Where I Left Off; The Aunts Visit
Looking through the photos I saved in the “temp blog post” folder, I see that I left off in early August. Not such a good track record, considering that it’s early October! Something about working full time, playing softball, playing in the band, hanging out with our YABS friends every other Monday, going to caving meetings, trying to keep up with old friends, and spending as much time outdoors and in the mountains as possible…and, oh yeah, parenting Phoebe…that takes up a whole lot of time. Blogging, as important as we think it is, is hard to fit in! So forgive us for the long lapses between posts.
In early August, we went to a caving meeting at Mike and Cyndi’s. They’ve always been really generous about passing on baby gear, and they had a cool little metal tricycle sitting in the garage. Phoebe was desperate to try it out, so we wheeled around their driveway for a while. Her little feet don’t quite reach the pedals, but Mike assured us that a grownup can safely ride on the back.
At the end of the night, Mike encouraged us to take the trike home. We demurred. He encouraged more strongly. In fact, he carried it over to our car. So we took it off his hands! Phoebe loves to ride down the street to see the yappy little dog that lives on the corner. Next summer, she’ll be able to ride by herself!
The weekend of August 13 and 14, my Aunt Nancy and Aunt Shirlie were in Colorado. They got a little cabin in Estes Park and stayed for a week, bookended by two weekends. We drove up to Estes in the early afternoon on that first Saturday and had a lovely visit. They had found a little playground across the river from their cabin, so we took Phoebe over to swing and slide. Afterward, she took a long nap in the cabin while we drank coffee outside and chatted. The weather was just perfect, and my aunts are very interesting people. Dave hardly ever gets to talk music, so that part is always fun.
On Sunday, the aunts came down to Boulder because Dave was playing sax at church for our annual summer jazz service. We hung out in Boulder the rest of the day and then they headed back up to the mountains to enjoy a gorgeous week. On Thursday, we met up for dinner at one of our favorite Nepali restaurants, Sherpa’s. Aunt Nancy practiced her Nepali-language skills to pretty good effect. And the food was, as always, delicious. On Friday, the aunts went on a camping mission for us, driving into the National Park to get us a campsite at the Glacier Basin campground. We got the last one! After work, we picked up Phoebe and drove up to the cabin to find out our campsite number. Then we set up our tent and went to sleep. Dave and I didn’t even bother with a campfire, just drank a beer by the light of the lantern.
A couple of years ago, we got the aunts some prayer flags from the Shambhala Mountain Center, where the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya (which liberates upon seeing) is located. Since then, we’ve been waiting to take them there to enjoy the stupa with us. We decided to squeeze into Luna together to drive there from Estes Park, which was tight. But it was nice to have more time to talk! Phoebe was perfectly comfortable in her luxurious carseat, from which we transferred her to her luxurious baby backpack.
We took the walk up to the Shinto shrine, where we saw this ground squirrel enjoying the ritual foods that are placed in front of the shrine.
After the aunts left, we got ready for another group of visitors: my aunt Linda and her two boys, Evers and Ashe.
