brothers

There are a lot more sibling arguments around our house these days, and we cherish it even if we don't love it.  We have carried hurt for Timothy over the little brother-best-friend that we had hoped Luke would be and that autism stole from us, but it feels as though that friend is emerging, and we're all enjoying him.

halloween

Luke wanted to carve a pumpkin on October 1st.  He's been so excited about the holiday, and seeing them outside the grocery stores only fuelled it more.  Unfortunately, carved pumpkins start to spoil about four days after they are carved, so he had to wait.  He did get out the plastic lighted ones that we have and put one in his room, one in Tim's room, and one in Paul's office.   It's a lot of fun to watch him enjoy the holiday.

When it came time to carve, he was very keen to use the knife.  He doesn't have enough strength in his hand yet, but he kept his hand on the hilt while I did all the pushing and pulling.  Both of them designed their own faces.  Timothy's did not have a nose.  Instead he wanted to leave the knife buried in the face where the nose would go.  That was fine with us, but apparently Luke found this unacceptable because a nose appeared two days after it was carved.  The pumpkin had softened enough for him to do the carving himself.  I shutter to think what could have happened if the dog had jumped up when he was holding the knife or... Anyway, Timothy was not pleased with the nose.  We did a little 'skin graft' from the back of Luke's pumpkin to fill in the nose, and Tim in his long-suffering way, accepted this fix.  

This Halloween, Luke chose his own costume.  When I asked him in early October what he wanted to  be for Halloween, he answered without hesitation "Angry Bird."  This is significant because it's the first year that he has understood enough about the holiday to make such a decision AND his ability to think about the future and imagine himself doing things and then expressing this in language is new.  

Timothy came up with his costume on his own, and we helped him bring it to life.  In case you can't tell, he's a box.  He's actually two boxes stacked on top of each other.  He cut out the eye and arm holes and attached tape handles to the flaps on the inside so that he could shut it all up.  His idea was to shut all the slots and crouch down, so that he would just look like a box sitting there.  Then he could speak or move and scare unsuspecting people.  It worked on GG.  So that he didn't have to hold the box, we glued cardboard flaps inside, then attached suspenders to them. This way, the weight of the box rested on his shoulders.  When he told us that he wanted to be a box, our reaction was the same as yours probably was when you read or heard that he wanted to be a box.  A box?  His friends, however, thought it was the coolest idea ever.  It was all the talk at school.  

I went out for drinks with a group of mothers and one of them told us about how her son was complaining that Tim was going to have the best costume.  His mom finally told him that she was sorry that she wasn't as talented as Tim's mother to help him make such a cool costume, and he was going to have to be happy with a store bought costume.  He settled on being a bush (camouflage ghillie suit).  Another mom said her daughter came home and told her how Tim was so good at thinking outside the box that he became the box!

This year, I was the chairperson for Fun Fest at Tim's school.  It's a night of costumes, games like bingo and cake walk, and junk food.  About 200 people attend.  It was a lot of work, but people seemed to really enjoy it.  I had to be there from long before it started until it was all cleaned up after it was over, so Paul brought the boys for about an hour.  I helped last year as well, and we came just as guests two years ago.  Luke remembered everything, especially the Angry Birds game.  A couple of fathers made catapults that launch stuffed angry birds at boxes with bad piggy faces stuck to them. He also liked the putt putt and the bowling.  He even busted out some impressive moves in the disco room.  Timothy spent the whole evening with his friends, being older and liking the status of it.  He wore the box for most of the night.  When Luke was ready to go, Tim decided to stay with me.  He was very helpful during clean up, directing the high school volunteer to place furniture and such.

Maybe I'll do it again next year.  It's so nice to be able to be this involved in the activities of the boys even if it is exhausting.  

wedding of nick and sivanny

Kathleen in a sari and Paul in a veshti

When we arrived, approximately 10 minutes before the ceremony was scheduled to begin, Nick was wearing just sandals and a bath towel.  After about 30 minutes, he put on a shirt.  Over an hour later his veshti and shirt arrived.  The bride came about 30 minutes after that.

We are near the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park.

I loved wearing this.  It took me three hours and five YouTube videos to figure it out, but it stayed in place and made the wedding a real event for me.

Tommy and Lindsay flew in from Atlanta with their kids who by this point were exhausted and getting some down time with a video in the car.  What troopers!

line of totality

Paul took this with his phone camera through the telescope.

There was a lot of chatter on FB about how bad the traffic was going to be before and after the eclipse.  This is somewhere in Wyoming or Nebraska the day before the eclipse.  So much for FB chatter.  Nick chose this site because it's far away from any weather causing mountains.

Cheese

James and Timothy are bonding over french fries.

It was great to have the cousins together acting like cousins - not friends but not strangers either.

A large canal enters Lake Minatare near our campsite.

self applied mud treatment

Mud slinging for hours

and hours

The cousins have an evening mud game.

Timothy and Luke were out in it again the next day

Coffee before the eclipse with some Canadian friends of Nick and Sivanny.  We commiserated over the man who coughed up a lung at 5AM, threw his tent poles around on the cement, and seemed to leave in a hurry.  If he was looking for better conditions, he couldn't have found them.

We are all set up on the beach to view the eclipse.  Luke Townsend manning his telescope.  Everyone here was also at the wedding.

Not bad considering the ONLY thing that you can see through these glasses is the sun.

This is the shadow of the eclipse seen through the trees and onto the sand.

The boys with Nick, who organised this outing, and his new wife Sivanny.

As the sun disappeared, Luke said, "It's a banana."  Rightly so.

Total eclipse

The drive home on the day of the eclipse.  Thanks FB, not that I've ever relied on you for anything other than entertainment anyway.  To be fair, once we hit Interstate, we found traffic, but we clipped along at 75mph for most of it.  There were police and troopers out on the back roads keeping people moving away from heavy traffic and no accidents on the Interstates when we were driving.  

skiing at eldora

Our first family ski vacation was a smashing success.  Of course when you have charming accommodations with staff eager to please, loads of fresh powder, and children who can't get enough of the slopes, you've got the right ingredients for just that.  Boulder Creek Lodge

The day we arrived, Paul took a photo of the outdoor patio where we were told we could smoke whatever we pleased this being Colorado and all.

This is the same patio the day we left.  The snow started as we went to bed our first night and was still falling when we left.

This footbridge led from our hotel to the main part of the small town of Nederland. We enjoyed a curry out the first night.  We ate in our hotel the next two nights as we were tired from plowing through all that powder and happy to stay warm and cozy in our room with delicious pizza from a place at the end of the footbridge.

The slopes were a winter wonderland.  Although there were plenty of people up there with us, races with teams from all over Colorado even, we often found ourselves alone.  Paul is a far better and more adventurous skier than I, but we were able to enjoy the same runs as I could stick to the centre where other skiers had sort of groomed the slope and he could enjoy untouched snow on both sides of the runs.

Both days that we skied, the temperature stayed below freezing.  The second day, the wind picked up and made for some blizzard like conditions as the snow from the trees was blown into the air in places.  

This is Luke at the first slope he mastered.  It is almost flat and he did a lot of 'walking' on his skis.  They started him with just one ski going in circles to help him get used to the feel of things.  By lunch, his group moved over to a bigger slope with a longer magic carpet.

The first magic carpet.

This slope is so shallow and the powder so thick that he can't get going very fast.  It worked well for him though as he was able to get very comfortable with the feel and movement of skis.  We don't have any other video of him because our cameras (phone, camera and GoPro) all suffered from the severe cold.  Their batteries just couldn't manage.

Luke got quite cold but still managed a smile.  

Timothy started on this slope but was soon on the regular greens, riding the chair lifts like a pro.  

After his lesson the second day, he and Paul went up together.  Paul noted that Timothy is quite fast.

Paul enjoying some untouched, fresh powder.

Powder this deep means that skiing is a real work out, but it also means that falling doesn't really hurt.  Paul managed the whole trip without a fall, and I only went down once, when I was completely stopped and watching Timothy ski.  I got off balance and tipped over like a tree.  Getting up is hard for me because my knees don't bend enough anymore to get my weight centered so I can push myself up.  Paul rescued me.  I came close to another fall when I got turned backwards in the powder.  Fortunately, I managed to stay upright; otherwise, I might have needed a shovel to dig myself out!

Driving down the Boulder Canyon on our way home.

boating at horsetooth

Our neighbours Diego and Amy have a boat that they keep at Horsetooth, and we joined Diego and Henry for an outing over Labor Day weekend.

 We brought food and enjoyed a picnic on a beach on the east side

It was fun to watch Henry drive as Diego pulled in the anchor and stowed the ropes.   Timothy was keen to have a go as well.

Then a lazy 'nap' at one of the coves on the west side.

FISH!

Our neighbours, Diego and Amy and their twins Olivia and Henry made two trips to the cabin with us this August.  On the second trip, we had a fishing extravaganza.  Diego, Timothy and Luke all caught their first fish ever.  It's impossible to determine which of them had the biggest look of surprise and delight on their face when it happened.  Paul, Henry and I all caught fish as well.  The barbless hooks meant that removing the fish from the hook and returning them to the lake was easy.

Paul easily caught the largest

Timothy not only caught his fish but he helped land several fish, getting good at timing with the net.

Luke was the most persistent of fisherfolk in our family.  If someone was fishing, he was either fishing as well or waiting to help with the landing.  He and Timothy took turns netting the catch.