Gymboree Party

Birthday party at Gymboree with friends

2012 kicks off with a Crash!

A week's worth of colds and coughing and snot sort of behind us, three days off from the restaurant, we decided to head over to Devil's Thumb Ranch in Fraser, Colorado for some skate skiing, cross country skiing and Paloma's first ski ride in the Chariot. We actually got a decent start to the morning and there was little traffic. Up the front of Berthoud Pass the roads were basically dry. So dry that I was actually able to pass another car on our way up. Just at the top of Berthoud Pass we began to hear P waking up in the back of the Subaru. She was sweetly playing and talking to herself, slowly waking up from her nap. Since she was up I now had the green light to pull over and relieve myself (too much coffee and water). Back in the car and off down the road, probably only 35 minutes from Devil's Thumb, skiing, beautiful weather, exercise... But as we round one corner, we see something strange. A car coming the other way is out of control. It happened quickly but at the same time very slowly. I think in my head I ran down the list of my options - slam on the brakes, jerk the wheel or hold it steady. He seemed to come faster and faster as he got closer. He was spinning with his passenger side coming at us. I think I hit the brakes pretty hard but I was afraid of losing control. I didn't want to whip the wheel because I was afraid of both losing control or possibly inviting some worse hazard coming up the road behind this guy. I remember thinking to myself, "we're going to hit him hard". And we did hit pretty hard - front left of the Subaru into the middle of his passenger side. I'm not sure what other reaction that I had. Paloma was crying right away or within a moment afterward. I can't remember how Zoey reacted at first to be honest. I think I made some sort of verbal and visual check to make sure she was alright. It was a kid in the other car, maybe 17 or 18, coming around asking if everyone was alright. I couldn't really focus to talk to him. Zoey's door was pinned by the guardrail so she couldn't get out. I went back to check on Paloma. She was scared but not hurt. Little tears and crying pretty hard, I can't imagine what was going through her mind except that something was wrong. Zoey wanted me to pull P out of the seat but I was scared of someone else hitting us. I relented as I wanted Paloma to feel comfortable and to calm down. Zoey started complaining of a pain in her sternum. She was trying to call 911 but the call kept routing to Wyoming and the Wyoming dispatcher couldn't connect us through to the proper 911 in Colorado. Apparently the kid or someone in another car had gotten through to emergency services but they reported an accident with no injuries. Paloma had calmed down and I put her back in her seat. After what had happened I had no trust for other drivers around us. Zoey climbed into the back to be with P while I went out to see if I could manage traffic a bit - people were driving by us way too fast and even passing other cars while driving past the accident. I could not believe some of the stupid things I saw people doing. I think after about 15 minutes I became concerned at the lack of emergency services response. I began calling 911 and got the same Wyoming dispatch and she kept connecting me through to numbers that were not doing the trick. Finally she connected me to someone who had already taken the accident report and dispatched. I changed the status to "injury" to get a faster response. After about 40 minutes, if not longer, a police officer finally showed up and began to manage traffic. Shortly after that an ambulance and fire engine showed up. The paramedics checked Zoey over and advised her to take a ride in the ambulance and be taken in for x-rays just in case. So Zoey was taken back to the ambulance in the stretcher while P and I played in the car. Then it was our turn to go. At first the paramedics wanted to put P in the child jump seat. I wish I had taken a photo - head unrestrained, legs flopping everywhere. It was ridiculous. I had them stop the truck pretty quickly and put her in her child seat up front. Down the road we went to the Winter Park ski patrol clinic. Zoey was sore but the x-rays were negative. Everyone who came across P had a story about redheads or grandchildren. She was cruising all over the place, hands up in the air, making friends with everyone, she was such a great sport. A couple of hours after we arrived at the clinic Ben Doyle arrived to pick us up. We drove down the road to Fraser to say goodbye to the Subaru and clean her of our personal belongings. It was great to just ride home and not think about driving though on 93 between Golden and Boulder I was a bit tense. Long tough day but I'm thankful that nobody was seriously injured, especially our Pumpkin P. I can't even begin to express what a great attitude she had through the whole thing.

bear crawl

Paloma has a unique crawl. She rarely puts her knees on the ground. I wonder if it's because of our hardwood floors. I'm going to miss this crawl when she starts to walk.

Pumpkin Patch

Paloma was so thrilled to be in the pumpkin patch for our family pictures that we took her to the Munson Farm pumpkin patch on Sunday. It was a hot day for mid-October, lots of people out. Still a lot of fun.

Camping

We took our first camping trip last week. Just for one night to Rocky Mountain National Park, in the van. We had no idea how it would all work out with Paloma but all in all it went smooth.

Arrived at our campsite and Paloma played in the back of the van as we tried to change her out of her PJ's and into her Carhartts.

Buns!

Carhartts and dirt go hand in hand.

We hiked up to Dream Lake from the Bear Lake trailhead. 1.1 miles, half of which is paved. But still beautiful, just at the foot of Hallet Peak. Beautiful clear water, pretty Greenback trout, though I only caught one nice one.

Back to camp we had a little dinner, listened to the elk bugling below and watched the sun set on Long's Peak.

Paloma scrambles away from having her diaper changed and getting her PJ's on again. She was teething pretty good which didn't help with the strange sleep situation. We went on a few walks around the campground with her in the Ergo, trying to get her to stay asleep. Finally Zoey just slept with Paloma on her. Thankfully it was a pretty mild evening temperature wise.

Paloma was up early to watch the sun hit Long's Peak.

Family pictures.

Pappa and his sweet P.

Helping make breakfast.

Playing in the dirt.

We went fishing on the Big Thompson moraine, just below the campground.

Paloma's first fish! We tried to get her to pet it but it was a careful balance between that and dropping her in the water. We stopped in Estes on the way home and visited Karen at her school. It was nice to get away if just for a night. Away from cell service, away from noise. Even if we were staying in a 200 spot campground it still felt wonderful and isolated enough. Our expectations of wilderness and adventure have changed but maybe we'll be more appreciative of those things now.