Now, KOA camping is perfect for many people, and I admire them for that. Getting outdoors, especially toting kids, is commendable no matter how you manage it, in my mind. However, it is not my style of camping. At all. I was lucky enough to fall in love with tent camping from a very early age (6 weeks, my mom tells me), and I introduced it to my husband as soon as we started dating. My kids have now fallen in love with it, and I swear are the best campers on the planet.

Due to late summer colds, beginning of school stress and other factors, we could not execute a family backpacking trip. That’s when I cataloged our gear in my mind, and became determined to take my favorite girl into the woods and introduce her to backpacking. She was more than happy to spend a solid two days with me, and get away from her younger brother.

A beautiful weekend was in the forecast, and after a morning activity, we were on our way to the trail head. We’re lucky to live where we do because in about one hour we were at 10,000+ feet.

Ready to head up the trail!

The shadows in the forest were growing longer as we hiked.

The hike to Diamond Lake may be classified as easy to some with a moderate 768 feet of elevation gain on the way in. But, we did need to get to the campsite before dark, and we started a little later than I had planned. It took us a full 2 hours to hike into the lake, and we could see and feel dusk approaching since it was mid-September in the Rockies. My daughter was a little worried the longer we stayed on the trail, but I assured her we would make it and everything would be fine.

We arrived at the lake, sweaty from the final climb and feeling the evening chill at 10,957 feet. The first task was to choose a campsite, then get warm and eat some snacks. This felt great and gave us some energy to setup the campsite.

Our site had an amazing view for the sunset that we enjoyed over dinner. We took a walk around the lake and explored. Being two ladies, it was comforting to have other people semi-close to us.

Home sweet home with a

But for now she's still a tween.

Loaded up and ready for the hike out.

The post Mother Daughter Backpacking appeared first on Denver Mama.

My baby girl is crawling and moving like crazy. Not quite pulling herself up to walk, but probably will soon. Not the best time to restrict her to a car seat. She’s a squirmy bundle of energy.

So I’m fantasizing about crawling obstacle courses and toys to help her safely cover some distance outside. Then I saw the toys on sale at Gilt.com.I recently learned about this site when some Gilt.com executives invited some of us mommy bloggers and mommy business owners to lunch to share about their awesome products and deals for Baby and Kids. In order to promote their site, they’re offering a special promotion right now:

In addition to the already discounted items, you will get 25% off the first purchase you make. You just have to

1. Register now (first-time users only; they can’t already have your e-mail address on record)
2. Make a purchase by Aug. 15
3. Follow this link to do it

The deals change daily, so just registering now will help you keep an eye out for top-quality shower gifts, strollers, and other purchases you might need down the road.

Remember, the deal is only good if you follow this link!

The post Gilt.com Special Promotion on Baby and Kids Stuff appeared first on Denver Mama.

In my neighborhood, just north of the Highlands in Denver, there are several quaint places to eat, but not many within walking distance. That’s why I was so happy that Hash opened near us — it’s less than a mile away, serves local and organic food and is affordable.

While we had a great meal there today — the bomb hash and iced coffee — we’ve had poor experiences at Hash and elsewhere, in the past. Here are my tips to make your brunch as enjoyable as possible:

• Avoid weekends after 9 a.m. Denver is a brunch place. We love our mid-morning meals. Save yourself stress and two-hour waits, and eat an early breakfast out if it’s the weekend.
• Scope the area. Don’t bring your dog or your baby to a restaurant without being sure they’ll both be comfortable.
• Check Yelp. Make sure the restaurant is open when you plan on going. Nothing is more frustrating than walking a mile with the hope of bacon awaiting you and finding a “closed” sign instead. Also, if the reviews are all bad, don’t waste your time.
• Avoid chains. I have a rule:  if the cream for coffee doesn’t need to be refrigerated, the restaurant isn’t worth my time. Most chain restaurants have more processed food and less creative menus.
• Branch out. Even if you’re not a foodie like me, try out new places. There are so many great places to eat around town; check the 5280 Rise and Dine list for suggestions.
• Go bottomless. I’m talking drinks, not pants. Wear pants (or shorts, now that it’s summer)! But nothing goes better with a good brunch than some mimosas or fresh coffee, so let your hair down and enjoy!

The post Tips for Local Brunching appeared first on Denver Mama.

In the Denver doldrums of winter, the landscape can be colorless and local produce can be sparing. Most Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares and farmers markets stop selling food in winter, so organic veggies are only found in the produce section of the grocery store. But now is the time to start planning for the summertime harvest, which usually lasts from May through October.

How do CSAs work?

Local farmers have a set number of shares that the public can buy. This works like a membership or subscription, which provides shareholders (or members) with a box of vegetables or other goods on a regular basis for a set duration of time. This allows farmers to receive money before any products are harvested — thereby helping to make the business more sustainable. It also allows customers fresh, local food — oftentimes delivered straight to their door. Many CSAs offer discounts if you sign up in the late winter.

Check out local farms that offer CSAs here or here.

How do farmers’ markets work?

A farmers’ market is like a one-stop-shop for customers on the hunt for fresh, local food. Usually held in big parking lots or warehouses, farmers markets allow ranchers, farmers and other local vendors to all sell their goods together. In Denver, these happen twice a week at many locations, like near Cherry Creek Mall or near Stapleton.

Which is best for you?

If you like variety in your produce — and aren’t afraid of a few mystery gourds every now and then — consider a CSA. You will automatically get a box of fresh goodies, some of which you wouldn’t normally buy. This option also helps support a specific farmer at the beginning of the season, as opposed to offering less money on a less consistent basis to whichever farmer who happens to sell you food at the farmers’ market.

If you’d rather size up your own tomatoes before buying them, you or someone in your house is a picky produce eater (aren’t most kids?) or you don’t think you can consume the amount of produce that comes from a CSA, go for the farmer’s market. This can also be a fun family outing and summer tradition that not only supports local farmers but also gets the family excited about eating veggies!

While local produce in March might mean another bunch of kale or sack of potatoes, take heart! The colorful produce of summer is just around the corner.

The post Local produce: Farmers Market vs. CSA appeared first on Denver Mama.

Sometimes they do not wish to play in the light.  Instead, they curl up like cats on the couch and beg me to let them watch Speed Racers circa 1965.  Or they nestle into bed with a pile of books and read to each other.  Other times they wish me to stay far away so they can do sneaky things like jump off the bed frame onto the mattress or have a pillow fight.

These are some of my favorite times to photograph them, even when they do the sneaky things.  My camera in hand, I watch from behind the lens quietly, respectfully.  I want them to barely notice me so that I can capture these everyday moments exactly as they appear for this is our real life, the moments I want to remember most.

Capturing milestones, birthdays, holidays, special events, is always fun, but documenting the small moments, the quiet moments which is how I spend the majority of my days with Theo and Sully is what I want to look back on years from now.   Something in my mama-heart tells me that when their voices have lost that soft, dripping sweetness and the living room rug always scattered with toys has returned to clear and free of clutter, it will be these photographs I will treasure most.

Is there a time of day at your house when the sun kisses a spot favored by your little one?  Have you captured him there?  If not, I encourage you to get your camera out.   That “cheese” photo taken next to the Easter bunny will be adorable, no doubt, but from one mama to another, I think capturing the way your child’s eyes sparkle while playing with a favorite toy, or capturing his little fingers tightly curled around his green blankie, or that one curl that falls just so will be the memories you will cherish most.  I think about this a lot, knowing how quickly moments come and go.  Someday, I will look back at these images thin and floating like fine cotton sheets hanging on a clothesline, and I will find that swath of sunlight, still.

Katie Neuman Photography  ***  Last year I took my love for photography and passion for clicking Theo and Sully’s everyday moments and began documenting these treasured bits for others.   Needless to say, I fell in love.  Currently I am following my passion and pursuing documentary photography as my main work.

The post Documenting Everyday Moments appeared first on Denver Mama.

A candle is burning in the kitchen, the smell of winter and fire and woods wafting toward me and wrapping me in a soft embrace.  My little ones are only a few feet away, building pirate ships and get-away boats out of Legos on the rug, the fireplace aglow.  I’ve made a latte, the sound of Norah Jones’ voice moving through the room.  I create this scene almost daily, our afternoon ritual during the change of season.  I sit, ready to write in this space – something, anything.  But nothing comes.  I wait a little longer.  Now my shoulders feel less soft and embraced, my neck beginning to get tense.  Frustrated, I delete my start, stare at a blank screen and ultimately decide to move along to something else.

I do wonder if other mamas struggle like I do?  Something tells me the answer is yes, that I am not alone.  I do wonder sometimes how to do it all – be that mama who can create and deliver while balancing the tasks of parenting, and more importantly, how to do it all in a way that leaves me feeling like I contributed quality and not merely quantity.

For the record, I do not have writer’s block.  What I have right now is a need for quiet and contemplation.  Like the autumnal season itself,  we are busy in our home this time of year gathering, readying, preparing to make peace with the darkness that lies ahead, and carving out time to honor and celebrate the holidays.  Inside, I feel merriment and quiet change, equally.  In this place, my thoughts are still, gaining strength, and I am gathering.  Ideas move through me these days like blazing leaves flowing down a soft, trickling stream.  And then these ideas simply get stuck on a branch or a rock.  And now there is a new shape, a new form, another story.  Instead of fighting this voice in my head that says, “Yet you still must produce” , I choose not to fight.  I simply surrender.

Amidst the change of season, I could also mention the constant distractions.  For example, I’ve walked away from the computer three times already since starting this post to mediate the sharing of two tiny white windows and six thumbnail sized tires, creamy paws grabbing while soft gravelly voices declare, “No Feo.  I need dat for mine house!”, or, “Sully, those tires are part of my landing gear”.   So I’ve resolved a problem, restored peace, and I’ve also wiped out that profound thought I was just going to share with you.  Alas.

Where am I going with all of this?  Well, amidst it all I’ve been bathing myself in the solitude of these past weeks, thinking something will emerge.  I can already feel it trying to wriggle its way out.   As the leaves fade and monochrome begins to surrounds us,  I suspect a layer of quiet in my soul will remain.  But I also feel a strengthening in the hollows of my bones from all of this quiet contemplation.  And it is here that I fill up on fuel to propel my life – our life forward.  Something deeply has changed and I am looking forward to greeting that change and telling you all about it.  For now though, I think I’ll put my feet up and read a magazine while I watch my little ones create.  One inspiration at a time.

The post Change of Season – Autumn’s Break {Ho Hum} appeared first on Denver Mama.

As moms we very quickly learn that our perfectionism has no place in the land of motherhood. But you know what, a well-organized nursery absolutely does.

We do not organize the nursery for the baby. Little baby Emily has no clue that her socks are all neatly sorted by color and size.
We do not organize the nursery for ourselves. We put the room together. We know that white onesies must be separated from colored ones and that long sleeve and short sleeve must never mingle.

We organize the nursery for the support system that allows us to be great mothers… our spouse, mother, mother-in-law, nanny, other children, and babysitters. Yes, they will probably laugh when they see the great lengths you’ve gone to in labeling everything and buying matching colored bins for all the accoutrements of a baby registry (my mom certainly did!) But you bet they will absolutely be able to put away a load of baby laundry while you’re recovering from labor and delivery!

Here are 5 ways having an organized nursery allows you to be a better mom:

1. When laundry gets put back in the right drawers and closet sections you will not burst into a fit of post-partum hormonal tears when 10 minutes before your great-aunt arrives to meet the new addition you can’t find the bizarre outfit she sent for baby.
2. By having burp cloths and bibs in a neat bin right next to the rocking chair where you can grab one as soon as the little darling makes the first gagging sound you recognize to proceed a major spit-up, you won’t (necessarily) have to change your clothes (and his) for the 5th time that day.
3. When the extra sheets and mattress pads are right in the labeled drawer you designated for them you’ll only have to be awake for 30 minutes to do a quick bedding change after a diaper blowout instead of 2 hours while you wait for the laundry to get finished and sleep uncomfortably in the rocker with baby on your chest.
4. The stash of infant Tylenol, infant Motrin, dosing guidelines from your pediatrician, and an ear thermometer in a standard place ensure you’ll be prepared, if not rested, when you have to spend a few hours holding your sick dear child in the wee hours of the morning.
5. The diaper stack, wipes container, and diaper rash cream next to the changing table that you refilled in the morning mean your mom who has come to help can manage a diaper change without waking you up in the middle of your much-needed nap to ask where you keep the butt-paste.

In short, when you have an organized nursery anyone with the ability to read should be able to come in to the room and get things out or put them away without having to ask for directions. This means you can graciously receive help from those who love you and your precious little one without having to give them the look that says “you’re not doing it right.”  Having that help can reduce your workload and stress level, making you look and feel like the fabulous, easy-going mom you always envisioned yourself to be.

The post Organized Nurseries Make Better Mothers appeared first on Denver Mama.

The next morning at 5am, I awoke instantly to a popping sound.  Still as a board, I laid in our bed wrapped around a mountain of pillows and began coming to terms with two things:  1. my water had just broken; 2. my water had, like, really broken.  I was going to birth our babe today.

A couple hours later we made our way to the hospital.  Settled into my birthing suite, I chatted with the nurses and boldly told them my “plan,” natural birth.  I requested a birthing ball and instructions on how to use the tub.  I even asked them to please not offer me an epidural, that if I wanted one I would ask.  Graciously, they granted my wishes and shut the door behind them.  With the thud of that heavy wood door closing, time slowed to a pace I had never before known.  In that slowness, I felt the rhythm of motion ~ back and forth, and it rocked me into a deep place where I started to understand so much more about women and roots and growth.  The sound of his heart beating, strong all the while, was the sweetest lullaby I’d ever heard.

Hypnotized in that deep soulful place for many hours, I had not expected what was coming next.

For certain reasons we chose to start pitocin and it did exactly what it was supposed to do.  The only problem was I felt like a buoy in stormy high seas, fierce contractions rolling over me with such force and speed I couldn’t stay afloat, much less catch my breath.  After hours of this I looked at my husband and finally let myself cry.  I was so scared.  I was incredibly unsure.  In what felt like utter defeat, I told him to get the nurse.

After the epidural set in and the nurses once again shut that big oak door, I fell asleep.  Quiet again with only the sound of his heart beating away on the monitor, I surrendered to my body and its need for replenishment.  The sea had calmed.  I caught my breath.

When it came time to push I felt at peace, like all was right with the world.  I had progressed.  It was almost the next day and we were so eager to meet him.   I would push, he would crown, I would rest a minute and then repeat the cycle.  “He’s right here,” my doctor would say.  But with each surge of energy nothing more happened.  That frustrating fact combined with the look in my doctor’s eyes to tell me something was wrong.  Well over an hour had gone by since she said, “A few more pushes like that and he’ll be out in ten minutes.”   Those had been such exhilarating words at the time, and I had excitedly glanced at the clock, preparing myself for the occasion.  But as the minutes marched on the position of those hands became seared into my mind for a different reason.  Instead of counting down to the wondrous and expected moment, those hands had started counting in a different way now.  Still counting, still moving, they had become an hourglass to mark the time that we were now so quickly running out of.  I knew.  Tears slipped off the corners of my eyes as we left our birthing suite.  Defeat felt light as air compared to the heaviness I felt in my heart.   And I had though I was so prepared when I first entered that room, flooded in fresh morning light.

****

At my last annual check-up, my doctor commented on how beautifully my c-section scar had healed.  “It’s so small and faded already.  You almost wouldn’t even know.”   I, too, notice that my scar has gone from a deep purple to an almost nude pink.  That line is a mark that connects me to those roots and growth and deeply soulful things I felt when I labored my babe.  It bares no representation of what I had felt at the time ~ pain, fear, sadness, my physical body and strength failing me.  No, in fact, it reminds me that life is continual, that labor and birth are only the beginnings of the work we will do as mothers, labor that we will continually rebirth for a lifetime.  Shortly after he was born and I rested him on my breast, I understood that I would not take my place among women who boast about having an unmedicated birth.  But it was also then that I understood the purpose of my new mark and what really mattered most ~ that no matter what path we take to finally feel a babe’s heart beating against our own, we’re all walking the same path ~ caretaking a new life, a new promise greater than ourselves.

And I can tell you now, I proudly wear that mark where I birthed our first child.  There is nothing scar-like about it.  It is a beautiful line, and for us it was the first line on a new map that has become our family’s path forward.

The post Forever Marked appeared first on Denver Mama.