Our Mountain Goats

Just in case any of you noticed Nicolas was not in the birthday party pictures, that would be because he took it as his cue to get the hell out of Dodge - I mean, took advantage of the amazing autumn to go climbing with his girls. They called at 9:15am Saturday morning from the summit of their second mountain. This being seven hours after I got home from next door, the same level of activity could not be said of me.

That summit marked Cayenne's 27th Fourteener, and Acacia's 23rd. Nick spent some great hiking time with the girls this summer, but if I'd posted about every climb, all my posts would've looked the same. I'm very proud of them though, so if you'll indulge me for a bit here, I'd like to share some of it with you:

Cayenne on the Spiller-Babcock Ridge, June 9, 2012

Acacia and I on Sneffels, June 15th, 2012

The girls and I popped up to Engineer on July 6th (just down the road from Durango)

The flowers on Engineer were gorgeous

 Acacia on East Babcock, July 12, 2012

While Acacia was on a road trip with her grandparents to visit her cousins in California, Cayenne and Nicolas spent a long weekend camping, and climbed four 14ers: Yale, Shavano, Tabeguache and Antero.

She said they were Easy Peasy. :) Good father-daughter time.

July 31-August 1 they climbed Snowmass and Castle.

I love this shot

The Red Rover enjoyed this summer

Although it looks like she's peeing, Acacia is actually unloading her latest rock collection.

Kind of ethereal with the sun rising behind them.

They also climbed Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Democrat, Lincoln and Bross.

On the most recent one they were reminded that the climbing season was probably nearly done. And while I'm sure someday they'll look back on their adventures in the mountains as some of their most indelible, my guess is they welcomed the snow.

 

Stop This Ride!

Can someone please stop our planet for a week so I can get off this ride, catch up with life, and climb back on??? My apologies to any of you who have faithfully checked in to peek at what's been going on at Camp Cofman, only to hear the crickets chirp.

Acacia hit double digits on September 24th and it took about a week to celebrate it Acacia-style, starting with a double birthday party at Michel & Ilona's. With my 45th just three days later, we economized on the celebration - but not the food. Acacia requested anything with sausage and Ilona got to work on homemade Italian pizza fit to rival anything in the Four Corners region... That said, a new place downtown is about to open, so Ilona may have competition soon! Last weekend Petra and I enjoyed the parade of homes and Fired Up Pizza was on the tour. They served free pizza and barley vodka basil lemonades. Needless to say, it was our most lengthy visit on the tour and they were calling us by name by the time we left.

But I digress. Like her sister, Acacia got a bedroom makeover for her birthday - but I got smart this time and allotted three days to do it, so was less suicidal by the time it was done.

 Once the last pillow was in place, I realized this is the room I never knew I always wanted.

Cayenne helped make the box on the wall to the left of the window
for Acacia to hang her jewelry and store her nail polish.

Painting on the furniture and walls felt so naughty - like my Mom was going to walk in and flip out at any minute - it was pure pleasure!

(I found the mirror at a thrift store - this very heavy oak one was just what I was searching for - and because it was only $17.50, I didn't mind testing the paint idea on it. 

I had so much fun I went a little nuts on the rest of the room...)

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Luckily, while I was busy making sure Acacia's birthday was just right, next door Petra was sending out invites to make sure mine would be too. Good times!!

Thank you Petra!