Gem Lake Trail

I took the twins on a second hike with the Scouts this summer. 

We tackled the Gem Lake Trail outside of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Charlie wasn't especially impressed with our early morning adventure.

Eventually, he came around.

The hike felt like it was at a high elevation and included a steady climb. I would guess it was a "moderate" rating of difficulty. My guess is the youngest in our group was about 7.

After all that hard work, I will admit that Gem Lake was a little underwhelming. But, the kids had fun scrambling over the rocks.

The chipmunks were very friendly & ready to grab any snack crumb that was dropped.

On the way down, we enjoyed so many beautiful views.

We packed lunch & had a picnic near the parking area before heading home.

Not a bad way to start the day.

Winter Park - Summer Edition

The air is crisp and the sun is rising later in the morning. Fall might be creeping up on us, but there are still so many summer memories to share. 

One of my favorite summer weekends was spent in Winter Park.

Our neighbor's shared their home with us for the weekend. As we walked around the block, you get great view of the ski runs at Winter Park resort.

We took a fun family hike through the National Forest - I am really happy with the number of hikes I was able to do this summer.

The weather was perfect & the trees were beautiful.

The girls took on a project of building a fort.

Not too shabby for a days work. They made a list of supplies that they need to bring up on the next visit.

The boys had fun playing horsehoes

and relaxing in the hot tub after the "long" hike.

We played games 

roasted marshmallows

and enjoyed a lot of low key family time. It was a perfect weekend. We are lucky to have such generous friends and hope to visit again this fall once the leaves start to change.

Glenwood Springs, Colorado

As I was planning our summer break, I was super excited that we were going to spend Memorial Day weekend in Glenwood Springs. 

Even though we were in town for a soccer tournament, I was optimistic we would be able to do the famous Hanging Lake hike or visit the mountainside amusement park. I envisioned a summer paradise.

They claim it is sunny in Colorado over 300 days of the year. We only saw the sun about 5 days in May.  Though we passed through snow on our drive, I was very excited to arrive in Glenwood to clear skies. 

The weather was perfect for our first game.

But, then the storm clouds rolled in. The adventure park was closed and the team cancelled their group trip to the Hot Springs.

We spent far too long in our hotel that day. It got chilly, but our second game was fairly dry - though the fields were muddy.

Our first game on Sunday was lovely. We drove to Aspen for lunch and drove back to the hotel in torrential rains.

The last game was 40 degrees & rainy. Not fun for the players. REALLY not fun for the spectators. 

The victory made sitting in the cold and rain worthwhile.

Since it was too muddy to hike, we decided to relax in the hot springs before leaving town.

The cold air and warm water was invigorating.

Here's to a summer of adventures!

Good Times Adventures

My favorite adventure last month was our dog sled ride. We mushed at Good Times Adventures in Breckenridge. 

We didn't have a blue sky day, but I think the dogs preferred it that way. Those dogs run hot! 

We got to visit with our team before the ride began and quickly discovered that each dog on our team had its own personality.

There was Sleepy.

Grumpy.

Lovey

and Happy.

Usually, a team of 8 dogs pulls a little sled with a rider and a driver. We had a large group of 7. On our 45 minute tour, we each had a few minutes to drive the sleigh and sit as a passenger. I would highly recommend selecting a tour company that lets you drive the sled. The kids really had fun with that. It was cold (its a passive activity), but so pretty riding back through the forest.

The huskies are an interesting breed. They have such thick coats, the dogs live outside even in the coldest days of winter. Whenever the sleigh stopped, the dogs started rolling in the snow. They were certainly happiest when running! After they were harnessed, all of the teams were madly barking until they were given the signal to run. 

I know March usually means "spring". But, we are learning that here in Colorado, we shouldn't expect for another 6-8 weeks. So, here's to finding more snowy adventures that bring a smile to soul.

Vail!

Uncle K came into town to accompany us on our first ski of the season. While the snow was a bit lacking, it was an absolutely beautiful weekend. Cold, but sunny. I didn't take many photos while skiing. Taking pictures is a surprisingly slow process while skiing and as the slowest skier in the group, I didn't want to fall even farther behind. It was a great first few days on the mountain. I didn't even need a visit to the bunny slope this year. After a few runs, we were feeling comfortable on skis again. The runs never look as steep from the bottom as they do from the top. But, trust me, I was pretty impressive on the skis this weekend. I loved that Vail wasn't too crowded (at least on Sunday) and that the runs were nice & wide. The only issue we had was when we were coming down the mountain on Saturday. EVERYONE came down at once & a few snowboarders barreled through the kids practice area and nearly took us out. Other than that, we give the resort two thumbs up - they even found Charlie's lost helmet, gloves & goggles and mailed them to us.

Despite what you read in the national news, Colorado isn't over run with marijuana (and you can't use food stamps to purchase marijuana). 

It hasn't stopped snowing since he left, but the temperatures have dropped significantly. I think he picked a perfect weekend to visit. The kids loved having one-on-one ski time with Nick & Kevin (and especially loved wearing his GoPro camera down the slopes).
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Fraser Hill Tubing

Hello middle-of-January! I had all these great post ideas for December that just never materialized. With the holidays well behind us, let's move forward. 

Over break, the kids decided to use some of their Christmas money to go tubing.

Our neighbors suggested Fraser Tubing Hill. It is near Winter Park resort.  Fifth graders receive a free ski pass and, after driving by, Nick & Ella are looking forward to returning to the area. Several of our neighbors get ski passes to different resorts than we do. It will be fun for Nick to explore new runs with Ella this year.

A few things we didn't realize before we made the trip. First, it is really far from Denver - probably an hour and a half. We had to force ourselves not to think about how close the tubing hill was from Salt Lake City.  Second, the temperature change from Denver to Fraser was dramatic (over 30 degrees). This was significant because Nick packed a light jacket and Greta forgot her jacket completely.

Our other surprise was that it was super crowded on a Monday. We were told the best times to arrive are right when they open or after 6 at night (it would be too cold for me then). We put our name on the waiting list and headed to lunch.

It worked out well because the clouds lifted while we were at lunch and the blue skies were beautiful.

This was a really fun afternoon activity. We only rented the tubes for an hour because there were so many people waiting (the wait was 2 hours when we got our tubes). Thankfully we found an old coat of my sister's in Nick's bag for Greta. It got chilly when you are shooting down the hill at 30 miles per hour.

If I hadn't been so scared flying down the hill, I would have video taped a ride. You really get moving. After the first run, I was wishing that all the kids were wearing helmets.

We never saw anyone crash though. I think next time I would consider wearing snow pants. My lower back kept getting exposed and it was a little brisk!

The best part about tubing is not having to walk up the steep hill. Given the wait time up the hill, we probably got 8 or so runs in during our hour. 

If we ever spend a week in the mountains, this would be a great way to break up a week of skiing.

So, how is your new year looking? I'm making an unexpected work trip this week and hope to find some time on the flight to visualize 2014. Here's to a great year!

March of the {Slightly} Crazy People

Nick checked a big item off his "50 before 50 List" last weekend (in case you were wondering, there are only about 3 items on the list right now).

He decided to take on the Leadville 50 Silver Rush Mountain Bike Race.

50 Miles of tough terrain starting at 10,200 feet. The starting hill would have been enough to do me in. In fact, about 2 hours into the race, I felt the altitude draining me. Thankfully, Nick got in enough high altitude rides that he was fine.

Here is the start to the craziness. In addition to the obvious physical challenges, this race has a huge mental component.

It was interesting to hear/watch the riders as they approached the half way point. There were happy riders, focused riders, grumpy riders & desperate riders. We knew about 7 riders in the race & each one demonstrated a different emotion at the turn around.

This was the hill you had to climb before the turn around. It doesn't look that bad in this photo, but I didn't see any rider make it up on his/her bike.

This is Nick with 10 miles to go. I think it's a thumbs up. His goal was to finish the race. About 800 riders were registered to race, but only about 585 crossed the finish line under the 8 hour cut-off. Though my pictures don't show it, there were 75 women in the - the majority of whom seemed to be trying for the Leadwoman Title (i.e, complete 5 of the Leadville races).

Nick accomplished his goal and got to share his success with friends. That he rode the race with his former roommate/half the reason Nick friend was pretty awesome.

Nick & his training partner put in a lot of miles in the last two months. I'm so glad they were able to celebrate together at the end of a very long day. I am so impressed with his dedication & commitment to his goal. Way to go Nick!

Zippity Do Da

When we were in Durango, we took the crew zip-lining. One of my friends found a groupon to help make the experience more affordable. Along the hike to the first line, we encountered bear bones which was very exciting to our resident bearophile Ella. 

The worst part for the adults was the initial ladder climb & hanging out on the platforms.  Even though we were clipped in most of the time, it was still scary to be up so high on a platform that wiggled in the wind (not to mention when someone jumped on/off). I spent most of the time hugging a tree which made picture taking a little tricky. I debated bringing my good camera, but it would have been uncomfortable to have my big camera strapped to me (& I'm not sure they would have allowed it).

We were supposed to have extra guides on the trip to accommodate our large group, but supposedly someone didn't show up for work.  This meant our 2 hour trip took almost 5 hours - and we spent a lot of time just waiting on the platform which got really, really old.

As for the zipping, the kids took to it very quickly. It took the adults a few more runs. We did 6 runs in all. If the tour had gone on schedule, I think we would have added more. You need 1-2 runs to feel comfortable & then you can start doing being more adventurous - like free falling backwards or taking a running jump.

Our group ran from 4 years old (he did one solo zip) up to 60+.  Zipping itself is not very challenging. The hardest part was the steep hike & the ladder climb.  It was a fun family adventure - if it was more affordable, or someone else was paying, I would do it again.

Charlie was the first person to try the free fall. This was our second run when the adults were still trying to catch their breath and lower their heart rates. We were very impressed.