The Campanellis: August 1st- 17th 2012

Music and movies at Parfet Park, Puss in Boots was tonights movie. Every Friday in August Parfet Park hosts music and a movie.

BBQ at the Vann's

We are so fortunate to have such great neighbors! After watching their 2 girls they bought me flowers and both girls colored a thank you note for me ; ) It was so sweet I had to include it in the blog.

Bus ride to Boulder

Pearl Street Mall, Boulder, CO

Street performer

The kids amazed by the street performer

This piece of land is for sale for $260,000 - (.3 acre, yes only .3)

It's an amazing piece of land though, only 1/2 mile to downtown with amazing mountain views and trails out your backdoor. We're hoping someone buys it to keep it open space...yeah right.

While we enjoyed the view, Gordon threw sand at us.

Hi Mark and Ella!

We got caught in a hail storm on the way home and took shelter under a strangers porch.

We were lucky enough to spot a rainbow after the storm!

Gordon is a goofy guy!

Ella got a TON of clothes from the neighbor girls. She's been changing a dozen times a day!

Young chickens

Family Update:

Mark is truly loving his job. He comes home excited about what he worked on that day and tells me all about it while I nod my head and try to be as excited as he is ; ) He's biking about 7 miles a day total, NREL is about 3 1/2 miles from our house. He looks and feels better than he has in years. His hours are very flexible so we've been enjoying a lot of family time, especially since he doesn't bring work home.

Ella is a true girly, girl. She loves clothes and shoes and anything pink. She's made friends with several neighbor kids but still misses her friends in Maryland. Lately, she's been very into biking - I'm sure it has a lot to do with Golden's influence, it's a very bike friendly town. We see more bikes go by our house than cars. Dancing is another favorite activity of hers, she attends one dance class a week at the local rec center. After some digestive issues we have concluded she is lactose intolerant. Since milk is made for calves, not humans, we were trying to cut it out over the past year anyway.

Gordon is destructive...but also very sweet. He loves to make noise by hitting things with stick like objects. He also loves to throw things - sand, rocks, toys, food - pretty much anything in reach. He spends most of his days chasing Ella around while she yells, "Gordon Monster" and he giggles. He does like to hold her hand and kiss her too so he's not always in attack mode. He's starting to communicate a bit more, his new favorite word is "Harley"- our neighbor's cat. His favorite baby sign language is "more", this was also Ella's favorite sign.

I've just been trying to keep up with these two! We spend most of our days outside at the park or in the river. I have hopes of taking a rock climbing class in the future. Sleeping through the night is also something I hope happens in the near future ; ) After Gordon is done nursing I plan to take a doula certification course and start doing some postpartum doula work in the Golden area. When the kids are older I'm hoping to be a birth doula but this requires many odd hours away from home, sometimes days at a time. Gordon is still nursing many, many times a day/night and has a hard time being away from me, so for now I need to stay close to home.

Staying close to home is easy when you don't have a car! We are a car free family and loving it! Mark and I both hate driving so it's a relief to be car free. Everything we need is in walking or biking distance. The doctor, dentist, grocery store, hardware store, library, rec center, parks, river, museums, restaurants, coffee shops..... all within a 1/2 mile. The only thing farther than 1/2 mile is NREL but Mark enjoys the 3 1/2 mile bike ride. The bus stop is a couple blocks from us and we've taken that once to the mall, once to NREL for a family friendly work picnic and once to Boulder for the day. It's cheap, convenient and the kids enjoy it (unlike their carseats). Mark will take the bus when the weather isn't great for biking, but from what the locals have told me it's pretty bike friendly all year in Golden. The winters are very mild, if it snows it usually melts within a day. With 300 days of sun a year, who needs a car!?