The Meyer Family

Here is B as we enter Clear Lake. We have fun weekend planned, I hope he will enjoy it.

Today is Nallia’s first birthday! Bryson woke up all excited and asked if today was is her day. He insisted we open presents. They opened a few in their jammies.

It has been a while since we had a “house project.” Over the past 6 months we have been working on both the front and back yards. Since we moved in there was NO landscaping and we are the only new house on the block so I feel bad looking out the window to see nice yards and all our dirt and weeds. We first did the side yards with rock to keep the mud and weeds down. It took a weekend and two big piles of rick but it turned out nice. We finished this in January, which also happened to be the day our “big” earthquake so I guess I was just tamping the rock a little too hard!!!
Next we did a mow strip around the back yard and a small raised bed for a kids garden. Drew really took this over and it turned out great. Just this week we had about 300sq of stamped concrete poured for a patio in the front and back. We were lucky to meet some great neighbors with concrete skills!!! Again, I love living here! Here are some pictures, Bryson loved seeing the cement truck pull up. Next up we will be planting plants and doing the mow strip in the front.

Our trip is almost over! I am a bit bummed. I think I could use just a few more days or I am just really nervous about flying home with both the kids.
Drew returned home on Saturday, after his super “double bump” which he will need to explain. I have been trucking the kids around since then, with some help from my sister!

Saturday we went to the People’s Fair and the Larimar Chalk Art festival. It was a ton of walking and B feel asleep at the table during our late lunch at Rock Bottom on the 16th Street Mall, I think one of his highlights from this trip will include riding a city bus. Poor small town kid!
Sunday we headed out to Cherry Creek State Park. Hitting up some of my old stomping grounds, since I was a lifeguard for my summer job there for about 5 years in high school and college. We played in the sand and water at the beach then joined my grandparents, aunt and uncle and a cousin and his family (including 3 kids under 7) in the campground for a blazing hot time eating lunch outside my grandparents Super-Duper RV. Bryson had a wonderful time with my cousin’s two boys who are 4 and 7. They played in the water and got soaked with the water hookup and buckets. It was pretty hot, reaching about 100 degrees!
Monday my sister, Diane, and I took the kids to Great Plains Park, this park has a nice playground and a water fountain area where the kids can run through the fountains. I am sure you will see it in most of the picture since that seems to be the only place I have been getting out the camera.That evening I left B with Grammy and Papa to eat dinner with a high school/college friend. It was great to catch up and swap old stories but it does make me thankful for all the wonderful things I have in my life now.
Yesterday we met up with my childhood best friend, Angie and her son/my godson, Liam, to head back to the park. The boys had a blast and Nallia was not far behind. She is fearless and would crawl on the cement and 4 inch water to keep up with them. Sometime during the day she also found her second tooth making its way through. I noticed it as I was getting her in the car to head to my cousins house for dinner. It was quite the drive since the roads have changed a ton since I lived here and I ended up taking the GPS’s advice, which added about 20 minutes to the 75 mile drive. Again Bryson had a blast with my cousin’s kids. He got to drive a Power Wheel Fire Rescue Jeep! He also figured out their last name is Boisvert which he was just amazed at, since that is his middle name.
Today, Diane and I were hoping to take it easy but we ended up shopping all day! We went to two malls and even hit up CostCo and Target. We are hoping to get to the museum or a water park in the morning but after a 9pm run to Starbucks I am not sure how much sleep I will be getting ☺

We ventured to a build a bear to get fireboots for Smokey, Bryson’s bear, and Nallia got her first bear, Cherry.

Bryson got to help build Nallia’s first bear.

Today the family and Grammy ventured to Coors Field to do a tour. Not to exciting until we got to the field level.

Today the family is visiting the Denver Zoo. Bryson is leading the way!

We arrived in Denver just about 1am this morning. Although I feel most at home where we live now, I will always have peacefulness in my heart for the Mile High City. I grew up just outside of Denver in Aurora, in fact I am blogging from the living room of the home where I walked into at 2 ½ years old and chose the bedroom in the front of the house, I welcomed my sister home for the first time, took my homecoming photos, left and returned from college many times all in this room! The last time I visited I was about 7 months pregnant with Bryson. It is amazing to see how the surroundings have changed, how the house has changed and all that is still the same. For me, this visit has brought so much perspective. I have never done these visits with two of my own kids, never thought about where the parks were or when the Firefighter Museum was open (more on that tomorrow). The last time I really lived here was more than a decade ago, which to me is shocking!

So we are out to find what this city has to offer in this new stage of our my life with the kids and hubby in tow. I am sure I will get us lost looking for the old streets and fun friends but I know it will make for great new memories.

We moved in December, although it took about a month to get out of the old house and into the new, it is taking a long time to get everything just how we want it at the new house. We still don’t have many things up on the walls and the “guest room” has boxes in it that need to go in the attic. Today was the first time I ever missed the new turn off the high and I almost told someone I lived near the airport instead of the my new line of saying we live a block off McKinleyville Ave near the elementary school. Moving has been pretty easy, since it was just a mile away and we didn’t need to change much of our daily life. The new house has a wonderful neighborhood and B is finding more friends that live close.
Today was a wonderful Humboldt sunny day. I was sad the choices were to hang out inside or work on the backyard so at so point the kids can play there. The new house had brought us joy in so many ways but it still seems to need a lot of work to make it our home.

It certainly feels like summer around here. We have started walking and going to the beach at night and spending time in the yard. Since we moved it has pretty much been raining so the unlandscaped yard has pretty much been mud. Over the last few weekends we have started getting the shape and hardscape done, I have spoke with a contractor about laying two patios, I really hope that we can have it done by Nallia’s birthday.
Bryson made a really small garden at a workshop we went to and it has started to sprout. He tells me we will eat everything in it but I really doubt he will eat radishes!
Nallia is cruzing around everywhere! She is a fast crawler and seems to kick it into over drive to find her brother in the house. On Apirl 1st it was no joke that she got her first tooth but we have not seen anymore pop up since then.
We are counting the days until we start picking up at the farm and head to Denver in May!