Gobble Gobble

I was attempting to explain to Sloan the other day how most of our memories have both good and bad emotional recall for me... dental school, childbirth, living in New Zealand, our wedding, etc. Rarely does life experience escape the pangs of reality, good and bad, light and dark, bliss and bain. I have a hard time showing the hard times through my pictures, but oh, they are there!  Lingering behind each photo is the real story.  Some are better kept quiet, but some just need to be shared.  This month is fully loaded with the latter.

Take exhibit A:  boys happily playing at park

not shown:  moments later when Luke wets his pants (again!) and cries all the way home

Exhibit B: Date night to see LeBron James play!  Awesome seats, right on the court - soaked in every minute with the handsome ivory man beside me and the studly ebony before me!

what you don't see: the torrential downpour we got lost in trying to get to our car after the game!

Exhibit C:  date night with special guest Ruth.  We took her downtown to return something at Patagonia and go to Cheesecake Factory.

 not shown:  the prelude to this date...  Sloan had a couple busy weeks at work, which has been going great.  But he might have gotten a little out of touch with the kids.  The day prior he was watching the boys while I was at the temple and accidentally ran over Reggie's arm with the Volvo!  I came out of my session and got a text asking for our insurance information because he was in the ER getting x-rays. Thankfully Reggie and his arm were ok.  

But the next day, Sloan had the boys at the park and got to talking with a friend and lost track of Luke (easy to do these days - he's an escape artist).  A lady approached him and asked if his son was in a Spider-Man hoodie. He said yes. She said she saw him running out toward the road and that she was with a group of social workers, so he may want to start paying attention.  He didn't respond well to her, and sure enough a police officer came to the door when we got home saying the incident had been called in.  He gave Sloan a warning (with crying, naked Luke by his side).   Meanwhile, Ruth was upstairs balling bc Sloan had hurt her feelings and she refused to come down until mom came home. Triple whammy! 

I came home and calmed her down and told her she could come to dinner with us if it would help her feel better. We hopped in the car, headed downtown, and at the 1-70, 1-25 interchange, we ran out of gas. No exits, no shoulder, just the ramp to the other freeway.  Sloan was eating humble pie like a boss.  He was so ready to get back to work at this point. He called for a service to save us, and we managed to get to Patagonia right after it closed. We didn't start dinner till 8pm, with exhausted Ruthie trying to hang in there, and managed to laugh over the last 3 days of trauma (and a huge sigh of relief everyone was safe).

Bluff Lake with the Mitchells to ease our troubles

 So far, the fall/winter had been mild. A couple cold days here & there but overall sunny and in the 60's-70's.

On this day, started out in the 70's.

 Luke having some much needed success in the bathroom

 yep!  he finally got a stinky in the toilet

 by lunch (Chipotle with the Mitchells) - it was windy and in the 40's

by evening, in the 20's and covered in snow!  (??we started in the 70's!)

dance party (Luke's special stance)

daddy-daughter date to lunch & Museum of Contemporary Art

and the candy shop

 boys cuddling with our buddy Karen

Luke and Reggie secretly agreed to start sabotaging nap time, which I wasn't going to make a big deal of, but they were so grumpy all evening, and clearly needed more sleep.  We put a child proof knob on Luke's door and listened to him cry for an hour until he'd finally give up (day after day).

2 yr old logic - does it exist?

I took Luke on a little mom-date to dinner at Native Foods (my favorite!) and North Face for a parka. Love to watch him eat - very conscientious.

My new best friend:  Sledding!

One of the main reasons we bought our house was its proximity to the sledding hill.  This was a good choice.

All 3 kids love it, it burns tons of energy, and it gets us outside when we'd normally feel stuck.

Perfect lead in to bath, popcorn & a quick show before bed

Parents are invited to a Thanksgiving dinner-style lunch at Ruth's school

It was disgusting.  I vowed to never have Ruthie get hot lunch again.

Mindi was smart to bring take-out

Reggie's new love of drawing

Crestmoor Ward Turkey Bowl

that's my man!!  love to watch him play

the sidelines almost as fun to watch as the game

Napoleon!!  (aka Tommy who is also ours kids' awesome babysitter)

An odd morning where no kids woke us up and they found something to do other than watch tv

speaking of not watching tv...

Reggie's last day at Little Kickers  (not shown:  he sat out half of the season because it was too emotionally traumatizing for him to not be the winner at all times)

Luvy & Ken come to visit!!  We had 5 days of activities planned out, wanting to give them the full Denver experience

including story time at the library

and Santa at Bass Pro Shops

but sad to say they got horribly sick within 2 days of being here and that's where the adventure stopped :(  Poor Ken even had to go to the hospital overnight.  Since his kidney transplant, he takes medication to dull his immune system (so as not to reject the kidney), so any time he catches a bug is scary.  Thankfully they got him re-hydrated and under stable condition.

Meanwhile, we got our bird ready...

Taking it out of the brine

and plopping him on our neighbor's smoker

Sloan made a very realistic turkey sound as we put it on the grill, which freaked Reggie out. "What was that sound?"  He was suspicious of that turkey all the way through dinner.  

downtown skate park

stroll/scoot along the South Platte River

 

and wallah - the turkey is done

mmmm

Thanksgiving morning Ken was still in the hospital but doing much better.  Luvy was still miserable but the antibiotics were kicking in.

Sloan & I were feeling good and went for a 6 mile run.

Well, I went for a 6 mile run.  Sloan called it quits half-way and headed home (he claimed didn't get much sleep the night before... mmmhmmm!)

Picnic lunch and feeding the geese at City Park

Ken made it home from the hospital just in time for Thanksgiving dinner!  
Luvy made turkey pretzels with the kids.

cute!

We were sad to say goodbye to Luvy & Ken early the next morning. It was so good to have them here, even if they were half-alive. Hopefully we'll talk them into making a re-visit soon.

Friday we took the kids to Nature & Science Museum (we are taking full advantage of being close to the city)

and cookies with my little sugar-lovers

It was a good month. But not an easy one. Finally had my miscarriage (at 12 weeks), which, after 4 weeks of waiting, was a relief. I was taking medication for the nausea, but was tired of feeling pregnant for no purpose.  

Sloan finished the month strong at work - working extra shifts while 2 of his partners were out of town. One week he worked three 12-hour days in a row, then a 6 hr day, then two 12-hour days and boy were we both about to lose our minds!  But he comes home still loving what he's doing, and looking forward to the next day, so that's good.  

And even with all the tantrums, sleeplessness, failed potty training, back-talking, crying, messes, mindless chores, and utter chaos, I feel the same way, too. 

These are the good years.