I’m alive!

July 28, 2015 By

I just realized I haven’t posted since Bode’s birthday. July has been a whirlwind of family, friends and travel. Hadley and I arrived home a few days ago while Bode stayed behind with Jamie’s parents for a week of pampering in Utah. I have many updates to share of our grand adventures at the Lake House, Calgary Stampede, Hadley’s first 14er (14,000-foot peak) and much, much more.

Here’s the problem, though: the kids don’t go back to school for another four weeks so in the interim, I’m juggling catch-up at work, final summer adventures, a quick trip to Vail for the Kids Adventure Race, back-to-school shopping and Bode’s birthday party. Stay tuned for more details!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Happy 9th birthday Bode!

July 18, 2015 By

Bode Boy,

Happy birthday! Your eighth year of life has been all about Four Square, BYU’s Studio C comedy troupe, Clash of Clans and training for American Ninja Warrior (ANW) as the entire world has become your obstacle course. Why walk up the stairs when you can shimmy along the walls? I don’t know the answer but apparently you do.

Third grade has been the best year ever because your three closest buddies–Nicky, Curtis and Kyler–are together for the first time. You’re continuing to excel in math, computers and accumulating Star Awards (the school’s recognition awards). You love piano  and Sister Mauger is not only your piano teacher but also your Cub Scout Wolf leader. You’ve delved into Scouting as I knew you would–what could be better than hanging out with your buddies and getting dirty?  You quickly earned your Bobcat Rank and Grandma and Grandpa J. came from Utah to see you early your Wolf. Apologies for taking almost a year to sew on your badges; we can’t all be Scouting overachievers.

You just finished your eighth season playing soccer and I love picking you up after practice, flush with excitement. You are a true team player–rarely out for your own glory and the best passer on the team because when you’re able to make a friend successful, that is your success. Your coach paid you a nice compliment, saying “Bode is the only kid who can listen to the advice I’m giving and implement it right away” so here’s for hoping that translates into chores at home. But I can’t complain. You’re a pleaser and when I have to remind you to do something, it’s because you got caught up playing or just didn’t hear me. Apologies to your future wife: you have already perfected the art of Selective Hearing.

You’ve become quite the pumpkin grower and yours clocked in at 325 pounds. I chuckled when I found you at the weigh-off mingling with the crowd, answering questions about your growing techniques. In the future when I have to pinpoint the exact moment your life started going downhill, that was it.

I appreciate how silly, easy-going and responsible you are–I can always trust you to make good, cautious choices. And that’s why you have a mother like me to constantly push you out of your comfort zone. When we were at The Broadmoor, you went rock climbing for the first time (not on some wussy indoor wall). You were so dang nervous but after channeling Mount Midoriyama from ANW, you practically flew up and down that rock face in Garden of the Gods. When I took you mountain biking in Moab, you overcame your fears on some pretty tough terrain and pushed forward long after Hadley had turned back. And this winter at Buttermilk, you skied your first black-diamond (advanced) run and it won’t be long before you’re leaving Mom and Dad in your (white powder) dust.

We’ve had some awesome travels this year. Canada. Mexico. Aspen. Crested Butte. Utah. Even though you enjoy the finer things in life (who doesn’t), when it comes down to it, you’re happiest with the simple things. After spending a few pampered days at The Broadmoor, it was as we were snuggling in the basement watching a movie that you said “Snuggles. Family. A Movie and Apple Pie. There’s nothing better in the world than this.”

Mother-son trip to Beaver Creek

I couldn’t agree with you more, except maybe room and chef service would have been a nice addition. Side note: You’re pretty famous at The Broadmoor as your Emerald Valley “selfie” was published in their magazine. Talk about a legend!

One of our funny-not-funny experiences was when I took you on our First Annual Mother-Son Ski Trip. We had a glorious first night: We checked into the Westin, skied down Beaver Creek with our glow lights in their torchlight parade and dined fireside. And then you got sick so we went home early. But no worries–we rescheduled our vacation over Spring Break. The night before we were supposed to leave as a family, Hadley got the stomach flu so you and Mom left, with the plan that Dad and Hadley would join us when she was feeling better. We had a glorious first night: We checked into the Westin and had a delicious steak dinner at the Beaver Creek Chophouse. Then, it was like a bad nightmare all over again when you threw up that night and we spent the rest of the next day recovering in our fancy hotel room. I demand a redo for next year! For the skiing, not the getting sick; we already redid that twice in a row.

Panty-hose balloon hat

My most treasured time with you is nighttime snuggles in your bed where we just lie there looking at the glow-in-the-dark stars and download our day. Sometimes we’re silly, like when you suggested we play Telephone with your stuffed animals. I started with “Mammoth smells like Fat Kitty,” which they passed along without a hiccup until that silly Orangy the Cat whispered, “Mammoth smells like poop,” sending us into gales of laughter. I treasure the serious times, too when you share your anxieties, usually around finishing your school work and doing your very best. You are driven and it stresses you out to no end when you are not performing at the top of your class. I appreciate that you’re learning early to pour your heart out to Heavenly Father for help and getting baptized was one of the highlights of your year.

As I write this, you are celebrating birthday No. 9 at Lake Okanogan in British Columbia. With Timbits. And family. What could be better? Oh yeah room service and a personal chef. Oh wait. That’s me. I’m so happy to have you as a part of our family.

Love,
Mom
P.S. For a stroll down memory lane, see birthday letters 1, 2, 3, 4,  5,  6, and 7, and 8.


Mrs. Acosta

Pinewood Derby

School buddies

Filed Under: birthday, Bode

British Columbia: Family at Play

July 15, 2015 By

We’re in the middle of a glorious week of family playtime that includes wakeboarding, surfing, stand-up paddleboarding, swimming, kayaking, rooster-tail jumping, dive-offs, croquet, Spikeball, birthdays, ghosts in the graveyard, sand castles, laser light and sparkler dance parties, delicious food and a whole lot of fun.


Consider this my out-of-office reply.

Filed Under: Canada

Oh Canada: The Lethbridge Edition!

July 13, 2015 By

We are happy to be in Canada! For the past several years, the kids and I have had a routine during our annual pilgrimage to Mecca the Motherland.  We drive eight hours, overnight at the Holiday Inn in Billings, MT., swim at their pool, eat at Cracker Barrel and then drive 9 hours the next day to Calgary where we spend about 10 days with my parents and at the Calgary Stampede before driving to British Columbia and playing at the lake for a week.

We shifted our schedule this year because our week at the lake fell earlier on the calendar and I wanted to spend time with my parents prior. So, the kids and I skipped our own beloved 4th of July celebration in our neighborhood leaving poor Jamie to fend for himself, and arrived in southern Alberta to celebrate Canada Day. We stayed with my best friend Stacey’s sister Heather’s family and had a blast! Heather lives in the “big city” of the region–Lethbridge is about 80,000 people. My mom was raised in nearby Raymond, a small Mormon town that is the center of the universe and so many of my childhood memories.

As we pulled into Lethbridge, the directions I printed off didn’t match up with the streets. Lost without my GPS and Siri in a different country I followed a random car into a neighborhood and pulled into their driveway. Creepy, right? Not for Canadians. A mid-20s young man hopped out of his car and gave me directions. They were a bit confusing so he kindly offered, “I’ll tell you what: it’s only a couple of miles away. I’ll drive over there and you just follow me.” That, my friends, is Canadian hospitality.

That night, Heather’s husband Will suggested we bike down to the Lethbridge Bike Park. I’ve driven through Lethbridge countless times as a kid en route to Raymond, but I’ve never really experienced it. Nor did I want to. Southern Alberta is mostly prairies and farm fields–nothing too impressive in terms of adventuring but I quickly realized I’d underestimated its charms.

Heather and Will live near the ridge of a beautiful river valley, The Lethbridge Nature Preserve. There are three ecosystems in this 196-acre park:  the prairie, the coulees and the floodplains  that contain Fort Whoop-Up, Helen Schuler Nature Centre and the High Level Bridge.

Canadian vernacular: a coulee is a steep-sided v-shaped valley or ravine. The name “coulee” was first used by early French Canadian voyageurs crossing the Great Plains. The Lethbridge High Level Bridge, called a viaduct by Canadian Pacific Railway engineers, is the longest-highest bridge of its type in the world. When the bridge was completed in 1909, it was described as one of the “wonders of the world.”

Its steep descent into the river valley certainly was wondrous.

As we crossed the Oldman River, we saw not one but several beavers. If you look closely on the shoreline, you can see one of them right before he enters the water. It was like our own private “Welcome to Canada!”

We had a blast at the mountain bike park and I only almost died once, which I deemed a successful outing. The kids loved racing on foot as well.

There is a steep set of stairs leading up to a pavilion overlooking the bridge. I asked Heather if it was still an active bridge for trains and right as I asked that question, wouldn’t you know what came chuggling along?

The pumpkin sunset was a nice touch as well.

It was 9:30 p.m., the sun was dipping behind the clouds and we reluctantly turned back home, preparing to climb the steep hill to Heather’s house  (see it in the above picture in the distance). Will had his daughter on the back of his bike, otherwise would have blazed past us all. I somehow made it up without stopping; Heather later said I powered up it, which was an exaggeration in that I almost died and a turtle could have passed me but gosh darn it, I didn’t dismount even once. 

But let’s back up a bit. Just when I thought the night couldn’t get any better, we had one of my favorite moments of our time in Lethbridge. Hadley was in front of me, had coasted down a small hill and was gaining speed to ascend. I looked over to her left–a deer was a stone’s throw away running beside us. I panicked–he was going to cut across the path and crash into Hadley but I held back from shouting out to alarm her.  She glanced at him, he returned her gaze and for about 30 magical seconds, it was Dances with Wolves: Deer Edition.  That deer raced her, pedal-for-pedal, stride-for-stride. I’d never fully recognized how agile, smooth and majestic deer truly are. When she went faster, he sped up. I didn’t breathe the entire time, she squealed with delight until the deer finally sped ahead, crossed the path and quickly disappeared from view.  It was one of those moments of wonderment when you’re just so glad to be alive.

And then we climbed the hill of death and nearly died.

Lethbridge, we’ll be back to experience more of your charms.

=====

In case you missed our other Canadian adventures this summer:

Oh Canada: The Lethbridge Edition

Oh Canada: The Canada Day in Raymond and Waterton Edition

Oh Canada: The Calgary Edition

Oh Canada: The Banff/Canmore Edition

Oh Canada: The Lakehouse Edition

Oh Canada: The Kettle Valley Railway Trail Edition

 Oh Canada: The Edition Not in Canada

 

 

Filed Under: Canada, Family travel, Uncategorized

While the cat’s away

July 10, 2015 By

My friend Stacey commented that I haven’t written much about giant pumpkins this year. There hasn’t been much to share. Jamie’s season started splendidly and then growth slowed significantly with all of Denver’s rain. When the deluge finally subsided, his pumpkins rebounded beautifully…until he moved the main vine a couple of weeks ago and it split. In Pumpkin Geek Speak, this mean he’ll have to designate another main vine and it will delay pollination a couple of weeks, which means two less weeks of growth before the weigh-off.

That was a sad, sad day.

I called him last week from Canada and couldn’t get a hold of him for 24 hours. It made me wonder if absence really does make the heart grow fonder but ultimately decided it’s more like “when the cat’s away, the mice will play.”

When I finally got a hold of him, I asked where he’d been at 10 p.m.

“I was at a pumpkin pollination party.”

Some questions are better left unanswered.

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie, pumpkins

Love, Marriage and Best Friends According to Hadley

July 9, 2015 By

Our kids have a pretty sheltered view on marriage. Most of our close-knit group of friends from church have great marriages. Of course, no union is perfect but we truly are surrounded by tremendous examples of loving husbands, wives and parents. That said, I’m best friends with Hadley and Bode’s best friends but they rarely see Jamie out with his buddies because he’s either working or with us. And don’t forget his pumpkins.

Hadley: “Dad, no pressure but how many friends do you have?”

Jamie [half-joking]:  ”I have Jesus and your mother.”

Hadley:  ”That’ kind of sad.”

Me: “Not really. The most important thing is to be married to your best friend. Can you imagine being married to someone you don’t even like? Over half of my neighborhood friends’ parents ended up getting divorced before we graduated from high school. Dad is my best friend.”

Hadley: “Is that what married people say when they don’t have a best friend? They just call their husband their best friend?”

I’m glad we [loser parents] have taught her well.

Filed Under: Hadley

Colorado’s best and most affordable family vacation: YMCA of the Rockies

July 6, 2015 By

Are you looking for an affordable and fun family vacation in Colorado? Look no further than our adventures at YMCA of the Rockies’ two gorgeous locations in Granby and Estes Park, and the iconic National Park that connects them.

Camp Chief Ouray

Last week, my daughter Hadley attended her third year at Camp Chief Ouray (CCO) for kids ages  7-17 outside of Granby, Colo. To say she looks forward to spending the week making new friends, horseback riding, hiking, crafting and canoeing in one of Colorado’s most gorgeous locations is an understatement. Her week at CCO is the highlight of her entire year. It’s not just the fun activities she enjoys but as Colorado’s longest-running overnight camp in Colorado, CCO is heaped in traditions–from all-camp games to Vespers to camp cheers to racing into the field during the final night’s dance and rocking out to Rusted Root’s “Send Me On My Way.”

Oh, and sunsets like this don’t hurt, either. ouraysunset

As the Crow (Cabin) Flies

Friendship Circle at closing ceremonies

Prior to their final sendoff, families gathered around the campfire and each cabin shares their “Camp Magic” for the week. Responses ranged from touching to hilarious. “Human Pac-Man and Apache Boot Camp.” “Friendship and stomping ants.” Mysterious mouse attacks and winning the Golden Plunger.” “Playing in Pole Creek.” “Sleeping with the squirrels.” My daughter’s cabin’s contribution was “Tooting during Devos [nightly cabin devotionals] and squishy cats,” which is particularly impressive because our cat, Fat Kitty, wasn’t even there and he somehow he still made camp memorable for the girls. My all-time favorite Camp Magic was from a group of 10-year-old boys: “Raiding cabins and being rejected by girls at the dance.”

Hadley’s favorite moment was late one night when she swears the heavens were opened to reveal the Milky Way’s glorious Big and Little Dippers, the Gemini twins, and the seven sisters of the Pleiades. Now, that’s some true camp magic.

YMCA of the Rockies Snow Mountain Ranch

I’ve been to both of YMCA of the Rockies’ two locations in Granby and Estes Park but never back-to-back. On the final day of camp, my son Bode and I drove to Snow Mountain Ranch and checked into Indian Peaks Lodge, with a bird’s eye view of Camp Chief Ouray. Rest assured, we did not stalk Hadley;  we had a few hours before picking her up and we played hard. We started with the zipline and I informed Bode he had to climb a 30-foot pole or ladder to ride the 600-foot zip line!  ($10; must be 8 or older). He nervously asked, “We’re attached climbing up, right?” “Bode, have I ever made you do anything unsafe?” His response summed up our entire mother-son dynamic: “That’s debatable.”

zipline

From there, we canoed Gaylord Reservoir ($5) located on-property. We followed a mother duck and her ducklings, spied on a beaver dam and did not capsize. Guess which one I enjoyed (not doing) the most?gaylordreservoir

 

After retrieving Hadley, we tie-dyed shirts at the craft center, did archery, mourned we weren’t staying longer to delve into the expansive summer programming schedule and ended our adventures with their infamous Summer Tubing Hill that opened last summer. Free for YMCA of the Rockies guests, we relished barreling down the Snowflex® tubing slope with a cool spray mist, followed by the magic carpet whisking us to the top again.tubing

YMCA of the Rockies Estes Park

Snow Mountain Ranch and Estes Park share an iconic neighbor: Rocky Mountain National Park.  Trail Ridge Road (the highest continuous paved road in the U.S.) connects the two and is only open during the summer months. We followed the itinerary How to do Rocky Mountain National Park in One Day and had a fabulous day at play before arriving in Estes Park.

trailridgesm

The 860-acre Estes Park Center borders Rocky Mountain National Park on three sides and was like entering another world. Juxtaposed against Snow Mountain Ranch’s 5,100-acre spread with sweeping views of the Continental Divide, Estes Park Center seems like a small, intimate non-stop party.  When I asked Hadley which she preferred, it was a draw. “I think Snow Mountain Ranch is  more about outdoorsy stuff and everything is much more spread out because it’s bigger. At Estes Park, it’s nice you can walk to all the buildings and more people seem to be doing regular sports.”

Both locations have epic hiking, mountain biking, day camp, pools, activities (archery, zip lines, craft centers, volleyball, mini golf) and horseback riding. But Hadley was correct–everywhere we looked, families were playing sports. And, apparently, nose picking.

nosepicker

After 27-hole miniature golf, we were cutting across the field when three fun staffers stopped us with an invitation to play football. Hadley balked. If she had a bucket list, learning to play football was at the bottom of it. Bode and I consented and my reluctant daughter was soon embroiled in a heated 3-on-3 game (it helped that two of the counselors were cute college-aged guys). By the end, she was not only receiving like a champ but had taken over as quarterback.

While Hadley delved into the Mootz Family Craft and Design Center (arguably one of the best craft centers we’ve ever seen), Bode fell in love with Gaga Ball.gagaball

Unfamiliar? It’s like murder ball but with more carnage.

That night after our all-you-can-eat buffet-style dining at the Aspen Dining Room cafeteria, we’d planned to do the Astronomy Walk but I was recovering from a cold and I. Was. Done.  Disappointed at the prospect of spending the rest of our evening in our room, I suggested the kids play across the street at the playground as I kicked my feet up on the balcony and read a book.playground1

It was, just like the entire weekend, the best of both worlds.

 

Filed Under: Colorado, Family travel

The Adventure Converts

July 2, 2015 By

In some instances, I’m really good at saying “no.”  Altogether now:

“Mom, can I play eight hours of video games?”

No.

“Mom, can I have my tenth cookie in an hour?”

No.

Easy, right? Where I struggle is when my kiddos are begging for an adventure which, quite frankly, rarely happens. We’re usually just active enough that they enjoy their downtime but on the second week of summer break, Bode came to me complaining he and his buddy Sean had nothing to do.

“Do you want to bike to our nearby open space park, play in the creek and get Slurpees after?”

Slurpees? Creek? Bike? You betcha!

We invited Sean’s sisters Sydney and Maddie, Hadley and our neighbor Sadie to join us. We’re only a 15-minute bike ride away from a glorious 133-acre park with wetlands providing habitat for waterfowl, amphibians and insects, open meadows and a creek. The water is usually very shallow but with all of our rain, it’s a knee-to-waist-deep river.

This picture right here? This. Is. Summer.

Hadley and Bode delved right in but our friends were tentative, not wanting to get their clothes wet, skirting bugs, losing flip flips, squealing about mud. However, after forging through the river, climbing over branches and logs, their adventurous spirits kicked in and they started having a blast.  I took this video at the beginning and I chuckle at their reaction:

And this at the end. They all attempted the river on their bikes except for Bode who was having mechanical difficulties. He won’t get off so easily next time. Here’s Hadley:

Yes, they are obsessed with slow-motion videos and made me capture each of them.

“Next time, I’ll more prepared to get wet,” Sadie exclaimed.

“Yeah, I have some old tennis shoes I’ll wear instead,” proposed Maddie.

“I told you guys we were going to the creek and we’d be getting wet,” I countered.

“I know,” said Sadie. “I just wasn’t expecting this.”

This meaning mud, water, bugs and zero inhibitions. It’s called Adventure 101. Give me your kids and I’ll dirty and toughen them up for the day, so long as you promise to do arts and crafts with mine.

Filed Under: biking, Bode, Colorado, Hadley, outdoors