Fall

In a nutshell here are some pictures to highlight some of the things we've been doing this fall. As I type the kids are on week 2 of fall break. So far it's been pretty good, with only a few fights and meltdowns. What else could a mom ask for? (NOTE: 2 cute videos below)


At the beginning of October we took the boys up Rampart Range Road (kind've near Devil's Head) to a trail system called Indian Creek. Gorgeous colors - all the aspen were turning yellow. Curren had fun walking a portion of the trail and then on mom he went. (Rick had hurt his achilles so he couldn't carry the extra load.)

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A couple of weekends ago we took the boys to a pumpkin festival Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield (near my old CO stomping grounds) was putting on. They had some bounce houses and rides, but the kids weren't too interested in waiting in line for the rides and instead had a blast running around the pumpkin patch and the border of the corn maze. The cool thing about most pumpkin patches here is that you actually go to the actual pumpkin patch - the place where the pumpkins grow. All of the pumpkins had been picked off their vines, but they were still in the fields or along the perimeter of the fields.

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Last Friday I, along with some other friends took our boys (there were 10 of them and no girls) to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in CO Springs. It's a pretty cool smallish zoo. The nice thing about this zoo as opposed to Denver Zoo is you're able to get a little more up close and personal with some of the animals. You can feed the giraffes - always a big hit. And as you can see from the picture above, the gorilla was enjoying a little company. Although he kept making some hand gestures which made me think he was trying to tell us to screw off. Either way I did capture a good pic with him and Curren.

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Last Saturday after Aidan's martial arts class we drove over to our neighborhood speciality store - Tony's Market to buy some caramel apples. They were making them especially for kids. The boys could choose up to 3 toppings. As you can see from Kellen's apple they were GIGANTIC. Two was plenty for the 5 of us. And they were sure yummy!

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Today I took the boys to see their pediatric dentist. And even Curren cooperated and had his teeth cleaned. It was a sight to behold. What a cutie. And even after eating those yummy caramel apples all boys have cavity-free teeth. Yippee!

Breckenridge

Labor Day weekend was spent in Breckenridge. Love, love, love this town! We stayed in such a great location too. We were able to walk to town for shopping, dining, people watching, etc.

Rick participated in the Breck Crest which is a 5k, half-marathon and marathon. Rick did the half and he said that was tough! They climbed for 6 miles straight and then traversed a mountain for a short bit. He did awesome considering all the climbing. It started at 8k feet above sea level and topped out at about 12,500 feet above sea level. He also said it was beautiful running in the mountains too.

We also took the gondola up to peak 10 (I think) to play at Breck's fun zone. They have alpine slides, bungee trampoline jumping, miniature golf, and you can also take a chairlift to the top and hike around or ride your bike down.

Aidan decided he wanted to do the bungee jumping. They had one in town he tried and then he tried the one at the fun zone. He flew! I was amazed at how much air they catch on those things. He loved it though. Me, can't even try it. Not only am I terrified of heights I would be sick to my stomach on the first jump.

(The bungee jump in town)

(The bungee jump at the fun zone. Got some air?)

Kellen loves miniature golfing so of course he was dying to play. So while Aidan, Rick and Curren waited in a long line for the bungee jump, Kellen and I played miniature golf. He's getting pretty good. We might have a little golfer on our hands. He even loves to watch golf on tv. Go figure.

On Monday after returning from Breck we headed over to my mom and Jerry's house for a BBQ. Yummy food, fine times had by all. The kids love spending time with their grandparents.

(Curren helping Pop Pop clean the grill)

School's back in session

Today was Aidan's and Kellen's first day of school. It's a big milestone for Kellen because he started kindergarten today! Now I have two kids at the same school. Yippee! Although kindergarten is half-day so that means if I didn't carpool with my friend I'd be heading to school 3 times a day. Not fun! Because of budget cuts they now charge to ride the bus. I'm boycotting the bus...but I may back down and utilize the bus when the weather turns bad. We'll see.

(Perfect picture of Aidan on the first day. Not overly excited. And when he asked why I was taking picture of him I said, "because it's the first day of school." "No it's not, mom. I am a third grader now.")

(Lining up to go inside. Aidan's teacher is the woman in the white sweater holding the sign.)

(Kellen, a kindergartener now)

(With his teacher, Mrs. Hamilton-Jones who happens to be LDS too.)

(Kellen with his neighborhood, church and now school buddy - Tanner)

Summer re-cap

Yikes! I guess I've been too busy this summer because I haven't kept up with what we've been doing over the summer. So here it is in a nutshell:



Girls' weekend in San Diego. I had a blast! It was so great to see my Cali girlfriends. We're planning to do this every year, but in different locations. Can't wait til next year.





Aidan's 9th birthday! Wow! It's hard to believe he's already nine years old. Where does the time go? I still remember heading to the hospital to deliver my little Aidan.





For his birthday, he invited a couple of friend's over for some pizza, cake and ice cream. Then we opened presents and headed outside to play a little basketball. For any of you reading this who don't know. Our families and us (his parents) all chipped in and purchased a permanent basketball backboard. Best investment ever. The kids are always playing a little hoop and most of the neighborhood kids head over to play some hoop too. Anyway, after playing outside for a bit I took the boys over to the theaters to see Despicable Me. What a cute movie. I wasn't really looking forward to seeing it because the previews didn't look that interesting, but I was pleasantly surprised. And that evening we topped Aidan's birthday off by heading to Red Lobster for a family dinner. My mom and Jerry told me on each child's birthday they'd like to take the family out to dinner. The birthday child gets to choose the restaurant.









(Our neighbor and cake decorator extradonnaire made Aidan's cake. As you can see he wanted a Broncos themed cake.)

4 days later we celebrated Curren's 2nd birthday. Now talk about time flying by! No more babies in this household. Curren didn't really know or care it was his birthday, but I still think he had a good day. We went to church and then the fam came over for dinner, opening presents and cake. He was very excited after opening up each toy. I think we could've just bought him one toy and he would've been fine with that. He now has a water table for playing outside which has kept him pretty happy and wet over the last few weeks.



(Curren's cake - store bought. He kept trying to grab the cake, hence the reason it's so far away from him in this picture.)



The last weekend in July we headed up to Steamboat Springs. We've never been there before and I'm glad we went. It's such a great town. And lots to do during the summer. Most ski destinations are also great destination points in the summer too. We rented a condo for the weekend with another family and had a great time with them.



(Fish Creek Falls)



The first full day Rick and the two older boys rode the alpine slide. Always a huge hit. Then the second day we went to The Old Town Hot Springs pool. Once again the kids had a blast. And Kellen passed the swim test so he was able to ride the big waterslides. That was pretty much all he wanted to do. Either Rick or I would ride the other slide and meet him at the bottom to give him a little help exiting the pool. Aidan also passed a swim test and was able to jump off the diving board without a parent standing by to watch. The boys are really turning into such great swimmers. Definitely a life skill I insisted they learn. I never want my kids to be afraid of water.






(What's could be more fun for boys than throwing/skipping rocks in a river)


The rest of the summer has been spent going to our neighborhood pool, playing at the park, playing with friends or hanging out in the cul-de-sac.



Oh ya, almost forgot. Yesterday the boys (along with their neighborhood friends) found two small frogs in our backyard. They must burrow in the rocks where water accumulates. We put them in a bucket and wandered around the rest of the 'hood to show off their frogs. Thankfully, before heading inside they put the frong back where they belong.



Overall, we had a wonderful summer break. Now on to the busy, hectic life of the school year. Aidan is taking martial arts classes once again and loves it. Kellen will be starting soccer and both boys are still in swim lessons...at least for now.

South Dakota

Last weekend we drove to South Dakota via Wyoming. That's one cool thing about living a little more central is the proximity to a number of amazing locales such as Mt. Rushmore and The Black Hills. (If we can't have the beach we might as well be close to lots of other things, right?)

The drive took about 7 hours which included a lunch break. Not too bad of a drive and quite pretty although very remote. As a side note, did you know that Wyoming is the least populated state with a little over 500,000 people? Definitely by far not one of the smallest states. I think it's one of the top 10 largest states. Having driven through parts of Wyoming I can see that not too many people live there. Like I said, it's very pretty, but a TON of open space.

South Dakota was pretty similar too. We stayed in Rapid City which has about 67,000 people. It's the largest city on the western side of the state. Hmm, wow! Coming from Cali and CO that's on the small side.

The main purpose of our trip was to see Mt. Rushmore, but there is a whole lot more to do there than see 4 former Presidents immortalized in stone. Pretty amazing in and of itself, but didn't completely impress the boys. Mainly because they can't appreciate what Mt. Rushmore symbolizes nor can they appreciate how difficult it was to carve such large faces in stone....which happens to be on the side of a mountain.

Friday, the day we visited Mt. Rushmore (which is located in Keystone, pop. 311) the boys and Rick enjoyed the alpine slides and a helicopter tour. The helicopter tour only lasts about 7 minutes, but according to Rick it was worth it. They flew over The Black Hills and got to see Mt. Rushmore from a distance. The older boys had such a blast, the pilot had to turn down the volume on their headsets.

We also went to a place called Bear Country USA. You drive through this "open wildlife park" to see elk, wolves, mt. goats, mt. lions, bison and as the name suggests bears. And lots of them. All the animals except the mt. lions have the ability to wander freely through their area. Each section is cordoned off by those rails on the road. You know those kind that keep the cows from crossing the road. Don't know the technical term. The wolves and bears roam together and it was pretty cool to see them wander by our cars. If I didn't know any better I would've thought we came across them in a national park.

After the car tour you can walk through babyland. As the name implies you get to see lots of young animals....and grizzly bears. (Go figure.) I guess Grizzlies are too aggressive to wander "freely" near cars. Glad they figured that out before we arrived.

Saturday we drove to Reptile Gardens. Another great place, albeit a tourist trap to rack in the dough from from visitors like us. They also have a lot of great animals to see. We saw the alligator/crocodile show. Pretty funny and it was cool to see a Steve Irwin "The Crocodile Hunter" like character "wrestling" alligators. Rick and the older boys watched a snake show while I watched some of a bird show with Curren. They also have giant tortoises - they were HUGE! the boys could touch and pet. Plus a large dome enclosure which housed a large variety of snakes. Aidan really liked seeing the most venomous snake in the world - Inland Taipan snake or the Fierce snake found in Australia. Wouldn't want to come across that thing, even if it's pretty docile. Not a huge fan of snakes in general.

Afterwards, we drove to Deadwood. It's a town just north of Rapid City and steeped in history. Actually the whole town is on the National History Registry. It's claim to fame is "Wild Bill" Hickock and Calamity Jane. Look them up if you're curious who they are.

(Saloon where "Wild Bill" Hickock was shot)

The town is situated in beautiful area of The Black Hills. Pine trees surround the whole town and most, if not all the buildings in the main downtown area are historic, gorgeous looking and well-kept. The weekend we were there the town was celebrating "Wild Bill Days". They had a lot of events going on including a dog agility competition called Dockdogs. One dog, named Jet from Colorado had just moved on to the pro round because he jumped 24 feet! Amazing. The owner throws a ball or toy into a pool of water and the dog jumps to fetch it. It was amazing seeing how far they jump and how well trained they are.

Sunday, before leaving for home we took a little detour and stopped off at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth AFB. They had some pretty cool jets and bombers. I'm not an airplane buff so I couldn't really tell all we saw except they were dated from WWII to present. A nice little Father's Day gift for Rick especially since he had to drive us home.

We had a great time, but it's always nice to come back home. I told Rick as we rounded a turn and saw the Denver skyline that I love the best of both worlds. City life and open space. We live in such a beautiful country.

Devil's Head - Memorial Day Weekend

This past Memorial Day weekend was spent with Rick's family visiting from California. We took them to downtown Denver and stopped off at Wash Park and then headed over to 16th Street Mall.

Washington Park (better known by the locals as Wash Park) is a HUGE park with a lake, playground, small botanic garden and a couple of trails that run the perimeter of the park itself. Rick's sister and her husband (known as Aunt Susie and Uncle Muscles or Uncle Ryan) took the two older boys on the paddle boats. The first trip lasted about 5 minutes when Kellen said he was down and wanted to head back to shore. So Ryan and Aidan went out and enjoyed themselves on the lake.

While they were enjoying the paddle boats, Rick's mom (Elva or Abue to the boys, short for Abuela or Abuelita - grandmother in Spanish), Rick, Curren and I walked the perimeter of the park.

After spending some time at Wash Park we decided to take our Cali relatives to the 16th Street Mall. This is a pedestrian friendly outdoor mall in heart of downtown Denver. It's a great area to do some shopping and some serious people watching. Never a dull moment on the 16th Street Mall.

On Monday we decided a good hike was in order so we packed ourselves into the Sequoia (love having a big SUV) and headed over to Devil's Head. It's about a 45 minute drive up into the foothills. And the majority of the drive is on a windy dirt road. Devil's Head is located in Pike National Forest which takes in a good portion of the area just west and south of us. Devil's Head is a US Forest fire lookout tower built back in 1912. The views extend 100 miles in every direction. It was AMAZING!

The hike to the base of the lookout tower is about 2 miles of switchbacks. Not too bad of a climb, however, for sea level dwellers it was a bit more challenging, but everyone made it! Yay! The last section is a set of steep stairs that lead you to the lookout tower where a forest ranger greets you with a card stating,

"This certifies that on 5/31/10, (insert name) climbed Devil's Head Lookout Station guarding the Pike National Forest against fire, and is therefore recognized as a member of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Squirrels. Signed by the lookout person.

Then you get to sign a book proving you were at the lookout tower. The elevation is 9748 ft. Not too shabby.

(At the lookout tower)

(view of Pike's Peak - a 14er from the lookout tower)

Curren did pretty good on the way up...on Rick's back, but he was ready to get down and do some of his own hiking. Thankfully there's a large flat resting area before you climb the stairs so he got to explore. However, when it was time to head back down the mountain Curren decided he wasn't quite ready to go and threw and absolute tantrum and refused to go back in the Ergo baby carrier. The only thing he wanted at that point was being in mom's arms. Ugh! I walked a few steps with him and realized this was NOT going to work. The kid weighs 33lbs. So I told Rick to force him on my back and off we went. He screamed for a few minutes more, but then calmed down and relaxed. Poor kid was tired and just wanted his two feet on the ground.

(one the way up - Devil's Head)

(coming down the mountain)

We ended the Memorial Day by having a BBQ with our Cali relatives along with my mom and Jerry. What a great day to honor those who have and are serving our country!

Tuesday could've been a pretty uneventful day of swim lessons and a little bit of swimming at our local neighborhood pool. However, our little Curren, who's almost 2 mind you (think terrible two's here) decided he already knows how to swim and needs no help from anyone while heading off to the deep end. He didn't want me holding him or touching him in the pool. Everytime his chin went under the water I grabbed him and brought him back to the shallow end. And everytime he screamed and screamed. I think I handled the defiance for quite a while (about an hour) and decided I couldn't take it anymore. And I'm sure most everyone else at the pool had about enough of this screaming child. So I got him changed and off Elva and I went to head home and put Curren down for a nap. (Aunt Susie and Uncle Ryan stayed a little longer with Aidan and Kellen.)

Curren fell asleep before we even left the parking lot. So once home I carried him into the house. I hadn't even got that far when all of sudden he throws up all over my back. I start walking him toward the kitchen sink because he's still making noises like he's going to throw up again and instead of making it into the sink he vomits all over the front of me and then one more time for good measure. He'd swallowed so much pool water from refusing to let me help him in the pool that his poor tummy couldn't handle it. ICK! So as quickly as I could I wiped him down (most of the junk was on me) undressed him and headed upstairs. Thankfully Elva was kind enough to clean up the mess.

Can you say YUCK!?! Oh well, that's life and now it's documented so I can show this to Curren one day when he's older.

Overall, besides the vomit episode we had a wonderful time with Elva, Susie and Ryan. We can't wait until they come back again!