Blueberry picking

Our annual blueberry picking with the Sipps and Susan.

The four musketeers.

Susan hard at work.

Sophie was the first kid to fill her bucket.

This was a fantastic year for berries!  The bushes were loaded and the berries, huge.

Look at the size!

At 38 years old Matt still hasn't grown up.

Afterwords we drove to Elk Falls for a picnic lunch and wading.

Elk Falls is the site of an old mill.  The mill is long gone the but bits and pieces still remain like the wall they are sitting on.

Despite a week of heat in the upper 90's, this day was in the mid 80's, it was great!

Swimming Lesson 2015

Every year Mrs. Davis gives swimming lesson in her backyard.  We have been going to her for many years.  She does it for the kids in our church and a few friends.  This makes the classes small and fun.  The kids are in classes with friends and the mothers all know each other so that when a child gets lost in the "swimming lesson shuffle" the others pitch in to help out.  Yes, there are stories behind that.

Tim

This year Nora deemed herself old enough to know everything about swimming and decided to pass on lessons.  This left Tim and Nathaniel.

Tim practicing his back float.

Nathaniel diving into the deep end. 

Nathaniel preforming the back stroke.

Memorial Day - The return trip

Sorry, my blog is not cooperating, this should be a the end of all of our Colorado posts.

On the way back home to Kansas the 4-Runner broke down.

Here we are parked on the side of the road waiting for the tow truck.

We were out in the middle of nowhere and it took and hour and a half to get a tow truck to us.  Because the 4-Runner was pulling a trailer it also had to be towed.

The dogs had to give up their cushy back seat for the back of the truck.  They are not at all happy about the situation.

We still don't know the cost and full extent of the damage and repairs on the 4-Runner, but we do know that when we go back to pick it up we have an 8 hour round trip.  

Memorial Day - Colorado

For the Memorial Day week we planned a trip to the cabin.  At the last minute the Barnes decided to join us from Washington D.C. 

Here we are in route at the Colorado border.

Once in Colorado we were joined by the Changs and Alan.  Later in the week Susan joined us.

Memorial Day - Cuchara

Our favorite restaurant is The Dog Bar and Grill in Cuchara.  Cuchara is a tiny town tucked away in a corner of the most beautiful valley you will ever see. 

A bunch of cute kids.

On our way back to the cabin the sunset was creating some great pictures so we pulled over and lined up the families for photos.

The Barnes

The Changs

A picture of Vern that Pete got.

After family portraits we drove a bit farther on and got good pics of the sunset and rain.

Mt. Mestas and the sunset.

Memorial Day - Sand Dunes

On Tuesday we went to Great Sand Dunes National Park.  In May the Medano Creek is flowing with water from the melting snow on the mountain peaks.

The creek is between 50 and 100 yards wide and about 1 to 6 inches deep.  A fantastic play place for kids.

The colors are amazing!

Nathaniel, Kaily, Katie, Nora, Joey, Maggy, Jonathan and Timothy.

Nathaniel

Kaily and Timothy.  

The water while flowing over the sand moves the sand until it gets to heavy to carry.  The sand then sinks to the bottom and creates a dam.  The water builds up behind it and breaks through causing what is called surge flow.  Because the creek bed is sand the creek is always fluctuating in depth and current making it feel like a day at the ocean without the hazards of deep water and sea life.  

Our "camp".

The boys digging in the sand.

The men hiking up the dunes.

I like this picture because of the humor that Alan invokes.  He has travelled with our families enough to know that it was going to take a long time to clean up and pack up.  So, why not just make yourself comfortable?

Memorial Day - getting stuck

On Thursday it was discovered that Katie had an abscessed tooth.  Pete took her into Colorado Springs to have it extracted.  We decided to do some driving around and looking for trouble while we waited for them to come back and Susan to arrive.

My Jeep.  : )

My backseat drivers.

And trouble we did find.  This road's ruts had diverted a creek to run down the road.  When driving in mud generaly the best idea is to stay out of the ruts.  Not this time.  The Jeep made it down the road safely but the 4-runner spun around and got stuck.

The good news was that Chad got to finally use his winch.  I thought for sure he would be mad at me for getting him stuck but he wasn't.  He was just happy to show off his winch  It took winching it three times to get him turned around and headed back in the right direction.  

The kids gave up and went to hang out with everyone else in the Jeep.  Once unstuck we headed back to the cabin. 

Katie and her newly extracted tooth.

The mountains are a ton of fun, but one does start to miss the conveniences of the city.  Grocery stores,  gas stations, wi-fi, cell phone coverage and fast food.  Pete brought back two dozen donuts!  

Our resident photo-bomber.

Memorial Day - Bonnet Park

One of our favorite hikes is Bonnett Park.  It is an easy and close hike.

On our way in we saw this bear track.  After seeing this I was on edge and concerned since we had so many children with us.  When we walked into the park (meadow) I saw what looked like a black bear several hundred yards off.  I about jumped out of my skin until I realized that it was a black lab walking with two people.

Our favorite part of Bonnett Park, the see-saw.

The kids love it!

Chad and the dogs.  

Because there was another dog in the park they had to be on leash, much to their frustration after being off leash and not being confined by fences during our Colorado stay.

Alan and Nathaniel