It’s been a while since we’ve been able to update the Gribblog with any regularity. So, of course, you’re getting several posts in a short time; sorry ’bout that. At any rate, we’ve now been on two camping trips this season, and the Marauders are yet to win a game. On the softball front, we’ve now lost 5 games (including the 2 that we replayed after they were postponed due to inclement weather). That’s right, it’s been so rainy in Boulder that the field was like a rice paddy. The 2nd week’s game (following two straight rain-outs) still featured some pockets of mud scattered around the foul ball line. Sadly, we’ve lost two of our games to the mercy rule.

Last weekend we packed up the car on Friday night so that we could get an early start Saturday morning. We were heading toward the Angel of Shavano campground just outside of Poncha Springs, which doesn’t take reservations, so Jess was more than a little apprehensive. We’ve camped there several times; it really is a hidden gem of a campground, and it rarely fills up, but it was Memorial Day weekend. Regardless, the campground was about 1/2 full when we arrived Saturday afternoon, and we were even able to get one of the relatively wooded sites along the creek; it was lovely.

Phoebe and Daddy eat dinner together on Saturday night.

We had mini pizzas cooked in the fire.

Luckily we were all able to avoid any bouts of illness this time around–I’d thoroughly cleaned the water jug with soap and bleach just in case. After we got everything setup in camp, Phoebe and Jess took a nice nap. Jess actually tried to sit in the camp chair and read for a few minutes, but ultimately surrendered to sleep. It was nice and cool in the tent due to both the altitude and relative shade of the campsite. While they napped, I pulled down the bikes and got everything ready for a ride. I was thinking we could continue up the dirt road to the North Fork Reservoir, but I discovered that I had left the adapter needed to pull the chariot on Jess’s “road” bike. This is one of the downsides to having so many bikes. So I took a short ride up part of the Colorado Trail (heading West) while they continued to nap.

Walking from the car to the campsite.

Looking over Mommy's bike.

After everyone was awake, we piled back into the car and headed down to Salida. There’s a great bike shop in town, and I was hoping they carried Chariot parts. As luck would have it, they did, so we picked up a second adapter bracket and pumped the locals for some baby-trailer-friendly ride ideas. They were nice enough to print us out a map and even hooked up Jess with a free pair of Christmas-themed bike socks from the clearance basket.

To keep a long story short (relatively) we slept pretty well both nights, although the first night I did wake up at around midnight to find Phoebe crawling all over me! Our plan for Sunday morning was to ride up to an old mining town above Salida, but Jess smartly vetoed that plan in favor of riding north out of Buena Vista along the east side of the Arkansas River. It was a pretty good dirt road that passed a few rock climbing sites and some primitive BLM campgrounds. It even featured several short tunnels blasted into the hillside for trains running to and from Leadville. It was steadily uphill the whole way out, and we were ready to cruise back downhill after our lunch stop, but a wicked head wind came up just in time to thwart those plans. It felt like it was uphill both ways, but we managed to make it back to Buena Vista anyway.

Eating sandwiches halfway through our bike ride.

Coming through the train tunnels.

A nice grassy field.

We would have liked to get some more riding in on Monday, but because of the way we had to pack the car, it was too inconvenient to get the chariot out once all the camping gear was in. So we headed back to Lafayette. It was nice to get back early in the afternoon—it gave me time enough to cut the grass (woo-hoo) and get everything unpacked and put away.

Phoebe loves to read her books!

Phoebe recently started “reading” her books out loud. We were highly amused to discover what she must think we sound like!

Last month, our friends the Johnsons came back to Boulder for a visit. They moved to Minnesota last year so that Todd could take a job as a physics professor at Saint John’s University. We were all delighted to have them back! They stayed the first half of the week with the Brinkmans and then came to our house on Friday night. We got a couple of pizzas and Phoebe and Henry played until bedtime. Then the grownups got to play the train game! We hadn’t played a board game in a while, so that was really fun. I lost badly, as usual.

On Saturday morning, we went for our usual trip to Cannon Mine and Santiagos for breakfast burritos and coffee.

Henry and Katie.

Todd and Henry.

Phoebe would only wear her paper bag "hat" for a few seconds.

Our plan for the morning was to meet the Brinkmans at Community Ditch for a hike. We were all on time (the Johnsons have always had a positive effect on the Gribbles’ timeliness) and headed out, John and Henry walking, Phoebe and Thomas in backpacks.

A pretty good snapshot of hiking with various small children.

It was a windy day, and it got windier the farther we went. We turned around when the boys were showing signs of fatigue, although John was (very emphatically) not ready to head back to the car.

A group shot of the Johnsons, Brinkmans, and Gribbles.

After the hike we went to Larkburger for lunch and then we split up because Dave, Phoebe, and I were going to Henry Nikolaidis’s 2nd birthday party. It was a Life Aquatic themed party, so there was a super cool submarine in the backyard! It’s always good to see the ex–Rowman & Littlefield friends and babies.

We all live...

On Sunday we went to church and then played at home in the afternoon. We had pickle chicken (a crock pot Thursday favorite) for dinner and played Trivial Pursuit, which Dave won after coming from behind.

Phoebe's first ever peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

Phoebe and Mommy in the backyard.

On Monday we had to go back to work, but it was a YABS night and Thomas’s birthday, so the Brinkmans hosted. It was great to have everyone together again (minus the Bronskis, whom we missed a lot). There were party hats and cupcakes: pretty great for a handsome one-year-old!

This party hat will come off in seconds. It's temporarily cute, though!

John, Rob, Henry, and the cupcakes.

Big John, Phoebe, Greg, Thomas, Little John, Rob, Emily.

Thomas (escaping), John, Henry, and Phoebe.

John, Phoebe, and Lion.

Phoebe tries out her baby chair the morning before camping.

Mom, I'll just climb in here and make sure it's a good space for our food.

The first weekend in May, we took Friday off work and went camping with our friends the Brinkmans. We’d been eager to try out our new tent somewhere besides the front yard, and the weather was going to be perfect for camping. Dave and Greg had softball on Thursday night. (The game ended in the mercy rule, so the Marauders’ season can only go uphill!) We left about 10:00 a.m. on Friday morning after stopping for breakfast and to get some more fuel for the camp stove. It’s remarkable how much stuff we need to be away (and comfortable) for two nights. I felt like we’d packed half the house into Luna! Dave did his usual expert packing job, so we could see out the back window.

We were headed to a campground called Ruby Ridge, near Buena Vista, which is where poor Taco broke down while we were camping with the Johnsons last year. This time we had no car trouble!

Our two Subarus at the campground.

It’s only about 2.5 hours to Buena Vista, so we arrived at lunchtime. The Brinkmans beat us by a few minutes and had already set up their tent.

Thomas in the rocks.

Phoebe HATES wearing hats. Luckily, this borrowed one has a chin strap!

Dave set to work putting up the Nemo while Phoebe and I ate lunch.

Our new tent in action!

After lunch, we played in the rocks and looked at the river.

The view of the river right behind our campsites.

Phoebe tests out the river water.

Hey, this water is freezing!

Emily and Thomas.

The Brinkman family are all fisherpeople, so they were eager to follow some old man from the fly shop’s instructions to walk to a good fishing spot near the campground. We put the babies in backpacks, with some question about whether John (who’s 3) was going to walk or ride. He insisted on riding. so Emily wrapped Thomas up in the Moby, and we were off. We hiked around the edge of some private property and found a footpath off the main road. We hiked up, and up, and up the path. John kept saying “we’re at the top!” We could see a trailer park, but no river. We found a dry wash, but it didn’t seem to be leading us to the river. After hiking for a while, we decided that maybe the old man was far more spry than we were…he’d apparently made it sound like a short walk. We ended up heading back to the campground—up, up, up, and then down. When we got back, the babies played in the rocks for a while before it was time to start the fire for dinner.

Playing with the jumbo shape sorter.

We had a delicious dinner of hamburgers, hot dogs, and chips, and then we got to make s’mores! John was so excited. Emily found a really cool marshmallow stick with points that curve backward for safety, so John was able to toast some of his own marshmallows. (Did I say “toast”? I meant “burn up.”) Phoebe tried her first toasted marshmallow too.

Phoebe's first marshmallow.

At 8:00 p.m., we put Phoebe to bed in the new tent. She wore fleece footy pajamas and a snowsuit, and we covered her with a fleece blanket. When she got up in the morning, she made sparks! The grownups hung out around the fire until about 11:00 p.m. Dave and I were excited to sleep in our new tent, but we’d only been asleep a short time when I woke up, not feeling very well. Although our tent has two doors, Phoebe was sleeping next to one, and I was in the middle, so I had to crawl past Dave to get outside, where I promptly threw up. I threw up three more times during the night, and Dave threw up once. We think we might have poisoned ourselves with our water jug, since the Brinkmans all felt fine and we all ate the same food.

Dave usually cooks breakfast while we’re camping, but he couldn’t get out of bed. Whatever bug we’d picked up had worked through my system already, so I cooked eggs and bacon and we all ate. The Brinkmans wanted to do some fishing, and there was a big hatch nearby on the Arkansas that day, so they debated about going toward the crowds or going somewhere less busy. We followed them in the car, heading into Salida to get a drink and relax. Phoebe flirted with everyone at Bongo Billy’s while Dave and I tried to recover. Our stomachs still weren’t in perfect condition. When we got back to camp, a guy standing by the boat launch that was right near the Brinkmans’ tent showed us a three-foot snake going by. Pretty exciting! We were feeling a little better, and we managed to eat some dinner. The second night in the tent went a lot more smoothly.

Can you see the snake at the base of the trees? Now look back up at the left-hand side of the photo of our tent.

Dave relaxing.

Phoebe in the tree.

Eating breakfast.

Cows crossing the river.

A very dirty, very angry baby.

The Brinkman family.

Phoebe was a little cold in the morning, so she crawled into my sleeping bag. Dave got up to cook more eggs and bacon. There’s nothing like a breakfast burrito with Cholula when you’re out camping!

Shoes in the morning.

Still sleeping.

Dave cooking breakfast.

John and Phoebe in their jammies.

Pajamas and tennis shoes.

Dave and I had brought our bikes, so the Brinkmans offered to watch Phoebe while we went out for a ride. We rode up a dirt road and never made it to any cool singletrack, but man, was it fun to go out together without having to worry about whether Phoebe was getting bounced around too much! We all put the finishing touches on packing the cars and then headed into Buena Vista for lunch at the Eddyline Brewpub. Greg still wanted to do some fishing, so we went down to the river, but there wasn’t a good spot available, so we said our goodbyes and headed home. A great first camping trip for 2011!

This amazing living room is all made of metal and tile. It's on the pedestrian path by the river in Salida.

May 1

Phoebe’s feet were chilly on Sunday morning before church, so we put on her fuzzy pink slippers. Pretty cute!

Holding her duck from Beth and Chris.

Messing with the stove (which she's not allowed to do). Take the photo first, then scold!

Hmm...look at the tread on these things!

After church, we came home to play.

Playing with the fridge farm.

Another goofy shot of Phoebe's two front teeth.

Here’s a video of Phoebe climbing around on her train. She’s getting pretty brave and agile!

May 2

May 8

We went camping and Phoebe discovered that she likes to climb around on the inside of the car more than she likes to play in the woods.

May 14

To raise money for the Rainbow Childcare scholarship fund, we auctioned off time with Phoebe. We spent some time with Jan and John Meadows at their beautiful home in Loveland.

Gribbles and Meadows

May 15

Walking back to church with Daddy.

Phoebe, where's your belly button?

May 18

I’ve asked before, and I’m sure I will again: Is there anything cuter than a naked baby?

Strategically placed bucket. Just call her Eve.

May 19

Hi again! Here are a few photos and videos from Easter evening and this past week.

Our Easter eggs.

This is Phoebe eating her first peep. If she’s like most grownups, she won’t like these much past childhood.

Here she is opening her Easter basket from Grammie and Pappy.

And playing with Zoe, a Sesame Street puppet.

There are many ways to play with a basket! Things out first, then things in.

Here’s a video of Phoebe wreaking havoc in the kitchen towel drawer. She’s so cute! And destructive.

This morning (Saturday, April 30), Phoebe woke up with pinkeye. It was very apparent in her left eye in the morning, and her right eye was all gooped up by evening. We still have some eyedrops from the last time she had pinkeye (and gave it to Mommy), so we’ve been torturing her with eyedrops all day today. Plus washing our hands a lot!

Phoebe this morning with her left eye swollen half shut by pinkeye.

Even when you have pinkeye, you can still have a little bit of fun.

Phoebe’s top middle teeth are coming in, and she has a delightful Lauren Hutton gap! I captured this pretty good photo of her mouth this afternoon.

Now I've got four teeth!