The life and times of a little hippie in the Bersagel-Briese clan.
I found this program the other day….it follows every movement of your mouse for as long as you have the program running. A black spot is a place where the mouse stopped, and the larger the black spot, the longer the mouse stood still. This is what 9 hours of a computer based class looks like on my computer….and you can tell that I run an Apple computer since the majority of the lines run from the top left to the bottom right.
The storms in the area have been fast and furious this spring. Yesterday, we had a tornado warning for 12 hours but nothing developed over Castle Rock directly…there were at least three reported tornadoes in the area, however. Here are some pictures from the cell after it passed over…
The last post was the people, this one is the place.
Ramat Hasharon
Earlier this year, my Savta had a stroke. It was severe enough that it has left her unable to move anything on her left side, and she is now confined to a wheel chair. At 91 years old, any physical activity is hard, and the mental struggle with the new reality must be extraordinarily rough. I took a brief opening in the calendar and scheduled a very quick trip to Israel, unfortunately without Ahna or Ezra. Only 4 days in Israel on the ground, making for the travel plus the time change difficult.
Without going in detail on the emotional highs and lows, there are always grand moments spent with family – no matter the circumstance. Best of all, was two great visits with Savta where we had strong conversation about all sorts of things, but mostly she wanted to talk about Ezra. I also had the chance to spend some time with the rest of my family in Israel; be it a short lunch or a couple of dinners.
In this post, we share the photos of people.
Tamar
While Ezra was down at Saba and Savta’s house the other day, he was given his first opportunity to be a photojournalist. It seems as though he will be heading in the direction of more abstract work, at least until he figures out how to stop moving long enough to take a picture. The results are below (except for the one good photo of Ezra and Saba).
Discovered this little gem of Ezra smiling for the camera on Mother’s Day while searching for another photo on my phone.
A sunny Sunday morning with nothing on the agenda turned into a sunny Sunday morning navigating through a marathon (literally) on the way to the Denver Zoo. Ezra and I had been there recently (as posted), but Ahna had never been to this zoo with Ezra. As we arrived into the parking lot, Ezra started getting really excited shouting, “animals! lions! tigers! monkeys! animals!” It was a gorgeous morning as we strolled around looking at everything, seemingly just ahead of the massive crowds that were pouring in as we left.
PS – the kiddo has been a little sick recently, as evidenced by the snot-filled nose in the close-up below.
Well, I think that yesterday was my last day skiing for this year (Arapahoe Basin doesn’t close until the first week of June, but I don’t see the schedule allowing for anymore days to happen). It’s always sad when driving away for the last time each year, but the hope and promise of a summer of hiking and trips always helps brighten the mood. There is still a lot of snow up there, helped significantly by the weather these last couple of weeks. I ventured up there by myself for the day and enjoyed the serenity of being in the mountains. PS – I’m telling you, get the podcast of This American Life and Radiolab…
A nice day squeezed in between several super windy and chilly days equalled a trip to somewhere outside….and when I asked Ezra what he wanted to do, the reply was simple and to the point – “Animals!” We sauntered up to the zoo and happened upon an apparent secret of the place: the perfect hour to be there…it’s so perfect in fact, that I’m not telling you what it is (you’ll just have to come and visit the zoo with us to find out).
There was an intentional decision made to leave the big camera at home this time, primarily because I wanted to focus my time and energy on spending the adventure with Ezra…but I have to concede that I was bummed a time or two that I didn’t have the camera because the animals where in perfect position to become subjects of good photos (like I have never seen all of the big animals so photogenic before). Ah well, there is always next time.
Ezra seemed to enjoy seeing all of the animals that he frequently reads about, but we spent about the same amount of time looking at them in real life as he does in a book – seconds. What he really wanted to do was chase the birds. All over the place. He would giggle non-stop as he would run after one, and it would take off and land a few more feet away just so he could run after it again.
He was actually showing his belly button to this goose...moments before the chase
And the chase is now officially on.
Ezra and I headed out to the Denver Children’s Museum yesterday with some friends….turns out it was a Daddy-Day-Care moment with four Dads and five kids. The kids ranged in age from about 18 months to 5 years, so once we got in the doors of the museum we pretty much split into a bunch of different directions. Ezra soon headed for his favorite place – the train area – and despite several valiant attempts otherwise, set up camp for most of our time there.
For one brief period, I was able to pry him away from the trains and head to the painting area (see previous post showing photos of another trip). We got him set up with an apron, a blank piece of paper, and black and red paint. Ezra then proceeded to paint for a while before deciding that there was something really intriguing about that red paint color…so intriguing in fact, that he wanted to taste it to make sure that it wasn’t something that he could snack on.
As if the world entered a matrix-like state of slow motion, the paint brush went from the cup straight to his mouth before anyone with reason could stop him. After he pulled it out of his mouth, I immediately took him over to the clean-up area (elbowing several other children and their Moms along the way to clear the path), and dunked him under the water faucet for a mass-decon of the area. Using high pressure water and a few wash cloths, we were able to remove most of the paint that hadn’t already made it’s way into his stomach. And despite the fact that Ezra looked like he was punched in the mouth (red paint), he was as cheerful as could be. Back to the train tables we went.
The Life of a Little Hippie 