Sunshine!

Apparently Colorado Springs has 300 days of sunshine each year. I'd guess that the percentage of sunny days since we've arrived has been consistent with that figure - although it's often cool in the mornings, most days it's lovely and sunny and often it gets quite warm by the middle of the day. 


Anna & I have been keeping busy, finding activities. We've joined Gymboree, which includes art and music classes in addition to play & learn sessions. Gymboree was a staple for us in Ottawa, from when Anna was about 7 to 13 months, it was great to have an activity to do almost every day, especially when winter hit. The Colorado Springs Gymboree is about 15 minutes drive from our place, and it feels familiar, which is nice. It's interesting to observe Anna on the same equipment, but now as an almost 2 year old.


We've also found a Moms Group and went for a "hike" with them yesterday. Everyone was very warm and welcoming and I feel lucky to have found the group. They organise lots of activities, so we'll be able to keep busy. 


We all joined the fancy gym (Villa Sport) mentioned in the last post. The childcare facilities (Villa Kids) are great, they actually organise activities for the kids. We've been a couple of times now, Matt enjoyed a tough spin class (complete with a DVD biking video shot in Squamish!) and Anna did really well in the kids area. She & I went for a swim the other day and I was surprised that the kids pool (complete with a big play structure with slides, etc) was completely free of people. I told Anna how lucky we were to have the whole pool to ourselves...for about 10 minutes, until we were told (very politely, of course) that the pool was actually closed. 

Our furniture arrived last Friday, so although we're far from unpacked, our house is feeling much more home-like and comfortable. I've been complaining about how much stuff we have - two pack rats is not such a good combination! We keep talking about minimalising but somehow it doesn't seem to happen. Anna was very excited to re-find lots of toys, she talked for several days beforehand about finding one of her "babies" and is still talking about it coming in a box in the big truck.

Boulder

New car!

Last weekend we returned our rental car in Denver and continued up to Boulder (about 30 minutes north) to look around. We'd heard lots about Boulder, it's pretty well known as a training area for athletes and the university there has produced a number of good runners. We wandered the main street and had some lunch, found a playground (it's interesting how your focus changes when you have a 2-year old - no art galleries for us!) and ran along the river path. Boulder sits at the base of the Rockies, they spectacularly emerge at a sheer angle from the edge of the town. This was the first little road trip for our new car, it rides really nicely and feels light and spacious. About 80% of the cars in Colorado seem to be Subaru of some model, so we fit in!


Reviewing our photos from the last couple of weeks, I noticed a couple of things:
- Anna appears in pretty much all the photos. Matt & I make occasional appearances. Pretty indicative of the focus of our lives.
- Almost all the photos are from three places/activities: playgrounds, running and coffee shops. Pretty indicative of the way that we spend our time!