Outdoor Fun

My, has the time flown by!  It only seems like a few days ago that Kari, Bryce and I were camping with Gran and Beep Beep for our third annual "camping with the Presbyterians."  We've had fun all three years, but last year was, by far, the most memorable and yet most frustrating.  With a horrible thunderstorm Friday night, the kids and I were in the tent with almost two inches of standing water before we called it quits and headed to the lodge with Gran.  We were fortunate to get the last room for the evening- a person had checked out only 15 minutes earlier.  We were certainly at the right place at the right time that night!

Fortunately this year was nothing like last year.  We had beautiful, mild weather, perfect for camping. Turkey Run is a little more than an hour away and has easy hiking trails and canoeing.  Kari went canoeing with another church family while Gran, Beep Beep and I stayed back at the campsite with Bryce.  Bryce, meanwhile, did everything in his power to get as dirty as possible, knowing that I had purposely only packed a bar of soap and a washcloth.  I don't mind the kids getting dirty, I just don't want to sleep with the little pigpens!

 On our Saturday morning hike overlooking Sugar Creek.

Bryce could not keep himself out of the firepit (no fire). 

This past weekend, mom and I took a mini vacation out to Ouray, CO.  This was my third time there, but first time without a baby in my arms and it was quite a different experience!  I read three books and started a fourth, slept, and only called home once!  

We took a Jeep ride with Mom's good friend, Chris.  Having a local with you allows for you to explore some of the lesser-known roads and trails.  For example, Ralph Loren has a huge ranch in Ridgway with a county road cutting through his property.  Most people aren't aware this is a county road (in fact, Loren proposed to the county a few years back to turn the road over to him but was rejected on the fact that the road leads to the Umcompahgre National Forest and must be available to the public.)  And so we went!  It felt a little like trespassing through the property, and because the aspens weren't in full color yet, we were the only ones on the road.  What a neat experience!

We also took a day trip over to Telluride and Mountain Village.

 The same tree where I've taken my picture with Kari and Bryce.

Mom made me drive up Camp Bird Mine Road all the way to Imogene Pass.  This city girl strongly prefers to pay a professional to drive on those kinds of roads.  The neat part was that it had snowed the day before at >10,000 feet and we made it up far enough to see the snow.

This was pretty much the only grove of aspens we saw in full color.

Moneymaker

Little brother has turned into quite the vehicle for Kari making money.  Once again they were caught rough-housing and Kari took a blow to the mouth, knocking the other front tooth loose.  Daddy is getting pretty good at convincing Kari to let him tug on her teeth in exchange for a Tooth Fairy visit.

And this is all just in time for school pictures next week!