Two Graduations and a Camping Trip

May 3

Photos from a bike trip over to Peak to Peak Charter School (about 100 yards from the house).

May 5

Benjamin wanted to ride his “new” green Strider (thanks, Brinkmans!) to Alicia Sanchez, and Phoebe, who had been scared off her bike by an accident at the Valmont Bike Park last year, suddenly decided she wanted to ride too. She got her legs back pretty fast!

May7

May 8

May 11

May 12

May 13

We went shopping, played at the “train park” in Louisville, and worked in the garden.

May 17

It was kind of fun to have a late-season snowstorm with hail!

May 19

Benjamin was only able to participate in Take-A-Break’s preschool program on Mondays, when he didn’t have BVSD preschool, but he spent the afternoon at daycare every day of the week. Take-A-Break always has a really cute graduation ceremony. It’s usually outdoors at a park, but we had snow!

May 20

I tried a new route for my Saturday morning run; it was really good for my brain to do something novel, and the scenery was terrific.

In the afternoon, there was a Fairy Festival at Festival Plaza in Lafayette. Phoebe went on a fairy quest and participated in a unicorn race.

We had friends over for dinner; you can hear the grownups chatting in the background while Phoebe makes these home videos.

May 20

And now the big one: Benjamin’s graduation from the school district preschool program! It’s hard to believe it, but our little guy has completed two years of preschool. It was held from 8–11 a.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at our neighborhood school, Alicia Sanchez, during the school year. He loved it, and he grew up a TON during that time! His teacher, Ms. Maxwell (Ms. Max), is exactly who you would want teaching preschool. She’s tough, fair, kind, and loving, and she treats the preschoolers like the diverse, interesting human beings they are. It was a wonderful two years, and we’ll miss preschool, but Benjamin is going to kindergarten next year! He’ll stay at Alicia Sanchez, which should be a great fit. His delayed development still slows him down a bit, but he’s the sweetest little boy (excuse me, BIG boy!) in the world, and we couldn’t be more proud of him.

Preschool graduation:

May 26

Last day of school.

May 27

Memorial Day weekend. Dave and I left work early so we could toss a few more things into Cherry Blaze (my car) and pick up the kids to head out of town. We were able to pack everything into the trunk and backseat without using the roof box, so that was kind of cool. We must be true suburbanites! By the time we got the kids and got going, it was already getting late. We stopped in Buena Vista at a pretty nice restaurant for dinner; the kids were ready to get out of the car. Somehow, what could’ve been a 6.5-hour trip was…more. We didn’t get to our campsite until 1 a.m. It’s always kind of fun to set up in the dark. (Well, Dave sets up in the dark while I hold a sleepy, grumpy Benjamin in the front seat and Phoebe looks around excitedly.)

When we woke up in the morning on Saturday, we discovered that we had a great site at a really nice campground! The campground was only 7 miles outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dave made pancakes for breakfast, and we discovered that the kids really like to play catch with their baseball mitts, so I was glad we had packed them. The kids played together really nicely, sometimes outdoors and sometimes in the tent. Dave and I wanted to go for a hike, so we walked to the end of the campground road and got on a little hiking trail. Benjamin gave up after a short walk, but Dave and Phoebe went for another 15 minutes or so. Then we drove down to Santa Fe, where there was a little art festival going on. They had put up some art boards with reproductions of famous artists’ work, so it was pretty neat to show Phoebe Caravaggio’s David and Goliath, for instance. We got some gelato and stopped at the grocery store for a few things before heading back up for dinner.

On Sunday morning, I went for a brutal run uphill 4 miles and then a jarring run downhill 4 miles. I just love running in new places, though, and the weather was perfect! We spent a bunch of time at the campsite, but we also went to town briefly. The kids had found a playground they really liked, so we played there again. When we got back to camp, we went on a great hike to a waterfall. Phoebe was a champ, and I got to spend some very snuggly time with Benjamin—he rode piggyback both ways. (We didn’t have room to pack the kid-carrier backpack.) We had tacos for dinner and got some good sleep—we were all warm enough that night.

On Monday morning, we cleaned up camp and got on the road. We had lunch at KFC in Walsenberg and got home with enough time to settle in a little bit before we had to go back to work. What a great trip!