Grammy Saves the Day

Didn't take long for them to dig into the goodies.

Thank you Grammy!!!

Who says I don't let my kids play with play-doh?

Maybe tomorrow I'll let them open it up.

This is how he smiles for the camera...

 

The Rest of the Story

Matt was hanging out the window taking pictures as we neared the top. 

 Four cute girls sworn in as Junior Park Rangers.

 How many people does it take to deflate a mattress?

 Grandma knows how to work a crowd.

 One tough looking pitcher.

 Winter Quarters Temple.

 Eugene & Janice took us on a tour of the Mississippi.  Janice couldn't go due to her equilibrium problem (she didn't want to fall overboard).  This is the tour boat we were on.

 Neat set up.  When we backed away from the dock the captain had one wheel spinning each direction which really swung the front end around.

 The railroad draw bridge swinging open for us.

 Mom & I on the "Big Muddy".

 Ty's soccer game.

 The lane approaching the "Field of Dreams".

 Mom & I just finished "having a catch" with Eugene & Janice in right field.

 Me on pitcher's mound.

 Mom catching.

 The four of us on the mound.

 Me playing Doc "Moonlight" Graham.

 Us in front of the house.  It is exactly like it was in the movie.

 Us on the bleachers.

 Lock #11 looking down from Eagle Park just north of Dubuque. 

 This tour boat came in while we were down walking along the water front.

 Eugene & Janice had this sign in their front window to welcome us.

 Eugene & Janice in front of one of the side paddle wheel from a dredging boat docked at the museum we visited.  It dredged up and down the Mississippi.

 Mom practicing her "Okie Noodling"

 Me visiting with Mark Twain.

 Ty, Janice, & Eugene.

 Ever wonder what Teddy Roosevelt's glasses look like up close.  The stripes on the rocks are from the rain storm that hit just as we arrived.  Yes, Matt, we parked on Level 2 just in case it hailed.

 We dodged these storms all the way across Iowa, South Dakota, and Wyoming.  There was a tornado and baseball sized hail sighted just 100 miles south of us as we passed Buffalo, Wyoming. 

Don't know if you've ever seen this statue up on the Continental Divide at Butte, Montana.  I've always wondered what it looked like up close.  This is from about 20 miles away.  It is the Virgin Mary built by a guy to honor his wife who had cancer.  It is the second tallest statue in the United States behind the Statue of Liberty.

 

We had a wonderful time.  Nice visits with family in Denver.  Thanks for all your hospitality and the fun places we visited.  Hope Erik and Jamie have recovered from their TREK.  Hallee came through like a trooper.  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit in Dubuque.  We would get up, do the crossword in the paper, eat breakfast, and decide what to do for the day.  They had lots of options but we just did a couple of things a day.  I could get to like retirement.  The trip went well, the car ran well, and we saw lots of beautiful country.  It was great to get home.  Kevin, Lisa and family had everything under control.  Thanks to Kimbre for her post last week.  I skipped that part because she took care of it in her post.  Thanks again to everyone!!!!!!!

Backpacking trip

As if I didn't have enough fun the last time, I took our Priest Quorum into Lost Creek Wilderness on the same loop we did last fall.  I added an extra day to the trip and this time it went much smoother!

 Here is our group at the start.  Yes, that is a school bus in the background.  There was a group of kids who had been hiking in the area for 23 days (they started around Memorial day!)

 Somehow we all got the bright idea that we had to eat an ant to be a man.  Yes, I ate an ant- and it wasn't a small one either.

We had a boy with us who had never hiked or camped before.  I knew that going in, so I planned a lot of flex.  The first day we did not make it as far as I wanted, so we camped near where we had lunch the first day.  I did a lot of double packing that day, and couldn't help but think of Kevin and Travis on our hike- thanks for helping me through.

The second day we made it over the pass (I was so proud of that boy!) and down to the shaft house.  He then hiked out as planned with our teacher's quorum who had hiked in from Goose Creek trailhead below to meet us for the day.

We continued our hike the second day and camped at the far end of Refridgerator Gulch on Lost Creek.

 The next morning part of our group hiked in the creek through a cave while the rest of us went around.

 Here they are on the other side.

 Here is our traditional pose once they came up out of the river.

 Camp Desparation- I felt MUCH better this time!

 You could still see the coals from our fire on the side of the trail.  The weather was beautiful the whole trip, so no need to dry out soggy clothes or morale.

Our third night we camped in McCurdy Park-McCurdy Tower is behind us.  About a quarter mile before we hit this meadow, we saw a moose grazing in some brush- pretty cool.

 An abandoned cabin in McCurdy Park.  The lower meadow was all marshy and it was fun to walk around on the squishy grass.

 In keeping with tradition, we stopped again on top and I told them the story of my having no energy and eating ice cream to keep going.  I then shared some ice cream with them.  You should have seen their faces.  They said ice cream never tastes better than at 11,500 feet!

 Almost there, and no snow this time.

 We made it to the top!

 

They were tired by the end of the trail.

 

All in all, it was a great trip.  I used a lot of the experiences from the first trip and discovered new items this time around.  Adding in the extra day really helped.  The boys were amazed at how far we traveled each day on our fall trip. 

I know the boys had fun as we talked about it around church today.  Throughout the trip, we had a running joke about "jerky chew."  At priesthood, I walked around the corner to 5 smiling boys with their "cha" in their lower lips- (thanks to the other advisor who went with us.)

Brant

Denver

This summer we headed to Denver, CO with Kent and Martha.  We arrived Sunday night and stayed with Brant and Leslie.  On Monday we started our vacation by heading up to Rocky Mountain National Park.    Way up in the Rockies, just outside the park, is a town called Estes Park which is about 7500ft above sea level.     

 We kept driving higher to eventually get to Bear Lake.  When we got there we had to load onto a shuttle to get to the lake. 

    Matt took Riley on a separate hike to Alberta Falls with Tyler and Aimee.

 The rest of us hiked around Bear Lake.

 Me, Leslie Katie, Kori and Aly.

 We saw a lot of elk along the way!

 We ventured even higher to get to the top of the mountain!  This is us at a lookout near the top.

At the top is a visitor center.  As you can see the elevation is quite high and we could definitely feel the difference.  Feeling out of breath and slightly dizzy, we were ready to head back down the mountain.

We came back down to Estes Park and enjoyed some ice cream.

 Tuesday threatened to be wicked hot so we went to the local pool.

Riley loved the lazy river!

 The slide took some coaxing but she loved it too.  Even when she got dunked by dad.

 Splashing was the best!

 Later that night, Matt and I went to a Rockies game.  It was pretty hot and we were staring right into the sun.  Nothing an expensive visor couldn't handle.

It was a great game!

Wednesday we headed over to Erik and Jamie's house.  The whole reason for this trip was for Kent and Martha to watch their kids while Erik, Jamie and Hallee went on a Trek.  

Thursday was a lot of relaxing, watercolor painting and playing outside with a sprinkler.

Friday Brant and Leslie and their family joined us at the Littleton Historical Museum.  It was free and it was fun!  They had two set ups of what life looked like in the 1860's and the 1880's.  Complete with houses, outhouses, barns, animals, and a school.  

 This was what Riley looked like most of the time.  It was hot and she wanted to be carried almost the entire time.  Lots of crying.

Even with the tantrums and the heat, it was still a fun day.  

Saturday we got up early and went with Brant and Leslie to a Firetruck Parade in Littleton.  It was a short parade of just Firetrucks but it was fun.  After the parade, all the trucks parked at a nearby lot and we got to  see them up close. 

 Typical Riley picture.

 Waiting for the Firetrucks to drive by!

 Brant and the kids were part of the parade!  That's them in the back of the truck.

 Riley got into the excitement waving and clapping.

 This was by far the coolest, most tricked-out firetruck!

 I was sure Riley would be afraid of the fire hose but to my surprise she got right in there and had some fun!

We waited in line for about an hour to take a ride on the firetruck and it lasted maybe two minutes.  It was worth it!

On Sunday we celebrated Riley's birthday with the family.  Sorry, no pictures.  They're all on Kent's camera.

On Monday we started on our journey home.  We decided to make some fun of it by heading to Mt. Rushmore. But what would a real trip be without some inclement weather?  On the way up it started hailing on us like crazy!  We were seriously worried that our car was going to get damaged. Thankfully it wasn't and when it stopped we continued up the mountain.  The sun broke through a couple times but the crazy storm wasn't through with us yet.

 You can see the storm brewing behind us...

 We were just heading back to the car when it hit.  Thank GOODNESS we weren't caught in it out on the trail!

 Yep, the hail was about the size of walnuts.  Thankfully our car was in the covered parking lot.

 It was an exciting ending to a fun day.

We stayed the night in Rapid City,SD. About 30 mins away from Mt Rushmore. 

Tuesday we headed to Bozeman, MT and stayed the night.

Wednesday we finally made it home.

10 days and 2600 miles! It was a long trip but tons of fun! A big THANK YOU to Brant and Leslie, Erik and Jamie, and Kent and Martha! Thank you for feeding, housing, and being our tour guides to the great city of Denver, CO!