colorado recap, girl time, and a little from the weekend

i feel like i have a lot to cover from the past week. i mentioned in my last post that thatcher and ashford traveled to colorado together for 3 nights to attend grandma dorothy's memorial service and spend time with his extended family. not only was it a good bonding experience for them, it was such an nice break for me to just have azalea for three days. i was able to get a lot of stuff done while she was in school (cleaning, book keeping work, a little christmas shopping) and got to do some fun stuff with my free time too (get my nails done, have breakfast with vanessa, read my book). azalea and i went to scooters for dinner one night, watched three new (to her) movies, drank hot chocolate with marshmallows, and slept in my bed each night. she was sad when our "girl time" came to an end. 





 the boys had a nice time in colorado. although ashford had a harder time being away from me and his routine than i anticipated. he cried for me a lot and gave thatcher a run for his money. unfortunately there wasn't much i could do from afar besides talk to him on the phone. he had a good amount of fun though, too. here are a few pictures from their trip: 

we took azalea to garden of the gods in colorado springs in 2012 when she was 19 months old, so it's fun to have pictures of ashford there too now. 

 thatchers sister cedar, his cousins travis and sierra, and his uncle jim

now onto the weekend. it was a weekend of no official plans! friday night we stayed in. made grilled chicken tacos and played with the kids before bed time. 

saturday morning we decided to check out "yulefest" at the nordic heritage museum in our neighborhood. the museum is moving to a brand new location a few blocks away from us this winter, so it was their last event in their current space. it was our first time going to the yulefest, so we didn't really know what to expect besides reading there was music, food, and vendors. we got there 30 mins after it opened, and it was packed. like...tour buses full of senior citizens from the suburbs packed. and tons of families. we spent about an hour there, mostly walking in a huge pack of people through the museum. the kids could hardly see anything and were overwhelmed and whined the entire time. it was a cool event and would have been more manageable without the crowds, oh well.

we escaped to go to an ice cream shop because we had promised the kids a treat, but all the lines at the event were super long and disorganized.

in the afternoon i went to java bean for a couple hours to do invoicing for work. then thatcher ran some errands and i hung out with the kids. azalea took a long nap, while ashford refused to rest. pretty typical! we made pork and veggie stir fry with coconut rice for dinner, then played for a bit before the kids headed to bed. 

sunday we all went to REI in the morning. thatcher goes there to shop and i take the kids to the indoor play area. it's a win-win! after that, we stopped at a gluten free bakery in capitol hill and thatcher picked up some pie crust for thanksgiving. i did more invoicing from home in the afternoon and thatcher and the kids went through all the toys and found a bunch the kids were ready to part with. good timing with ashford's birthday and christmas coming up. we haven't done a toy purge in a while. we made homemade pizza for dinner and then it was bath night. a pretty low-key weekend. 

this week azalea has the whole week off from school! the first few days are for conferences (thatcher and i will meet with her teacher tuesday morning) and the last two days are for the holiday. ashford has preschool on monday and wednesday. i made some appointments for azalea this week and she is also taking a jewelry making class on tuesday afternoon. i can't wait for thanksgiving. we are just making our own feast for the 4 of us. i'm sure the kids will whine about the food choices and refuse to eat most of it, but oh well. i'll be a happy camper :) 

hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving with your family!