No More Mr. Nice Guy

Two terribly unlikely events in one night. First, while Dan is gone getting take out that we planned to enjoy in front of our toasty fire, the fireplace explodes. Molten glass shatters, melting the carpet and scorching the hardwood, and scaring me to death. 

Luckily I had picked up Jack from his spot on the floor just minutes prior and was feeding him on the couch. I shut off the wall switch as fast as I could. Dan, whose talents do not include being handy, goes immediately into stress mode upon his return. As he is sweeping the shattered glass, the crappy little neighborhood kids ring our doorbell and run, for the second time tonight, which spurs unlikely event number two.

 Now, the thing about Dan is that he almost never gets upset about things. Like, never. But those kids picked the wrong moment to mess with Dan Colton. He whipped open the front door, stormed down the front walk, broom and dustpan still in hand. And then, in a stroke of good luck, he spots their feet under the truck parked across the street.  

I hope you won't think less of me when I admit that I really kind of enjoy seeing him get riled up, but probably only because it's so rare. 

Well, he started yelling and chasing those kids with his broom, all the way to the end of the street. He was roaring and screaming and yelling things like, "I know where you live!" And "Never come back here you dirty kids!". One kid was so scared he biffed it right in the street and and Dan didn't even slow down. He may have scared them clean or he may have made us more of a target, I don't know. 

All I do know is, the fireplace thing is a slightly stressful mystery but the vision of Dan with his broom is going to keep me smiling for a good long while.

Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving Day we took a drive to Lookout Mountain.  I snapped this picture before we pulled out of the driveway. I remember thinking, as far as Thanksgiving goes, my greatest blessings nearly fill an entire van.   

We found a table for a very chilly picnic.

But we decided it was way too cold and windy to hike around so we settled for a stop at the lookout point and called it good. This is where Buffalo Bill is buried, by the way.

 And basically all the while, I could only think about how many hours longer until I could pick up my parents from the airport.  

I craved not only the food of Thanksgiving, but the comfort of having people nearby who love me.  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people here who are nice and kind and are willing to help me when I need it, but I have been dying for a friend. Somebody that likes me and wants to spend time together.  Maybe that's why the month of October, being filled with some of my closest peeps felt so good.  

And if we're going to talk about friends, I have no other like my mother.  I couldn't wait for her and my dad too, to come and cook, and eat, to see our house.  And to meet Jack.  

The weekend may have been short, and gone by too fast, but it did not disappoint.   

As expected, they loved him.

And he loved them.

And I loved seeing them together.  Mom happily picked up the once a day bottle regime.

 On Friday we had our own Thanksgiving.  We cooked all day.  And this year was special because Ava joined in for most of it.  She was anxious to try her hand at everything.  She has very fond memories of my mom always cooking and I know she wanted to make some of them doing it together.

Luke stayed busy building the X Wing Fighter.

The weather was considerate enough to be pleasant the whole weekend.  After dinner we took a walk.  I have never seen the likes of the Colorado skies.  Particularly the frequency of rainbows and the beautiful sunsets.  This night was no exception and now I am going to make you look at a ton of sunset pictures, all from our walk. (All taken with my phone, with poor light, but no filters)...

You can tell here that it literally made the air pink :)

The few mornings we had, brought the sights of old familiarity, Finn snuggling up with my dad being one of them. 

Saturday the weather was still nice so we decided to ride the train downtown, visit Dan's office, and eat lunch.

Now, you must understand that we (the kids and I) have been begging Dan to show us his office since we moved here.  He always comes up with one excuse or another but I know its because he likes to keep a low profile in all aspects of his life. Bringing your wife and 5 kids to the office is anything but.  In short, we are embarrassing.  But this seemed like a perfect opportunity, having my parents in town, and especially because it was a Saturday which meant the office would be empty.

Dan works in the tallest building in Denver.

See, only embarrassing people take pictures in the elevator glass.

Can you feel the discomfort on Dan's face as the kids go crazy in this confined space?

And remember the time in Dallas when we visited him in his brand-spankin-newly-constructed office building and the kids were having so much fun coloring on the white board until Max colored all over the white wall by mistake?  

Yeah, I don't know why Dan would be so worried about us visiting either.

After all, clearly Finn was right at home.

But the fun really started on our way out.  I think we were blowing out our respective sighs of relief as we were leaving the building through the automatic revolving doors.  Right up until Ava and Max, in the same compartment, missed their chance to exit, and Ava squeaked out by a shoe string, but Max who tried to follow, got his foot stuck in the door and jammed it.  

You may remember that I have mentioned that Max screams loud and hard and long.  You can imagine that this was no exception.  We could not get the door to move forward or back.  Meanwhile, Max is serving as his own fire alarm, while the door attendant and security guards are trying to figure out what all the fuss is about.  Finally, after what seemed like minutes, they got the door turned off  and Max was free.

We tried to check out his foot but he refused to take off his boot.  We figured all was well though, when he started walking and didn't have a limp. Poor Max.  But he never stopped crying.  I am not exaggerating.  

 We walked the 16th street mall, looking for a lunch spot, and he wailed the whole time.  We decided on Jimmy John's not only because its "freaky fast".  But Max was still screaming and we didn't feel great about subjecting all the restaurant patrons to that.  So that's how Dan ended up spending lunch out on the sidewalk with Max while he wailed.  And I held both the babies.

We kept saying how glad we were it was Saturday and not the busy lunch hour of a weekday. Cause that wouldn't have been embarrassing at all.

So, approximately 35 minutes after the incident, Max was still crying. I felt bad for him because I knew it had scared him, but even for him, this was really overboard.  The only way I got him to stop was to tell him that he wasn't allowed to ride the train home unless his crying was finished.  Home was the only place he wanted to go so he finally, finally quit.

And we all felt really good about that.

We made it back in time for Mom and Dad to see Ava's riding lesson. 

And we also decorated the tree.  This is the only picture I got before my phone died.

Every night, my mom laid Jack on the ottoman and talked to him.  And he talked right back.  

Monday we went to the Children's museum.  Last Christmas my parents bought our family an annual pass, but what none of us knew at that time was that I was pregnant and on the verge of being sick for the next 4 months, followed shortly by being hugely pregnant and having a newborn.  Needless to say this was our first and only visit before my pass expired. 

But we all had a really good time.

That night, however, the party was over and I had to take them back to the airport.  I really, really, didn't want to.  I offered to call their mission president and tell them that they would not be returning but they did not think that was a great idea.

As I hugged them goodbye, I realized that we had not even one picture together.  So I snapped this  selfie and didn't look at it until they had gone inside.  We will all have to pretend that I don't look like I stopped at the recreational marijuana store on our way to the airport (because we pass one). 

Right after I took this I burst into tears like a 9 year old getting left at summer camp. And when I got home I found my actual 9 year old was doing the same thing.  

I am so proud of their service but I miss them so much!

Max is Five

Getting these birthday pictures taken is tricky in Colorado.  It gets so much colder, so much sooner here. I have to wait and hope that a fair weather day will overlap with a day that Dan's home and can keep the other kids.  

Today at about 1pm, I made the split decision that was now or....another day.  And now sounded good. The sun sets at 4:30pm and we got snapping at about 4 pm.  Daylight was fading fast and I had my doubts.  But thankfully we will not need another day and I'd say that I have way too many pictures of this boy, but in my opinion, that's impossible.

Inside Max, the most stubborn, hard to deal with, button-pusher personality cozies right up next to the sweetest, most loving and affectionate little soul.

I can go from wanting to string him up in the backyard as he incites fights and cries too loud to melting with mother-swoons watching him hug each member of the family and hearing him say things like, "Mom, you're the sweetest mom I ever had."

His imagination is alive and well.

His car singing cannot be matched.  I hope he sings for the rest of his life and that he never loses that 5 year old enthusiasm.  His favorite song right now is "Made For Ending" by Jukebox the Ghost.

  He doesn't like to be away from me, but goes to school and Primary without much fuss as long as I draw hearts on the palms of his hands to remind him that I love him.

     

He would cry at the same volume whether he stubbed a toe or got a compound fracture in his leg: LOUD.  Like, so loud I think the neighbors hear him through the walls of our house and might suspect abuse.  So loud, my brain shakes in my head and I feel like I'm being abused.  

But I do not exaggerate when I say that not a day goes by when he doesn't express his love for each person in the family many times and in many ways.

One of my favorite things right now, is when Jack is crying and Max stands over him whispering, "It's ok, you're a sweet baby, you're a sweet baby.  It's ok, you're a sweet baby, you're a sweet baby,"  over and over, until I can get to him.

After five years I think it is safe to assume that his dimple is not going anywhere, thank goodness.

His smile makes me smile, 

and his laugh makes me laugh, 

and being his mom makes me really, really happy.