Draeger Familie Nieuws

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Siesta

Anna takes regular naps in her bed now, but six weeks ago she still slept anywhere and pretty much in any position, including in her Boppy pillow. This particular nap I remember because she slept for close to four hours – one tired baby! These were taken as she was starting to wake up. Don’t worry – I didn’t wake my sleeping baby!

Jefferson, CO

Adam went down to Salida in mid-July and loved the mountains in the early morning light. He wanted to take us for a drive to Jefferson so that the family could see this same view, and two weeks ago (August 5) we left fairly early in the morning to take a mountain drive.

So oops, we missed taking 470 down to Hwy 285 and “had” to drive past Red Rocks. The moon was still “setting” to the west as the sun was rising in the east.

As we drove along, we began to lose sight of the moon complete.

We arrived in Jefferson and stopped at their market for a treat. I had to laugh and took this picture as a bit of a joke – seems like every “touristy” spot needs to sell fudge – I think it’s a requirement. Friends of ours who visited us in June made this observation while we were out at Buffalo Bill’s gravesite so this picture is mostly for them – fudge is EVERYWHERE!

One thing I love about small (almost non-existent) towns in Colorado is their use of color for their buildings – I have an equal love for those buildings that work hard to blend into the landscape and for those that do whatever they can to completely stick out. The contrast is awe-inspiring and makes me want to simultaneously build a cabin in the woods and buy a bright purple house.

We enjoyed a mid-morning snack at the little market.

I loved the old orange theater seats against the turquoise building. Too bad I didn’t think to set this shot up differently so that I still had the brilliant colors but the girls weren’t squinting in the sunlight.

Anna and I spend a lot of quality time in the van while we’re on road trips that last longer than two hours….

Jefferson is located in a valley, but really I think technically it’s located on a high plain. The immediate area is flat, but the view is amazing, surrounded by mountains on all sides.

It was super hazy that day, so it was hard to get clear shots from far away, but this picture shows two things – one, the little town of Jefferson we had just been in and two, proof that there is still snow on top of the mountains even in August. We’ll most likely start to see accumulation within a month.

At the pull-off where I wanted to take pictures, I found these aspens, which had been scarred with initials and love notes over the years.

Here we are at the Kenosha Pass. We’ve turned around and are headed back home again.

Many of you may have heard of the rampant wild fires that are still attacking the West. There are still fires now in states surrounding Colorado (hence, much of the haze we’ve witnessed this summer. Signs like these are common.

When we realized we were going to be late for second service church no matter what, we decided to slow down and enjoy our trip home a bit more. This involved a stop at a winery, Aspen Peak Cellars. We actually stopped at the tasting “house” and not the actual winery.

Here is a neat shed-barn building on the property.

Raven has a super long tongue. For those that didn’t know.

Anna was less than thrilled to be in the winery and really wanted some more van time with mom.

There was a really neat garden/lawn area outside of the tasting house and the girls enjoyed running around and playing.

We sure had an enjoyable drive that day and are enjoying exploring Colorado with the girls.

erin

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Goofing Around…

As mentioned in my last post, we watched a lot of Olympics. The girls envisioned themselves to be in gymnastics or as swimmers. These are a few pictures of a late night of watching Gabby Douglas and Missy Franklin.

And, I just have to say, I love this last picture… I was taking pictures of Raven as she flew around the room but she was moving so fast and I was trying hard not to use flash and everything was a blur… and while the color isn’t great, I love that everything is fuzzy and in motion except for her face… her beauty astounds me.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Haircut

I cut off my hair two weeks ago today. SO FREEING! I’m in love with my new cut and it’s SO easy to do!

3

Anna is three months old today… Raven will be three in less than a month, and Julia turns five in a little over three months… it’s a day of threes.

ANNA IS THREE MONTHS OLD TODAY.

Anna has worn a mix of 6 AND 9 month clothes this last week. Growing like a weed doesn’t even begin to explain the length of this child.

Because Anna falls asleep relatively early in the evening (tonight it was 6:30 pm!), I decided to take pictures when we got home. Always risky without Adam to help. Today turned out similar to the last time I took pictures without Adam’s help.

But… I managed a few fun pictures.

Julia wanted nothing more than to pick the spot and have her pictures taken by the flowers.

Moved a bit so that cars weren’t our background… can you see who’s missing? Someone is upset that she doesn’t get to hold Anna first. Again.

There she is.

In case you ever wondered what the back of her head looked like or how long her hair is. Oh, what’s that? You’ve seen the back of her head in pictures before? That’s right. She’s 2-going-on-3.

The best “threesome” picture I managed to get… we’ll keep trying!

Someone definitely loves being a big sister, though. For sure.

erin

Puzzle Fiend

We watched a lot of Olympics – hours daily – during the 2012 Summer Olympics. The girls weren’t always happy with that prospect, but it got them playing and doing puzzles and drawing whereas normally they would have begged to watch a show at night.
A few months ago, I bought Julia a few 60-piece puzzles. She’s gotten very good at doing the 24-piece puzzles by herself, so I thought she could try a puzzle with more, smaller pieces. She needed help the first few times, but soon she got the hang of the smaller pieces. During this particular puzzle episode, I helped her find the edge pieces, and then turned around to help Raven with her puzzle, and next thing I knew, Julia had most of the thing put together!

That night after lots of cheers and excitement for really doing it all by herself, we put the puzzles away. The next day I found it put together again in a different room. Go, Julia! So very proud of her mad puzzle skillz. Now, if I can just get Raven to stop chewing on the pieces………

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

13 weeks old…

… and super loved by her sisters.

On the way home from daycare today, the girls fought about whose baby she was. “She’s MY baby!” “No, she’s BOTH of our baby!” “NO! [insert pterodactyl scream in here] MY BABY!”

Guess who the pterodactyl is…it sure wasn’t Anna.

Best Pretzels Ever, I cannot lye!

Ever since our first trip to Germany in 2006 my wife and I have fell in love with laugenbrezen. (first photo is a stock photo of real brezen) So when we came home we attempted many batches of of homemade pretzels but were convinced that lye could be substituted for baking soda (cheap, easily accessible and less dangerous). Ever batch was pretty good, but none of them had the shiny crispy outside and the soft chewy inside of a real brezel, until now.

I had some lye (sodium hydroxide or caustic soda as we brewers call it) left over from our soap-making project and thought I’d give the real stuff a try. I also wanted to make pretzels without having to roll and roll and roll and roll the dough. My hands actually start to feel arthritic after one batch. So I decided to just make quick and dirty balls then slice an “X” in them before baking. Fantastic idea Adam! Best batch yet. This photo was the first batch, the 2nd batch I learned another trick that got them even darker brown without burning the bottoms.

I also wanted to say that I think I have invented something new, or at least have come up with the concept entirely independently if this already exists. Pretzel-crust Pizza! We made a buffalo-chicken style pizza the other night but used my dough and lye on the crust. This was a real treat because when you are done eating an awesome pizza you get to eat a fat and chewy brezel-stick for dessert. Best of both worlds.