Dakota

The girls have a new friend.

Dakota moved to Boulder from D.C. just a few weeks before we did; like ours, his family moved here for school. But unlike ours, his Daddy is the professor (while ours is the student).
Amy and Justin are good friends of my cousin Jesse and his wife Catherine, and we're continually thrilled to have had the introduction. Last weekend we had dinner at our place Friday night (before Amy and I jetted off to Denver for an art opening), lunch at their place Saturday, and a joint trip to the Betasso Reserve on Sunday; and, as far as I know, no one is sick of anyone else. Fabulous!

Apart from how nice it is for Dave and I to have like-minded friends, with kid(s - Amy is expecting at the end of October) within biking distance, it has been great for the girls to make a new friend. My girls do not necessarily love every kid they meet (they get their discerning natures from their father; I'm more like a puppy and instantly love everyone I meet until, sometimes, proven wrong), but they both adore Dakota.


After several playdates and a lot of trying out one another's toys, it was fun to attempt an outing, though Betasso was not, altogether, a success. The road up into the mountains is very windy; Clio has quite a history of motion sickness, so I bet you can guess what happened on the way there (and the way back.) Luckily I had packed extra clothes and we got her cleaned up, though she decided that she was too weak to walk. Luckily Dave was not too weak to carry her. And then Dakota got her running. And then she tripped over a root and tunbled down the path. And then so did Dakota. And then Eleri insisted on getting out of the ergo backpack and walking, too, and while the trail is a pretty easy hike, it's not the easiest for a child who can walk on her own but still insists on holding someone's hand. All told, I'd say we went about 500 feet of this beautiful trail, and in that time got out of the way of a dozen or so mountain bikers, each of whom made Dave more jealous that he was on foot, and carrying a child or two.

While we may not have made the best use of it, the Betasso preserve is lovely. See for yourself:




As usual, Clio was not interested in having her picture taken (though Amy and Justin had more luck than me- the smaller photos are from their camera, borrowed from their flickr site). To trick her into "posing" in front of a view, Dave told Clio and Dakota that he saw some crazy bug in the grass. Here they are trying to find it.

A few additional cute shots from the flickr site:



You have to admit, Colorado is beautiful.
We're glad to have new friends with whom to explore!