Stop Motion Films

Ever since the success of his last stop motion film, Dawson has been ablaze in stop motion glory. He has asked for a remote to use with his camera so that his camera doesn't move while taking pictures of his Legos. Can guys be divas? Because I'm a bit over the edge with him and his constant requests. He's been watching training videos on our iPad that give instructions on how to make the lighting look more authentic for heavens sake. And did you know that if you want to make your Lego minifigure do a flip all you have to do is put sticky tape on his hands, then place his hands on the Lego platform and position his legs before each picture? I know right? 
Being the best big brother he can be, he recently created a couple of trash videos for Evan using Evan's construction equipment toys. 

I personally enjoyed the "Garbage" personal touch he added at the end of that one. 

I think garbage companies should knock down our door trying to hire Dawson for his genius creativity to make trash seem so appealing.

Just wait until the years Dawson begins to drink coffee. Imagine the possibilities of stop motion films on caffeine!

The Sneaky Adjacent Resident

A few weeks ago, Jason was gone on a business trip in Texas. While I was back home suffering from child overwhelmation (which is a total thing. just don't look it up.), he was crowned prince of the concert arena and schmoozed with the likes of Hillsong United.

That being said.

I run out of ideas for the boys to do while Jason is away, so they usually end up playing in our cul-de-sac. On this particular occasion, Evan had been riding his red scooter. Evan has 1 red scooter, 1 motorized Lightning McQueen car and 1 tricycle. All of which can be laying in our front yard at one time. Add to that 1 pair of rollerblades, 1 Razer Kick scooter, 1 bicycle, a frisbee and a basketball and you'll have the summation of all items that need to be gathered into the garage by me before the night is through.

Can you imagine it could be possible that I might forget to bring something in? ...

When Jason got home from his trip, he went outside to check the mail, when along came our next door neighbor Jaque. (this is the same neighbor who put our house up for sale while we were on vacation last year.) She had in her possession 1 red scooter, and 1 letter addressed to Evan.

I present to you: 

"TRIKE ADVENTURES"

Yes, I know you all want neighbors like ours.

Snowmass Village, CO

We just returned from a quick trip to Snowmass Village. 

A ski town Jason and I affectionately named: "Poor Man's Aspen" because it's only about 10 minutes from Aspen, but it only cost us $99 a night to stay in Snowmass, rather than $1,325 a night to stay in Aspen. And that's in the summer people.  
I love road trips. We eat Combos and stare.

 We took the long way to Snowmass which is a 6 hour drive but the scenery is breath taking. 

 
 And you get to go through a tunnel. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. HA!

The boys took a nap

 And we saw what I believe is the fattest rainbow ever to grace the earth. (No offense rainbow).

 We stayed in a nice little condo with a pool and hot tub available

 And there are free shuttles available to take to town. We rode it to go get groceries. 

 Then we ate dinner at a quaint little Mexican restaurant called Venga Venga followed by an evening gondola ride, which was free! 

It was actually fairly light out when we got started. The dang thing goes so slow that it was sunset by the time it was over. Evan couldn't contain his excitement.

I do believe that our gondola was immersed in water and attacked by sharks at one point in it's life.

 We let the boys swim for a bit and then we called it a night. I couldn't wait to see what was on Discovery channel! Oh the luxury of having cable! 

 On Saturday we got up early to hike The Rim Trail.  And we never saw one snake. Victory!

 
 Dawson is a sprouting photographer. I like sprouting better than budding. It's my blog. He took a lot of the pictures that follow. 
Of course, I found out later that he had it on a setting called "vibrant" and the color was all askew in some of the pictures. 

 Dawson took this one. These trees are sprouting.

 A view of Snowmass Village from the hike.

 The view of this lake is stunning. Because stunning is more descriptive than pretty in my opinion.

 A view of Snowmass on our way back down.

 And 6 1/2 miles later, a shirt drenched in sweat, one cranky 9 year old, one miserable 3 year old and we were done.
 

So we went for a swim.

Across from our condo was a mall where the chalk it up festival was being held. I'm not trying to sound critical or anything, but most of the chalk art was only okay. I didn't mind walking on it or anything.

After our walk through the mall we grabbed the shuttle to Aspen.

This shuttle bus was bouncy. Evan grabbed on to daddy. He didn't want daddy falling off the seat.

Halfway through, we had to transfer shuttles. This one had standing room only by the time we got on.

Aspen's gondola isn't free, but we rode it anyway. 

  If you squint, you can see Aspen down at the bottom.

Dawson didn't appreciate me standing up to take pictures out the window of the gondola. Jason didn't appreciate me holding my phone out the window to take the pictures. 

Evan didn't appreciate me taking selfies with him on the gondola. My family is so stressful!

 When you get to the top of the mountain and take a stroll, there are fun activities to choose from for the kids. I was completely shocked when Evan ran over to the construction zone.

 A view from the top:

 It was late afternoon by the time our gondola excursion was over so we took a stroll through town looking for a place to eat.

 
During the stroll, I happened to peer inside a store where I saw rows and rows of purses in individual cubbyholes. I thought to myself, "self, you have to sneak in there and get a picture of that, because if those purses get their very own shelves, and aren't hanging from a hook at a thrift store, they probably cost more than $3.00." So I snuck in. Well. I walked in, and turned my phone on silent so that the lady at the counter wouldn't wonder why I was taking pictures of the purses. I could tell instantly that she knew I was a peasant when I walked in. 

 It wasn't until after I left the store that I realized what the store was. I never bothered looking at a price tag. I thought if I pass  Kate Hudson on my walk through town I'd just tell her which purse I want and she'd run in and get it for me. Save me the trouble.

I love the cobblestone sidewalks in Aspen. I'm passing around a petition in Colorado Springs to get them here.

 
 We settled for a place called Hops Culture because we were able to eat outside, away from any rich people who might scrutinize our parenting skills while Evan ran amok so that we could eat. I had Matzo Ball Soup.

This was a short trip and by the time we got back to our condo from Aspen, we let the boys swim again and we went inside where Evan has us freaking out because he was crying with pain in his ear. This lasted until midnight where we exhausted our resources because there were no open clinics and the nearest gas station to try and find medicine was at least a 1/2 hour away. I told Jason I wanted to pack up and go home. But instead, we gathered around him and prayed for him. Jason found a whistle in a first aid kid he grabbed from the car and we gave that to him, and after an hour, Jason got him to drink some water with a small bit of crushed aspirin in it. The prayer, whistle, asprin and round with season 6 of Spongebob and he finally fell asleep and slept all night. *Note to self: remember to pack children's motrin, olive oil and garlic on future trips.

We got up early the next morning and Evan was fine as could be. We decided to take the shorter, 3 hour trip home through Independence Pass which is a beautiful drive.

 What a great end to our summer season before school starts!
I'll leave you with a video of how our boys stay entertained in the car on road trips: