Colorado - 4/2013

We spent this last weekend in Colorado talking to a contractor and designer on how to finish out my Dad's cabin.  After meetings in Colorado Springs we headed south to clean out the cabin and prepare it for construction.  The Bainums joined us for some quasi camping in the incomplete cabin.  There was heat and a roof over our heads but no running water or electricity.

We have a new(to us) jeep that we couldn't wait to try out.

Mike is in front of us with his Toyota truck.

In order to juggle 7 kids between the two families we took with us a babysitter from Kansas, Grace.  She did a fantastic job with the kids and also enjoyed 4 wheel driving with us.

There was a quiet competition between Mike and myself as to who had the better vehicle.  One of the best ways to determine that was who got stuck the least.

When we arrived at the cabin I promptly got the Jeep and trailer stuck.  So, I was off to a bad start.  I continued getting stuck (rather frequently) for the next two days.  Then it dawned on me that Mike should go first and then perhaps he would get stuck just as much.  I was right.

We had purchased a winch for our Jeep thinking that someday it would be handy.  Little did I know that we would use it 3 times over the weekend.  Mike's tow rope also got a lot of use.

We did quite a bit exploring.

At one place we got out and explored.  We made fun of Grace in the above picture, she is standing on at least 3 feet of snow but not sinking.

A lot of the roads were unplowed and hadn't been traveled in months.  On the first day we came across footprints traveling up one of the unplowed roads.  The tracks were old and were not well defined.  They were from a two legged person/animal that was about 5-6 feet tall based on the stride.  The tracks went up the road for a mile, maybe two.  The next day we found them again higher up the mountain.  We made up all sorts of stories about who made them and why they went up the mountain but didn't return in a remote area so far from civilization.

At the end of our stay Heather decided to throw our their air mattress due to a leak.  She gave the kids the mattress to use as a sled.

Are we having fun yet?

Packing up and heading out.  We had to leave the van parked lower in the park because the roads were not passible for a two wheel drive, so we had to ferry stuff back to the van for the drive home.