I really should review the books I read more often, because doing the whole year review is a daunting task; probably why it's almost February and I'm just getting around to it, but I really think this is an important part of my journal (which this blog has become). I don't have a lot of interesting hobbies, but I love reading and these books are how I filled up a lot of my spare time in 2013. So here are the books I read. Did I get around to the book goals from 2012, like reading Gone With the Wind? No. I'm going to just stop making those reading goals because I never know what kind of books I'll be in the mood for a year ahead. Instead I'm just going to let my reading be organic. It's more enjoyable that way and guilt free. Guilt free is good. We'll see what happens in 2014.
1. Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
I really liked this book. Loved Doug the main character and the colorful and interesting people who take him under wing. Did it hurt that art and Jane Eyre played a major role in the story? No! I loved how Schmidt helps you to care about characters that are at first hard to like. The voice really reminded me a gentler Holden from The Catcher in the Rye, which is a huge compliment from me.
2. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
This book was fascinating! It's the story of the woman behind the HeLa cells which have been so important to many medical/scientific advancements. I really like everything about Henrietta and all the research that followed after her. Good stuff. But then at the end I felt the focus was lost a little in everything about the surviving Lacks family members. Some information on the Lacks family living today would have been great, but I felt like the portrayal of their ignorance and mental problems was a little insensitive. So in all I really like about 3/4 of the book.
3. Good Enough to Eat by Stacey Ballis
This is a chick-lit about Melanie, a woman who recently lost 145 lbs and left her law career to open a healthy, gourmet, take-out restaurant, only to be left by her husband for a woman twice her size. The story had a interesting group of characters which make up Melanie's friends, boyfriend, and roommate, but in truth the author did a bad job of making me care about any of them. It was a bit boring and PC. The relationships seemed one-sided and selfish and as in a lot of contemporary fiction the idea of a happy family with children was almost laughed at. I hate that. And the ending was awful. Guess it was a stinker.
4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The last time I read this was in college, not in a class, but in my free time when I was working as a bank teller. I still has a $1000 twenties wrapper stuck in the pages that I had used as a book mark. That was fun to find! This book has never been a favorite, but I do love the descriptive writing style and symbolism. It's a masterful work in that way. I love the image of Gatsby reaching his hands out towards the green light at the end of the dock at Daisy's house. I was surprised by how much it is not a love story. I had held on to some romantic notion from previous readings when I was younger, but no it's not a love story. The characters (with the exception of the narrator Nick) are horrible, selfish creatures that do really bad things with tragic consequences. I read this before going to see the movie, which I thought was a great adaptation, but I have always loved Baz Lurman's style.
5. Maisie Dobbs by Jaqueline Winspeare
This was a great mystery novel, one of my favorite genres. It's the first in the Maisie Dobbs series, set just after WWI with flashbacks to the war. In this book you see how Maisie gets her start as a PI. The story kept my attention and the writing was beautiful. I really enjoyed it and I want to read more of the series now. *Gasp* that I actually want to read a series, but to me mystery series are fine, I like them actually. It's the non-ending, no-real-ending-planned-so-that-they-can-publish-another-book, young adult fiction series that drive me batty. Sorry about that. End of rant.
6. Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Wall
I read The Glass Castle as couple of years ago and I really liked it. This is a sort of follow up to that book about Jeanette Wall's grandmother Lily. Though it was an interesting and fast read, I didn't find it as compelling as The Glass Castle; probably because it didn't seem as personal. I did love Lily, Jeanette's amazing, no-nonsense grandmother. I loved that Lily was apologetically who she was at all times. Though I didn't always agree with Lily's choices, I found her life to be inspiring. She was one tough lady.
7. The Magic of Ordinary Days by Ann Howard Creel
This is another book I really enjoyed. The language and storytelling were so great. It's the story of Livvy, an unwed pregnant woman in Denver during WWII who agrees to an arranged marriage with a rural Colorado farmer. On her new husbands farm she meets two Japanese American sisters who are internees at Camp Amache, a Japanese Internment camp. It's an engaging story with great and memorable characters. BTW, you might have seen this book turn Hallmark movie with Kerri Russell. Confession: It's one of my favorite Hallmark movies. On occasion, like during laundry folding, I love a romantic Hallmark movie.
8. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
This was a great book. It surprised me. I normally am not a self-help book reader, but this one was very applicable to my life and read very much like a novel. It's the story of how Gretchen Rubin took a year to become happier through monthly goals. Kind of like an actual person's Eat, Pray, Love were you stay where you are and try to become happier in your own life without huge changes. (I know Eat, Pray, Love was written by an actual person too, but it's kind of crazy how she up and traveled around the world and all that - there had to be some independent wealth in that equation, and of course the lack of parental responsibilities.) I did find the idea of doing everything that Gretchen did overwhelming, but in small bites I though the ideas from this book were great.
9. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
A favorite. Always.
10. Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
I have a habit of reading Kinsella books in succession. Like potato chips, or fun size Snickers... Anywho, what should I say about this book?? It was hilarious!! Made me laugh so hard, but he subject of the book was well, a bit... naughty. It seemed much more like a Madeleine Wickham book (the other nom de plume of Sophie Kinsella, which she writes her edgier books under - I wonder what her real name is??). That said, I laughed and laughed until I had real tears. Judge me if you wish (please don't :)). So not for everyone, but FUNNY. I hope there's another Shopaholic soon!
11. Not Your Mother's Food Storage by Kathy Bray and Jan Barker
What a switch from #9. I read this book for a meal planning class I was asked to teach. Not exactly a page turner, but a pretty good, if not kind of obvious, book on planning for and purchasing 3 months of food you family will eat. I did not love that most of the recipes relied on heavily processed food like Velveeta and canned soups, but alas those are shelf stable foods so I understand why the recipes were like that.
12. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
I read this one again for book club. I think I enjoyed it just as much and maybe more the second time around. It's just a breath of fresh air and the characters are so funny. I really love this one.
13. Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson
I also read this one again for a book club. It is still a lovely little regency romance. Escapist and totally fun.
14. Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella
See, I just can't get enough of those fun size Snickers darn it! I guess I needed even more escapism. I'm trying to think what was happening around when I read this, and I'm guessing I was still waking up in the middle of the night with Clara. Sleep deprivation. That's what sometimes spurs me to fluffy books. Again this one is laugh out loud funny in parts, but on the whole not my favorite Kinsella, just the one I hadn't read in a while. At least it wasn't Twilight, right?
15. Inferno by Dan Brown
Robert Langdon is to art history what Indiana Jones is to archeology. The fact this art history and symbology (is that even a thing?) professor gets involved in all these crazy adventures is ludicrous, I know that, really I do, but it's super fun anyway. I got this book as soon as I could and gobbled it up in 4 days (pre-baby-waking-me-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night it would have been faster, but I valued sleep a little more at the time I read this). The overall premise of this book is in fact horrible. The Transhumanist agenda is not awesome, but I loved dashing from important painting to historical landmark with Langdon. THAT is fun times for the art history lover in me. OK, so maybe it was a little formulaic but the twists in this one did throw me so that was refreshing. If you are offended by Dan Brown's obvious disdain for organized religion you might not like this one, but since I don't actually value Dan Brown's opinion and I read these for fun, it didn't offend me.
16. Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth
I am a fan of the PBS series Call the Midwife. So, it was great to read the memoir that the series is based on. It is a look at the work of the Nonnatus House midwives working in the Docklands of London in the 1950's. It was such an interesting and at times shocking read. Such poverty and the conditions that the people lived in was at times so disgusting that it was hard to read. In spite of that I found it to be a great book and after reading it I felt more informed about a time and place I knew nothing about (well other than watching the show, but the soft lighting and beauty of the cinematography on that show does make the conditions look a bit better than described in the book).
17. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
This book was very very good. Fascinating and disturbing. I like Erik Larson's very readable style of "novelistic history". This book focuses on William Dodd, ambassador to Germany from 1933-1937 and his family, especially his daughter Martha, and what they experienced in Nazi Germany just as Hitler came into power. It is a frightening account of Hitler's murderous regime and how he and his party destroyed democracy and freedom bit by bit. Very powerful and though the subject matter was rough, I am so glad I read it. It was chilling... I think I liked it even better than Devil in the White City which is another great Erik Larson book.
18. The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley
I had been waiting for this book ever since I read The Winter Sea and found out that Kearsley was planning a sequel of sorts to it. It still follows the same path as pretty much all Kearsley's books with a modern woman going back in time somehow and learning about another woman's life with some kind of time travel, psychic vision, etc. involved and of course there's romance. Sounds stupid I know, but it's so not and I love these books. As a bonus there are not only characters from Winter Sea, but also from Shadowy Horses too. It was great! It's an easy, fast moving read with just the right amount of romance for me. Loved it!
19. War Brides by Lois Battle
Well this book was a misery. I saw it at Costco and it had such a great cover (really, don't judge a book by it's cover) and the subject sounded so interesting. It's all about the lives of three Australian war brides in the US shortly after WWII. It sounded right up my alley. I love books set in another time about relationships and real life... This one just fell short. Every single woman had an awful experience in different circumstances in the US. None of the women loved their husbands and all were misled by their husbands as to how their lives would be in the states. There are affairs, abuse, poverty, selfishness, and one story line that leads to one of the wives having an abortion. It was pretty awful and miserable. It was out of morbid curiosity that I finished this book and I definitely don't recommend it. I wish I could read a better book on the same subject, because it really is a fascinating starting point.
20. One Second After by William Forstchen
Oh this book... It is an apocalyptic book about three EMP bombs striking over the US and the catastrophic events that happen after. All electronics are wiped out, martial law takes over, and 50-80% of the population is killed off in a matter of months due to starvation, disease, and well just killing each other. It's pretty bleak and harsh. Admittedly, I have no idea what would happen in an apocalypse. I'm sure it would be bad, but in this book within two months of being off the grid people are turning into cannibals and George Orwell books are used as how-to guides rather than cautionary tales. The quote, "some animals are more equal than others" from Animal Farm is actually used as justification for giving "less useful people" smaller rations of food to kill them off. I will say it is fascinating and eye-opening about how the author and probably many other people, like the couple on Doomsday Preppers who are never more than 20 feet away from a fire arm, think things would go down. It's a very worst-case-scenario book. Very scary.
21. Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey by Lady Fiona Carnarvon
This book is all about the actual early 20th century inhabitants of Highclere Castle where Downton Abbey is filmed. The life of Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon, was very intriguing. She was the illegitimate child of Alfred de Rothchild, who was able to overcome social prejudice against her birth and become a countess, mostly because of her incredibly wealthy father. Her life was extravagant, but she also did a lot of good, using the castle as a WWI hospital and then founding another two hospitals in her lifetime. Her husband, Lord Carnarvon, was also fascinating as the money man behind Howard Carter's discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb. I must admit the writing was a little dry so sometimes it was slow going.
22. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
This is what reading for entertainment is all about. I love being transported to a different time and place full of unique and engaging characters. I loved the world of 11 year old Flavia, chemist and crime solver, and her quirky family living in a stately home in 1950's England. The murder mystery, all wrapped up in the philatelist (stamp collecting) world, was intriguing with just enough suspects and clues. Flavia is a hoot. SO enjoyable. I totally recommend this book to anyone. This is one of my favorites from 2013.
23. Austenland by Shannon Hale
I love this naughty little nugget of a book. It's not naughty really, but it's just so fun that it feels like it. I read it again right before seeing the movie, which by the way was hilarious! The book is just under 200 pages so it can be gobbled up in a day. Perfect.
24. Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale
I really love this one too. It's the murder mystery sequel to Austenland. It's fun to see some of the characters from Austenland mixed up in this one with new characters. Ms. Charming is always a welcome character to me - I wish I could throw her into a lot of books to lighten the mood. I think she would have made War Brides better.:) Fun fun book.
25. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
I read this again for a book club I hosted. How I love this book. I love the cast of characters and the gorgeous setting in a crumbling castle, moat and all. I love the original situations these people get themselves into. The voice and language of the book is strikingly beautiful as well. Just a wonderful read in every way - a book you can truly get lost in.
26. Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson
So this is the much anticipated (speaking for myself) second book by the author of Edenbrooke. I wanted to like it, really, but I just didn't feel the same fondness for it as I do for Edenbrooke. It just felt a little lost and pointless. The main character wasn't particularly likable and that was hard for me. And there is a misunderstanding that you just want to scream about and make the characters talk it out! I think Donaldson was going for a darker more Bronte-esque tone to this one and she missed the mark. It was definitely not darkly passionate enough to be a light version of Wuthering Heights (honestly, I don't think a light version of Wuthering Heights is possible). Having said that, I did finish this book in 2 days, so it was engaging enough to keep me reading and it was entertaining, but just not as good as I wanted it to be.
27. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
Well this book was not at all what I expected. I don't think any of our Frankenstein cultural referenced could have prepared me for the actuality of this classic. It was such a weird story! Weird, but very very well written. I must give credit to Mary Shelly who wrote Frankenstein when she was only 19. What a magnificent grasp of language she had. Though the book is quite wordy, it is also eloquent and thoughtful. It really does make you think about what it is to be alive and what every living being wants - friendship, love, society among peers... Interesting stuff to contemplate. It's a horror story, but far more disturbing than scary. I don't want to be a spoiler if you haven't read it, but what I found most fascinating was the character of the monster. All I thought the monster would do was grunt and walk around stiffly. That was not the case. Victor Frankenstein is also quite an interesting character. One might say he's a pompous jerk, but I digress. I would urge anyone to read this and discover what's really at the heart of all our Frankenstein lore.
28. Bridget Jones Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding
I had been anxiously awaiting this third installment of the Bridget Jones series for quite some time (like 10 years). I knew some of the plot because I watched an interview with Helen Fielding about the book before I read it, but I was not prepared for how hard it would be to accept the death of Mark Darcy. How could she do this to us - her loyal fans. It is in actuality killing off Mr. Darcy as Bridget Jones is a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice. It was traumatic. I had to take a few days just to mourn before reading the rest of the book (and you find out on like page 1). Going on, I did like the book. I liked Bridget as a mom and I liked her writing funny tweets on Twitter. Her friends are still fabulously funny and her dating exploits are hilarious. My favorite parts are her interactions with her two kids and the parents and teachers at her kids' school. I related to it and loved that humor. It's a Bridget Jones novel, so of course there's inappropriateness, but if you've enjoyed the first two books you'll probably like this one too, like I did.
29. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
I read this book because I was needing some fluff. Again. It was nice enough and very escapist, but I found myself having a hard time liking or rooting for any of the characters. I didn't expect it to be a classic and as a beach-read sort of book it was reasonably fun. BTW, I liked the movie a lot better than the book, which might be a first for me... No wait, I liked both Breaking Dawn movies tons better than the book.:)
30. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Now this was a beautiful book. All about a mysterious circus and it's equally mysterious proprietors, performers, and patrons. In the midst of this circus, two magicians are engaged in a dangerous game of skill. I found it is the kind of book you just have to give yourself over to without expecting to know what is happening all the time. There are a lot of flashbacks and flash forwards and you just have to go with it knowing that eventually your questions will be satisfied. Maybe that can be frustrating, but I found the book to be so engaging and beautifully written that I was willing to go with it's unique style. I hope that made sense. I really enjoyed reading it and was sad when it was finished. That's the mark of a good book to me.
31. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
First off, I really really liked this book, but wow it was so much sadder than the cute cover would have you believe (again, I've got to stop judging books by their cover!). It is adult fiction though its main characters are two high school students. Eleanor's home life is beyond awful and she is relentlessly bullied at school. Her life is hellish. As I was reading I never wanted her to go home. Park is a sweet, under-the-radar kind of kid who has a difficult relationship with is father, but for the most part comes from a stable happy family. Together Eleanor and Park become more themselves and thank goodness Eleanor is able to escape her horrible home life at Park's house. I loved Park's family, even his dad, and wanted as much as Eleanor to hand out with them at their house, eating sloppy joes for dinner and watching movies with air-popped popcorn on Friday nights. Their love story is so very youthful and sweet, studded with comic books, awesome 80's alternative music (Smiths, Joy Division, Cure - nice!), and of course misunderstandings and insecurity. This book makes you remember how awkward young love can be, but also how overpowering and beautiful it can be too. But again, it's darn sad and if you are sensitive to swears this might not be the book for you. I loved it.
32. The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
Wow, what a change from Eleanor and Park! I absolutely loved this book! I don't know why it took me so long to read this. It's been on my to-read shelf forever and I actually started it a couple of times. It's a great Regency romance with great unforgettable characters and beautiful Regency language. It was surprising and funny and read like watching a movie the whole time. It was written in 1950, so it's not always politically correct, but if you can forgive that, it's a superb read. I especially liked the ending. It was great.
33. Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
Mary Poppins is cranky pants!! Who would have thought?! So this is the real children's book behind the much loved Disney movie, Mary Poppins. The book feels very different from the movie to say the least. It's a series of magical vignettes with the mysterious, vain, cranky, and magical nanny Mary at the center. Mary is in a perpetual bad mood and is rude to almost everyone including the children. But she does take the Banks children, of which there are four, on lots of crazy and strange adventures. It very much reads like a children's chapter book, so it's a fast read, but I did not find myself liking Mary at all. Maybe if I was a child in the 30's it would make more sense, but for me the adventures were bizarre and didn't string together very well. Anywho, I think Walt Disney did a great thing for Mary Poppins and P.L. Travers by making Mary lovable and all the cute songs didn't hurt the story either. I am glad to have read this before going to Saving Mr. Banks, because I felt like I understood the real story before seeing the Disney-fied version. By all accounts P.L. Travers absolutely hated the movie and Walt Disney until the day she died for "ruining" her Mary Poppins, but like I said I think the movie was a blessing to this cranky character.
34. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
First, I want to explain that this is the British North and South and not the Civil War North and South of Patrick Swayze mini-series fame. Very different. This is a great book on so many levels. The characters are richly developed and the ark of the story is beautiful and redemptive. I really loved it and enjoyed the time I spend reading it. And it did take some time because it's a Victorian novel, so it's a bit wordy and at times slow going, but I was completely fine with having to work at this book because it was worth it and rewarding. Ultimately it is so very romantic. Mr. Thornton is very dreamy. Like Mr. Darcy or Captain Wentworth dreamy. Of course after finishing this book I spent the next two days watching the BBC movie adaptation every chance I got. It is the best costume drama! Richard Armitage is an amazingly good Mr. Thornton and it has probably the best movie ending ever. Love the book and the movie!
Choosing a favorite for 2013 is so hard! I'm going to have to give it to North and South followed by The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and Eleanor and Park. I hope you had many happy reads in 2013 too and here's to many wonderful moments with good books in 2014!
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Ben Had a Birthday (in December) Shout Hooray!
At 10 Ben's favorites things are:
- Reading - especially The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, The Percy Jackson series, and The Dragon Breath series.
- Soccer - he is a great defender, but also likes playing goalie.
- Studio C - he loves it!
- Dr. Who - I think he was super sad to see Matt Smith go, let's hope he likes Peter Capaldi as much.
- Myth Busters - he could watch hours of this show at a time if we let him and he always has tidbits from the show to tell us about at dinner.
- Math Facts - he was the first kid in his class to pass all his times tables off and he's super proud of it. He also loves going to Math Olympiad and working on math problems in his spare time.
- Legend of Zelda games on DS or Wii - he is definitely a gamer and loved being able to play all his favorite games over winter break.
He chose to go to Freddy's for dinner, which means all 4 kids chose that for their birthday dinner in 2013 (well we chose for Clara, but you know what I mean). Freddy's does have the best burgers and fries! After dinner we had cake (Cold Stone Ice Cream cake as per request) at home and then he opened presents. Then he, Adrian, and Sophie went to The Hobbit. I think he had a fun birthday. We love you Ben!
Monday, January 13, 2014
Christmas 2013
We had a very busy, fun, and wonderful Christmas season. I'm going to do my usual recap with pictures for posterity. Here's hoping that my posterity will have access to this! I need to put together another blog book soon.:)
We decorated the tree whilst snacking on fudge. I love that tradition, especially the fudge part. Clara loved the tree and by some miracle never pulled it down or ate any ornaments. I think she was a little scared of it, but she loved sitting by it looking at the lights.
Nina had a little mini-recital/parents day at dance. She is taking ballet and mini-poms and loves them both. Her teacher is super sweet and talented.
Nina also had a Winter Glee Club performance (and sadly this is the best picture we got that night). It was an adorable concert. Nina is our little performer.
We went to Vail for a weekend in December and it was fabulous. The hotel we stayed at was great and had the best breakfast buffet I have ever beheld. Oh my goodness I loved that buffet. We had lots of lovely family time and the older kids and Adrian got to go tubing. It was just a lovely weekend in every way (well maybe not Clara having a horrible cold and ear infection, but she was a trooper). So nice to go away as a family during the craziness of Christmas. We hope this is a tradition in the making.
The Sunday before Christmas the kids wore their Christmasy outfits to church. Nina and Clara matched (thank you Hanna Andersson dress sale) and Nina was so happy about it. Look at those cute kids!
Our big Christmas Eve dinner. Some years we do this and some we don't, but Adrian really wanted to brine a turkey so we made all our favorite sides to go with it: Julie's jello salad, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, olives, and a cherry cheese ball with crackers. Oh wow, we had leftovers for days and I'm still using the turkey leftovers we froze in dinners. Yum.
After dinner on Christmas Eve we had our nativity play. This is always a hoot. Clara was a rather large Baby Jesus this year - she loves being the center of attention so I think this was by far her favorite part of Christmas Eve. Nina was Mary and a Wise Man. Ben was Joseph and a Wise Man. Sophie was the Angel and a Wise Man. Adrian was Herod and the donkey (yes it was a little unorthodox to have Herod hold Baby Jesus as the Wise Men presented him with gifts). I was the narrator, costumer, and picture taker.
Pictures in jammies by the tree and then of course setting out treats for Santa. We decided Santa and Mrs. Claus would like Ferrero Rocher and Coke more than cookies and milk.
Christmas morning and Christmas lunch picnic by the tree. It was a lovely day!
And last but not least, Christmas puzzling fun. This year we did a Eric Dowdle "Vail Village" puzzle. Another tradition we love. I hope your Christmas was wonderful too!!
The Sunday before Christmas the kids wore their Christmasy outfits to church. Nina and Clara matched (thank you Hanna Andersson dress sale) and Nina was so happy about it. Look at those cute kids!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
Birthday Girls and 10 Month Old Clara
Oh man, Clara was teething and had an ear infection on Sophie and Nina's birthday. Poor baby! She is usually so much happier to have fries at Freddy's! I think it was 2 days after this that her little tooth on top finally broke through and her ear infection cleared up soon after that, but it was a rough week!
How I love these girls. I think I put off writing birthday posts because I always find it so hard to sum anyone up in a paragraph. They are both so unique and beautiful in their own special ways, but since this is my journal I'm going to try to give a little snap shot of Sophie and Nina at 14 and 7.
Sophie is a great teenager. It is fun to get to know her as a real almost grown up person. She is brilliant, thoughtful, responsible, beautiful, reserved, and quirky. She loves math and science, especially robotics and some days wants to be an architect or some kind of scientist. She loves anime and reading epic fantasy series. Sophie, Adrian, and I like some of the same shows too. We watch Psych,Whodunnit, and Dr. Who together. (BTW, the finale of Whodunnit was hilarious with the zombies and I totally guess who the killer was during the first episode!). Sophie loves to ask questions and always has. She loves to figure out how things work. She also loves word definitions, especially words with multiple definitions. We had a long car discussion about the word "asylum" which led to a conversation about Edward Snowden in Russia. I love how quizzical Sophie is and hope she always has this thirst for knowledge. Have I mentioned how fun it is to have real adult conversations with Sophie. She is thoughtful and can be quite deep. She is still obsessed with Hunger Games and loves archery, though with high school starting and early morning seminary she's stopped her archery lessons to focus on homework. She is such a good big sister and can make Clara so happy even when she's grumpy pants - a seriously helpful quality. She is also sweet and patient (most of the time:)) with Ben and Nina. I often find her sitting in Ben and Nina's room in the evening chatting with them. It warms my heart. One of the most beautiful things about Sophie is her testimony. I love that she really lives the gospel. That makes me so happy because I know it's her relationship with Jesus Christ that is going to help her during these teenage years. She is excited to go to early morning seminary - how cool is that?! She is an amazing daughter. I love you Sophie!
Nina is my spunky, spirited, funny, social, beautiful, and sensitive girl. She adds a lot of FUNNY to our family. I cannot get over some of the things she blurts out at the dinner table, which is her favorite place to let us know new things she's learned or funny stories. It is also her favorite place to inform. She is our informer. Some would call it tattle-taling. It can be very funny or very infuriating to her siblings. Believe me nothing gets past Nina. Nina pushes limits a lot more than Sophie and Ben. I think she really wants to figure out the boundaries and spot the ones with wiggle room. Maybe she'll be a lawyer. She'd make a good one. She can argue a case very well at age 7 and sometimes I'm actually swayed as long as I see the merit of her side. I really think she might get her ears pierced soon, because she's laid out the case for how she will take care of her ears and she's responsible enough to make that decision. She loves arts and crafts. I love that she loves to paint! On our mommy-daughter/daddy-daughter dates she likes to go to "paint your own" shops. She will spend her free time at night before lights out drawing while Sophie and Ben always read. I encourage reading of course, but also want to give her freedom to do what she wants in her down time (oh man it's hard to not say "no, you have to read before you go to sleep - it's just what we do!"). She loves to dance and is always moving. When we all sit down to watch a movie or a TV show she is in the middle of the room dancing or tumbling, or climbing on the couches. I'm glad there are dance classes to funnel that energy into and she loves dance classes. She still loves to cuddle and have one on one time with me, which I cherish. She loves for me to read to her and she is a very willing shopping buddy; have I mentioned how much she loves clothes? She also always pops up at the counter when I'm cooking. She gets out her step stool, puts a dish towel around her waist and helps me measure things into the mixing bowls, etc. Thanks for being such a fun girl Nina - I love you!
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Estes Park Mini Vacation
We decided to take a mini vacation to Estes Park last weekend, right before school started, as kind of a last hurrah for summer. We got to our rental house, a little house built in 1909, on Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning. It was a super quick trip, but we packed in a lot of family fun and it was great to have a electronics free weekend to reconnect as a family. It really helps to get away and focus on each other and having a good time. Here's what we did.
This is the little house we stayed in. It's called "The Nell". Isn't it cute! It had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a tiny kitchen, and a great deck off the back with spectacular views of the mountains and Elkhorn Avenue down below which is the main street of Estes Park with tons of cute shops and restaurants. Estes Park is nestled in the Rocky Mountains near the east entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park is beautiful!
Here we are on the deck in back of the house.
The first night we walked down Elkhorn Ave. We had dinner a little burger place and took time for some pictures by Big Thompson River. Notice we are wearing hoodies - it was cold in the evenings in Estes Park! Of course we should have expected that with it being in the mountains and all, but brrrr! It was so fun to go shopping in all the cute little shops. We found a magnet for our magnet board and an ornament with 6 bears for our Christmas tree. The kids and I all got Estes Park hoodies as well. Adrian abstained because he is not a fan of hoodies. What?? I know. Sophie got a geode (a hallow rock with crystals inside) at one of the shops and they opened it up with what looked like a big pipe cutter. It looked so neat inside. Sophie says the shopping on Elkhorn Ave. was her favorite part of the whole trip. It was fun. When we got back to the house we watched Oz the Great and Powerful and munched on cookies and fudge that we bought on Elkhorn Avenue. Oh man, those Grandma cookies were awesome! I want one right now!
Of course being in Estes Park, we had to go to the Stanley Hotel of The Shining fame. It is a big beautiful hotel built in 1909. The tours did not allow children under 5 so Adrian and I took turns on Saturday taking the older kids on the "History and Ghost Tour" of the hotel. I took Sophie and Nina and Adrian took Ben. It was an awesome tour! The ghost part of it was not scary at all. The day tours are very tame. You can go on a couple of different nighttime ghost tours which are suppose to be scarier, we didn't do that, but I would love to go back during Halloween time and take one of the night ghost tours with Adrian. We are weird like that! The history of the hotel was actually really fascinating and it's a beautiful place. F.O. and Flora Stanley, the ones who built the hotel, were such interesting people and so philanthropic. The hotel itself is just gorgeous inside with it's beautiful neo-Georgian style - lots of symmetry, columns, wood paneling, and Tiffany style light fixtures. So pretty! Of course there was some mention of ghosts and The Shining, but over all I just loved the parts of the tour focusing on the architecture and stories about F.O. Stanley and how he made his millions. He was such an inventive and ambitious soul and such an amazing example of The American Dream fulfilled.
More pics from the hotel. Isn't the staircase beautiful?! And for the horror fans out there - do you recognize that last picture?? Haha! It's actually hanging in the hotel.:)
After the Stanley Hotel tour on Saturday we went on a family hike around a picturesque little mountain lake, Lily Lake. It was the perfect easy hike for our family, only about a mile around the lake with a little venturing off the path for fun. The kids loved it, especially Clara who loves being outside. There were tons of chipmunks and baby ducks - very cute wildlife.
After Lily Lake we stopped by the Baldpate Inn to take a look at a local curiosity - their key collection. This hotel has a room filled with keys from all over the US and the world and they are strung up all over the ceiling and walls of the "key room". Honestly, it was kind of weird, but neat at the same time. They had old keys from the early 1900's, new keys, and everything in between. We wandered through for a little while before heading back to the house for Clara's nap time. During her nap Adrian and I took turns taking the kids out to the hot tub - which was one of Ben and Nina's favorite things about the trip. They had been asking when we'd get in the hot tub about every 10 minutes since we arrived at the rental house, so it was very happy for them to finally get in and of course they didn't want to get out. They were quite pruney when they got out.
That night we had hot dogs and s'mores (the house had a grill - yay), watched a part of the Judy Moody movie, and then played games. Clara went to bed sometime during the movie watching. We started Monopoly, but then Nina (who wanted to play Monopoly the most) went to bed and we switched to Risk. It was a pretty epic game of Risk between Adrian, Sophie, Ben, and I. I think it makes Adrian incredibly happy to have kids old enough to play Risk and I'm sure he's looking forward to future Thanksgivings with all of his grown children crowded around the table after dinner playing this game. He loves it! Me, not so much, but I do indulge him one or two times a year and play it. We played for hours Saturday night. We had to call it before the game ended because it was late and Ben won because he was closest to his goal at the time. Believe me Adrian did not want to stop playing! I think the kids had a lot of fun.
It was a great mini vacation! All of us did not want to leave and wished we could have stayed for a week. Nina kept saying 2 days just wasn't enough to stay in "our cabin". I had to tell her multiple times it wasn't actually our cabin, but since we stayed in it I think she feels some kind of ownership still.:) We had such a fun weekend. How I love my people! It really is great to get away and realize what an amazing group of people make up my family. I love each one of them so much and I'm so glad we can have so much fun together. I think we need to go on more of these mini vacations!
It was a great mini vacation! All of us did not want to leave and wished we could have stayed for a week. Nina kept saying 2 days just wasn't enough to stay in "our cabin". I had to tell her multiple times it wasn't actually our cabin, but since we stayed in it I think she feels some kind of ownership still.:) We had such a fun weekend. How I love my people! It really is great to get away and realize what an amazing group of people make up my family. I love each one of them so much and I'm so glad we can have so much fun together. I think we need to go on more of these mini vacations!
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