More weekend fun

Here are some random pics from the weekend! I'm about done with all this cold weather...

Ice Skating

Earlier today we spent the morning in Winterpark Village. Very cute. We took a very cold gondola ride (15 degrees) over to the quaint little shopping area where we found a very welcome Starbucks. The boys have been wanting to try ice skating and there was an awesome little outdoor skating rink right in the middle of the town. We all got in on the action.

Sidenote: falling down ice skating really sucks...

Winterpark Weekend

We just got back from a very fun weekend up in the Colorado Rockies. We spent 2 days playing in Winterpark. We rented a house with about 15-16 family members and had a really great time. Saturday was all about snow-tubing, very fun! I'm uploading a couple of pics, but I think one of our cousins has some better group shots I need to get. It's pretty cool to go down the hill with about 12 innertubes all locked together. One of the guides said you hit about 65 MPH going down the hill. That sounds a bit far fetched, but it does feel like you're about to break the land speed record.

Homebirth

I just read a very cool interview featuring Ina May Gaskin in the Sun magazine. She is one of my heroes. Ida has been living and working in an intentional community called The Farm in Tennessee since the 1960’s. During that time she has been a leader in the resurgence of midwife assisted childbirth. Here’s a link to the interview: http://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/433/oh_baby

I feel so fortunate that the idea of home birth was presented to me. The person I should thank is my beautiful friend Jennifer Suchman. I’m pretty sure she planted the seed, and I feel it’s my mission to plant the seed for others. We DO have choices. Educated women have the right to make educated choices for themselves and their children, and everyone should know that planned midwife assisted homebirth is as safe as hospital birth. In fact, it’s safer in terms of maternal mortality rates for healthy women. We do seem to have forgotten that birth is not often a medical condition and that the female body knows how to birth instinctively and without intervention. Of course there are times when medical assistance is crucial, but it is extremely rare.

Homebirth was an amazing and profoundly beautiful experience. I can’t begin thank those who lead me to such a wonderful gift, which I could so easily not have even known or thought about. I hope others research this option for themselves.

Garden of the Gods (dogs...)

We had a beautiful (and very cold) day at the Garden of the Gods. It's an area full of beautiful red and white sandstone rock formations. There are also many hiking trails and climbers doing their thing - which the boys were enthralled by and tried to emulate - scary. Levon decided to call it the Garden of the Dogs since almost everyone we saw had a dog. It was chilly, and we were fine until the wind picked up. Then it was absolutely frigid. We weren't prepared for it.

http://www.gardenofgods.com/home/index.cfm

Mini Golf

The boys and I went miniature golfing (not one of my favorite things to do). We were on our own that day and made a last-minute decision to go, and right when we showed up at the place so did three of the cousins! So weird! They had no idea we were going and we didn't know they were. It was meant to be I guess - I didn't even have to golf! The big boys took over for me, and the little ones enjoyed themselves thoroughly...but the hippo at the place was a bit vicious! We saved Levon at the last minute.

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Bugs and Butterflies...

Wednesday was all about invertebrates. We went to a place called the butterfly pavilion, and it was amazing. We first checked out the stick-bugs, tarantulas, scorpions and cockroaches - eeewwww. Then we moved on to the most beautiful butterfly rain-forest. It was truly amazing with hundreds of butterfly species everywhere, landing on everything - and everyone. We got to see chrysalis' hatching, and new butterflies hatching out. Then at the outdoor nature walk we were the entertainment for dozens of chirping prairie dogs. Too cute.

It was an amazing day.