30 Before 30 Check-In

Happy six-month anniversary to the original 30 Before 30 list over at emyselfandi.com!  To celebrate, E herself is asking for an update on our lists.  Here's where my list stands today:

1. Get totally out of debt, except the mortgage

2. Save six months' worth of living expenses

3. Run a half marathon in a cute running skirt

4. Run a shorter, family-friendly race with Ben in a stroller - (Daniel and I walked a 5K with Ben, but I'm thinking that doesn't count.)

5. Take a family vacation (just Daniel, me, Ben, and any future babies) to a fun city

6. Finish Ben's baby quilt - (I am totally ashamed that this one isn't done since my baby is barely a baby anymore.)

7. Take some sort of class just for fun

8. Read 25 books in one year - (I'm up to 17 since April.)

9. Get a makeover and buy the makeup

10. Shoot a real gun

11. Clear the junk out of our back flower beds and replace it with something edible (tomatoes, peppers, piles of Snickers bars?  I don't know) - DONE!  My garden was a mild success.  I harvested bunches of squash and zucchini, several Roma tomatoes, and a few green bell peppers.  I have three cantaloupes that should be ready any day now.  The strawberries and blueberries were total failures.

12. Paint the inside of our house -- no more white walls

13. Have a bright red front door - DONE!  And I love it.  See it here.

14. Make a surprise visit to my parents

15. Memorize a book of the Bible and still remember it a year later

16. Eat out zero times for a full month - DONE!  We ate all our meals at home in May.

17. Beat my friend Susanna at a game of Scrabble

18. Take Ben's picture by something pretty at my alma mater - DONE!  Check out some of the pictures here.

19. Spend a day at a spa

20. Pretend to be Donna Reed for a day

21. Organize the garage to my satisfaction

22. Go snow skiing

23. Participate in the Great Fruitcake Toss in Manitou Springs

24. Make a pretty cake from scratch

25. Host a tea party (the scone-eating kind, not the political kind)

26. Climb the Manitou Incline

27. Come up with an acceptable system for organizing my recipes (I've tweaked my system, but I'm not thrilled yet.)

28. Throw my husband a spectacular 30th birthday party

29. Complete another 100 Thing Challenge

30. Watch the Balloon Classic in Colorado Springs - I'm calling this one at least 50% DONE!  I didn't make it to a morning balloon launch this year, but I did go with my fam to a Balloon Glo one night.  It looked like this:

Clearly, I have quite a ways to go, but I'm happy I have any progress to show at all!  By  my very accurate calculations, my list is 18.33% complete.  Check out other folks' updated lists and post your own here.

Cute one-year-old boy

Right after Ben's birthday, he started sleeping incredibly well.  He's never been a horrendous nighttime sleeper, but the past couple of weeks were just heavenly.  And even his naps were easy and long.  But this week?  Well, once again, he's lucky to be cute.  "Protective coloring," my mom calls it.  Here's some evidence:

Last Wednesday we went to Happy Apple Farms.  I let Ben sample an apple and was shocked that he went right to work and ate the whole thing.

 

We didn't end up getting a pumpkin (because I didn't want to carry it all the way back to the car), but here he is sitting by one, still eating the apple.

Then last Friday, we went to an open house at a place called Little Gym.  It's exactly what it sounds like:  a gym for little kids.  

 

 

Ben loved it until one of the workers tried to help him do a forward roll (this is apparently something a twelve-month-old can do?) and he started losing it and we went home.  This was also the first day I stopped nursing him at lunchtime, so that probably contributed to his moodiness.

On Saturday, Daniel and Ben and I went on our favorite easy hike - Mt. Cutler.  I thought we would make it home before naptime, but I was wrong.

And just for fun, I want to share two videos.  Ben is hilarious these days and is gaining new skills all the time, so I'm trying to do better at catching some of it on video.  This is my favorite new trick:

And this one isn't so new, but I still think it's adorable to watch a tiny person climb a giant staircase:

 

I haven't forgotten that I owe you, my loyal readership, a post or two about Ben's birthday.

Summer Catch-up: Part 3

For the sake of getting on with blog-life, I'm just going to put a few pictures and a few captions up from our last trip of the summer.  In mid-August, went with Daniel's brother and his family (same fine people from the previous post) to Estes Park, Colorado, for a few days.  Our cabin, which had a hot tub on and hordes of hummingbirds around its deck (both got two thumbs up from me), was just barely outside Rocky Mountain National Park.  We drove around the park every day and saw loads of pretty scenery like this:

 And this:

And this:

We took multiple family pictures that ended up looking about the same every time:

This one looked a little different:

And this one included the whole crew:

We did some mild hiking (five young kids necessitate mild hiking only):

We toted Ben around in the hiking backpack, which he loved:

We had a superb time all around.  Thanks, Clark & Steph & kids, for sharing your vacation and your s'mores with us!