Yippie! First day of ski season!

The boys and I hit the slopes with the Blakney crew to ski off our Thanksgiving feast. It was beautiful, sunny and very warm....like 50 degrees kind of warm. The kids had a great time and are skiing and snowboarding better than ever. That happy, active, excited to get out there and play feeling is taking over again and we are ready for a winter of fun! We may need a little help from Mother Nature for this season to really get going, until it starts snowing we will enjoy every single sunny warm day we have. Last weekend Trevor and the boys went motorcycling outside of Montrose and had a blast.
We are thankful for our life, health and all of the amazing opportunities that we have. Happy Thanksgiving!

Front Range and East Coast trip

So, when we left this story last we had just finished our Rio Chama river trip and completed the initial move into our cozy cabin down valley. I know I will catch crap for this one, but WOW, now we understand why our parents didn't like to move around when we were kids The last time we moved was before Colter was born and we could do it in a pick up and trailer. Even with our massive purges of furniture, toys, clothes etc., we still have a lot of STUFF. It took quite a while to locate, move, sort all of our treasures and we still got rid of more. It is truly amazing what our culture consumes and deems necessary for comfort.

Back to summer fun.

 

 
We stopped for a hike a Hanging Lake in Glenwood Canyon on our way to the Front Range for a long weekend of camp, birthday parties and visits with friends and family. The boys ripped up the trail and had to practice A LOT of patience with the other hikers/tourists. We are very spoiled to have so few people on our beautiful hiking trails around here. They loved it and it was so nice to see that area again. It is one of my favorite hikes in Colorado, even with the low water and trickle of a waterfall that is left this year.

 

 
Grandma and MacMac hosted a BBQ for us and the Noldes (who were visiting from Connecticut) complete with a Treasure Hunt. The boys had so much fun running from clue to clue trying to find the treasure. We also celebrated Dylan's birthday. He was so excited this year to have four birthday cakes. We had a party before we left Telluride (will have to find those pics later.....), at Sharon and Gary's with most of the cousins and family from the area, at adoption camp and at the BBQ. He will have high expectations next year!

Adam and Trevor had a wonderful weekend of racing their cars and taking the boys on rides in the area. It has been a near constant topic of conversation anytime we see a Mustang or a Cobra, both of which the boys can spot from a distance.

 Bubbles never fail to entertain! An entire morning can easily be spent in the yard blowing, chasing and popping bubbles.
After making new friends at adoption camp and new memories with friends and family, the boys and I took off for an east coast adventure. A last minute Bob bike crash resulted in us heading out east without our tour guide for the first week- Penelope. I was really bummed and not sure what to do now that we would be in Boston for a week instead of on Mount Desert Island, until Steve and his family stepped up and saved the day! They were so generous with their home, cars and time and we ended up having a fantastic time exploring the south shore. We ended up having a year's worth of history lessons in the span of two weeks!


  First up was the Pilgrim Plantation where we learned about the Wampanoag tribe and the first Pilgrims. The boys loved how the Wampanoag built their canoes by burning the trees from the inside out so that the canoes were waterproof.
 

 

and we learned about their homes, which were incredibly sustainable and easily maintained....
and how they made pottery by hand....
and how they cooked and hunted.......
and how they made fabric using cards.....

 Colter loved the book binding and spent about 30 minutes asking questions and learning how to do it.

 
 We all liked the nice lady who tended the chickens, she was trying to catch this rooster who had a hurt leg and even with our help :) he kept getting away.

  The English village was much more elaborate and structured. They spent alot more time working and "suffering". They brought all of their ideas from the old land and were slow to adapt. Both boys quickly decided they would rather live with the Natives rather than the Pilgrims. We did love interacting with the Pilgrims in 1627, they always answered questions true to the time frame and believe me we had lots of questions. Dylan loved all of the gardens and went to each yard to see if they were growing the same things. It was fun and very memorable for the boys to interact this way with American history and hear the stories of that time.

 
The hand washing/shower pot was another favorite.

 

This trip was centered around cannons, as you will see. Any chance the boys had to learn about, point out, climb on a new cannon was a good day.

Next up was the Mayflower II. It is a replica built in the 1950's that sailed across the Atlantic just like the original. That was very impressive.

 

Near the actual Plymouth Rock. And yes, Mommy was WRONG...it will happen every once in a while.....the Mayflower does have cannons and that means, you guessed it, the boys were right.


 

 
 We spent a sunny warn day at the beach with Steve and his little man Ronan. The boys boogie boarded for hours. I love the beach, the kids love the beach, I'm pretty sure Trevor loves the beach.....wish we had one closer to Telluride.

 

 

 Ok, in case you haven't noticed, we did lots of typical touristy stuff on this vacation. Not normally our style, but all of this is so perfect for the boys at this age and I would have been a fool to have passed on it. The pirate cruise complete with water guns, lobster pots and funny pirate captain was classic. Colter was way more excited to hold all the treasures that came up in the lobster pot than Dylan was!

 

The street performers at Finial Hall, along with all of the food, made for a great city day. Dylan couldn't wait to get in the show and help out in front of hundreds of people! We also spent a few hours at the Boston Children's Museum which is very well done and had the biggest bubble area I have ever seen.

 
 The boys swam at least once a day and learned to dive off the diving board and swim like the guys in the Olympics. Ahh...the joys of living somewhere that has actual hot summer days!

 
Our last Boston adventure was a Duck Boat tour of the Freedom Trail and Charles River. The boys jumped at the chance to drive the Duck Boat up the river and did such a good job that the guide didn't even have to help them!

 

 
As if the first week of adventures and education weren't enough, we then hopped the overnight Amtrak to D.C. for another week of touring. We stayed with my cousin Brooke and her awesome family. They moved there last spring and are still exploring the area. We mastered the Metro, which is no small task for the directionally challenged like me and managed to find everything we were looking for. First stop was the Natural History Museum. Hands down the BEST museum I have ever been to. We could have spent a week just getting through all of the exhibits. Since we only had a day, we saw Oceans, Dinosaurs, Gems and Minerals and Bones. And each of those could have their own day!

 
I'm thinking Christmas present? Yeah right! The Hope Diamond is as amazing as all of the stories.

 
We are all suckers for geodes and crystals. I love that Colter was trying to pick up Dylan for a better view.

 
 Colter loved the prehistoric, well everything.

 
 We did our tour of the National Mall.

 
And then off to Air and Space Museum, another winner for the boys. We found the shops were just as interesting as some of the displays. The boys bought these little rubber band rockets and decided to test them out on the mall.......

 
Of course, the next thing you know, the boys are climbing over construction fences to get their rockets. They were so embarrassed and I couldn't stop laughing. I love that all of the D.C. iconic buildings are in the background!

 
 We spent a few days playing at local parks, and one day on the Army base where Matt works. This is Brooke and baby Jack. And the boys playing with Charlotte.

 
Happy Jack Jack! We had a great time with all of them and they are amazing hosts. We invaded their basement for over a week and they still talked to us afterward. I loved catching up with Brooke and sitting on the couch drinking wine after the kids crashed.  We did, indeed, solve most of the problems of the world in case in any of you were worried.

 
We went on a few great hikes in the area and decided we could spend a lot longer exploring the area sometime. Dylan was dressed in all of his camo because we were visiting army guys and he wanted to match. We did find a tree that looked just like his shorts though.

 

 

 
 And YES, this is for Carrie Hahn, us Colorado hippy tree huggers are rubbing off! Watch out, we are coming for you next.

 

 This is when he was playing spy and trying to hide in the trees to surprise us.

 

 
 We were lucky to get a day at Manassas, the sight of The Battle of Bull Run I and II. The battlefield is set up the way it actually happened and the boys walked the whole thing with me in 100 degree heat! Again with the cannons, lots of them. The boys still talk about this and remember way more details than I knew at their age. Hands on learning is the best!

 
Matt and Charlotte went out on the Potomac with us one afternoon. We loved all the birds and the jet skis making waves for us.

 
 With all the cool museums and hikes we did, I think the day at the water park was the boys favorite. They were non-stop for hours! Brooke lives in Lorton, which is in northern Virginia. They have all kinds of little State Parks, water parks, playgrounds and short hikes within an hour. It is a very fun place to explore and I would love to go back and see more.

 

 
Sweet Jack and Charlotte!

Yes, we made it to haunted White House (Colter wanted to go because he heard there was a ghost), but no tours these days because we are in "war time". It was pretty cool to see it even from the outside.

This was an adventure of epic proportions for us. It involved single mom with two boys with unknown plans, lots of public transportation and long days of touring. Having said that it was super easy and I am so thankful for The Lowe's and The Naegele's! They made our "Mommy and  the Boys" trip very memorable for all the right reasons!