Moab and Father's Day

We spent Father's Day in Durango rafting, riding "Big Thomas" and eating good Texas style BBQ. Dylan has been looking forward to this day since last winter when he saw a picture of Colter with Thomas the Train. He was so excited and said "This is so AWESOME" and "Mom, this is SO exciting" over and over. The little conductor outfit scored him many points with the train staff and many pictures from random people. He picked out a Thomas "brella" as his treat and hasn't put it down since-"looks like rain mama" Rafting on the Animas was fun. We got to see Thomas go by on the tracks, which was an added bonus, and Dylan loved the "up downs". "Me no like the up downs in Moab, but me love these" The boys are growing so fast and I love seeing the pictures of them rowing the boat in Dad's lap each year. The one with Dylan followed this little quote "No worry Dad, me row boat, you just drink beer"---Trevor had a great Father's Day!

Bluegrass Festival was beautiful this year, not a cloud in the sky for four days! The boys and I spent some time learning about new toys. Colter loved the Chinese yo-yo and got pretty good at it. Dylan was trying to master the hula hoop, a favorite pass time in Telluride.

I love this picture!!!! We were hiking the Jurasic Trail behind our house and playing in the wildflowers.

"Crawdad Canyon" hike. From left to right: Colter, Gideon, Dylan, Noah and Eli and yes it did take us awhile to get all five sitting still and kind of looking at the camera. Totally worth it, they are so cute!

Dylan showing us how big the crawdads are. Eli, Colter, Dylan and Gideon chasing lizards.

Sheila and I took all five boys to Moab on a camping adventure. It was a huge success. The boys had so much fun lizard hunting, crawdad catching, playing in the water and hiking on the rocks. I love the ages that the boys are at, we are having such a great year of exploring!

Colter, Dylan and I are in Texas now enjoying family, daily adventures and swimming several times a day. Pics will follow in a few days. I uploaded these awhile ago and forgot to post it----oops.

From snow to sun and everything in between,

Daddy and Colter had a fun boys weekend up at the Riebel's cabin for Rocky's 6th birthday party. They played on snowmobiles and all sorts of fun snow toys. Colter drove their Argo all for a few miles by himself, a huge moment for him and Daddy!

Trevor and I were able to go on a Westwater trip in late April. It was one of the few nice, sunny, not windy days of the entire spring season. The water was big and we had a great time with old and new friends. That boat is not us--it is the boat in front of us getting buried in a huge wave. We spent a good bit of time at Modee and Pappy's playing outside, their snow melted a little quicker than ours. Colter has had a great time building forts, log cabins and hideouts this spring, with help from Daddy for this one.

Dylan is riding a two wheeler with no training wheels and he is still 2! He has fantastic balance and determination. He picked it up in about 5 minutes with help from big brother Colter. As you can see from his clothing, we all had seasonal confusion for a while, couldn't decide if it was going to snow, rain, blow or be nice. Welcome to spring in Colorado. This is Colter's boulder fort in our neighborhood. He and his friends are constantly adding new features, bridges, doors etc. So fun to watch his creative and inventive personality blossom.

Another fun trip to Moab, this time for catapillar season. We spent quality time at our favorite Rotary Park.

The boys riding bikes down the bike trail in Moab was so fun to watch! Colter was so patient with Dylan and it paid off, Dylan rode all over town that weekend after only learning to ride two days before. We also spent a day playing around Mill Creek. The boys can and will make weapons out of anything!

More Mill Creek fun. We all love playing and climbing on the slick rock. Colter enjoyed learning about the petroglyphs (sp?) I love watching my kids grow and learn, it is so amazing what is already in their brains just waiting to be exposed and expanded upon.

Next up was Mac-Mac's 80th birthday party! We had a great weekend on the Front Range, exploring and playing. The boys loved Mac's "worm" cake, snake hunting and tractor racing around the neighborhood. We ate way too much good food and enjoyed some nice weather---finally!

We have celebrated alot of birthdays this month. This weekend it was Modee's turn and then Jasmine's Mine Tour birthday party. We all gathered at Modee and Pappy's on Friday for more yummy food and play time. It is a very busy party when all five grandsons are on the loose. Pics are on Mom's camera, forgot mine. Then today we went to Silverton and rode a mining train into the Old Hundred Mine on a tour. It was a great, highly recommend to anyone in the area. Kids of all ages loved it and we got to pan for gold and silver. It was a fun Memorial Day weekend.

Arizona Road trip!

The first few days of our barely planned 10 day roadtrip were spent at a great "adults only" community in Gilbert, AZ where Nana and Sharon had been staying for a couple of weeks. They let kids visit for a few days and play at the clubhouse/pool for most of the day. Mom and I drove down to meet the others and the house we stayed at was perfect for us and had plenty of grandkid toys in the garage. The boys loved swimming and napping under the palm trees. We rode around in golf carts and rode our bikes.. It was a very active and friendly community.

How sweet....a flower for Mommy. Next pic, in one of the palm trees by the pool there was a Mommy and 3 baby Great Horned owls. The babies were only a couple of weeks old and were barely testing their wings. We enjoyed checking on them every morning and afternoon and it gave Colter his animal fix.

After Mom, Sharon, Janet and Nana went home we headed north to Scottsdale to stay with our friends the Colwell's. On our way we stopped at the Desert Botanical Garden and played for a few hours. The highlight was definately the Butterfly Pavilion.

We were all in awe of the Saguaro cactus (cacti?) that are only found in the Senoran Desert. They are giant! Colter loved all the types and his favorite was the Golden Barrel Cactus. This happy boy with a butterfly on his foot sat still for over 20 minutes enjoying his new friend. The butterfly crawled up to his knee and back to his foot, Colter was thrilled!

Cute pic of the boys with their friend Ryan Colwell. We went to the Train Park one day and rode the choo choo and the merry go round. Dylan was less than thrilled with the merry go round---pretty funny for me, not for him.

The next day was Go Carts! The boys loved this one. Colter was a expert racer and Dylan was very serious about having his own red car. He did a very good job of controlling his car and the guys in charge let him go the entire time.

Everyday we had funtime in the Colwell's pool. Charlie, who is about the size of a Blakney man, tossed the boys all over the place. They loved it! The pool is surrounded by rocks and is very well designed for boys that like to jump off things. We loved staying at their house and had lots of fun exploring, sidewalk chalking, gecko and other animal hunting, bike riding and swimming. Oh yeah, and watching movies in their super cool movie theater!

Did I mention they had fun jumping off the rocks? Love this picture.

Next up was Out of Africa, a wildlife preserve with over 100 types of exotic animals. This is an interactive learning facility with opportunities to feed and pet some of the animals. Colter fed his carrot to the giraffe, Ryan decided to hold on to his and Dylan ate his carrot--each with his own approach.

Oops, pics out of order. This was our next day, on our slow journey home, at Meteor Crater. Five is such a fun age for exploring--Colter loves outer space right now and was completely enthralled with this place. It is the impact site of a 150 ft. wide meteor in the 1800's. The pit is huge, over 1/2 mile across. We went to every possible view point, all museum displays, short movies and the rock shop. We came home with lots of new additions to the rock collection.

Ok, back to Out of Africa pics. Yup, that is a 17 ft., 100+ pound boa constrictor and yup, those are my boys holding it! I graciously volunteered to take pictures instead of helping carry the snake. Colter and Dylan thought this was the best part of the day. Well, they also liked the tiger swimming/playing show and feeding the giraffes and petting the camel, oh and the zebras, ostrich, lions, rhino, puma......it was a fun day.

On the same day as Meteor Crater, we also visited Petrified Wood National Forest. Luckily, I had been warned that this was not actually a forest and had seen pictures on the internet--we were not expecting an actual forest when we got there. It was beautiful in it's own way and we loved taking a break from driving and running on the short trails. The petrified wood had tons of color and character. The boys liked the dinosaurs in the little museum and had fun picking out more rocks, crystals, arrowheads and petrified wood at the rock shop.

This was my first road trip with the boys to a place we had never been. We enjoyed the Phoenix area and all of the activities it presented. My new navigation system (birthday present) was a life saver and I doubt I will ever travel without it again. It made driving to new places, which is the most stressful part of a roadtrip for me, completely effortless. The boys were very well behaved, with only the expected amount of rowdiness to spice up the journey. I love getting warm in the springtime and I am so glad this trip worked out as well as it did. We were in shorts and without shoes most of the time--my kind of vacation. Now we are back in the rain and mud that is spring in Telluride and planning our next adventure to the desert, this time with Daddy!