April

Elizabeth loves to read about lions, tigers, and bears…so it seemed like a perfect outing to go visit the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, CO.  They have a raised boardwalk so you can walk above the animals and look down into the pastures where they roam.  It was different than visiting the zoo because of they way you can see a larger area and watch them play, eat, roam, and sleep.  I’d advise going on a cool day, because there is no break from the sun up there on the boardwalk.

We’ve been taking advantage of the Kids Night Out at the YMCA as often as possible.  We’ve had several times that we’ve had to cancel due to Eliz being sick or one day she went to the YMCA and I was in bed sick.  Uggh.  But when it does work out, we’ve been trying to go for a short hike and then have dinner and drinks out.  In April we just went over to White Ranch (eastern entrance) and hiked for about 2 hours.  I thought time went fast with Elizabeth?  It goes by extra fast when you finally have time to yourselves!

We were so excited to see wildflowers – it’s Spring!  (And a gorgeous spring did we have!)

We love the fact that our church has a Childwatch for Elizabeth to go and play when we attend masses.  They have toys and she can run around or they’ll hold and rock her if she wants to sleep.  Since we were prepared to use the daycare on Easter, weren’t we surprised to find it was closed on the holiday.  The church was full, standing room only.  I had no toys, books, or blankets for Eliz.  Thankfully, she entertained herself most of the mass by walking and checking out all the other people standing in the back of church.  She also loves the music, and kept asking and signing for ‘more’.  She loves the clapping too, but I think she thinks people are clapping for her!  We almost made it all the way through Mass before having to leave.  Note to self:  always have some toys in the car!

Here’s Eliz in her Easter Dress – wrestling with Daddy…

She’s good about defending herself – she gives Daddy a pretty good straight arm!

Eliz is getting bolder and bolder at the gymnasium.  Daddy came to watch us one day and she was brave enough to “jump” into the pit.  Ok, it was more of a step – she stepped off the trampoline and tumbled in – but she did it on purpose!  My brave little girl!  She also started to use the low balance beams.  Yea!

All of this new bravery she is developing has lead to one thing – she is now climbing anything and everything.  Safe or not safe, she is feeling the need to climb to the top of “it”.  She has tried climbing up the back of the sofa, she stands on the arm of the sofa to play with light switches, and so on.  Unfortunately, this has also lead to a scary fall.  She climbed onto a chair, and then hinged herself over the back of it and teetered over the backside.  She landed flat on her head.  Andy witnessed this gruesome tumble and we both pounced on her to make sure she didn’t break her neck before letting her get up.  Scary, scary.  And we’re sure this won’t be the last time our stomachs churn.  Surprisingly, she was back on that chair the very next day.  What to do?

Along with most toddlers, Eliz went through a stage where she sounded like the seagulls from Nemo - “mine, mine, mine”.  Or, “no, no, no” were frequent outbursts from her little mouth (at high volumes, usually).  Then this month that started to change.  She has started to echo everything we are saying.  It is so much better hearing her say “nice” than “no”, but some echos catch me by surprise.  One day we got in our hot car and I said “hotsy totsy”…and so did she.

I miss riding my bike, but finally in late April I got out for a bike ride.  Andy had Eliz in the trailer, and I got to ride.  What a great feeling.  It is so nice to get her and me back out on the bikes.

Eliz has this great new game that she is playing:  1,2,3 JUMP!  She flips over her activity table, stands on it and holds up her little index finger as she says “one” (her “one” sounds like “nye”), “two”, “three”, “jump”…and she steps/jumps off the short platform she is on.  She might also do this while standing on a book or anything, but it is so cute.

More pictures and videos from April are on the Webalbum.

A Second Babymoon : Andy’s Hikes

As I mentioned in the last post, we were able to squeak in a second trip up to Estes Park before the baby.  I attended the Yoga Journal Conference, and Andy squeezed in two hikes as his “retreat”.  How could he be in Estes Park / Rocky Mountain National Park and not hike??  Especially at this beautiful time of year.

On Tuesday he found the Storm Pass Trailhead (in the Sprague Lake area).  It only allows for three cars in the parking lot and he was lucky someone was pulling out when he approached.  He hiked east along the trail til he reached a 5-point intersection about 1/2 mile in.  Not a common type of intersection on trails – so he had a choice to make.  He made the big decision to follow the Boulder Brook Trail.  He’s been wanting to see water recently, so I think that was the driving factor.

He loved the trail:  it followed the creek, he saw colorful aspens, it was a challenging steep trail that was rewarding and peaceful.  He never saw another soul on his hike.  It took him about 40 min to make it up, and 20 min to make it down.

Here are some of his pictures:  (I think you can feel the serenity from these images – I was soooo jealous.  I wanted to hike AND do my yoga!)

On Wednesday, he stayed on the YMCA property and hiked the Emerald Mountain Trail.  The Yoga Journal Conference was at the YMCA of the Rockies – an incredible campus that we hadn’t seen before.  The YMCA would be a great place for a family reunion or large get-together.

First he drove up to the trailhead and stopped at The Chapel at Mountainside Lodge.

Then he started up Emerald Mountain Trail.  It was 0.9 mile one-way with a 600 ft elevation gain.  He thinks it felt steeper than that, maybe because the last 1/3 mile was straight up with no switch backs.  It was worth the effort.

The rains started to come, but it was only a steady drizzle.  But he got to see a large rainbow, aspens lining the slopes, a view of one of the lakes down in the NP, and again – not another soul on the trail.

When I got out of my afternoon class, I noticed that the rains had become snow higher up and left a dusting on the mountain tops.  (Even back at our house one of the mountains is now dusted with white.  I love the fall here, but I am not thrilled about another cold winter coming yet!  It would be great if Fall lasted for 6 months.)

Here are two bull elk that we got to see on the YMCA campus.  We saw others around town, too.  But I will always remember waking up this morning hearing elk bugling thru our open window.  We had the window open for the cool fresh air and in the morning we turned on the gas fireplace as we laid under covers and waited for more sounds from the elk.  Wish every morning started that way!

Fourth of July Visitors

We had some visitors for the week of July 4th – Andy’s Mom, his sister Carol, niece Stephanie, and her boyfriend Evan.  We had a grand time.  I’m pretty sure we all left each other exhausted by the end of the week.  But, that’s how we like to spend our vacations – cramming as much fun stuff in as possible!

Here’s a quick summary of some of our activities during their stay:

Eldorado Canyon State Park – we took a short hike along the creek in Eldorado Canyon to show off the beautiful rock formations, colors, and the rock climbers in one of our closest parks…

Look closely, and you’ll see at least four rock climbers…

Colorado Rockies Game – We went to a Rockies game Friday night.  We stopped at Wynkoop Brewery before the game…

Here’s the gang before entering Coors Field…

Lots of spectators file onto the field after the game in preparation for the evening’s firework show…

We enjoyed a fantastic fireworks show post-game.  What a way to prepare us for the Fourth of July!

Mt Evans -  On Saturday we enjoyed a scenic drive that looped us through Idaho Springs – Mt Evans – Evergreen – Morrison.

Here’s Steph and Carol at Echo Lake

A old, gnarled bristlecone pine tree.  The Alpine Garden on Mt Evans Road has some Bristlecone Pine Trees that are thousands of years old

Summit Lake on Mt Evans Road

Andy pretends he’s a Big Horn Sheep

View of a chain of lakes from the pass on the trail at Summit Lake

We got to watch a family of mountain goats on the Summit Lake trail

And we made it to the top of Mt Evans!

Evan and I took the trail to the summit itself for even more spectacular views

Just to prove Evan and I made it the 14,264’ summit, we took pictures of each other at the marker.

On our return trip, we stopped at Red Rocks in Morrison to show off our own little “Garden of the Gods”

We were fortunate that the rains didn’t come til the end of our scenic drive…and ended the day with a stunning double rainbow.

Fourth of July from our Balcony – the city fireworks display was set off right across the street from our home, which was one of the reasons we had our guests come for this holiday.  We thought it would be great fun to ‘cook out’ and not have to leave the house for the fireworks.  It was a windy, rainy day.  (Which is becoming a ritual whenever Andy wants to cook outside on our grill!)  Andy was a dedicated griller, though, and still cooked outside.  Surprisingly, the fireworks were set off as scheduled and we enjoyed the show – huddled in jackets with embers falling on our heads.

Glenwood Springs – On July 5th we took everyone up to Glenwood Springs for an overnight trip into the mountains.

Of course, the primary draw were the springs themselves…

But we also wanted to take the Tram up Iron Mountain and visit the Glenwood Caverns.

This picture shows the big swing and how it swings out over the edge of the cliff…and still the foursome in our group decided it would be fun to do?

The Glenwood Caverns

Carol, Andy, Steph and Evan tackle the Big Swing…I didn’t think it would be good for the little Tater Tot if I tried doing something like this (quite a bit of pressure on the belly area on this ride!)

It was a scenic drive on the way home (especially through the Glenwood Canyon area), but some of our group missed part of the beautiful drive…

We had to stop in Vail to “refuel” at a Starbucks and/or ice cream.  I hadn’t been to Vail before, so I wanted to check it out.  We saw enough of the downtown shops to know I want to go back for a longer visit!

Beautiful flowers in Vail…

It was a great visit, and now I’m sure you can see why we were all exhausted by the end of the week, right?

Evergreen, CO - Elk Meadow Park

Just another great hike…

This one was in Elk Meadow Park just outside Evergreen, CO.

A solo female elk relaxing in the trees…

This park also had a lot of Albert’s Squirrels (which are the black ones with tufted ears)…I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in one area before.

This trail had some nice variety along the way – from forests to meadows…

Afterwards, we went into the town of Evergreen and walked the shops for a bit.  Found a great kids consignment shop (funny how we are now just noticing these places?!) and a neat little Green Merchant.