Happy Birthday Brother!

Today is my brother Ben's birthday! My usual practice is to celebrate my family on the anniversary of their birth and today is no different.

You should know...

• First off did you even know that I have a middle brother Ben? He lives too far away. Possibly it is to get away from being regularly featured in my blog, but it is more likely that he has other reasons for living on the other side of the country. (read more about our visit to see Ben and Sara last summer by clicking here, here, here, and here).
• My brother has this great combination of spontaneity and responsibility. He makes a lot of quick decisions or does things that make most people clutch their hearts in terror, but somehow there is usually logic behind his choices.
• He is very intelligent...it runs in the family. Wink
• He just started his own business. Look for a link here in the near future!
• Let me repeat that, he has started his own business and he is still in his 20s?! This isn't a "business" like people selling door-to-door or inventing their own projects. He is like one of those people who is well on his way to being a millionaire. I always knew he had high goals---since childhood he would always choose the most expensive item on the menu. Such taste must be matched with ambition and my brother has it!
• He does crazy things that only super-athletic people do. For instance he did a mud run earlier this year. What's up with that?
• He is also really loving and affectionate. 
• He is such an amazing uncle. He seems to have a natural charisma in general, but it is like a drug to my daughter. He is wild to the point of being almost scary, but he just comes up with such fun ideas. 
• He has accomplished more in his 27 years than most of us will in 60.

In  honor of my brother I thought I would share some photos from last summer of which I know he'd be proud....









Happy birthday brother! I miss you and I love you!

Trip to North Carolina: Travel Day

Hello. We just returned last night from a long weekend in North Carolina. My brother Ben and his wife Sara, along with their animals are all living in North Carolina. We decided to end our summer travels with some air travel.

Our trip began on Thursday afternoon in Wyoming. Eric got out of work a bit early. We dropped Bumblebee off to stay with my parents and we drove down to Denver. Our town does have a small airport but it is often significantly cheaper to fly out of Denver. So we got to the city just in time for dinner at WATERCOURSE. I ate a bowl of tomato coconut curry soup, mashed potatoes and gravy, and (yes there is still more) a Donna Lee---a wrap with yummy seitan. I was completely stuffed by the time we left, it was awesome.

We went to our hotel near the airport and called it a night. The following morning we made our way to DIA (Denver International Airport).

Inside Denver International Airport

I was the lucky one to get selected for a random screening. My hands tested positive for some mystery substance. I ended up in the private area getting a very personal pat down. I will never put on hand lotion before a flight again!

Anyway, a small setback, but we were left with plenty of time to catch our flight, Cordelia's first flight.

Entertaining Cordelia before the flight

We boarded our first flight as parents. We found ourselves toting a bag full of toddler entertainment and gate-checking a car seat. We had no idea what to expect from our girl. We had 4 flights in just a few days.

Looking out the window while headed to Atlanta (Smogville)

She did so well! No cries, no whining. She was amazing! She looked out the window, napped, watched videos, played with toys. We looked around at the other parents who were struggling and felt a mixture of sympathy and just a smidgen of smugness.

On the plane

Cordelia and I on the flight from Atlanta to Raleigh-Durham Airport

We landed at the Raleigh-Durham Airport around dinner time. Ben picked us up, looking as handsome as ever. It was so good to see him. Sara was back at their place preparing us a feast!

We drove through the trees. North Carolina, at least where we were, was heavily wooded and fairly hilly. We got to their cute place, it felt like we were in the middle of the forest, though we were right in Chapel Hill. We greeted Sara and the animals. Their pooch Jrake (as in J RAKE) was so funny and sweet with Cordelia who can be a bit intense with her animal affection.

After dinner we all took a short walk though the forest. Jrake ran in literal circles around Cordelia who was laughing hysterically.

Jrake and Cordelia

Jrake as a blur and Cordelia

We walked and talked. We listened to the cicadas and looked for frogs and blue lizards. The air was humid, but not hot, a beautiful end to a travel day.

Ben, Sara and I

Have you ever been to North Carolina?

Back

We've been away for a little weekend adventure. Flew to NC to visit my brother Ben and his wife Sara. I will be back tomorrow to share all of the highlights!

What did you do this weekend?

Ben

Ben is my brother. Today he turns 26!

Some of my earliest memories revolve around the birth of my first sibling. The family story of legend (or at least one of them) is when Ben came home from the hospital I made my friends wash their hands and line up just to gaze upon him (no touching).

Growing up with Ben was always an adventure. Ben is wild and fun loving. He has such a good nature. He never intentionally hurts others. He is rarely offended (a surprisingly rare trait). He is funny. He is fun. He is smart. He is caring. He is an amazing brother and friend.


Ben, mid-jump, on the trampoline.

Happy birthday brother. We will see you soon!!!

Want to learn more about my brother? Click here. Or you can hop over to my mother's blog and see her post, here.

The Parakeet Who Thought He was a Sparrow and Other Riveting Stories about Parakeets

I am impressed that you, my dear reader, were drawn in by a headline about parakeets and sparrows!

(picture taken from Burden's Birds)

Last year Eric and I discovered a strange situation at our apartment complex. The sparrows had used their collective goodwill to take a proactive stance on the subject of adoption. Having discovered a lonely parakeet in the Denver area they invited their colorful cousin to join their mob. We watched this parakeet forage and flock with all of the little brown and black sparrows. He swooped and swarmed with them all winter. They cuddled together against the cold and seemed to be oblivious to their very obvious differences.

When spring came the entire flock disappeared for a while. When they returned the parakeet was nowhere to be found. I don't know if he found his own kind and decided to flock with the other parakeets somewhere in Central America. Maybe he had joined the sparrows as a means to impress a lady and when their relationship went South (yes I did make a bad pun), so did he.

Someone once said that the most memorable moments are those that break from the routine. Meaning that we need both routine and some break from routine to have a life worth remembering. The parakeet was an odd sort of reminder to this fact. We get so used to living life and looking at things in certain ways that it comes as quite a shock when the routine is changed. First we were surprised to see the parakeet and then surprised to no longer see it.

Anyway I have another parakeet story that I would like to share now as people generally don't have reason to share parakeet stories.

Growing up my family had two parakeets, well two at a time, three in total. (Disclaimer*I don't recommend getting a bird as a pet. It is weird to keep something that is meant to fly in a tiny cage*) Anyway the parakeets do as all birds seem to, they chirped and chattered incessantly. The birds were in a corner of the dining room so it seemed as though they were involved in every activity. We were always talking over the loud birds.

When my family decided to move to New Mexico it was agreed that the birds should be re- homed as it would be cruel to take them so far in a car. Reflecting back on the move to New Mexico my parents sold a car and drove the entire family: two adults, a teenager, a nine year old, a baby in a car seat, a beagle, two cats and a couple of weeks worth of necessities into a Ford Taurus. Those parakeets were truly blessed to avoid that car trip from Montana to New Mexico.

Anyway, back to the parakeets. When my parents gave the parakeets to their new home we all agreed to see if my nine year old brother would notice. He has never been considered the most perceptive person in the world, but we all thought it would take no more than a couple of hours for him to realize that the obnoxiously loud parakeets were gone. Two weeks went by before he noticed that the endless bird chatter had subsided. Two weeks! The moral of the story is that parakeets are not good pets and nine year old boys cannot be counted on to notice dramatic change.