Pine Beetles love peanut butter

A great day today: we made the trip up to Avon, CO to spend the day with Terie & Casey Holmquist. It took the kids a little while to warm up, but once they did, I feel pretty sure they would agree with John and I that it was worth the long drive for a relatively short trip (even with the nasty traffic jam on Vail Pass on the way back!).

We discussed pine beetles (which are devastating the population of pine trees in much of Colorado, leaving them dead and brown - very sad) on the way up. Anne Peyton immediately jumped on the bandwagon of cursing the beetles: "MEAN pine beetles", "that's not very nice", etc. I think she knows me too well, though, because then she gave me a very difficult question to answer: "Mommy, would you smoosh a pine beetle if you met one?". I answered "it depends". "Yes or no, mommy", she said. Damn! We made up a story about Thumpkin offering an alternative of PB&Js to the pine beetles one day, thus saving the entire forest.

On the way back down, AP was relentless in her quest for more stories. John and I both told a few, and she wanted more!more!more!. Cute at first, but after awhile it was just too much. I thought I said quietly to John, "Oh-my-God" (in that incredulous, drawn-out kind of a way). AP immediately said "mommy, did you say Oh My God?". And before I could answer, Tommy starts into a chirpy chant of "ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod". Fortunately it turned into "ohmygosh". John and I could only laugh deliriously.