The road to Vail, CO

Unbeknownst to me, my journey to a healthy hip started almost 4 years ago.

After Luci was born in 2009, I was lucky to start running again and I really enjoyed it. I wasn't doing triathlon's because I really wanted to limit the time away from my newborn so I focused on running. It is my true "sport" love after all. I raced two half marathons the 2 years after Luci was born and lots of little 5k's and neighborhood runs. I was getting faster (for me) and was having fun spending time listening to music, running along the coast and enjoying my "me" time. During this time, we were dealing with the decline in my husbands spine health so we ventured off to Boulder, CO for him to have surgery. After our weekend visit to beautiful Boulder, we decided to make a big move. We wanted to be able to provide a better, quieter upbringing for our daughter so we bought a house in Erie, CO.

During the time our house was being built, we stayed with my parents in Santa Rosa; Louis continued his recovery from his spinal fusion and I worked.  A lot.  I didn't exercise and I really lost my fitness - not to mention added about 20 lbs. What bothered me the most, was the loss of fitness.  Since then, its been a constant up and down cycle of getting "back at it" and getting sidelined with random aches, pains and injuries.

Fast forward to 2015- I finally was diagnosed with a labral tear in my right hip. I saw two recommended Hip Specialists in Denver and was told by both that they wouldn't recommend surgery due to some early development of arthritis in my hip joint. Both said I am an excellent candidate for a total hip replacement!!! How crazy is that? 42 and needing a new hip. After some research I learned that "The Guy" is local and has an practice in Vail, CO- only 2 hours away. So, we decided to see him. Dr. Marc Phillipon focuses on surgeries of the labrum and all the local surgeons have trained under him so he seemed like the right guy to see.

After meeting with him in October 2015 my surgery was scheduled for April 18th.
Of course that weekend a huge snow storm was forecasted! I think I was more afraid of driving to Vail than the actual procedure itself. I picked up my mom on Friday afternoon and we drove right up the mountain to try to beat the storm. Well, not so lucky. an hour into the drive the snow started falling and the drops were the size of golf balls- huge and thick to the point where I could barely see the end of the car.  The roads were closed and after driving for an hour at 5 MPH we finally got off the freeway and stayed at a hotel in Frisco. Poor mom, was getting altitude sickness so we went to bed and tried to rest. We had a small window in the morning where we got back on the road and drove the remaining 24 miles to Vail. The road was in good condition and we made it!!

The rest of the story will continue in another post. Here are some pictures from the road and my little Pickelicious making me a book!

Mother's Day Reflection

I met you on a beautiful sunny day. It was Wednesday, February 25, 2009. This was the day I became your mommy.

With nervous, excited bubbles in my stomach, I woke up early, took a shower and put on makeup, did my hair and got dressed in a bright red top with my favorite maternity pants.

Nana and Papa walked your daddy and I out to the car, waved goodbye with tears of excitement in their eyes. The next time I saw them, I would have you in my arms.  This was an exciting day for all of us.

When we arrived at the hospital things moved quickly- they signed me in, got me a gown and quickly took a peak inside my belly to make sure you were doing well and ready to join the world.

They rolled me into the operating room and Dr. Kroll was ready for me. She even added some mood music - we had Coldplay playing in the background. Maybe that is why now, to this day 7 years later, we still listen to Coldplay when it's bed time....It reminds me of the day you were born.

I was very insistent that even though I was having a planned C-Section I wanted to see you being born. If I couldn't "birth" you myself, I wanted to see it.

The Dr. was wonderful and when the time came, he lowered the sheet that was blocking the surgical sites and I saw you. Your little pink legs, your big belly, and then your giant head of black hair. I have never seen anything so beautiful.

Then I heard you cry. Crying your first announcement to the world that you had arrived! Luciana Capri Bednar was here.

As I held you and nursed you, my heart burst with a love I will never be able to explain. The love I have for you is so big ~ The love only a mother can truly understand.

I had no idea what was to come after that day. Would you be like me? Would you be like Daddy? As you have grown, you are a blend of your Daddy and I. You look just like him but you have my temperament.

You are fun, sensitive, a good friend, a wonderful daughter and grandaughter. You love your family, your pets, your friends. You love Math, skiing, playing with your kitties, dressing like a princess, playing with makeup. You are all girl! My girly girl. You are extraordinary!

You are exactly the little girl I dreamed about having since I was a little girl.

Thank you for making me a mother ~ this is by far the best role that I have.

I love you.

xoxo Mommy

Springtime in the rockies

This spring brought about many opportunities for fun and loads of changes! We had a visit with my parents around the time of Luci's birthday, Sprout House for spring break, riding a bike with no training wheels, Easter egg hunts, the end of Pre-school and a trip to Grand Lake, CO.  As always, we were surrounded by much love and wonderful experiences.

Luci's last day of Pre-school was a bittersweet moment for all of us. We love Blue Mountain Montessori and would have loved for her to stay but the price of full time Kindergarten at BMM is just out of our budget. We feel excited about her next chapter and definitely are excited about having a 14 yr old babysitter for the summer~

Princess Anna and a birthday celebration

February marks a great time of year for us. Nana and Papa visit and we celebrate the "Goose" with a  birthday celebration. She is very much a princess herself and loves to celebrate with other royalty.  This year was no different although the theme was inspired by a little something called Frozen.....perhaps you've heard of it?

If you are like most households of small children you have no doubt spent hours belting out "Let it go" or a favorite of ours, is "For the first time in forever" the duet version! No room for self consciousness here, you just have to grab the nearest remote control or whatever can double as a microphone and join in the song. Pickelicious and I had a serious routine for a few months each night where we didn't read any stories, but rather we acted out these two songs. Exactly like they are in the movie.  We did get to take turns being Anna and Elsa.

I really like going overboard in the party planning and decorations. Maybe it is because I need a creative outlet or maybe it is because I am so influenced by my surroundings...whatever the case, I LOVED transforming our little house into a winter wonderland. My little Princess Anna, really enjoyed herself and her friends had fun too! It is so hard to believe that 5 years have passed since this incredible gift came into our lives. 

Stories with Anna

Games with Anna

before the madness

The food display

no sugar food..haha

One happy little Pickelicious

A January like no other...

January started off with our return back to Co from our family visit for the holidays. We were happy to home and enjoying some of the snow. And then my phone rang.

I was sitting at my desk on Monday January 13th when I received a call that you never want to receive. A friend of mine from California called to share the news about our friends daughter suddenly passing the day before. In an instant, I couldn't breath as I choked on my tears and my heart was ripped out of my chest thinking of the pain of my dear friend M.  We shared our wedding planning- getting married 1 day apart; announcing our "early" pregnancies at the same time; we shared our baby registry and all our up's and downs of being pregnant. Our daughters were born a week apart, we had our first playdate after the hospital with them, and we had our final playdate with them the day before we moved away. How could this be? How could something so awful happen to a family that had so much love to give and are wonderful parents? I am sure my friends will wonder this for the rest of the their lives and I don't mean to make their grief in anyway about me. We share in their grief and feel that loss every day when we see our beautiful daughter. 

I was able to fly to So Cal to be there for the services which were beautiful and gut wrenching. I wanted to be near my friends and to support in any way I could. There was no cause determined for the reason for the death and that was very hard- not knowing. The news would come a few months later that little B had passed because of an infection had attacked her little heart. 1 in more than 1 million die from this. This was truly unbelievable. 

I returned home and it took me a good few months before I didn't shed a tear at least once a day thinking of their family and the hard road in from of them. If my sweat pea has so much as a sniffle I'm ready to trek over to Children's hospital. I think I will be that way forever. Forever changed. 

I have to say, we have lived away from OC so I didn't really know the little girl that B had become.... she was barely 2 when we left but the stories I heard and how the family described her is no surprise. You could see that twinkle in her eye when she was little and I see that twinkle now when looking up at the stars shining in the sky. 

She will be missed by so many ~ more than words can say. 

Holidays 2013

So it would appear that I am good for update about 1 time a year. That is so crazy because I actually spend the better part of my days sitting at my home office desk in front of two computers all day. It has been a super busy year so here I am in August sitting down to do some updates for the year.

I want to start with looking back at our holiday break with my family in Santa Rosa. As usual we spent about a week in town visiting with the family.  There was something different in the air this year as I knew it would probably be our last holiday with my dear grandpa with us.

Grandpa has been mentally and physically deteriorating the last year and we saw a pretty steady decline in 2013. He has a hard time remembering anything happening in his daily life but can still remember the war (WWII) like it was yesterday. This year, I really wanted to make sure we spent enough time with him that I could leave in January to go back to CO knowing that he knew I loved him and how much my life has been enriched by him being a huge part of it.  I made sure to bring Luci with me to visit my grandparents every day. We would spend an hour or so just talking and being together.  Luci really seemed to take to Grandpapa (she always has)... as she would sit right next to him and hold his hand and talk to him. He would smile, pat her hand and say things like "well isn't she a cute little thing" & "I sure love you". I'm not entirely sure he actually knew who she was but he knew he loved her and he told her often.

I was really looking forward to Christmas Eve & Day as this year would really be the year when Luci was excited about Santa coming and not afraid that "some big man comes into our house while we are sleeping"... that didn't sit well last year.  We had so much fun wrapping presents and getting the cookies and carrots ready for Santa and his reindeer. We set up our camera to capture that jolly guy in the action and the girls were blown away in the morning when we showed them the video of Santa bringing their presents during the night!

From here, things went a little downhill. The flu made a nasty appearance. One by one, people started vomiting. The worst was Isa vomiting all over Luci while they were asleep in bed. Luci didn't even wake up until I had to pick her up and put her in a shower to get everything off of her. It was awful. Poor Isa, was so sick and felt terrible about throwing up all over.  We were able to relocate Luci & Isa into separate spots, get everyone cleaned up and back to sleep. The only two people who didn't get sick were Luci and me! We were so lucky.

Louis and I got a day on our own to see some friends wine tasting! We drove a few hours and met up with Natalie and AP and had an awesome time.

After this crazy week, we flew home to Colorado to settle back into the snowy winter and to prepare for Luci's upcoming birthday.

the boys celebrating Pliny 

Louis's own trail

The view from my parents is always amazing

Claire I mean Sophie our elf (Maybe a new name this year)

Sleeping sweeties

cousins

2nd cousins

Lagunitas

good friends

Gigi and Grandpapa

Princess Party and a Snow Storm

Goodness... where do I begin? The last week of February was our little munchkin's 4th birthday. How the years have flown by! It seems like only yesterday we were reading the test in disbelief! Since the "little pickel" (Luci's pet name) is a dress up fanatic it seemed only appropriate to host a Princess Party!

Princess Belle was the chosen one and I had a great time reading pinterest for all things Belle. I had just been laid off from Apple therefore I had the whole week free to shop, and make the decorations.  My mom came into town and contributed her design skills to putting this all together.

The day of the party was a massive snow storm. In fact, we weren't sure Belle could make it but what a trooper she was. Rode in her horse drawn carriage miles and miles to be here. We were so glad she did.



Happy Birthday Goodies



 

Royal faire



Princess Cake Pops!

 

Cupcakes!!!





Meeting Princess Belle and receiving an Enchanted Rose



Face Painting



 

Ring around the Rosie



One Happy Birthday Girl!

Coming up next.... Letter to Luci