photo credit: kokokoshop

Every once in a long while, I come across something that I just have to share, and today it happens to be a superb little Etsy shop out of St. Petersburg, Russia called kokoko shop.

 As much fun as it is to receive a package from Russia in the mail, Q's favorite part was the tiny bluebird pin that was included, for pining on the hat or cape. She has been feeding it (seeds) and bedding it down under tiny scraps of fabric ever since!

I also love the papier mache pins with faces (similar to the apple-face on the tag shown above).

 Mustard seems to be our favorite color this fall, and I couldn't resist the mustard cape and yellow corduroy newsboy cap. You can see the tiny bluebird pinned under her lapel!

 Q has been known to be extremely fussy about hats, especially if they itch, but this one she has worn all day every day at school since we received it.

 Playing ball with her boyfriend at school.

 This is a lightweight cape, perfect for fall weather, but the shop also features some warmer coats for winter, as well as snood scarves (we ordered one of those too!), neckerchiefs, skirts, illustrated tote bags and buttons, and the most perfect Gatsby-esque retro sailor dress for girls that I've ever seen (I'm thinking next summer we will have to...)

In cap, cape and pin by kokokoKIDS, shirt Old Navy, leggings MiniBoden, boots Muck Boot

I will definitely be ordering from kokoko again!

 This is Lair o' the Bear state park in the last week of summer. 

 Because so many of my childhood summers were spent burrowing in the subtle fragrance of the scrub willow and wild mint alongside Colorado streams, this means a lot to me. 

 I think it means more to me, at this point, than it does to Q. But this is the stuff of which memories are made.

"Come on, Mommy!"

 Running for the arms of the great tree.

 This gigantic cottonwood has held so many children in its lifetime that I can't help wondering if it remembers them all.

One of my all-time favorite photos of the Q. 

 And, in the stream with her paper umbrella and her dress hiked up over her bloomers. The water is bracingly cold in Bear Creek, if you were wondering, even in late summer. 

Aaaahhhhhhhhhh...

This is what the last moments of summer are all about. 

 Autumn in Colorado is always so fleeting and spectacular that, once the school year has started, it's always hard to find exactly the right day to head into the mountains for a leaf-watching day. We headed out at about 3:30 today which, given the shortening days, gave us barely enough time to fit in a Squaw Pass drive.

 In spite of the fleeting nature of Colorado's color season, and our limited time in which to enjoy it, it turned out to be a spectacular if speedy jaunt.

 We hit the colors just right, and honestly, given the catastrophic drought that we've experienced this year, I was amazed that the colors were so brilliant.

 

Nature is an amazing thing. 

 A spectacular view from Squaw Pass just past Mount Evans.

 A set of Colorado flags over the Mt. Evans lodge.

 Q looking sufficiently savage in her very first coonskin cap. My very first boyfriend, in first grade, sported a coonskin cap in honor of Daniel Boone, so I still have a soft spot in my heart for them. It was my first long-term relationship - we were together for three years or so!

Mike and Q in some dramatic evening light.

 They are so fond of one-another, it's always sweet to see them together.

 Me and Q on a precarious precipice. 

It was worth it for the spectacular view.

 "Not so close to the edge, Mommy!"

 Like mountain goats, overlooking our native territory.

The cabin-strewn meadows on the way back down to Denver are always an anodyne for the soul.

 Backtracking a bit, because I had SO many beautiful photos that it was difficult to choose, I am going to begin the chronicles of our days in the Vail Valley with my mum, who has since returned to her home and New York, and hence to her next trip to Banff.

 Our drop from Vail Pass into the valley, just beginning to be touched by the first gold trickles of an early fall.

 

 Mum, venturing through the Arrowhead Alpine Club on the way to our first walk up the mountain.

 When my generation was small, we played Monopoly. 

I don't know this game that Q discovered in a drawer at her grandparents' condo, but it seems to run along the same lines.

 A hearty dinner of steak in shallots and Gorgonzola sauce.

 

 And an after-dinner walk, on which Q held the trail map and lead us like the leader she is!

 A few sunset family photos at the base of Arrowhead mountain.

During the first days of my mother's visit, we stopped into Paxia for some Mexican food, and then swung into our local joint Wafflich to introduce her to some dear friends.

Q doing a little dancing at Paxia while we waited for dinner to arrive.

Paxia has a lovely outdoor patio, entirely perfect for this time of year!

 

in Anaïs & I faux-fur dress and Naïve Days Chinese jacket

 

 Q and daddy waiting for our friends to arrive at Wafflich.

 

The "fountain of youth", straight out of your childhood dream. Tap on the right gives lemonade, tap on the left gives fruit punch. Both free for the drinkin'. Yes, really!

 My mum meets our friend Az and her daughters for the first time.

 Needless to say, a great deal of fun was had by all!

 All three of Az's daughters go to school with Q this year, which makes for a cozy new dynamic.

 Ah, summer evenings at the icecream shop! Soon, it will be nothing but a memory.