Easter, snow, soccer, snow, rafting, snow.......

We enjoyed an indoor Easter Egg hunt at Modee and Pappy's house because it was snowing outside. After a warm and pleasant March, we had another very snowy and cold April and May. The kind of weather that makes me dream of escaping to tropical locations for long periods of time. Colter is laughing at his Hex bug that he trapped in the egg, the egg was rolling all over the table.

 

 We went to Durango with our friends Marney, Colin, Keaton and Porter for Mother's Day weekend. We scored big at the Durango gear swap and Colter now has his first kayak, a Jackson Fun 1. Both boys are super excited and love padding it around. We rafted down the Animas and it was sunny and beautiful. Dylan loves rowing the boat and is pretty convinced he is the captain. Colter can turn the boat and is starting to ask questions about reading the water. Both boys will be great boatmen someday, they already know as much as most rookie guides and have more river miles!

 

We camped at Mancos State Park which was a nice surprise, we'll be heading back there again. The boys gathered all kinds of fire starters and wood and had a great time running through the trees. All four boys got along the entire weekend and had a great time. Keaton and Colter are only weeks apart in age, so are Dylan and Porter. Colter used his pocket knife to make everyone a marsh mellow stick.

 For Mother's Day we decided to go check out Mesa Verde. Yes, we have lived in Telluride for 12 years and we hadn't been yet. It was amazing and will require another weekend or two to finish up. We did a tour for the first part and the kids loved talking to the ranger. Colter learned to say "Ancient Puebloans", which is a bit tricky, instead of Anasazi.

 

 Colter loves to teach Dylan the things he picks up along the way. We went to a second ruin where we could climb down into a kiva that had been restored. The boys loved all of the ladders that we had to climb to get in and out the different places.

 

 Dream Team Telluride! Through all of the snow and rain this spring, I was able to coach Colter's kindergarten soccer team. It was so cute and we had a great time. One weekend we had a 3 on 3 tournament against Crested Butte. Colter, TC and Loudon were on one team and they played in two games. Colter scored 3 goals and played really well, especially considering the fact that none of them had played in a real game before. They were all so excited and they won both games. It was great to see Colter be appropriately aggressive and stay after the ball. TC was an animal, also a surprise since he is usually pretty mellow. Town Park has such amazing scenery surrounding it that it is hard to focus on the games sometimes. Loudon has become one of Colter's better friends this year. They ride to school together most days, do karate and soccer together and get along well.


We had a nice sunny day at Modee and Pappy's with all of the cousins digging in the dirt, making caves and stairs and mining for gold.

 Next we went to Rob and Sheila's new place on Wilson Mesa and paddled around one of the ponds for a few hours. Colter and Dylan went out together so that Dylan could practice, it was nice to see them working together.

 Colter and Eli paddling and solving all of the world's problems, then hanging upside down like monkeys.

 We enjoyed a long weekend in Moab that was sunny and warm. We camped, hiked our favorite "Crawdad Canyon", went swimming at the new rec center and ran up and down the sand dunes. Colter found a seep spring in a cave on our hike that we hadn't seen before. He learned about different water sources from our Ranger at Mesa Verde and enjoyed filling all of our water bottles.

 

 Argh Mateys! It's a Pirate's life for us. For our 12th anniversary-or Bob Gleason's 60th Birthday- Penelope threw a massive Pirate Party. We had a blast and always love Telluride's ability to dress up for any reason. It was great to get out and see friends old and new, eat good food and dance our "booty" off. The boys were awesome, they love B and P. We ate, danced to the sounds of Penelope's brothers' band and ate yummy cake!

 Trevor and Bob......this brings back memories of Bob's 50th party at Jimmy Buffet. We should do this more than once a decade.

 

Penelope made both of these cakes and they were apparently not light. Trevor was sweating like mad while Penel gave a great toast to Bob. Colter helped decorate with gold coins and other booty and Dylan ran up on stage to ask if it was time to sing and eat cake yet. Neither was feeling shy that night!




 Dylan passed out surrounded by balloons before we even got out of town.


Other notables include Daddy and Colter riding their mountain bikes from our house down the Galloping Goose trail over 5 miles to town, eating dinner, catching the Gondola and then riding Boomerrang Road home. Colter said "my legs are jelly!" Dylan is now paddling the kayak by himself. We saw "I Am" by Tom Shadyac and a bunch of short films in the Adrenaline Series from Mountainfilm last weekend. I Am was amazing and very well timed for us, and the shorts made us want to get out there and explore, experience and go, go go! The whole family rode a couple of miles on bikes tonight, which was huge for Dylan. Daddy and the boys went to the Montrose bike/skate park the other day and the boys were the youngest ones there going over all the jumps, ramps and bowls. They are growing up so quickly. Colter graduates from Kindergarten in a few days and we are looking forward to better weather, camps, visitors and festival season.