinterest. And, yeah, the Pinterest version was much more elaborate. And, I suspect, posted by someone who doesn't have four kids with extracurricular activities. And a church calling. And a sick dog. Don't forget the nearly blind dog.

 What a beautiful Halloween...we've been spoiled in the 5 years we've been here...didn't even need jackets to go on the neighborhood rummage for sweets. Gracie is Draculaura from Monster High; Eve is Finn from 'Adventure Time', and I put in an appearance as Cruella for the first time in many moons. Grace toured with neighbors, Shane went with a friend from school, Eve and Ty joined friend Corey...and Matt and me? We just took turns answering the door and watching Charlie Brown. Bliss.

 Cavity patrol! That's a pretty good haul, there, fella.

 I let the kids eat all of this. I really do. Just not all at once.

Aw, she's sweet enough already, right?

Florida? Why'd it have to be in Florida?

 Oh, for the love of all that's holy...this should've been the last pic loaded. Who am I, Job?

So, this fall break the Crawfords made the epic trek to central Florida - the greater Orlando area - and though I tried to prep us mentally, we were absolutely done in by the humidity and heat. We're Colorado pansies, and though we attempt summer crowds or temps, it was, for the most part, like walking though heated molasses. We were stupefied by the effect. Wowzers.

Last day of the trip we spent about 5 hours at Disney's Hollywood Studios...which is architecturally fascinating and beautiful, but mostly, for my California readers, just the original version of California Adventure, with a few added attractions: a live stage show for both Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid, the Rock 'n Roller Coaster, and a 3-D version of Star Tours.

 This is mentally taxing, working backward...

Day 5: Our second day at the Magic Kingdom, which was horrifying: the amount of people pouring in the gates was a concern. It's mid-October! What ARE you doing here? We felt most fortunate that this was our luxury day, because the lines were outrageous. The great find was Dumbo's Circus water feature in Fantasyland (just a word to those prone to comparisons: Disneyland's Fantasyland, though far smaller, is far superior. However, once Disneyworld opens their fantastic princess extention, there will be no competition). Spraying water saved us all from dropping in a dead faint.

 We're not 'Disney people' in the sense that we attend annually and name our kids after Disney characters and hold season passes, but we're certainly a Disney family in the monopoly we allow the company in entertaining and clothing our kids, and I'm definitely one of those women who skips delightedly through the park. I'm a sucker for theming and detail, and they do it better than anyone. I see little details like this throughout the park and I melt, because regardless of its excesses, and the excesses of its attendees, this mindset explains why it is that you can attend a Disney park on either coast (or continent) and feel utterly great about it. Lighter in the pockets, but great.
Speaking of lighter pockets: not to be missed, even if you have to sell a kidney to do it, is dining in Cinderella's Royal Table in the castle proper - you are ushered in for a photo, a page calls for Lady Grace, Lady Eve and Lady Linda to dine by royal invitation of the princesses, and you are ushered into a buttressed, tapestry- and -coat-of-arms bedecked dining room while treated to meet-and-greets with all the luminaries, a wishing ceremony, and a scrumptious meal. Couldn't score a seat at the Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutique, for love or money, even months out, but had we known of its existence before it was too late, we would've loved a shot at the Pirate's League. If you can't be a princess, a drunken rogue will do just as nicely.

 EPCOT. You hate to be like this, but what a rip-off. In fairness, I did not feel well. And we made some tactical errors in choosing attractions to visit (we missed Turtle Talk with Crush and the huge new aquarium, for example), but other than the roller coaster simulator and the Mission: Space attractions, we were absolutely underwhelmed by our morning...it was humbling to watch Michael Jackson's 'Captain EO' 3-D extravaganza 20+ years later: that we were ever entertained by that film does not speak in our favor. My kids were just puzzled, and pitied us just a bit. We spent the afternoon at the World Showcase, which was better, but just not a lot to engage...Grace and I ate at the San Angel Inn in Mexico, Matt and the others at Teppan Edo in Japan...wildly priced even by Disney standards, the Japanese delicacies set Matt back about $170...we never recovered. The patisserie in France was to die for, and we did run into Belle and Mary Poppins. There was even a phone booth in England that rang for you - Ty was chatted up by a British operator - but we just weren't heartbroken when the Fasci-Nations fireworks display ended and we loaded on the tram.

 Day 3: this dandy little water park. Nice. Though I didn't get any pictures of the event, the kids got to snorkle with sharks; there were great slides, and a gorgeous lazy river. The wave pool was a blast. Trying to save a buck or two, we loaded up on drinks and a cheap styrofoam cooler at Walgreens...big mistake. About 20 paces from the car the cooler collapsed, spewing ice and pop cans hither and yon...and it was so hot...and we were just so...anyhoo. We gathered what we could, slathered on sunscreen, and tried our best. It worked out. Swimmingly. That night, Giordano's deep dish Italian pizza, cheering for the Packers for the first time in our lives. Wait. Flip-flop Giordano's and Rainforest Cafe. Now we have an accurate timeline.

Day Two: how did I not download a picture of Universal's Island of Adventure? 'Cause that's what we did. How fun was this? The Hulk, SpiderMan, Popeye's Bilge Rat Rapids, Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls, Jurassic Park, Seuss Landing, and, hand on your heart: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Ooooh, baby. Heaven for Potter geeks. Loved every square inch and every square second! Butterbeer, chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Ollivander's Wand Shop, Hagrid's Hut, the Hogwarts Express...Dueling Dragons, Flight of the Hippogriff, Forbidden Journey...just a joy. Great time. Worth the entire trip. And, by all means, eat at Mythos. Stellar. 

Evening of Day 2: Downtown Disney. Again, for comparison's sake: not as new as the California edition, but like everything else here, far more acreage, far more options, far more croweded. I'm talking Crazy Town. A Disney Christmas store the size of a Wal-Mart, a Lego store the size of an airport. We waited to celebrate Ty's birthday family dinner until we could get to a Rain Forest Cafe, just like the good ol' days, and that was worth waiting for. Particulary when you eat at 9 p.m. and once your entree comes, the joint's empty. Priceless.

Day One: Cape Kennedy and Cocoa Beach. The former was a delight, very well designed and informative. Lots of great interactive displays for our resident rocket scientist and his offspring, and a great attraction describing the Moon Walk and preceding missions...reminded me so of my dad, how fascinated he was by space travel and its endless possibilities. This would've been his Disneyland, so I was a little weepier than the attractions warranted. Then we spent the afternoon at Cocoa Beach. Huntington is prettier. So are most beaches I've ever been to. We've never traveled to a beach town with absolutely no fast food options. We were flummoxed.
Fun memories...the come-from-behind Peyton Manning-engineered Broncos win over San Diego on Monday Night Football - never underestimate the difficulty of cheering for your squad in a hotel room at 11:30 in the evening. Not as easy as it looks.

And so our break ends, our fabulous trip comes to an end. Props to Homewood Suites for hosting (great pool and breakfasts!)...before I forget: amid all the missed-flight drama in Chicago, who should board our plane but Lee Corso? Matt pleaded with me to behave. I kind of did. As far as you know.

Florida 2012, Pt. 2 - slideshow dvd

Florida 2012, Pt. 1 - slideshow dvd

Base Ten

 A full decade of Shaner. What a treat. There are few people in life who have a handle on carpe diem the way our boy does. Game for anything. And we've all survived! New bikes all around!

 Family birthday dinner, Rodizio's Brazilian grill, downtown Denver. LOVE this place. All-you-can-eat grilled meats, carved at your table; you just flag down a wandering server with a skewer the size of Rhode Island containing all manner of delicacies...eat 'til you drop. Shane's favorite place on earth.

 Mom had scored a Groupon to have our family pics taken at Sports Authority Field at Mile High along with a stadium tour, and since we were in the vicinity, and had yet, because of scheduling, to hold our family dinner for Shane's birthday, descended. We were, I couldn't help but notice, the only group brave enough to bring their children, to say nothing of how many children we brought, but we're used to that.

 Hard to believe that once all Shane cared about was Cars. Then Star Wars. Then Harry Potter. Then Roblox. Then Minecraft. Now Halo. Many, many computer geeks and social misfits worldwide are grateful that this child came to earth, I'll tellya what. Shane's got quite the computer proclivities of his own.

 A boy and his donut. Presh.

 Shane's crew at Speed Raceway...another stellar group of young men. Good friends to my fella, and as any mother knows, you'll walk across heaven and earth to find good friends for your kids, and you'd take bullets for them just as surely as you would for one of your own.

Shane's always had a good ear for music: he continues his piano lessons, tortures, I mean, treats us daily to impromptu recorder recitals, and started beginning band this fall at the trumpet. Here, at the Castle View High School elementary and middle school feeder concert. You've never heard a version of "Hot Cross Buns" like this version. Sent chills up my spine.

Twelve Years of Tysie

 Ty's been around a dozen years or so...you know the day will come when your little fella will be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood as a deacon, you know he will pass the sacrament and collect fast offerings and be part of a quorum.  You spend as much time as you can muster to prep him - he doesn't 'wing it' terribly well - and then, behold! The day is upon you.

 He's the most solid of kids, conscientious and sensitive and earnest and sincere; smart, curious, soaks up all information like a sponge. So I wasn't all teary-eyed over my boy growing up so much as honored that any child of mine could withstand his upbringing and dedicate himself so fully to sacred things.

 What am I looking at here?

Anyhoo...immediately following his ordination. Proud days for Crawfords.

 Ty's birthday fell the day before our Fall Break trip to Florida, so we celebrated in stages, as we always seem to do...this is his late-in-the-month birthday party, showing off his good taste in friends as much as his gift: few things say 'Ty' like baseball cards. He also scored a flat-billed black Angels cap, around which his life has centered since it came out of the box. No joke.

 Scene of the crime: Speed Raceway in Centennial...a haven for all boys and a few select sisters. They gear you up, have you pick a nickname, track your speeds and rank you - and make parents jump through every legal hoop known to man in order to let their children race. I've never once been there when one kid in every group couldn't procure the correct signature on the correct line, or attached the photo copy of the driver's licence, or some combination of the two, and are just kicking it in the lobby, waiting for mom to fax the proper info. This time, it was one of our guests.

 Too big for cakes, mom. Just Krispy Kreme donuts. But I have to have one with sprinkles. And the stupidest-looking candle you can rummage up in the drawer to go in the middle. There. NOW I'm a creeper.

 Ty and Corey. Ty really does have a great group of friends - he's stellar all-around, academically, spiritually and socially, and the money part is how good he is at knowing his own pulse and who complements him, makes him feel good inside, has his back. If I could just bottle up all those boys and keep the best parts of them at 12, just to pour on 'em when they hit the bumps in the road and are tempted to become other than what they are...this group's gold, though. I don't see it happening.

Favorite gift: a bag to swing into, now that he's started Dolphins baseball in a year-round program. Baseball is life,  people. He finished another great fall season with the Parker Hawks, but not great enough to drive out the love of basketball, which will start, oh, momentarily. 

Lucky 13

 Holy Hannah, would you lookit this: we got ourselves a teeanager! She just gets older each passing year. I know: super deep.

The irony at being consistently surprised by an annual event never ceases to amaze: I do it for each of the offspring's birthdays, every summer break, every Christmas. I'm reasonably intelligent, good at patterns. But I just never see it coming, the milestones that take her from my baby girl to my young woman. They accumulate, and wham! Who's THAT girl?

 Always eager to accommodate, my Eve. Take this Rockies game, for instance. Just so I'll continue to acknowledge her (i.e., laugh and talk with her, drive her around, buy her Aeropostale), she wears the grey Rockies T. For daddy, who bankrolls our lives and takes baseball uber seriously, the vintage A's cap. A builder of bridges, a peacemaker. Always has been.

 Also a swimmer. Which means more than the fact that she's water safe. Like most sports, a whole shorthand of behaviors and characteristics is implied but never explicitly stated: Determined. Dedicated. Consistent. Encouraging. Supportive. Level-headed. Reliable. Driven. A time manager. A planner. Prone to sacrifice. And when you hold the beautiful infant in your arms for the first time, you may never consider how important you find those characteristics in others and how many of them you want that child to possess. We just count ourselves blessed that she came to earth this way, and that we found, relatively early on, what she loves and what will help shape her into the gal she needs to be. 

 Eve's never been a huge reader - I would spend literally hours reading to her throughout the day when she was small - but reading for her own enjoyment and enlightenment never held much priority until I brought home Suzanne Collins' masterwork in the Hunger Games series. Eve was in from the first sentence, just devoured them. And now she branches out into like-minded books, reading hours a day, ON HER OWN. I never expected her to be just like me, and, truthfully, wouldn't wish that on her, but to share that love of reading, well, I can feel good about that wish coming true.

 And we celebrate all things Eve with a rowdy sleepover...Eve's always been an easy laugher. Most times, I think, less because you're actually funny than because she's so delighted to be sharing happiness with you.

 Like I said, they were rowdy. But so great. A roving pack of screaming gigglers.

And so, my cross-eyed little beauty...many happy returns. We bless the day you came along and rearranged everything so splendidly, endlessly grateful for every day since. 

These Are But Two of our Favorite Things...

 Some of you may not know. So I'm here to tell ya. The Denver Broncos have procured the services of one Peyton Manning at the quarterback position.

We're excited about that.

Now that the Broncos hold Training Camp sessions in the south Denver metro area (technically Englewood), attending is much more convenient than it was back in the day when Dad and I trekked in Greeley to watch Elway break the fingers of unsuspecting receivers...it's so convenient, in fact, and folks are so excited over the prospect of this fella taking snaps in the Mile High City, that the daily attendance at training camp numbered into the thousands. On opening day there were 4,000-something; on our second day, about 10 days later, we were among the over 5,000. We waited for loaves and fishes...I can't even finish that sentence. Too sacreligious. 

 Some of you may not know that we swim, either. We do. A lot. This particular shot captures the bliss of a twilight swim at Gilbert Pool in Castle Rock, when the park was closed to residents for a private party for the brave souls (and their families) who coach youth sports for the Rec League. We're continually grateful Matt devotes such a large chunk of his time to his own kids and those in the community - walkin' the talk, that boy.

 Did I mention we attended Broncos Training Camp? I did? Huh.

 Has it been sufficiently illustrated, the degree to which our little family appreciates the on- and off-the-field talents of one Peyton Manning? Grace didn't think so, and took it upon herself to illustrate some more.

 Swimming. Or, rather, splashing and squealing.

Evie and Gracie. Neither swimming or Peyton-ing. But it was cute.

Our summer was a scorcher, nigh unbearable, and I'm a little incredulous that Grace found occasion to wear a cardigan, quite frankly.