Kalynn's 4th Birthday

Well, aside from the minor concussion my child received falling backward off of a picnic table, smacking her head on the table behind it before smacking it again on the tile from which it bounced off, she had a pretty good birthday. 

For the last 6 months, I had been planning out Kalynn's perfect ballerina party in detail. Ballet has become a special part of her weekly routine, so when I originally asked her what she wanted for this year's party, it was tutus and toe shoes all the way. 

When she switched it up on me last month and let me know that she was now a rock star (duh), I had some fast plans to secure. 

Ok, so rock star party. Ok. I can totally do this with 3 weeks notice.

My mom always reminds me that you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time. So with this in mind, my first bite needed to be the invitations.

I had done some looking around on the internet but I didn't see any invites worth ordering so I opted to just make my own from scratch on Photoshop. I went with the ticket stub idea and used a picture I had taken of her goofing around a few weekends prior. They turned out super cute:

"Kalynn Fuller's Fab 4 World Tour"

I made some tie dye cupcakes with little guitar toppers which also doubled as party favor necklaces. 

Speaking of, instead of party favor bags, each of the kids had "swag bags" filled with rock star essentials: Sun glasses, Pop Rocks, temporary tattoos, glitter bangle bracelets, gloves with musical notes on them, and working spring operated microphones. Blue for the two boys, pink and purple for the 5 girls. 

I covered the "Pop" part of all the Pop Rocks with each kid's name. As much as I tried to give myself an A for Effort, I suck at drawing bubble letters. 

I printed up some "rock star refuel" labels for the water bottles. 

And what is a rock star party without an Artist Of The Year award for the rock star of honor?

(Super easy to make with an ancient Luscious Jackson CD, some construction paper, some Photoshop magic and an old frame)

Tons of sugar, tons of children, tons of fun. 

She came away with some great loot!

We rented out the party room at a bounce house called Jumpin' in Loveland and the place really impressed me. They were clean, they were organized, they were on top of everything and the place didn't smell like pee which is always a plus when you're dealing with toddler friendly entertainment spots. 

6 total bouncing stations including oversized slides and inflated obstacle courses. 

I cried when I put her to bed for the final time the night before as her tiny 3-year-old self, and I cried when I put her to bed just now with the excitement for our 4th year together. 

Every year she grows more into this amazing little person that I fall head over heals for. The words that come from her mouth make me laugh, make me think, make me appreciate things in a way that I've never known and I don't know where I would be in life without her. 

She is and always will be my sunshine.

Happy Birthday to my 4 year old baby girl and thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate with us!

For those who weren't able to make it to round one, not to fret! The after party in California will be just around the corner so get ready!

I hope everyone had a great and safe new year! Welcome to 2014!

The Floods

The storm that caught all of us off guard is continuing to kick our asses. We aren't knocked out, but we're definitely on our knees with some pretty nasty black eyes. You know, the kind that waste no time and bruise right away...

The flood waters have reached over 200 miles so far and have devastated 17 counties, mine being one of them. The loss of life, of land, and of property is heartbreaking. 19,000 homes have been damaged and just over 1,500 of those are completely destroyed.

President Obama declared Boulder County, El Paso County, and our county of Larimer in a state of emergency on the 13th of September and a few days later added 12 more Colorado counties.

I haven't made it to Boulder, which was hit the worst getting 21 inches of rain in 6 days. Boulder Creek officials reported they had more than 5000 cubic feet of water per second when the average runs between 150 - 200.

I have had a chance to drive around certain parts of Larimer County to check out the damage and it is absolutely awful. Fort Collins sits on the banks of the Cache La Poudre River and just to the South of the Big Thompson River, both which have received catastrophic flash floods.

I was able to find a handful of pictures taken from the News and other websites to show the damaged spots which our family has close ties to.

In April, I surprised my husband with a weekend away in Estes Park. One of the top five things I wanted to do was visit the world famous Saint Malo Church hidden in the valley between Estes and Allenspark.

Although the church itself received minimal damage, the run off from the water left the valley wiped out.

The very first day our family arrived in Colorado after our move from California, we drove directly from the airport to the Alluvial Fan in Rocky Mountain National Park. It is a place I have very fond memories of as a kid and wanted to make the same for my own child.

One of her favorite things was to sit by the bridge and throw rocks in the water.

The bridge is now partially missing and was tossed half way down the mountain onto its side.

I've spent more time wandering the streets of Estes Park than any other town. I've literally spent more time here than the downtown of Fort Collins. Something about its small town charm and the mom and pop shops  make it worth the long drive up the canyon and we come at least once a month.

My friend Marsh Blake owns Blake Trading, the store on the far right. She sent me this pic to show the water mark on her store front. Notice the water is lapping over the bench in the middle-left of the picture. She had 4 inches of mud that had to be shoveled from her carpet once the water receded and thousands of dollars in damage to merchandise and displays.

In January, I took Kalynn up the canyon for the Estes Park Winterfest so she could ride the ponies, get her face painted, and watch the balloon animals be constructed.

The same parking lot is straight mud now.

When Jason got his Colorado fishing licence, the very first place he wanted to fish was Lake Estes.

It is so filled with debris, it's almost unrecognizable.

My favorite view in the entire state is completely destroyed.

Although put on the highest priority, there are so many spots on Highway 34 that are missing, it could take a year to repair.

A few months ago, I wrote a post about the little town of Glen Haven and how the tiny general store makes the best fresh cinnamon rolls I've ever had in my life.

Glen Haven was one of the worst to get hit. The Town Hall is collapsed, the general store is gutted, the fire department is completely gone, not even it's bare structure was left standing.

The roads were washed away. The empty hole on the left is where the fire department used to stand.

Kalynn's favorite spot to watch the creek and climb in the Indian tee pee didn't survive.

Now it is just a pile of broken trees and a spot for washed up remains to be collected.

At the bottom of Highway 34 where the canyon meets Loveland, is the Dam Store. The best store by a dam! Its tall structure in the back of the building sits just high enough to climb all the way to the top and see not only the highway 34 damn, but also the brown water pipe that runs through the Front Range and part of the Rockies.

The pipe is still standing strong, but the highway itself is missing. The debris that has traveled from the devastated cabins, homes, hotels and businesses all the way up the canyon is now piling at the bottom of the foothills.

As for my beloved Dam Store, they're still mostly intact! The back end of the building was taken off, but I've heard unconfirmed reports that the staircase tower and the front room of the store are still there. 

Up the Poudre Canyon, closest to Fort Collins, the damage is unfortunately just as bad. The road we travel to go camping is devoured.

All of the bridges in Fort Collins were closed for days because they were either completely missing or needed the foundation inspected before reopening.  

Kalynn loves the creepy creatures at the  Swetsville Zoo right outside Fort Collins in Timnath, Colorado.

Unfortunately, most of them were head deep under water when the were found the morning of September 13th.

We may require a little love, but we won't be held down for too long.

We've seen the sun poke through the clouds this last few days and it is reaching down with a helping hand to help us back up again.

Yes, we'll be ok. We're strong.

Mountain Strong.

Follow me now on Instagram! @thebrighterwriter

Hermit Park: Bobcat Campground

Hooray for our 2nd camping trip of the season!

We made it both nights and all three days which is a first for our family. Bobcat campground in Hermit Park Open Space is absolutely amazing and I can't imagine camping anywhere else now. 

But before we get into that,  

Lets chit chat about these Hobo Meatloaf Bombs I made for the grill:

They're super duper simple to make:

1 1/2 lbs ground turkey (or hamburger, whatever is your preference)

1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

1 egg

1/4 cup ketchup

1/2 package meatloaf seasoning by McCormicks

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1/2 small onion

1/4 chopped bell pepper

Combine it all together, roll into balls, slap some onion around the outside of each one, wrap in tinfoil and grill. The best ever.

Then for the cheesy bacon sourdough loaf:

Buy a loaf, slice it up, stuff with chopped bacon and cheddar jack blended cheese, wrap in foil, grill until cheese melts and then eat the whole thing in under 3 minutes because you can't stop stuffing your face.

These little Coleman one burner stoves are amazing and inexpensive. We used ours to make my famous camp veggies and again for coffee in the morning.

Because my sister's family was on a train ride across the country for a visit in San Francisco, she spent the weekend with us in the mountains and made it one of my very favorite camping trips of all time.

While Jason stayed with Kalynn back at camp, we hiked up Kruger Rock Trail and had an incredible view of Estes Park. You could see the entire valley from where we stood.

Meanwhile back at camp, Kalynn decided to use her paints to pretty-up this bush which is now a blueish hue...

And Guacamole hog tied herself for the millionth time.

I hadn't played Apples to Apples in years so when I saw the to-go version was on clearance at Target I picked it up. So much fun. Just add Smirnoff!

I swear Moles didn't move for 3 days.

So the morning after our Apples to Apples game, we needed coffee. We needed a lot of coffee. We had no instant crystals and the coffee machine wasn't working so I was forced to put normal coffee grounds in a coffee filter, use a zip tie to keep it closed and I seeped it like it was tea. It actually worked really well and in a bind, it does the job.

I bring whatever I can to keep our 3 year old happy and occupied while we camp. We have a long list of camping things to pick up at our local dollar store that are made for one time use. One of those things is glue and a package of google eyes. Kalynn LOVES to glue eyes on anything she can get her tiny little fingers on. Give her a pile of small rocks and she stays busy for hours. Honestly, kids love glue for whatever reason.

We made a rock concert with all her little creatures.

When it's time to clean up, this little portable sink comes in really handy for dishes. We found ours for $9.99 at a local camping store.

One of the things that is so great about Hermit Park is that they have gatherings for all campers to join. We were able to meet up and listen to a world renowned story teller tell Native American tales around the campfire. It's a great place to meet your neighbors and socialize if you're into that sort of thing.

So with Kalynn's ballet class, gymnastics class, preschool, Jason's work schedule, my work schedule, and my upcoming trip to Paris, it's proving very difficult to find time to do another camping trip. Although we originally wanted to camp 3 times this season, it unfortunately looks as though we'll be cutting our camping vacations short this year. I'm optimistic that they'll just get better with time because this last couple were so much fun, but until then we'll just have to pack away all our new stuff for summer I suppose.

Its been a great season!