family vacation

So..I hear that the weather in Nebraska was miserably hot and humid last week. We missed it because we were enjoying the cool mountain air in Colorado.

Poudre Canyon was our destination. You'll have to forgive me for so many pictures. It was Michaela's first camping trip and her first trip to Colorado. It was our first real family vacation. Only took us 8 years to get away for a full week of camping. The Mountain Park Campground was awesome and the kid-friendliest one we saw while driving around up there. On the first morning, Catherine asked me, "Is this a dream, or are we really here?"
The tent pad made a nice sandbox for the kids to play in while we started campfires, cooked our meals, and cleaned up afterwards...but the kids got awfully dirty.

Although there was a shower house, we did most of our cleaning up with washcloths at (or in) the camper sink...especially Stephen. I'm sure glad I had plenty of extra clothes for him!

There were hundreds of broad-tailed hummingbirds filling up with sugar before migrating. We bought a feeder and had fun trying to get some good pictures of them. The males were especially difficult to photograph, but Adam got a clear one on the last morning.

We did a lot of hiking. Here are a couple pictures from Lower Dadd Gulch Trail: I actually got a picture in which everyone is smiling!

Adam was not so lucky at the tippiest top of the mountain. (Anthony insisted that we needed to hike to "the tippiest top" of a mountain on our trip). As we were driving up towards Jack's Gulch, a National Forest Service road caught Adam's eye and we were lucky to find a nice 4wd road off of that. Our big van didn't have any trouble climbing it as it led us up and up. Towards the end of the road we pulled off into a campsite and started walking up to the highest rocks. It was totally worth it, but the batteries in the camera were dead after we took this picture and it doesn't quite capture the majesty of where we were...but what picture ever does, really?

Young Gulch Trail had a lot of stream crossings. We were pretty tired from the Dadd's Gulch hike, so we took it easy and let the kids play in the water. Stephen had to throw at least one rock in each time...

Zimmerman Lake Trail was an adventure. We foolishly ignored the first rumble of thunder and pressed on to the lake, discovering mountain springs and beautiful wildflowers along the way. We got sprinkled on - no big deal - and the sun came out between light showers. Those showers started coming down harder and more frequently and as we headed back down the mountain we got pelted with tiny hail. I clutched Michaela tightly keeping her covered with that little white blanket and pink sun hat and we made it back to the van, dripping and cold. It was our last hike.

We still went ahead and drove up Long Draw Road, aptly named because Long Draw Reservoir is at the end of the road. The view was quite lovely, in spite of the red pine trees (killed by mountain pine beetle - blue stain fungi).

We saw moose up here. A young bull had ran across the highway in front of us on our way to the Zimmerman Lake trailhead. We didn't get a picture of him, but we were able to snap a picture of a mama and her calf quietly grazing off the side of Long Draw Road.
Other stops off the side of the road during the trip included this photo op at the Sleeping Elephant rock. You see it, don't you? The lighting shows it a little better in the linked picture.

There was also Poudre Falls, behind us (there was a really chilly wind blowing through here), and Profile Rock, which we did not stop and get a picture of our profiles at.

Instead of heading home, we stopped in Denver to visit Stephanie's grandparents for a few hours and came away with all sorts of treasures. Grandpa is going to be 88 next week!

We briefly saw Anand, his mom, and met his fiancee, Lindsay. The kids scored even more goodies from Anand's mother, pictured here with Catherine. I thought I'd be able to look up a recipe for the delicious halva she'd made but apparently it's not that simple (click on the link to see what I mean).

We finally headed down to my parents house where we caught up on showers, sleep, and made it through some laundry. I had a blast watching the kids watch Pinocchio one night and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves the next day. We scored a few free things at the neighbor's garage sale and had a picnic lunch at Garden of the Gods. We walked around a little and my dad took this picture of us on the Scotsman Trail at the foot of the Sleeping Giant formation.

We made it home after the cold front came through...with thanks to Jesse for taking care of our mail, chickens, and the rotten cucumbers in the kitchen. It was hard enough coming home, but if I'd walked in to that, I think I would have turned around and driven back to Colorado. Now, to get back to normal before school starts on Thursday!