Home Sweet Sweet Home

We are finally back in Colorado!! Words cannot even describe how good it feels to be back at home. Here's the rundown of our adventure in getting from Lompoc, California to Castle Rock!

Thursday morning we were on the road by 9 am! Leaving on time never happens for the Folgers, so this was a small miracle in itself but we were determined to get on the road ASAP. The drive to Vegas was uneventful, with the exception of a small detour in Santa Clarita. Since our printer was packed, Thomas decided to write down the directions from mapquest. Well, he left out the part about having to actually get on the interstate and it took about 10 minutes of driving through an LA suburb before we figured it out. But not until after we paid $5 for a stupid state map because the 7-11 employees were zero help. 

We arrived in Vegas about 4:30. I'm sure we were a sight pulling up to valet parking in our dirty Pontiac Sunfire, loaded down like the Clampetts from the Beverly Hillbillies. I open the door and my half eaten bag of cheetos spills out with Declan screaming bloody murder in the backseat. At check-in we were offered a very sweet upgrade package and decided to go for it. Weekdays are definitely the time to score a deal in Vegas. We got the "Diamond Spa Package" suite for only a $100! This room was definitely meant for the high rollers. We had a master suite, separate from the 900 sq ft living room filled with granite and marble! The bedroom had a huge kind sized bed with ton's of down pillows. I can't tell you how good this felt after the bed we had in Lompoc! We also had a 2 person jacuzzi tub in the bathroom. This was Declan's favorite!

Since there aren't many options in Vegas for those with kids, we just spent the evening walking up and down the strip. Declan loved all the action there was to see. Especially the fountain at the Bellagio. Thank god you're able to enjoy alcohol while cruising the strip (on foot of course) but what I don't understand is why the casinos feel they need to charge $7.50 for a corona??!!! I could buy a 6 pack for the cost! But since we were too lazy to find a liquor store, we ponied up. There is something about Vegas that makes you take complete leave of your senses and spend money like you have it!

The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. I must say though, I highly recommend a trip to Utah. It is a beautiful state. Especially southeastern Utah with all of it's canyons. This is where Moab, Canyonland Nat'l Park and Bryce canyon are. In fact, the whole western US is beautiful. I love living here! 

We arrived home on late Saturday afternoon. Thomas headed straight to the liquor store to buy some Sunshine Wheat for the kegerator. We had some of our neighbors over that night for some drinks. I think he forgot to take into acct that he is no longer acclimated to high altitude living so he was verrrrry sick on Sunday.  The rest of the weekend invloved getting our house and yard livable again. And made the trip to Lowe's for some household project stuff. We now have a sliding screen door again. At least until one of the dogs decided to run thru it, like last time.

I hope everyone had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend! I know we did.

Happy Trails

You pass through places

And places pass through you

But you carry em' with you

On the souls of your travelin' shoes......

-The Be Good Tanyas

It's time to say goodbye to Lompoc, California. Thomas, Declan and I will be on the road, back to Colorado, bright and early Thursday morning. It's been a great 6 months. I got to spend some time in Minnesota with friends and family, we visited San Diego, Monterey and all of the Central Coast. It's so beautiful in this area and I am so glad I had the opportunity to experience living here for a short time. I am definitely going to miss the beach and the ocean. Especially since there are almost no bodies of water to be found in Colorado. I will also miss the temperate climate. I'm not looking forward to the hot and dry summer ahead. However, I can't wait to get back to our own house. Apartment living is so overrated. 

Since we have an impatient 1 year old, we've decided to take our time driving back to Denver. On Thursday night we are stopping in VEGAS BABY. Yes, a totally appropriate place to hang with a small child. But since we scored a sweet hotel room at the Monte Carlo we are going to try and live it up as much as Declan allows. Friday night we are planning on staying in Grand Junction, Colorado. I don't think there is anything exciting happening there but it puts us within 4 hours of home sweet home. Have I mentioned how excited I am?

We have lots planned for the next couple of months. Next weekend we have a babysitter and we will be celebrating 3 years of marriage. We've finally hired someone to help us with our backyard so our weekends will be filled with landscaping. I can't wait for it to be finished! We've got both sets of parents coming out to visit and we will finally get our furbabies back! Thomas has a 10 day break over the 4th of July. Hopefully we'll get a chance to do some hiking in the mountains.

I've got a ton of cleaning and packing to do! Happy Memorial Day weekend to everyone!

Poopy Playtime

Motherhood brings several new and exciting challenges to my life. However, nobody warned me that one day my child would discover his poop and treat it like play-doh. Last evening, after a wonderful day at the Santa Barbara Zoo, I was enjoying some down time on the internets. I notice that Declan has suddenly become verrrrryyyyy quiet. This is always the first sign of trouble. I look to my right, just as Declan comes in from the back patio. He's waddling and his diaper has come undone and is half on, half off. Then I see it. Poop everywhere. Somehow, he got his diaper off. He's got it on his feet, his hands and his chest. I grab him and throw him into the tub. Then I discover the poop carnage on the back patio. GAAAAHHH!!!! Thankfully, Thomas arrived just in time. He got the enjoyable task of cleaning off the patio while I hosed down the boy. Diapers need to come with a lock, or perhaps I will start using duct tape.

Maybe it's time to start toilet training?

Anyhow. If you have any plans of being a mother someday, consider yourself warned.

California Dreamin'

It's been a very busy couple of weeks for the Folgers.  

We spent the first weekend in May vacationing in Carlsbad in a rented condo one block from the beach! We had so much fun, and spent a lot of time wondering why we ever left beautiful San Diego. I forgot how much I love it there. Amy flew out and spent the weekend with us as did my mom (babysitter!). Thursday evening we headed to the Cabo Grill for ocean view burritos with Bob & Natalie. We spent both Friday and Saturday evening doing the "Carlsbad Crawl" visiting our old stomping grounds Tom Giblins, Coyotes and Hennessys.  I learned that I am far too old to spend 2 nights in a row drinking until 3 am. Sunday night Thomas, Amy and I headed to Pizza Port and Coyotes. Thomas turned 30 on May 5th. Unfortunately, we were all out of both money and fun points so we celebrated by heading back to Lompoc to let our livers detox for a few days. We had such a great time, and were so sad to leave. Hopefully we'll make it back sooner rather than later. Maybe we'll even move back someday! Wishful thinking......

My mom stayed in Lompoc with me until last Friday. We visited La Purisima Mission, a catholic mission built in the 1700s (which is reportedly very haunted and is very creepy).  We also spent a day in Solvang doing some shopping and wine tasting as well as a day in Pismo Beach. 

On Saturday Natalie drove up from Temecula to spend the weekend in The Poke (Lompoc) with us. Once again, we headed to Solvang for more wine. Saturday night we discovered the yummy goodness of Pizza Hut quepapas (potatoes, cheese and jalapenos deep fried and dipped in ranch dressing YUM YUM YUM). On Sunday we shook of the heartburn and headed down to Santa Barbara for Mother's Day. We spent the afternoon eating mexican food and shopping. Unfortunately the weather sucked, but we had fun nonetheless.

Now we are looking forward to heading back to our home in Colorado. It looks like we will get to head back next week sometime. I am definitely over living in this apartment and can't wait to see my pets again. However, I'm definitely going to miss being so close to the beach. I think we'll have to set up a kiddie pool in our backyard. I'll pop in a CD with the sound of the ocean. Do you think it will have the same effect??