Beautiful Bug...

I mentioned in an earlier post that Bug was being goofy for pics.

She's also started posing.

Here's a few of my favorites...

She's becoming such a beautiful girl!

Home...

We are officially back.

I wasn't a great blogger this year, sorry.

To pick up where I left off...

Friday was our last day in Estes and was mostly spent downtown shopping and eating lunch.

We found the most lovely pizza place with an outdoor patio. YUM.

The kids, of course, tried to convince us that they couldn't live without just about everything they set their eyes on.

Hubs was nice enough to take the big kids to the playground for a bit so that Gram and I could wrap up our shopping kid free.

Carlos...slept the entire time we were in town.

He had a restless night and, I guess, was pretty worn out.

Later that evening we packed yet another picnic and headed to Endovalley.

We've never really spent any time there, but the day we went up Fall River Road we drove through and found some lovely picnic spots right next to the river.

Here's ours...

The kids enjoyed splashing in the river

the water was pretty chilly!

proud when they braved balancing the logs :)

And not to be left out...

this picture cracks me up!

He'd been a little fussy, I didn't have my Moby, I had to set him down really quick to help Gram out with the picnic supplies :)

Such a cute face!

Gram and Hubs took care of the hot dog cooking

we also enjoyed smores and roasted marshmallows before leaving.

And the mountains gave us a beautiful parting gift...

so pretty!

Hubs and I joked about finding a way to not leave this place...

this helped!

Until next year, I'll just come back here to remember !

A Day At The Lakes...

OK, this morning was all about Tuesday.

For Wednesday, I didn't take any pics...except one with my iPhone that I'll just have to share later...

1.) because it's too cute not to share

2.) because I can't bring myself to walk up and down the stairs one more time today unless our cabin catches fire...in which case I'll only have to go down.

Don't judge.

I played putt putt with Carlos again tonight and probably did about a hundred squats

(because, I've found, if you try to bend over wearing your baby, no matter which carrier you choose, his head will flop around in a manner that would send a chiropractor to an early grave)

and also, as you'll see in a few of the pics I'm getting ready to share (only because I want my kids to know I was on vaca and I can't cut myself out because I also want them to know Carlos was there too) I'm not exactly slim and trim anymore.

I'll start working on that ASAP

(esp since I just saw the pics and wondered who in the world that girl in the pics holding my sweet baby were)

Enough babbling.

Back on track.

Wednesday the boys did their big guided fishing trip...

the rest of us hit downtown with highlights of the taffy shop, organic soap store and yarn store.

I bought ACE a toy bow and arrow,

Bug picked a dream catcher

both made new friends in the playground.

Guys came home, supper cooked, hung out around the cabin...

THE END.

Thursday.

One of my favorite days of vaca...

we hit the lakes.

We started out picnicking at Sprague Lake.

We met a few new friends while eating... 

and decided to share

This pic is hilarious to me.

Hubs was trying to get a pic of Ace being brave enough to hand feed the duck.

And, he was brave enough...technically.

I didn't know the kid could move so fast, but quicker than our fancy camera could take a pic, Ace had already snapped his hand back and started laughing.

Love that boy!

So, Grandpa brought a fishing pole for the kids to use and spent some time fishing with them.

Unfortunately the fish weren't biting.

So, we progressed around the trail a little to play while Hubs and Grandpa got their gear on for some "real fishing" aka fly fishing.

As many times as I've visited this same spot, I'm never done being amazed by the views here!

What an awesome and creative God!

(I'm not really sure what got into Bug today, but she could not would not be serious for a pic at all)

Now, just for the funny factor...

While waiting on our men folk, these clouds started rolling in.

If you've ever met my children, you'll know that they HATE bad weather, and at the ages of 7&4 can already read the radar app on my phone.

HATE BAD WEATHER.

Now, if you've ever met my mom and I, you'll know that we don't get too excited about weather.

(drives Hubs crazy, he doesn't think I take the right things seriously at all...one of these days I'll tell you about a time early in our marriage at the Piggly Wiggly)

So, like I was saying,

waiting on the men

dark cloud rolls up

thunder rumbles loudly

Bug screams like she's been shot,

while simultaneously doing a Super Man jump into the stroller,

Ace steals the umbrella and demands to leave immediately.

Me and Gram...

laughing hysterically.

My dad says we're really sick :)

Carlos...

cool as a cucumber.

Never woke up.

I'm vowing that he will be my one normal child...

somebody to stand out on the porch and watch the lightning with.

(a girl can dream, can't she?)

Here's a few more pics after the little shower blew through...

(Love these two!  Gram and Grandpa are awesome, for so many reasons!)

I wasn't going to include this last one.

Then I decided I'd cut myself out.

Then I just decided to leave it alone (for now) because, I love Ace in this pic.

It's not very often you get a real smile out of him, 

and if you can't see how much he loves his daddy right there, then you're blind!

Next stop was Bear Lake.

We did our ceremonial picture on the same rock that we do every time.

And every time we take it...we gain a kid.

One of my goals next week is to dig up all of the pics and post them in order

(as if that wouldn't be obvious).

Love it!

And that's all for now...

if anybody's still reading this long tedious post :)

Tomorrow's our last full day here...so sad!

I Got My Golf On...

OK, so Internet here at our cabin has been spotty at best.

Yesterday afternoon, when I finally got a good signal...blogger was down.

Last night, I just didn't care, I decided to keep knitting instead.

That's right, I hit the lovely little yarn shop again yesterday!!

The lady who runs it was nice enough to let me use a comfy chair and ottoman on the top floor to feed Carlos before we left.  Carlos will now forever love the yarn store too :)

So, I'm behind.

I'll start with Tuesday.

Tuesday was a LONG day, jam packed with tons of activities.

We started out the day the good old lazy way...

it's become a good old family tradition that whatever men are present here get up at the butt crack of too early, quietly tiptoe out of the cabin, and go fly fishing at a spot very carefully selected after much debate, weighing in and discussion.

Any girls and small children the proceed to sleep as late as they want, eat cereal in their PJ's and maybe shower if they feel like it.

The boys usually return somewhere in the neighborhood of 9-10.

So, after that whole shindig we headed for the Old Fall River Road.

It's an old, one way dirt road up the side of the mountain.

(Bug is hollering that they built it in 1947, but I'm thinking it was before that)

Anywhoo, we went up it...

sheer drop offs to your side and everything.

I'm realizing at this point that I should have swiped and downloaded Grandpa's card, you might can sort of see the dirt road there in the corner, but you can probably get the idea of how high up we were getting.

There are several really cool spots to pull off and look at the river and waterfalls coming down

I thought I had one of the whole family, but I'll have to steal from Grandpa.

Carlos, he just chilled out most of the way...

Sweet boy.

He was in the third seat with Bug and Ace so that we could all fit in the van.

(I'm just noticing in this particular pic he's not buckled, please don't fret, we had just put him in)

Speaking of sweet boy, I'll just throw in here that he has slept until 5:30-6 every morning since we got here, the goes back to sleep until around 9.

Amazing!

And magically mommy feels so much better and rested since :)

So, one thing the we've done new this year, that has turned out to be a stroke of genius...

while cleaning up and packing last week, I came across 2 of our old digital cameras, so I loaded them up with 1 GB SD cards of their very own and packed them.

We surprised the kids Tuesday with their "own" cameras...they LOVED it.

And boy do they get serious about their shots!

(I'll have to make a separate blog post just on their pics)

And there's Grandpa!

Grandpa also enjoys taking pictures, and this year, for the first time ever on a trip to Colorado, Grandpa got to sit in the passenger seat and take all the pics he wanted while Hubs was the one who focused on keeping us from sliding down the mountain!

(He took a LOT of pics)

So, back on track, after finishing the Fall River Road, we headed down the western slopes and stopped at at favorite picnic spot, complete with fishing on the Colorado River.

We ate lunch and the guys fished.

Hubs was very patient enough to let Ace tag along.

Ace talks...a LOT...and never quietly.

Ace also likes to throw rocks in the river...not an ideal activity for trout fishing waters.

And what, you may ask, do us girls do on such trips...

We hang out at the picnic tables, of course.

And read, or visit, or whatever else we want!

On the way back to our cabin we got to see a huge herd of elk...

by this point in the day, Ace had run his camera out of batteries and resorted to his binoculars...

or as he says "bin-oc-lee-ears"

These big guys were less than probably 30 yards from where we were standing at one point!

We even found some snow...in August!

So, to get to the whole point of this post...

we came back, cooked dinner, and decided to take the kids to play some putt putt golf.

Ace has been bugging us for weeks about playing putt putt golf.

We went, we played, I WON!!

5 holes in 1

sometimes just shooting with one arm.

Even won a free game for making a hole in 1 on the 19th hole...

all with a "handicap" as they call it in the golfing world

(i guess)

That's right...I won with Carlos!

We're a great team!

The problem is, we won a free game, so now we have to go back and try not to prove that our stellar game was a fluke!

WHEW!

It's been almost exactly 14 mo since we last came to Colorado...

a lot has changed.

Mostly, the boy next to me still kicking his legs and grinning at the ceiling.

To catch things up,

We left early Saturday morning after getting Carlos good and fed,

stopped for breakfast at what is prob. now my favorite German bakery...yum

(prob a good thing it's not within reasonable driving range for frequent use!)

Next stop was Amarillo.

I encouraged Hubs to find a Chick fil a (which was a little out of our way) so the big kids could, as they like to refer to it as "eat, play, eat, play", as opposed to just "eat (all your food, then) play" and let Carlos spend some time out of his seat.

I was most worried about how Carlos was going to travel...he had the power to make this one miserable drive.

Well, I spent more time than I would have liked in the back seat of the van, but after we eliminated Ace kicking his seat from behind and the random loud voices and yelling (anybody who knows Ace IRL knows that he really doesn't have an inside voice, and when Bug gets wound up or offended she gets high pitched) we had much smother driving.

We ended up making it to a cute town about 20 min outside of Denver before we stopped for the night.

The real fun started Sunday morning...
we hit the Denver Zoo!
We had a great time...

We were all most excited about the Polar Bear!

and were hoping to see him swimming around in his pool...

Turns out, he hates the heat.

Just sat there in the shade.

The other cool thing we saw was the 2 humped camels.

 Carlos slept through the whole entire experience.

It's probably a little mean to post this picture...

as big and tough as Ace looks, he gets his feelings hurt pretty easy.

This was towards the end of the day and he had just fell off the baby hippo.

 I don't think I mention enough here in the bloggy world about what an amazing dad Hubs is.
He loves teaching the kids about the animals.

 I love the guy!
(here he's showing them the lions and hyenas)

(and on an amusing side note, as I'm sitting here at the kitchen counter of our cabin blogging about what a good dad he is...Hubs just told the kids (jokingly, of course) that if they come upstairs and try to get in our bed...he's going to roll them down the stairs while they're still asleep...gotta love it!)

Sunday was wrapped up, with no picture evidence, by meeting up with my dad's family in Denver and going to a really neat 50's diner with the best milkshakes!

We woke up this morning and headed to our final destination.
Estes Park!!
We are so glad to be back.
The weather is great, the grass and trees are green and the rivers and streams actually have water running in them!
After lunch, grocery shopping, and obtaining the proper fishing licenses, we settled into our cabin.
The kids had a good time playing in the stream.
This is probably my new favorite picture of Bug and Ace...

We also drove to a few places in the park, cooked dinner and enjoyed sitting out on our deck listening to the river.
It's been a good day...
now I'm going to take Carlos upstairs, feed him, and fall into a coma.
Here's to hoping tonight might finally be the night the little booger sleeps all the way through!

Whew...

We're in Denver.

A lot has changed since we made this trip last year.

Well, a lot of things in our family.

Last year I updated every night we were gone...

this year I fall asleep too fast to blog.

Hopefully, once we're settled in our cabin in Estes later today I'll have time to sift through pics and do a proper update...because we're having a great time.

I will say that I am SO PROUD of my kids.

We've had a few "moments", but on a whole they have done so good!

Wish everybody could be here with us...

the weather is amazing.

You can step out of your car and not feel like you're going to die!

(and once we're up in the mountains, it'll only get better!!)