The Churchpark

A couple of months ago, when we were in the throes of moving and life transitions, poor Lily Grace was suffering with terrible separation anxiety.  It was never worse than when we were at church.  I don't know what it was about, but Bob and I didn't get to attend a full church service for well into 2 months.  We laughed about it because we seemed to always win the "bad kid lottery."  If you are scratching your heads, its where you're sitting in church and that little number starts flashing at the bottom of the screen.  You could be in the middle of a sermon, but when the lottery flashes you have to get up and go.  Oy, that was Bob and I so many times that I ceased to be embarrassed about it.  I started walking down the aisles with my head held high like, "Yeah, thats my XR6, I win today!"  There was just no two ways around it.  Sadly, church started having a stigma around it and when we would pull in, Lily would start the water works.

So one day after church Bob and I had a parental brainstorming session and my Sales/Marketing/Problem Solving husband came up with a brilliant beyond brilliant idea, the churchpark.  You see, Lily LOVES the park and all its playtime fun.  You say park and her little face just lights up.  So Bob and I took on the greatest rebranding campaign of our short parental lives.  We aggressively started referring to church as the churchpark. "Lily are you ready to go to the churchpark? Oh look, there is the churchpark!  Lily we are gonna go play at the churchpark! Churchpark, CHURCHPARK!"  Call it manipulation, call it smart parenting whatever, but by golly, it has worked.  Since we have moved, we have gone to a new church every Sunday.  Lily cannot wait to go to the churchpark and tells us so non stop.

 We have not won the bad kid lottery once and normally we have to spend our energy convincing her that "no you can't stay at the churchpark all day."  The rebranding has gone so well, that Lily talks about going to the churchpark all week and will go to whichever church with whoever wants to take her and not miss Mommy or Daddy one bit.

Bob says it's his greatest career achievement to date: Rebranding the church.

Tia Traci!

So, unfortunately for Traci, her work makes her travel constantly, but fortunately for us, one of those trips brought her to Denver!  It has been well over a year since we have seen her and we have missed our Tia Traci so very much!  Having her walk through our door reminded me of how much I miss her! We have lived so much life together and it has been way too long since seeing her. 

Traci instantly discovered how outgoing and horsey obsessed Miss Lily is at 6AM yesterday morning.  She, of course, got to room with the munchkin and Lily started her daily barage of communication complete with "horsey, saddle and honol."  Traci absolutely endeared herself to Lily Grace by giving her a soft, squishy, bean filled horsey.  At this point, the way to her heart is all things horsey related.  

With only one day to enjoy Traci and give her the best of all things Colorado, we started early with a drive up the mountains and a hike up Saint Mary's Glacier.  It's a great hike and a perfect place to catch the beauty of Colorado.  It was chilly so we didn't spend too much time at the top, but what a special time.  

That afternoon we had a great time chatting while Lily napped and then decided to head over to the fancy-way-too-expensive-to-buy-anything Park Meadows Mall to get some exercise and let miss Lily ride the "saddles."  There are real saddles attached to wooden headless "horseys."  Kind of morbid, but Lily LOVES them.

After taking a break from the saddles, we stopped at the pond in the mall only to have a complete toddler melt down when we wouldn't let her in the "poo" with her "sue-suit."  A scream here, spanking there and a "sossy(sorry) Mommy," and we were back in running around business.  We took her back to the saddles and then decided that we needed cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.  Let me tell you, it was a great after dinner choice!

One day was simply too short a visit with this lovely lady, but I am so blessed that we can see her at all and look forward to the next time her business takes her out our way! Next time we just hope Tyler can come too!