14ers

While we were off gallivanting all of July, poor Ryan had to stay home and work.. Although, somehow I don't think he was too put out, considering he has been able to do 6 of Colorado's 14ers in July and August. He loves hiking and would love to eventually do all of them.


These two were the most recent pictures (Saturday) when he and some others from church did Mts. Democrat, Lincoln, Cameron, and Bross


This was when he and a guy from church did Mts. Belford and Oxford


This was Mt. Yale, which he did by himself while we were in Montana

St Mary's Glacier

For my birthday, we decided to go on a hike up in the mountains. We drove up to St. Mary's glacier (kind of near Idaho Springs) and took a lunch. The kids did really good once again and it was a really rocky trail. There were people snowboarding down the glacier, while others were jumping off cliffs into the ice cold lake. They are all crazy if you ask me:)

Cousin Eric

My cousin Eric also lives in Missoula with his wife and kids. They are super fun and bravely invited all of us over to invade their house. They live in a really cool valley with a huge yard and he has chickens and rabbits and veggies and honeybees and all kinds of cool stuff. They have a fire pit and we ate dinner and made s'mores and terrorized his animals. The kids had a ball and it was so good to see family we hadn't seen in a long time. Gramps even came with us which was a treat because he obviously didn't accompany us on a lot of the adventures we went on.

Floating in the river

One day while we were in Montana we decided to go down to the river by my grandpa's house and play and float. Whose bright idea was that?:) There was a PLETHORA of mosquitoes and I can't stand those nasty little creatures! Even bug spray didn't help and the poor kids got eaten alive! But they still had fun for the little time we were there. My cousin Kim's horse, (okay, okay, great dane but I am convinced she is a horse) Aris, came and splashed everyone like crazy.



Sorry, I know how much everyone wanted a picture of me in a bathing suit on here but not gonna happen today (or ever)!

Hiking the "M"

It sounds like a punishment for bad behavior, but it was really fun to hike the M. For any of you who have been to Provo and hiked the "Y", this was very similar. It is a little bit difficult and steep in some areas and kind of long, especially for little kids. But, lo and behold, mom was wrong about the kiddos. You go girls! I thought fursure I would end up carrying Reese and was hesitant to let her come but she insisted. I was pretty sure Elle could do it, because she wanted to be able to tell her dad that she hiked all the way to the top by herself. Reese, now her track record of hiking is not so good, so I was the pessimist. But, alas, she conquered her goal!:) The little trooper hiked all the way to the top and back down all by herself (except maybe five minutes of being on my back on the way down). It was so cute, and everyone we passed could not believe she was doing it all by her lonesome. Montana is so pretty and it was really pretty at the top of the M (it is above the University of Montana in Missoula). At the top, we had a fox walk right in front of our faces, which was a little frightening but we made it, all the same.


our fox friend



Notice the BRIGHT red faces. It was super hot and being the dumbbells that we are, none of us remembered water or drinks. Luckily, my smart aunt and uncle, who came up after us remember a couple of drinks and were nice enough to share with Elle and Reese.

Hiawatha Trail

Our next adventure in Montana was riding the 11 mile Hiawatha trail at the Montana-Idaho Border. It was super pretty and a really fun ride. There were big dark tunnels that we went through and big tall bridges. Reese fell asleep (goodness knows how becuase it was sooo bumpy) on the last ten minutes of the ride. We had to take a bus back up to the cars and Reese said, "I can't wait to tell my daddy that I rode on a bus." Out of all the things to tell him, that was what she wanted to tell him. Back up at the cars we walked a little ways up the trail to this really pretty waterfall that the kdis played by and then returned the bikes and made the two hour trek back to Great Grandpas house.





The whole crew-Reese, Elle, and I, my parents, my two sisters and their two boys, and my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin Kelly Jo


Sam, Elle, and Jake


Reese and Aunt Laura

Montana

Our next adventure of the summer was to Montana to visit my grandpa and other relatives, plus my parents and sisters were up there with my two nephews. Unfortunately Ryan could not come because of work, but he kept himself busy hiking in Colorado. We flew into Spokane and my parents picked us up and drove us back to Montana. We did plenty of fun things and then we ALL drove back in "the rig" together (aka my parents RV). It was fun and the kids loved hangin' out in Montana.

Grandpa and Elle

Great Gramps with the kids


All week it was a contest between Aunt Dianne and Aunt Laura who was the favorite aunt and Laura took first place most of the time, but now that we are back in Colorado, Dianne is the favorite. I think it has to do with who is in the closest proximity. Elle, being the little diplomat she is, would always say both were her favorite.

July 4th 2010

I know, I am a COMPLETE slacker but I have been so lazy about putting my pictures on the computer. So there will probably be several posts in the next few days. For July 4th/Ryan's birthday this year, I decided to rent a condo in Breckendridge and stay for the weekend. We were supposed to go to Lake McConaughy, but it fizzled out because of weather, so we headed up to our favorite mountain town instead. We had a lot of fun just hanging out by the river, watching candy filled parades, eating at our favorite places, watching fireworks, and walking around town.


Random dog, not ours


Our favorite restaraunt, Downstairs at Eric's



We had a perfect, but VERY CHILLY, view of fireworks from our balcony


Town water fight and parade



On the way home, we went up Loveland Pass for a change of scenery and it was really pretty. Our future hiking enthusiast was wanting to go hike the mountain, but we had to forego that idea because of "little legs" Reese.