Hiking at Florrisant Fossil Beds

First of all, don't forget to enter the All Modern Baby giveaway going on this week! Just leave a comment on Monday's post for a chance to win the cute notNeutral Season Tree Wall Decal - perfect for a child's bedroom or playroom. The deadline to enter is Monday, August 17 at 11:59 p.m.

It turns out that it's nearly impossible to find a stroller-friendly hike in our region. Please let me know if you are aware of one! I did find a hike in Florrisant, about a one-hour drive from my home on the Northeast side of town. Take Hwy 24 west from I-25 past Divide, then turn left on Teller County Road 1. Florrisant Fossil Beds, a national park, is located just a couple miles down this road on the West side of the street.

We were joined by my friend Angie and her beautiful 3-year-old daughter (our photographer was sure to get a close-up of my camera case in the foreground). We decided that it would be best to find a hike that is stroller-friendly. The trails at Florrisant Fossil Beds are all wide, relatively smooth, and have little or no elevation gain, so it was perfect for our kiddos.

We walked the Petrified Forest Loop (1 mile) and the Ponderosa Loop (.5 miles). Dispersed throughout the park are several petrified redwood stumps. In the one pictured above, there are still a couple rusted saw blades stuck into the stump where people once tried to move it. We came across several educational signs describing the prehistoric landscape, animals, and plants. Kids can become a Junior Ranger by following a workbook provided at the Visitor's Center, earning a badge at the end of the program.

Baby fell asleep at the exact same time that she does every day at home.

There is a $3 fee per person (over age 16), but they have No Fee days coming up this weekend, August 15-16. Check out their website for information about guided nature walks and fossil evacuation demonstrations.

Giveaway from All Modern Baby!

Imagine my delight when I was contacted by the folks at All Modern Baby about hosting a giveaway! I had way too much fun browsing their website trying to decide on an item to give away. Wouldn't this peel-and-stick wall decal look adorable in your child's room? The set includes 44 decals, all made of removable and reusable vinyl. Have fun positioning the layout with your little ones. Just leave a comment below for a chance to win it!

All Modern has a fantastic selection of modern furniture and home accessories from many leading designers. Part of CSN Stores, All Modern is just one of over 200 retail sites that offer a diverse array of products from office furniture by Herman Miller to wall sconces by Murray Feiss. All Modern Baby features really cute and modern nursery furniture, strollers, decor, baby gear, and toys. Their products are unique, high quality, and in many cases, eco-friendly. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Prince Lionheart Wheely Bug Ladybug Ride-On Toy

ecotots Project Table and Chair Set in Leaf Green

Koko Company Zoo Cotton 31" Whale

Here is your chance to win the notNeutral Season Tree Decal, worth $54! All you need to do is leave a comment here with your full name. If you are submitting your comment under "anonymous", please also include your email address so that I can notify the winner. Just for fun, if you want you can answer this question in your comment (but you don't have to):

How do you bring a love for nature into the lives of the young people you care about?

For a second entry, spread the word about this giveaway somehow and leave a second comment about what you did (for example, link it in your Facebook status, Twitter, or your own blog).

This giveaway is open to all residents of the U.S. and Canada and will run from Monday, August 10 through Monday, August 17 at 11:59 p.m. The winner will be chosen using www.random.org and announced on Tuesday, August 18. Good luck!

Locavore Aspirations

I realize that half of this post is in black text and that November was left off the chart, and I'm sorry, but it's past my bedtime and I'm not a perfectionist!

Starting a couple weeks ago, my grocery shopping errand became a bit more pleasant. I've been able to completely skip the produce department. No, my garden is not quite providing our family with all of our vegetables (nor will it ever). And no, I'm not raising Baby as a carnivore. Instead, I've been shopping with more of a "locavore" attitude: trying to find local sources for some of our food. It turns out that fresh produce is a great place to start. Look at how plentiful the month of August is in Colorado Springs:

Chart courtesy of the Colorado Farm and Art Market website.

I've been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and am feeling inspired to seek out locally grown foods. Those winter fauxmatoes at the grocery store with their hard, pink flesh don't even compare to a fresh red tomatoes picked off the vine this morning. I'm starting to reconnect with the seasons; it sounds obvious, but it's easy to forget that strawberries need to travel quite a distance to arrive in Colorado in January.

Anyway, this is a roundabout way of getting to my point; I've been visiting the farmers' markets every week and I'd love to pass on the treasures I find to you. Maybe I'll share a recipe I've tried using local, seasonal ingredients. I'll pass along the recipes I use for home preserved treats like salsa, jams, and pasta sauce. Or I might just feature a couple of really great deals I found that week. I hope to encourage other Colorado Springs folks to support our local farmers by buying some produce directly. Here is a schedule published by the Gazette.

MONDAYS
• Homegrown on Tejon
10 a.m.-1 p.m., June 15-Oct. 12
300 block of North Tejon Street
636-2852
• Memorial Park
7 a.m.-1 p.m., June 22-Oct. 5.
Pikes Peak Avenue and Union Boulevard
574-1283

TUESDAYS
• Fountain Farmers Market
3-7 p.m., June 16-Sept. 29
City Hall, Ohio and Main Streets
447-8637

WEDNESDAYS
• Colorado Farm & Art Market
3-7 p.m., June 10-Oct. 7.
America the Beautiful Park, 126 Cimino Drive
farmandartmarket.com, 640-6154
• Manitou Springs Midweek
4-8 p.m., June 10-Aug. 26.
Soda Springs Park, 1000 Manitou Ave., Manitou Springs
80829.com, 358-7845
• Monument
Noon-6 p.m. June 10-Oct. 14.
Sundance Mountain Lodge, 1865 Woodmoor Drive
213-3323

THURSDAYS
• Memorial Park
7 a.m.-1 p.m., June 22-Oct. 5.
Corner of Pikes Peak Avenue and Union Boulevard
574-1283

FRIDAYS
• Woodland Park
7 a.m.-1 p.m., June 12-Sept. 25.
The corner of Center and Henrietta streets
woodlandparkfarmersmarket .com, 687-9053 or 689-3133

SATURDAYS
• Colorado Farm & Art Market
9 a.m.-1 p.m., June 13-Oct. 10.
The Margarita at PineCreek, 7350 Pine Creek Road
farmandartmarket.com, 640-6154
• Doherty High School
7 a.m. to 1 p.m., June 27-Oct. 3
4515 Barnes Road
574-1283
• Monument
8 a.m.-1 p.m., June 6-Oct. 10.
481 Colorado 105 (behind Starbucks)
213-3323
• Old Colorado City
7 a.m.-1:30 p.m., June 6-Oct. 31.
24th Street and West Colorado Avenue
574-1283
• Briargate
8 a.m.-noon, June 13-Sept. 26.
Briargate Parkway and Chapel Hills Drive (Salsa Brava parking lot)
210-9229, briargatefarmersmarket.com
• Heritage Farmers' Market
9 a.m.-11:30 a.m. June 13-Sept. 26
East parking lot at Cheyenne Mountain Junior High School
1200 W. Cheyenne Mountain Road
632-7000

SUNDAYS
• Palmer Lake
10 a.m.- 2 p.m., July 5-Oct. 11
On the lake at the gazebo in Palmer Lake 213-3323

Last week, I came home with a variety of veggies but was really impressed by the Torpedo Pepper Sausage from Torpedo Farms in Pueblo. I grilled them to accompany whole wheat hot dog buns one night, and tossed the leftovers in a Cheesy Sausage Pasta Bake the next day.

Today I discovered some Rocky Ford cantaloupes for $1 each along with the ingredients for a (hopefully delicious) banana pepper relish. I'll give it a try and if it's as good as I hope it is, I'll be sure to pass along the recipe.

Local Restaurant: Heart of Jerusalem Cafe

Added 8/6: I just realized that I forgot to mention the prices...that yummy sandwich was only $5.99! Also, I went back this week and they do have air conditioning. It must have just been broken the first time I went.

I just want to give a quick plug for a local restaurant that we recently discovered. The Heart of Jerusalem Cafe has two locations: one on Austin Bluffs and Barnes and another downtown near Bijou and Cascade. I have to admit, we went on a super-hot day and I wasn't thrilled that they didn't have air conditioning. The food sure made up for it, though! I ordered their Heart of Jerusalem Sandwich. Picture a gyro; you know, pita bread, beef, lamb, lettuce, tomatoes, feta cheese, and tzatziki sauce (called gazaziki sauce here). Now add grilled chicken breast, banana peppers, and hummus. Drooling yet? Now flatten it on a grill (like a panini). Absolute perfection!

They have a variety of Middle Eastern cuisine that I'm sure is just as tasty as the signature sandwich.

Check out their website for a coupon for FREE baklava!

Enjoy! These local mom-and-pop establishments often have such unique flavors. They thrive on happy customers (like me) spreading their name through word-of-mouth. Next time you go out, consider skipping the national chain and try something local!

And please, if any Springs folks have restaurant recommendations, please, please tell me! My favorite hobby is eating out (yes, I think that should count as a hobby) and we're always looking for new places to try.

Pictures courtesy of the Heart of Jerusalem Cafe website.

Baby's Latest Funny Face

This baby has the most hilarious facial expressions I have ever seen. For some reason, whenever she develops a new expression, she does it repeatedly for a few weeks until she tires of it. Here's the latest:

She squishes her chin into her chest, the back of her head presses against the chair (often folding her ear forward), and all this is accompanied by a long, deep moan.

Sorry the pictures are a bit blurry. Man, I've been getting so many funny pictures of her lately, I just need to get a good smiling one so you can see how pretty she really is!

Hiking at Red Rock Canyon

What a cool hike today! The Red Rock Canyon features 200 million years of geology, according to the Gazette. The 5-year-old in our group was searching for seashells after we told her that most of the rock formations we once at the bottom of a sea.

Do you see the artist painting on the right side of the below photo?

There were gorgeous views of the Garden of the Gods to the North (oops, I forgot to take pictures until the very end again). You could also see clear views of downtown Colorado Springs. Red Rock Canyon is located a bit East of Manitou Springs, near Highway 24 and 31st Street.

Now, I am usually the type that begins a hike with a good idea of exactly which turns to make and exactly how long the walk will be. We were joined by a couple teenagers today who would rather explore more freely, which was fine by me because they offered to carry the babies. The only difficulty arose when we had to scale this steep, scary, slippery rock (it doesn't look very steep in this photo, but believe me, it was!). If you'd rather avoid this part, just follow the directions outlined in the Gazette's Red Rock Canyon Geology Loop. It's a 4 mile loop that catches several rock formations worthy of having proper names and gains 600 feet in elevation.

More cool rock formations.

Baby fell asleep in the backpack. She never does that! What a little sweetie.

I loved this hike and will surely return to explore some of the other trails in the area. Maybe next time Baby will stay awake long enough to appreciate it!

Baby's 15 month checkup

For those who care (family and friends), I thought I'd share Baby's stats from her 15-month checkup. For those who don't (random people who have stumbled upon my blog), sorry!

Let me clarify one thing first: Baby does have a real name. It is because of that second group of readers, potentially psychos (no offense), that I have censored her given name and replaced it with her nickname, which actually is Baby. She probably responds more quickly to Baby than to the name on her birth certificate, in fact.

Baby is 30 inches tall (37th percentile) and 21 lbs. 14 ozs. (36th percentile). Her head circumference is still gargantuan at 48.5 cm (98th percentile). "It's like an orange on a toothpick!" (So I Married and Ax Murderer fans, anyone?).

Baby was always a tiny bit behind in her gross motor skills for her first 9 months of life, which her doctor attributed to her large head being too heavy for her body to maneuver around. No problem. But then, between her 9 month and 12 month checkups, she didn't learn any new gross motor skills. This is the time when most babies are crawling all over the house, standing and cruising against furniture, and for many, taking those first steps. Baby could sit up on her own (when propped up to sitting) and she had just begun an awkward "combat crawl" before her birthday. However, she was right on track in every other way (communication skills, fine motor skills, etc.), so her doc prescribed some physical therapy to get those muscles moving.

The physical therapy was a bit difficult for Baby at first. Once she realized during that first session that she would be forced to do torturous exercises, she would start screaming the second we walked into the building and not stop until the second we left. We didn't get much accomplished during her first 3 or 4 sessions. Finally, she began to loosen up and play with some of the neat toys they have, and she also warmed up to her PT. The weekly sessions are as much for my benefit as hers; the PT instructs me on new exercises every week for us to work on at home. Baby has since learned to sit up from a lying down position, pull herself up to kneeling (and standing, more recently), climb stairs, and the biggie, crawl! The crawling stage is very important so I was absolutely thrilled when she slowly, deliberately crawled for the first time (a bit wobbly!).

Baby's first time swimming. She wouldn't put her hands underwater and was teased by Grandma and Grandpa.

I am now a huge fan of early intervention with physical therapy. Her diagnostic evaluation showed that our 12-month old had the gross motor abilities of a 7-month old. Sure, that doesn't seem too horrible, but she was growing bigger by the day and her muscles just were not keeping up with her size. It was important that we do something early to help her catch up to her peers. Today, the main skill that she is lacking is walking, but believe it or not, there are plenty of 15-month olds who haven't taken those first steps yet. She'll get there soon enough.

Have I mentioned that Baby doesn't have any teeth, either? Her doc was surprised but not concerned. He said we'll send her to a dentist to see what's up if they still don't arrive by 18 months. I guess that my baby just wants to stay a baby as long as she can! Sounds good to me.