I know waaay back last year I promised a switch to password protected posts. And I diligently gave out the password, the likes of which I no longer remember, and then never once offered up the secret posts.

Well I guess its an annual tradition because here we are again. Yesterday my husband attended a court hearing in which MY blog was brought up by the other party in a ridiculous and failed attempt to wrongly accuse my husband of things in order to extract more money out of our family. Because of the long dark stalker-like history there, we knew that was coming and expected it. And in general, I have always written for the audience and unfortunately I’ve always known that that audience includes some people with really unhealthy attachments to my world and an almost consuming need to be a part of it at any cost and to use it against my family whenever possible. Talk about making a girl feel important!!! So it was expected and rejected.  And also a reminder that my due diligence was not out of paranoia but out of a sad reality. The reality is that no matter what I write, it could ALWAYS be manipulated, contorted, misconstrued, misunderstood, miscommunicated or altered to fit an agenda. I’ve always known and accepted that reality. Bring it on.

I generally have no problem being public about my life because I have nothing to hide despite the past and present attempts to distort my boring life as something far more exciting than it is. I have found that far FAR more good comes of being open than not. I have been lucky that I don’t really have a following of public crazies but in a way, at least the public crazies keep the private ones in check! But there have always been things I wish I could share and talk about that I can’t because I know that my blog is audited by stalkers, unknowns and also by my children.

Mostly I have no desire to password protect my blog. I think its tiresome and hard to remember everyone’s passwords. But I’m going to do it anyway, at least occasionally. Because boy have I got some stories for you!!!!!!!!

So if you have a blog or email relationship with me, drop me a line here and I’ll share the new and improved password.  Let’s give this a whirl. For the rest of you, don’t worry, I won’t stop publicly blogging. The crazies will remain crazies, the stalkers will continue to find a way into my family by any means necessary. But hey, maybe somewhere along the way they will learn a thing or two about adoption, homeschooling, parenting or making dolly diapers! ha.

So we spent the last week in Denver, thanks to some wonderful family and friends. You know how you get the free vaca if you just sit through the sales schpiel for the rental property or time share? This was a reconnaissance mission, for sure. Except the salespeople were my husband, my Dad and my friends and the vacation WAS the sales job. I went in totally skeptical because I LOVE Houston. LOVE! I think I’ve written enough to make at least a few of you barf over how much I love Houston. And my boys love our neighborhood and their friends. And even Tony who CLAIMS he was not in it for the sales job and left SAYING his heart was in Houston took approximately 2.5 days to relocate that heart for good. To be fair, Denver was always the place we would retire but I’m 33. This was not imminent. I was a tougher sell for a few reasons. First, I am absolutely phobic of heights and driving along the side of the Rockies = my worst nightmare. Plus also I’m a nervous driver anyway. And then there’s the snow. But dammit if the Rockies stole my heart too. And more shockingly, they stole the hearts of my kids who by the end of the trip were ready to pack their bags and move in for good.

But lets back up a minute to right about the place where we get off the plane. This is what we saw:

Keep in mind, this is MID-MAY!!! Talk about your warm welcome. not. I was less than thrilled. Actually I was wishing I had drank heavily on the airplane. Plus we absolutely do not even own clothing appropriate for this kind of weather. Luckily it was pretty warm despite the snow and the kids made due with borrowed gloves and I packed extra shoes for everyone.

Of the five days we spent in Denver, three were snowy. Two were in the upper 70’s, low 80’s. Seriously. Whacked OUT!

The kids had fun having massive snowball fights…..

{you have to enlarge these pictures to really appreciate}

And building a giant snowman with Grandpa….

And combining the two….

And eating snow….

And falling in the snow….

And climbing rocky snowy icy boulders that threatened their very lives….

Occasionally some elk, deer or fox wandered through the yard….

And eventually it stopped snowing….

And eventually that snow started to melt….

And we got out a bit. We went to red rocks….

We also went on a gold mine tour, visited a dinosaur nature center, toured the Coors factory (all you can drink beer! Woot!) ate buffalo, visited Dinosaur Ridge….

Let me interject here to say that we are HUGE dinosaur geeks, particularly Dalton & Teegan who both have literal encyclopedic knowledge of dinosaurs. Talk about your living history!

When we weren’t seeing the sites, we hung out back at my Dad’s house, what I fondly refer to as The Cabin even though their REAL cabin is in Michigan. When you are at 8000 ft, though, with bear and mountain lion outside your back door it sorta feels like a cabin.

Addy played with Grandpa….

Noah read to Grandma….

Teegan cooked and had painting lessons….

And we all just sort of hung out and enjoyed the lack of oxygen

Rough life, huh?!

When it was less slippery, Addy & Noah played outside in the snow

and collected dandelions to blow (quite the juxtaposition!)….

If we had made the travel plans after the job loss we would have stayed much longer - we definitely were not in a hurry to return home. Unfortunately our tickets weren’t changeable so we had to limit our stay to a short 5 days. We all fell in love. Dalton & Teegan said they’d readily move if they could move their friends with them. You know, as much as I love where we live now and as beautiful as I thought it was, you really can’t fairly compare beauty when one half of the equation is the Rockies. Everything else looks so…well….flat. Blah. Boring. While its nice to be home with our comfy familiar environs, my morning walk just wasn’t the same.

It is the day that my babiest baby boy turned 6!!!

We had such a fun and full day yesterday. It started at 8am - way too early for this mama who went out the night before and then stayed up until all hours wrapping presents. But it was 2 hours later than Mr. Birthday Boy woke up so at least there’s that!

He got to pick all the meals for the day which included donuts for breakfast, Incredible Pizza Co. for lunch and Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. I can not even tell you how sick we all felt by the end of the day. Buffets are fun but they generally lack protein and we all felt it! We ended the day with caramel cake with caramel frosting. Are you in a sugar coma yet?

In the middle of it all, Noah went to see Horton (where he had yet more crap to eat!) and really enjoyed it. Both sets of grandparents, his uncle and his Michigan siblings connected with him, he got ecards from distant friends and presents from our best friends here in Texas. He felt very loved!! He is now busy with the incredibly time consuming work of playing with all his new stuff.

So 6. I am loving 6. He started changing from this little kid to this big kid a month or two ago and I am loving every second of the new Noah. He is independent, funny, insightful, honest, curious. He would go to the ends of the earth for his baby sister and he is far more tolerant and patient of his older brothers than they usually are with him!

Things about Noah:

* his hair is turning brown, slowly, and he hates it. It’s sandy blonde, the color is so beautiful to me but he misses his white-blonde hair. His eyes are turning from blue to green but he doesn’t mind this so much. He has my eyes and Tony’s hair.  He had his first “big kid” haircut this year and looks sooo much older for it.

* he’s busy at work figuring out all about religion, the meaning of life, the existence of God.  And he does it all out loud so its fun to listen and be a part of. He’s the only kid who has really thrown himself into the Bible and the stories of creation. He has a lot of opinions and he isn’t always interested in what we have to say on the subject. Although he is, of course, still impressionable he can hold his own in our family when it comes to religious and spiritual opinions. I love that about him even if I disagree with his current beliefs almost entirely!

* he still loves what he loves. This kid is going to be great at the peer pressure game! He still loves things that are cute and adorable. He asked for a million stuffed animals and a few newborn baby dolls for his birthday. If there are size options, he always opts for the smallest. He likes the Teeniest Tiniest littlest pet shops. He likes the newborn furreal friends. But he is also grown into this wild and crazy big kid. He likes to wrestle and chase and play light sabers with his brothers. He likes to run around endlessly outside, he lives for the times when his brothers will play with him and let him join in in their games. And they are doing more and more of that as he is growing big enough to be “fun” for them.  Another funny thing about Noah is that he has great passion for toys for the 80’s. He asked for trolls (thank you eBay) and a pound puppy for his birthday, Moncchichi for christmas. He loves these old toys and he loves the old 80’s cartoons best of all.

* he learned to read and do math this year. He is a total testament to the unschooling philosophy. He has just never been willing or interested in learning these things including even basic counting past 10. But that all changed when he became a Kindergartner here at homeschool. He became a serious and passionate student. He doesn’t do that whole “gradual” learning business. He went from not counting beyond 10 to learning the entire number system, forward backward and inside out.  He adds and subtracts in his head and is learning multiplication as well. He taught himself to count by 10s and 11s. Last September he could not identify ANY letter of the alphabet and had no concept of letter sounds. Now he knows them all and can read at mid-to-end first grade level. He memorizes words easily and is eager to totally tackle the world of words.

* he has come out of his shell this year. He loves his gymnastic class, he had fun in soccer making new friends and he is eager to take swimming lessons and just about anything else I’ll sign him up for. He just LOVES going places and doing things. He is an eager and willing participant.

Things Noah Loves:

* cooking
* pasta and bread
* science experiments
* art kids and projects
* being read to and reading to us
* drawing pictures
* playing board games
* playing with his brothers, sister and friends
* roller coasters and sim rides
* helping me however I need it
* cute and small things
* making believe
* nice clothes & clothes shopping - he def has his own opinion on what he will wear, even for shoes
* his guinea pigs

Things Noah Hates:

* meat especially the smell of fish!
* sauces & soups
* bugs
* needles
* mean kids

Next year I’ll write him his very first “Dear Noah” birthday letter here because I KNOW he will be able to read it this time next year. Very exciting! To me there is nothing bittersweet about Noah’s growth and maturity - it is all SWEET to me!