Eat Play Love

Even though the first time I visited "Cave Park" was about 15 years ago, it wasn't until this morning that I learned the real name of the park is Arapahoe Ridge Park. Cave Park as we so lovingly call it, is one of the most unique parks we've ever been to. In complete contrast to modern synthetic playgrounds, the focal point of Cave Park has a beautiful flagstone play structure complete with tunnels and mazes, built right into the landscape. Cave Park provides such a unique experience for kids, as it's so completely different than the usual playground experience. It's a great way for kids of all ages to develop climbing skills, comfort level with dark and tight spaces, and a real sense of independence! There's really no hand holding through the tunnels, kids must explore on their own.


There are other components of Cave Park, but they are dated. There's a shiny metal merry go round (warning, it gets dangerously hot in the sun), a very small toddler size…

Boulder is known for it's Open Space and Mountain Parks, but it's a bit of a hunt to find the playgrounds that are true gems. Through a series of posts, I am going to highlight some of our favorite parks to help cut out the legwork for anyone looking to go on a playground adventure, be it a local or just a visitor passing through! 
Foothills Community Park  800 Cherry Ave Toddler friendly: Yes Big Kid Awesome: Yes Bathrooms: Yes Picnic Shelters: Yes Cycling/Scooter friendly: Yes Features, rock climbing, bouldering to slide down a big slide, neighboring community gardens
Foothills Community Park is a park complex in North Boulder, west of Broadway off of Cherry Avenue. The highlights of this post are from the playground that is featured off of 7th Avenue and can be tucked away from the Community Gardens portion of the Foothills Community Park (related, I couldn't find the playground until we went off searching on foot). 
There truly is something for everyone at this park! The…

My legs are long and dominate my physique, but come in handy as I gracefully throw the right one over the top tube of my Surly. My feet nonchalantly slip into the toe clips on my pedals and those dominating legs get to work. There really isn't much settling in when I hop on a bicycle, I feel at home. My hands gently squeeze the brakes when I am moving too swiftly down a hill. On a rare occasion, I let myself feel what it's like to just let it rip without touching the brakes. The wind passes through my helmet, I unknowingly crack a smile maintaining tight lips, fearing bugs would ruin my triumphant moment. My right hand doesn't have to wait for a message from my legs sent through my brain to adjust the gears on a climb, it just opens up the lever and the release is immediately felt. I love climbing, which may be rather strange to admit, but for some reason I enjoy hushing up all the tiny whispers that tell me I can't do it. When I climb, I can.

For all the cumulative m…

Kids and computers. Computers and kids. The topic seems to be popping up more frequently in our home. After the girls are in bed we sometimes watch a movie, leisurely lounging on the sofa we talk about our day and quite honestly discuss things we save for when we aren't in the company of the girls. For us, there is no set age as to when a child is ready for a tablet, computer, or cell phone. We tend to air on the conservative side, as many children we know already have their own devices, but we definitely value the role technology has in our lives and want the girls to enrich their lives with it as well. We take a bit of a balanced approach and don't limit "screen time" to a set number of minutes, but we value being active outside, gardening, reading for 20 minutes a day, writing in our journals, and being crafty in addition to allowing time on the computer. It works for us and my general rule of thumb in regards to parenting is not for me to judge others, but recogn…

This is a great informative news segment: My favorite part of the video is when the representative of the grocery industry says consumers don't need to know if a product contains GMO's because they are safe and it's just a confusing label (as we would assume that makes them unsafe). I will follow up his statement with this, why as consumers do we need to know juice comes from concentrate? That's a label that is in place, do we assume concentrate is bad for our health?

Personally I want to know if the food I was about to eat was injected with foreign proteins in a laboratory and treated with high levels of toxic chemicals. Let's not confuse our RIGHT TO KNOW with chemical companies bottom line or their ability to buy elections and legislation. Currently our system puts corporations before people and the lack of information available to consumers leaves us feeling confused. While we believe the USDA is protecting us, it's appalling to find out that they don…

Rather foolishly I assumed Pizzeria Locale wouldn't be crowded on a Sunday evening. I had barely thrown the parking brake in the truck, when the crowd loitering on the sidewalk in front of Locale caught my eye. A beautiful sign of summer is seeing the patio door fully retracted, allowing the most magical wafts of the union of dough, sauce, and cheese from their glorious wood fired oven outside, gracing the passersby. I may have stepped off of the sidewalk to avoid kids on bicycles, a few leashed dogs, and adults chatting away, gathered along the iron railing before arriving at the front door. I immediately scanned the bar to see if there was any space available before the host could even welcome me.

Good Evening, how many? 
Just one. I'll take the pizza bar. 
Tonight I was drawn to the pizza bar seating, one piece of glass separating production from consumption, work from pleasure. Tap water filled my glass, my first Limoncello Spritz arrived shortly after, followed by the Merca…