FIVE

         Five years. The best five years. We started celebrating our anniversary last week at the Mraz concert and plan on wrapping it up in a few weeks when we go to Cedar City for the Shakespeare Festival with my family and then into Zion to hike for a couple days. We love to spread out and stretch a good celebration as long as possible.
          All of a sudden the temperature dropped into the 30s and 40s, so this weekend we mostly stayed inside and took it easy. We went out to dinner at Famous Dave's for some good BBQ, watched wonderful Conference, played in the leaves in the backyard, and went up the canyon with some friends. It was perfect. There is nothing I rather do then cuddle up on the couch with my hot sweetheart and a warm sweet roll and have no reason to leave. :)

Little Buddy, Red Rocks, Sweet Girls

OCTOBER already? That came fast. The last week of September had us busy. We had a very quick but very fun visit from my little brother. He is applying to medical schools all over the country and got an interview at the University of Colorado, Denver which has an excellent program. The likelihood that he would actually end up here is slim, but I sure have my fingers crossed. It would be so great to have him close. 

Tuesday night we splurged on concert tickets to go see Jason Mraz and Christina Perri. We aren't huge fans of either but have been wanting to go to a show at Red Rocks and feel young again at a concert. It was a blast. Red Rocks was amazing and Christina Perri was awesome. Jason Mraz was a lot of fun too but after being out in the rain for 3 hours we were ready to head home. So much for Colorado's famous short, passing storms. It was came down on us the entire time but we stayed pretty cozy and warm rocking out in our ponchos.

Baby Girls: Rosie and Evie are up to their usual antics. They are at such a great age and we are having so much fun with them. They all of a sudden seem so grown up and have changed so much since their birthday. I see pictures of them from last spring and it is hard for me to believe that was a few short months ago. They loved seeing their uncle and we are feeling overdue for a family visit.

Rosie is recently really interested in building block towers and does so every day. She refuses to take off an orange tutu my mom sent in the mail and wears it all over town. She loves attempting to repeat lines to songs Ben sings such as "Girl, look at that body... I work out!". Hilarious. Rosie has also discovered the healing power of Band-aids and wants them for every owie. Unfortunately, she has been extremely clumsy lately and falls constantly as she rushes from place to place.  Rosie seems more outgoing and social than ever and will attempt to play with and boss around kids much older than her wherever we go. She is obsessed with buckling herself into the car or stroller and getting her clothes on by herself. When I try to help her she loves to tell me to "go away!"

Evie seems to be a messier eater than ever before, refuses to use her utensils, squishes her food in her hands and then rubs it on her face. darling... She is much more tender hearted then her sister and gets the saddest little face when she is about to cry. Recently she gets a little embarrassed crying in front of people she doesn't know too well. She will bury her face in my shoulder or try to hide behind her hands or put her face in her bowl at dinner to sob. She is my shy, sweet girl. She sings to herself constantly. Her favorite thing in the world is to swing on the swings at the park. Her perfect day would be cereal for every meal, watching her Care Bears movie, and being pushed on the swing the rest of the afternoon.

Every morning starts with them in bed with us for a few sweet minutes. If we are lucky they'll ask to "cuddle" rather than to "play monkey" or "eat! eat!". Nothing gives the girls delight like throwing rocks into water. We spent a good hour doing it last week at the park. Rosie and Evie are a lot more interested in seeing and playing with their friends recently. They point out "lellow trees" wherever we go and love the fall as much as their mom.

Squaw Pass

We went on a long, gorgeous, autumn drive today up to Squaw Pass. We had a picnic.

 I LOVE YOU FALL.

 And Rosie.

 And Evie. 

 And Ben.

 And goldfish crackers.

Time Out

Oh what a wonderful weekend I had. I went to Time Out For Women with some fabulous gals from my ward. It was exactly what I needed and I can't believe I had never gone before. Such awesome speakers and music. Virginia Pierce and Chris Williams both on Forgiveness were my favorites.

I had been feeling a little burnt out after a Thursday that I don't wish to remember. We had a horrendous episode in the bathtub that I won't recount but it required a lot of bleach and another bath to repair. Then that same afternoon while I was reading to both girls in the front room, Rosie snuck away and grabbed a red crayon from their easel tray. She colored everywhere she possibly could in the 5 minutes she was unobserved. It was actually quite impressive how fast she worked. There were red scribbles on the wood floor in the hall, on the bathroom door, on the toilet seat lid, on her mini potty, on the end table in the family room, on the wall behind the end table, and all over the arm of the white and gray chair. I was so frustrated when I saw what she had done and even more so as she led me around the house showing me more places and saying "no, no, no" while wagging her little finger at me. I screamed that it was nap time and for them to get their bums up stairs while I worked on the chair. They surprisingly went. When I came upstairs they were in their bedroom with the door shut lying on the floor in a pile of blankets. Evie had her eyes closed pretending to be asleep. Pretty darn cute.

All was forgiven until this happened after nap. No more red crayon on the walls, toilet, or chair...but this is a different story.  A little time out and some lessons on forgiveness did me some good this weekend.

Surrey

 

We drove into Denver last weekend on the hunt for some good Cafe Rio and it didn't disappoint.We decided to explore City Park on the way home and ended up renting a surrey for a lovely ride around the lake. Ben did most (read all)  the work because for some reason it didn't seem to make a difference whether I peddled or not. Weird. It was a great time.

My favorite part was when we stopped at a play ground to let the girls play for a bit. A squirrely 4 year old boy kept trying to talk to Evie and she of course, had nothing but mumbo jumbo to say back. We were encouraging her to go down the slide and the little boy pushed around her and turned to say:

 "Hey meat box, watch and learn." 

MEAT BOX???? It was hilarious. 

 

  The girls and I had a lovely, romantic evening and Ben got a great workout.

Blue Moon Weekend

 

A blue moon is the second full moon occurring in one calendar month which only happens every few years. We celebrated it (or Labor Day weekend) by trying to get out and do some things that happen only "once in a blue moon". We drove up to Estes Park for the night and had such a great time. We ate delicious BBQ on a deck overshadowed by the mountains, strolled the river walk, ate ice cream, hot tubbed and swam. The next morning we went to a street fair and I had french toast that smelled deliciously reminiscent of Disney Land.
Ben and I finally finished the 2nd season of Downton Abby and now I'm eager to start it all over. I made homemade bread which we devoured with strawberry rhubarb jam we bought at the fair. We picniced at the Peter Pan splash park which Ben had never been lucky enough to visit. Ben cut down and ripped a giant bush from the front yard (to Rosie's delight) and now we have so much more light and visibility from the front window. We finished off the weekend right with unbelievable sushi.

 

 

In retrospect, our weekend revolved completely around the pleasures of delicious food which hardly seems "once in a blue moon" for us...

The next blue moon will be July 31, 2015 and maybe we'll try to be more creative then.

Elder Meakin

Ben's little brother Steven got home from his mission to Provo, UT a little over two weeks ago. He only got to spend a few short days in Maryland and then it was time to get packed up and hit the road. Ben's dad and Steven drove across country back to Provo for Steven to start school and we were lucky enough to be a pit stop on the way and to have many more members of the family join us. Ben's mom and older brother Craig flew in, Cindy, Chris and Sadie came down from Greeley, and Daniel and Becca surprised everyone and drove up from Salt Lake.

We had a house overflowing with Meakins and it was a fun few days to have everyone (minus Teresa and family) together. We went to Boondocks and ate at Cheesecake factory in Boulder, had a weenie roast, went to the zoo, and played games. Rosie and Evie adored having so much company and followed their aunts around all over the house and called for their grandparents incessantly. 

The girls were only 2 months old when Steven left and it was so fun to see how much all three of them have grown up. Time sure does fly.

I have realized since moving to Colorado and having occasion to have company (actually quite frequently) that I'm not the hostess with the mostess or the laid back person I would love to think that I am. Having 8 extra bodies sleeping all over the house stressed me out a bit and definitely gave me a renewed sense of appreciation for my mom, my mother in law, and all moms that welcome their grown children into their homes for holidays, Sundays, and visits. I'm hoping I get better at it over time and a become a little less frazzled and a little more gracious.