Trip to the Farmers Market

We woke this morning to a beautiful day. The air had that wonderful spring feeling, a little moist and cool still with warm sun beams glowing on your skin. Clouds to the west, maybe an afternoon thunderstorm. We decided today would be a great day to head to the Boulder Farmers Market. We loaded Xander up in the Chariot and headed out on our bikes.

It is about 15 miles into Boulder. The views along the way are beautiful. The first half is on the road and the second half is on some of Boulder's fantastic bike paths. Once on the bike path, we paralleled Boulder Creek all the way to the farmers market. The bike path is canopied by trees providing luxuriant shade along its length. The burbling of the creek creates a melodic counterpoint to the hum of the bike tires.

The farmers market was busy as always. We picked up a few choice items, and a roasemary plant for the garden. Xander was very helpful carrying all our groceries.

We stopped by the tamale stand around noon and Erin and I both had a tamale for a snack. After that it was time to head home before the afternoon thunderstorms came in. The ride back was lovely, and the afternoon thunderstorm never did materialize. In total it was about a 30 mile ride. This was Erin's first time on a bicycle in about 6 months. She did fantastic. We both need to get some more time in on the saddle though. I was still saddle sore from my mountain bike ride on Thursday evening. Good thing there is a whole summer to spend on the bikes getting back in shape. It's been a good day.

-Jake

By request- Stairs!

New Floors

At long last, I have new hardwood floors in the house. Many of you might know that I have hated my very old, very worn carpets for a long time, and we've been saving up for hardwood floors instead. And with the new baby, we finally had the excuse to get it done. And as long as we were going for it, we decided to get the staircase, which had been chewed up by Blitz as a puppy, done as well.

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Out for a Hike

We took a nice day off today to visit with the Perry's at John's parent's place in Nederland. After catching up for a while we headed out for a hike. It drizzled a little, but was really beautiful. We hiked next to a fork of boulder creek for a while, it was gorgeous . All the trees were verdant with spring leaves and there was beautiful moss covering the trees. With all the rain and snow melt recently the water was really high. Here we are crossing a small stream feeding the creek. Xander was a trooper the whole time, he mostly slept in the Bjorn. He was warm and content and of course liked the bouncing...

Best of all no work on the house today!! Things are finally pretty much done. We bought a carpet for the family room yesterday. Other than a little bit of mundane straightening up, we are DONE with the wood floor project. Yea! The house looks fantastic, we'll post pics soon.

We ended the day with great news from Erin's sister Katie, she and George have a new baby girl, Ella Sophia Kaufman. Congratulations!!

-Jake

My Boys

Jake Reading Funny Poetry to Xander


A second prior to the flash, he had a huge grin, I swear!

First full night in a crib

Xander spent all of last night in his own crib, in his own room!

No more sleeping in the bassinet in our room!

Next step... sleeping through the night?

Xander's first blog

Hello! Mom and Dad are too busy right now to write, so they suggested that I write my first blog.

My name is Xander, or Baby, or Milk monster, Stinkybutt, Monkey, X-man, or Shhhhhh. I think my parents are having a hard time remembering that they put Alexander Jackson Lewis on my birth certificate.

This past week I turned 6 weeks old (I'm 7 now) and we celebrated by going to Moab, Utah. It was really far away. Mom was a little nervous about it but I don't see why; Dad bought us a rockin' ride, the bouncy-mobile, and to be honest, the rough roads kinda put me to sleep.

Sometimes, on the steep parts, Mom insisted that I hold her hand while she kept her eyes closed, and other times she and I walked a few sections that she thought were too rough. She promised that when I'm as old as my cousin Nathan that I could ride in the truck the whole way with Dad, and someday we'll all go on bicycles.

I got to go camping! Camping is like being at home, only there are fewer baths, more dirt, the ceiling is more interesting and you get to sleep with Mom and Dad in sleeping bags!

I wanted to bring a friend but Leah and Alex and cousin McKenzie were all busy, and cousin Morgan an Jackson were too little, so I brought Monkey pillow because he makes me laugh.

I did meet lots of other great new friends too.

George and Pat, Sherri, Russ, Kate and Keith, Justin and Kristie, Suzy, David, Liz, Mom and Dad and Me. Everyone helped with camp chores, and helped take care of me too. Thanks everyone!!

Moab has a lot of really huge rocks. I'm not sure who put them all there, but he's a lot bigger and stronger than Dad, that's for sure.

Dad liked the rocks best because he could climb them on his bike and in the bouncy-mobile.

I climbed a few myself to enjoy the sun. Look Ma- no hands! [Just kidding...Dad's hiding behind me :) ]

Mom liked the flowers more I think- Moab had lots of flowers and Mom got really excited and made us look at them all, but no touching- these are prickly flowers! When I had to eat, Dad took photos of them for her.

We had a great time!

promises promises

We are back safely from Moab (late last night) and I promised there would be a post tonight, so here it is. The trip was successful, scary, wonderful, hot and sunny, beautiful, educational, adventurous, full of friends, and worth it. We're going to wait on the full trip update until tomorrow because we all three are absolutely bushed after trying really hard but accomplishing nothing on the "baseboards and putting the house together project". It's a long story, the floors look great, the stairs need a few details fixed, but we're pretty frustrated because the place still isn't "livable" and "comfortable" until the rest of the work we have to do ourselves is done. So. More tomorrow but for tonight, I wish you all a very good night's sleep and for us the same.

Erin

Friends

Xander Lewis and Jackson "Long man" Fossum

Xander Lewis and Leah "Pumkin Pie" Brown

The Daddy-mobile

It became apparent to me recently that the 350z had a significant limitation. It isn't the cargo space, Erin and I took the Z to the Tetons and Yellowstone this past fall and fit all of our stuff in it for a week and a half of backpacking and touring. It isn't the winter driving, I've driven the Z in 2 feet of snow, plowing snow over the hood to get home from work a few winters ago. That was fun :). No, the fundamental limitation of the Z is simply this - no back seat. The Z is a two seat car, great for a family of ... 2. Now, we of course have the Audi, a very capable station wagon, that has been very good to us. The Audi has been our mountain workhorse. We take it skiing and mountain biking all the time. The problem is, if one of us is skiing or mountain biking we don't have a kid compatible car. Hmm, what to do. Certainly we can't get rid of the Z, don't worry, she's staying around for a long time to come. But we needed to do something.

So, the wheels start spinning (pardon the pun) and I start wondering what the ideal 3rd (gasp!) car would be for us. Something practical would be good, something with good fuel economy, not too expensive, reliable, safe. Yea those would be good things... But... The thing is, we aren't going to be doing as much mountain biking and skiing and those sorts of things as a family for a while. Don't worry, we'll still do lots of that, but it is going to have to be separately for awhile. So, what car would allow us to get into the mountains to the places we love as a family? Well how about a Jeep. So, not safe, not reliable, not practical, terrible fuel economy... Oh well, it will be fun, right!

But to find the right Jeep. Not a Wrangler, they are fantastic, but I'd like something with a little more space, something with a hard top to be quieter and more comfortable for the little boy. How about a Cherokee. So I started shopping. I looked around for a week, driving all over Denver. Lots of junk. Finally, as I was starting to get discouraged, the perfect Cherokee shows up on up on craigs list. Good condition 4.5" lift, nice tires. Done. Well done's a relative term. It needed a few things. How about ball joints, I can do that myself. New control arms. No sweat. New rear main seal, I think I'll pay for that, I'm not into pulling the oil pan. Now that we have the mechanical issues out of the way, how about a few aesthetic and off road items... New bumpers, some fenders, a roof rack, fix the intermittent stereo speakers. Sounds easy, I can do all that myself.

Nothing is easy. Ball joints, oh my god what a nightmare, I couldn't have gotten anywhere with out Levi and David. Bumpers require grinding into the frame to install. Fenders, no sweat, except that you have to cut away acres of sheet metal to get them on (thanks Koby). Roof rack, that wasn't too bad, just heavy (thanks Russ). Fortunately I have great friends who helped out. I could not have done all this myself. Even my Mom and Kathy helped. I think the finished product looks pretty good.

A family of 3.