A Weekend Away

Matt and I had our first night away from Liam this weekend!  We basically swapped kiddos with some good friends, so we watched their son a few weeks ago, and they watched Liam this past weekend.  While one night is short and sweet, it was amazingly refreshing.  We debated over where to go, but in the end Denver seemed like the best option, as we didn’t want to spend all of our time driving.  Behold, our adventures one hour’s drive north!

We’ve wanted to check out Mt. Herman for awhile now, so we stopped in Monument for a lovely morning hike. 

Before jumping back on the highway, we wandered through Monument’s farmer’s market, enjoying some hearty samples of Great Harvest cinnamon bread and their “sinful” cinnamon butter—delish! 

Lunch was at Vine Street Café, which has become our yearly tradition.  Before leaving, we played a game of bags.  I won’t say who won.  : )

Then it was off to Denver’s Antique Row, where we meandered in and out of stores packed to the gills with antiques.  There was some live music, too, which made for a festive atmosphere. 

On our way to the hotel for check-in (we snagged a room at the Hyatt Regency through Hotwire), we stopped by a store to make a return and somehow got suckered into entering an amazing giveaway at the snowboarding store next door.  We only had to wait about 20 minutes before they did the giveaway—which turned into a massive amount of small giveaways + two major prizes.  Both of us won some gear—ski goggles, a too-small T-shirt, and some snowboarding stickers—and although we didn’t win the ultimate prizes, it was a fun moment of spontaneity.  While waiting, Matt kept entertained by exploring the booths set up outside.

That evening, we hit up Pinche Tacos, which is a hoppin’ Mexican restaurant downtown Denver.  They specialize in serving unique flavors of  tacos, and their cheese dip was pretty awesome, too!  We both agreed that this dinner was the highlight of our trip, although be prepared for elbow-to-elbow seating and loud music.

After sleeping in and taking a dip in the hotel hot tub, we gorged ourselves on breakfast at Snooze.  Their pancake flight is a must, as you get to try three different flavors of pancake.  Keep in mind that we ate this in addition to our other entrees…like I said, we gorged ourselves. 

Finally, we stopped at Roxborough State Park near Castle Rock (we even popped into the outlets and found Matt some work pants) on our way back to the Springs.  It reminded us of Garden of the Gods, but with fewer people and more green space.

It was so fun hanging out with my hubby and not having a serious agenda.  Liam did great while we were away, and I think we’ll be better parents in the long run by taking time to keep our relationship strong.  Now off to plan for the next getaway!  : )

Spicklin’ & Spacklin”

Some of you may recall that last year I painted the garage door blue.  Unfortunately, peeling paint from the 1940s is no longer en vogue now that 2013 has rolled around, so with a little help from our neighbor (yup—the same one who shovels our snow on bristly winter mornings) and some great napping on the part of Mr. Liam (yes, he plays a very important role in the projects that linger get done around this place), we were able to get ‘er done!

It’s always helpful to look back at what once was…

in order to fully appreciate what now is. 

Before we could paint though, we had to prep, which is always the most arduous step in the process.  For us, that meant removing as much peeling paint as possible through first power washing and then chipping away at the remaining paint. 

Ooooh, the midpoint of the project—when your motivation wanes and the end seems…endless!  As I like to say, it always seems to get worse before it gets better in the wonderful world of DIY.

We also had to match paint samples to the stucco color of our house.  This was trickier than I thought it would be, because the stucco is textured, making it harder to pinpoint the right shade, and although I’m happy with the color we chose, it’s lighter than I expected it to be.  Too bad that YHL didn’t write this post until after we had already painted, or I might have gone a shade darker. 

Overall though, it’s so much better!

The Giving Tree

Who doesn’t love Shel Silverstein’s classic, The Giving Tree?  It’s what I imagine the massive stump in our backyard must have been back in its prime.  Sadly, this lonely stump is all we’ve ever known of it. 

So where am I going with this?  Not long ago we needed some minor plumbing work done, but when the plumber tried to find our water main, he came up empty.  It was a little weird, actually…how does a water line just disappear like that?  He ended up deferring to the city of Colorado Springs utilities company, since they own our water line; after tearing into our poor stump, they determined that it was actually buried several feet underneath our tree stump!  Can I get a shout out for wacky old homes?!  Oh, the joys. 

It took them four more visits to actually remove the stump and raise up the water main, but the nice thing is that they paid for all of it.  Whoo hoo for FREE massive stump removal!  

Liam thoroughly enjoyed watching the back hoe while eating breakfast.  : )

Even though it took our utilities company significantly longer than a private contractor (with their maintenance guys showing up quite randomly with very little real purpose—or so it seemed), I’m just happy to have it done with.  More details on the fence fiasco later…

Farewell old stump!  Thanks for being a solid place for Liam to lean on during pictures.  We shall remember you in photographs of yore.

1st Artwork

Liam completed his first masterpiece this month—complete with finger-painted handprints.  Do we have a budding Picasso on our hands?  Doubtful, but we’re happy that he’s dabbling with some new and creative forms of expression.  The other night he even drew scribbled on the restaurant table paper with crayons (for about five seconds—just keepin’ it real).  While I’ll probably keep this piece of art—being his first, and all—I know that I will not save every craft and coloring project.  My goal is to take photos of the ones that are most memorable and post every single one on this blog eventually create some sort of digital collage or photo book of them.  And for those dying to see Liam’s creative genius, I give you My First Finger-Painting.  Tada! 

We Live With My Parents

Just kidding!!  We don’t really live with my parents, but we visited them multiple times this summer—totaling about a month’s stay in all—so it started to feel like we were those 30-year-olds living in the basement of their parents.  The real reason for our most recent visit to the Midwest was to be present for Matt’s dad’s surgery, which took place in Chicago.  Since my parent’s house is so close, we ended up staying there.  Thankfully, everything went better than expected, and Poppy is now recovering at home.  Trip highlights below…

Date night at the dunes!  Gotta love having Mimsie & Popsie around to babysit. 

Rough housing with Popsie…

Walking on lush Midwest grass…feels like quite a luxury compared to our struggling lawn in CO!

Twirling with Mom…

Enjoying way too much fried goodness at the Porter County Fair!  Those elephant ears…so yum.

Helping Popsie set up his fair tent…and climbing up lots of mowers, too.  Eeks!  Liam actually had his first real fall on this trip (although it happened quite accidentally at Gma & Gpa’s house, not the fair).  A bloody nose and fat lip were the only battle wounds, but we were all a little shaken up.  Matt summed it up well by saying, “He’s officially a boy now.” 

The petting zoo tent at the fair.  We were able to see the cutest piglets (never thought I would string those two words together)—sleeping, nursing, playing with each other—just like little Wilburs.  Loved it!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of pool day at the Bucher’s, Family Camp (where my brother Ross unleashed his superior yoyo skillz in an epic variety show comeback), or hanging out with my siblings (we got to see all of them again—unbelievable and so fun).  Grateful for these memories!

Of course, I can’t wrap up this post without at least mentioning that our car has several issues as we drove back to Colorado.  Without going into too much detail, we made it back without breaking down in the middle of Kansas (in spite of my incessant worrying), and Liam was quite the backseat trooper, along with my amazing hubby who drove nearly the entire 24 hours (which really should have been 17 hours).  Thanks also to Gma Steph who rescued us in Champaign, IL, by getting us to a car repair shop (took three tries before one would take us).  But we made it back in one piece and have no plans to leave home for awhile now.  : ) 

Divided loyalties here in the Braham house…Matt is a Buckeye fan, and I say Boiler up!

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” Baby Shower

Wondering how in the world a “reduce, reuse, recycle” theme can be used for a baby shower?  Read on, friend, and you shall see.  : )

My good friend, Lindsay, is pregnant.  Although by the time this post is published, she might officially be a mama!  As we chatted about what type of baby shower to throw, the theme of “recycle” kept popping up.  You know, it kept cycling through our brains again and again…bad pun.  But really, it did.  You see, Lindsay and her husband, Jeremy, spent the first years of their marriage teaching in Namibia, Africa.  Through this experience (along with their conservation-minded upbringing), they have developed a serious passion for taking care of the resources for which they are stewards.  To honor this passion, we challenged ourselves to throw a more resourceful baby shower.

Our main theme was “reduce TEARS, reuse HUGS, recycle LOVE.”  We also stuck a sign on the front door that said “go GREEN baby.”  All of the letters were dicut from old newspaper.

Since it’s always nice to have thank you cards addressed and ready to send out, Ellen whipped up these nifty envelopes made from old magazines.  Thanks to my sister Hannah for the idea! 

And speaking of mailing items, we realized that the amount of paper and money that goes into mailing invitations is quite significant, so we sent out electronic Evites.  This actually worked well, because Lindsay requested that as many of their gifts be used as possible.  We were able to put their wish list on the Evite and guests responded with what they planned to bring.  We later learned that this website actually would have worked even better, but we’ll have to save that for another time.  For anyone wondering, Lindsay actually received some very quality gifts.  Most baby items are gently used (heck, sometimes they grow out of things so fast that they’re never used), plus there are tons of great deals on Craigslist and at thrift stores, so it wasn’t hard to track down some pretty sweet stuff.  All of our shower game prizes were REgifted items, too. 

While we decided it would be best not to reuse food (ha!), we did fill old bottles with flowers, and we also donned a linen tablecloth made by Haitian women who are working to support their families—something we thought Lindsay would also appreciate.  (Love the cloth, Mom!  It washed up great, too.) 

Instead of disposable plates and napkins, we used cloth napkins and real plates. 

Mason jars served as cups (they were borrowed from a friend who used them in her wedding—she was so happy that someone else was putting them to work), and the drinks were kept cold in a metal tub of ice. 

Oh, and I can’t forget the paper straws! 

I also tossed up a simple garland made of scrap paper for some added decoration.

Since Lindsay will be using cloth diapers on her babe, we hung strips of paper from clothespins on the mantel.  Guests then wrote blessings, bits of wisdom, and encouragement on the paper, along with sweet little notes on the wooden clothespins.  Now laundry will be so much more fun for Lindsay, don’t you think?  : )

I love throwing a themed shower, and this was definitely a fun one.  What unique shower ideas have you used?  No sense reinventing the wheel when you can just recycle great ideas, right?!