Camping In Style

It was the first time for just Glenn and I to take the new 5th wheel out!  We were excited to get away for a couple of days to ATV and test out the 5th wheel - and of course it passed with flying colors!

The best part was we BOTH could be in the little kitchen vs the camper when one person had to be sitting at the table while the other one cooked!  Everything worked great - we had plenty of water (I even took a shower) and we spent a LOT of time in the 5th wheel as naturally we had rain!!

I didn't mind the rain - I always have a good book with me so I spent a lot of time sitting under the outside awning reading or on the couch all curled up!  Glenn practiced shooting his bow in anticipation of hunting season which is coming right up!

The time we did get to ATV was wonderful!  I always love the aspen trees!

Lots of high scenic places and Bob will probably recognize these views - yes, we went by your hunting camp and it looks the same!

There are a couple of steep places where Glenn actually asked me to get off and walk and I was more than happy to comply!

It's always interesting to see the old mining camps!

When we first arrived, we stopped at Dottie's (the only commercial place in the town of Sargent) and saw signs posted about the closing of Hwy 50 - I had seen a large lit up sign as we were driving over that said the Hwy would be closed for the bike race but I guess it just didn't sink in.  Yes, they were closing the highway from Gunnison to Salida (which included Monarch Pass) from 9:30am to 6:00pm!  Our plans were to leave early afternoon that Wed. so that wasn't going to happen!  We decided we would just wait till late afternoon and then head out.

Wednesday we woke up to rain but by 11:00 it had cleared up and was sunny so took the ATV down to Dottie's (which was closed of course since the highway was closed) and proceeded to wait for the USA Pro Cycling bikes to go by!  Met a couple of guys that were both doing the Continental Divide Trail - one on a motorcycle who had started up in Canada and was doing the trail all the way to the Mexican border - the other was on a bicycle and was just doing the state of Colorado!  Of course when you're biking and bicycling, you carry the least amount of provisions possible and depend on places along the route to stop and eat or to get snacks.  They BOTH were planning on eating at Sargents and were quite disappointed it was closed.

I had our picnic lunch with us so shared it with both of them and sent the remainder of what was left with the bicycle guy, since he had to travel so far to the next place.

The bikes finally came by (along with the police, EMT's, bicycle crews, photographers and all the people it takes to handle these events) and they went by so fast, I hardly had time to snap pictures!!  Boy were they rolling - but I'm sure that Monarch Pass slowed them down a bunch!!

It was fun to see them whiz by and then it was back to the ATVing and camping!

We did get to leave about 5:00pm that day - Monarch Pass was a zoo on top as that was the finish point for the bicyclists - but we were not done seeing them yet as Woodland Park is the start of the 5th round of the riders and that is to happen on Friday!

Breaking Ground!

Glenn is in his element - digging in the dirt!  He borrowed a large backhoe from our friend Dick and not only has started on the driveway but also on the house.  Of course first he had to cut many many trees...........that's always hard to do as we love our trees but he did try to transplant a few of them so we'll see if that works!

When Evan was here last weekend, he helped Papa and loved riding in the backhoe!

 It's hard to imagine a house sitting in this spot someday but the reality is -it will happen!! I just noticed that on the left hand side of this picture, I caught a rainbow!

 We have a huge brush pile and a lot of green wood for the wood stove - but it sure won't be ready to burn this year!!

Monday we have a guy coming to blast rock in our driveway - guess I better get my ear plugs ready!

Aleah and Kenzie - One Final Day!

The girls let me sleep till 6:15 on Saturday - wow - how can they have so much energy?  But we were excited that the sun was out and it looked to be a perfect day ahead!

The first thing we decided to do was to walk up to the new property - there are some neat rocks the kids can play on!  I had NO idea that the little girls would have so much fun up here - they picked mushrooms and pretended to make mushroom soup, making up a little song about it - they picked up pine cones and sticks - they climbed up and down the rocks - and I finally had to tell them we had to leave in order to get our other things done before the movie that afternoon!

Sidewalk chalk is always fun and both girls remembered the drawings that Evan and Kylan had made - they had fun drawing with all the different colors!

And then it was bubble time!  I LOVE blowing bubbles!

After lunch, we headed into town to see Planes, Fire and Rescue!  Luckily it was showing in the theatre where the seats are really angled so they didn't have any problem seeing the screen!  They both loved the movie, even though they're more into the "princess" movies than the "cars" movies!

Yes, we had popcorn and lemonade!

Jessi and Evan arrived late afternoon - up till that time, the girls had been perfect little angels - once Jessi arrived, of course Kenzie got a little whiny - typical situation that I have seen time and time again!!

The kids got back in the hot tub for awhile and enjoyed that before dinner and baths.  They looked so cute ready for bed!

Sunday morning we headed back up to the property for a while - for some reason, they didn't have near the fun they had the day before.  Evan went up with Papa and helped him for quite a while!

After lunch, it was time for them to head home!  What a great time we all had and I hope the girls have many memories of our excellent adventure!!

The Excellent Adventure Continues.........

Friday was the day the girls had been waiting on for a long, long time - Dinosaur Museum Day!!

I forgot how much longer it takes to get little girls ready - I wanted to do cute little braids in their hair but they didn't want them at all!  Just straight they both said - ok - I can deal with that as long as it's not hanging around their face when they eat!

Our first stop was coffee for me and smoothies for them - smoothies were on their list so I decided morning ones would be great so I could get some coffee time in - the place was packed so we had to sit outside and it was cool in the shade!

 And then we were off to the Dinosaur Museum!!  Since I thought it was going to rain, we decided to take our outside pictures first!!

 The museum is actually more for older kids and adults but they still enjoyed seeing the bones and asking a few questions!!

 Their favorite part was the kids play area!  There are several activities the kids can do and we spent most of our time in this area!  Aleah even picked out a book for me to read!

 When we were almost done, one of the workers told us he was going to do a presentation so we joined the rest of the kids and it was very interesting.  He passed around all types of bones which the kids got a kick out of - here they're holding a skull!

 After buying a souvenir for each of them, we headed to Burger King - there were no other kids in the play area so that made it nice!

 The sun was finally out when we got home which meant one thing - HOT TUB TIME!!  They had waited very patiently for that rain to stop!

 I'm not sure what Kenzie was telling me in this picture so I'll leave that to your imagination!

 After the hot tub, it was back to the play dough - this time to make doll beds!

Friday night Papa made popcorn for all of us and after watching a Christmas movie (yes, a Christmas movie because that's what they wanted!!!) they headed to bed.  After all, we still had another day!

Aleah's & Kenzie's Excellent Adventure!

Every time Kenzie would go by the Dinosaur Museum in Woodland Park she would turn to Evan and say "Nana is going to take Aleah and me there when we are both 5 years old."  And that's right - both girls were now 5 years old and it was time to come to Nana and Papa's house to spend 3 nights and do all the fun things that Evan and Kylan got to do when they were 5!

And the time had come!  After our mini golf trip, I packed the girls suitcases and car seats in my car and headed back home - a trying trip because Colorado Springs was backlogged with a bad accident and it took an hour JUST to get through town............

But we made it to Woodland Park (in the rain of course) and the first stop of our adventure was to try out the new frozen yogurt shop!  It's a first in this town!

 The girls were excited to FINALLY get to Nana and Papa's house!  They had requested cheese pizza for dinner so that's what they got!!  And then it was time to do nails and toenails!  They were all smiles!

 It was raining too hard to get in the hot tub so we had to do indoor things - but they both love to color, as long as the pictures are of a princess!

 Evening snack - why pudding of course!

 I allowed them to watch one tv program that evening before bedtime - our 2 little peas in a pod!!

They slept upstairs in the loft with us - and besides talking in their sleep a little bit, they both slept great and didn't even get up TOO early!!!  To Be Cont'd............

Pirates Cove - Or Not?

I love the lazy river at Pirates Cove - since the park is more or less a "kids" place, there is only the lazy river and a couple of tall slides for the adults - the rest is geared towards the little kids and it's such a neat place.  But we have been having rain day after day after day so the chances of actually going weren't great but we were all optimistic!

I drove into Denver on Wednesday late afternoon and Jill came down from Ft. Collins - we all met at Jaime's house for a taco dinner and get together!

Early Thursday morning I woke up to gray, cloudy skies and the temp was 57 degrees..............I headed over to get coffee and drove in the rain over and back  - it wasn't looking good!  After weighing the odds, we all decided to head over that way and see what the weather was doing there and if it was still raining, we could do mini golf which was just a couple blocks away.

Pirates Cove was closed - and wasn't going to re-open during the day - so it was off to mini golf!  And we did have a fun time except for a couple of meltdowns from the boys this time - I think they had their hearts' set on Pirates Cove!

 The course was a super cute one with the setting being historical parts of Colorado!  And yes, Gary and Jessi posed in front of the Florissant Fossil Beds!

 Parker loved every minute of it!

 Garden of the Gods - or had you already guessed it?

 Someone was NOT happy in this picture!

 But things got better and both boys were all smiles!

 After golf, we headed over to the park by Pirates Cove which has a huge playground, picnic area, petting farm and the train!  Jill and I had taken Rayna to this park when she was pretty little many years ago!  After a great picnic lunch (except for the bees that kept landing on us AND our food!), Jill took the little ones for a train ride - they loved it!

And then it was homeward bound with 2 cute giggling girls in tow - Aleah's and Kenzie's adventure was about to begin!

Camping Trip Cont'd

It's sure nice to just roll out of bed and walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night instead of CRAWLING down from the upper bunk in the small camper!  The perks of having a 5th wheel - and I have found PLENTY of them!

Friday night the rain found us once again.....................we tried to sit around the campfire but soon the rain forced us to our campers.  Evan and Kylan were spending the night in the 5th wheel so we got the bed set up and I made them get into their pj's.  But later on, I heard voices outside and there were the little ones out running around - it had stopped raining and the fire was going great!  So we all went back out to the campfire, turned the music up loud and watched the skies with all the stars for a long time!

Saturday morning I gave the kids the rest of their gift (the night before were the glow wands and the LED finger lites) which was a cute little fan that had lights in it!

The Savages were heading out late morning so they were packing up while I was taking pictures of the cousins!

Nothing beats playing in the dirt with a stick!

Glenn took Jill on a final ATV ride before they headed out and after a while, we see them walking back - did they run out of gas - did they have a flat tire?  No, the ATV just stopped and wouldn't run so Glenn figured it was the transmission...........darn..............Robby graciously drove his car over to where it was parked and helped Glenn pull it back with a chain.  Glenn tore it apart that afternoon and found out it wasn't the transmission at all but a large belt that had broke!  Whew!  I was just glad it didn't happen with Glenn and I when we were on one of our 30 mile trips!!

Of course it rained part of the afternoon - the kids played - Jessi and I read - it was a nice relaxing day!  The 3 kids had fun trying to pull up dead trees by their roots!

We all had to eat in the camper due to the downpour that had soaked most everything outside but we had steaks to eat so who was complaining?  Of course later on, the rain DID stop!!  We had a great campfire again, more marshmallow roasting and enjoyment sitting by the fire!

Sunday morning everything was drenched from a heavy heavy dew - we moved it all out in the little bit of sun we had and by the time we were ready to head out around noon, most of it was dry!

Another successful camping trip - and Glenn and I can't wait to take the 5th wheel out again!