Angel of Shavano

DSC_7168Ahh Angel of Shavano.

This wass our third year camping at this fine spot.

It was the second weekend in July (this month was CRAZY, y’all) and we went up for a long weekend (Th-Sun).

DSC_7032_fixIt’s a great group spot. We have a ton of space and even our own restrooms!

Friday we did a long hike (8 miles?) on the Colorado Trail. You don’t really get to anything except some pretty views.

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Saturday, though. OMG.

We went on a jeep trail for about 30 minutes. Not too too hard, but definitely no sedans.

We got to this pretty little reservoir. And we got out of the car and started hiking.

DSC_7208 HDRAnd it all looked like this.

Wildflowers and gorgeous scenery EVERYWHERE!

DSC_7172We had to get a family pic. When will I learn to lose the hat? Perhaps when my hair magically looks good on day 3 of camping.

An AMAZING hike. Pretty much unscheduled. No water. No food. Bad campers.

Still, so pretty.

We went back to the car and had our pic-a-nic lunch and then went back to the campsite and played some volleyball. I forgot how much I enjoy that. Hopefully we can do it again soon.

Wilderness Girls

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Our fourth, and final trip for July was a split ticket. Matt and Ben went on their annual Boys Backpacking Trip and Tabby and I took the ladies to Vail.

Gram had just passed away and it felt oddly appropriate to be going there with friends to relax and reflect. I also brought a laptop full of scanned photos to turn into a memorial slideshow (linked in the last post).

Not all of the crew was able to join us on Friday, but myself, Kelly and the other Jess (Mitch as she’s called), headed out Friday. We made dinner, put the girls to bed and went to bed ourselves (everyone was exhausted!).

The next morning we got up bright and early to hike to Nolan Lake in the Holycross wilderness. This is the same hike Matt and I did a few years back on our anniversary and we were auditioning it for our final backpacking trip of the year.

Hikers

It was an absolutely beautiful hike.

TrailTons of wildflowers. Everywhere.

Vista with FlowersEVERYWHERE! Also beautiful mountains…

Impressionist LogAnd interesting flora. We called this guy the impressionist log.

MeadowThe only bad part about the hike was that it was BUGGY. This is not a CO thing. But we must have all killed about 1000 mosquitos and buzzy stingy flies over the course of our 6+ miles. And unfortunately, after all that, we didn’t make the lake. We were close, but exhausted.

Napping NappersSo exhausted. And we needed to go home. So  we did.

It was overall a great weekend and so good to spend time with just my little girl. Love that kid.

 

A Life Well Lived

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Me and my grandma, Circa 1982

July has been a tough month all around.

Just before we lost our darling Loki, we found out that my grandma had terminal cancer. Seeing as she celebrated her 93rd birthday in January, this was not the tragedy it might’ve been, but you’re never ready to say goodbye.

She was pretty matter-of-fact about her diagnosis. The last few years have not been easy. She’s been pretty sick and not wanted to do much outside her retirement community. She’d also outlived just about all her peers, her husband and one of her children.

So on July 6, she returned to her retirement community for hospice care. She had a few OK days and a couple bad ones and a few where she mostly slept. And on July 20, she went to sleep for good.

school age 17

And over the next few days, Kelly and I sorted and scanned 93 years worth of photos. That’s a lot of photos.

But it’s more about what the photos represent – a life really really well lived.

This photo is one of my favorites. This adorable GIRL, entering her last year of high school was about to have a radical transformation. Within the next 18 months, she would meet, marry, have a baby, send her husband off to war and go to work in the Remington Arms Munitions Plant.

IMG_20160722_0038Another favorite, this one is from her trip to Cairo, where she met my mom’s oldest sister, in the middle of a world tour.

IMG_20160722_0027She eventually convinced my grandpa to travel with her and they made many trips together.

coast

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fountain

gram apre skiThis is another fave. Grandma learned how to ski in her 50s! I’m sure many people thought she was crazy, but she enjoyed skiing and continued to go over the next decade or so until her arthritis got too bad.

DSC_0025Even more than the travels though were the great photos of her with her family, including my kiddos, her only two great grandkids.

IMG_20160722_0058Celebrating birthdays …

IMG_20160722_0022and holidays ….

IMG_20160722_0081And random any days.

She was always there, stirring up mischief, making sure everyone was taken care of and enjoying the heck out of life.

I have only the very best memories of Gram, who took us to Vail and had us for sleepovers and made sure we knew how to swim. And more importantly, made sure we got an education and were good people.

We are so lucky to have had her. Blessed beyond measure. And we will miss her so. I hope she and Mom are up in heaven, catching up on old times and having a good laugh.

Colorado by Train

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At some point in time, my uncle mentioned to me that trains run from Denver to Granby (a mountain town a couple hours away and near his lake house). I filed it away under “cool, maybe later” and thought nothing of it for a while.

2016-07-08 07.57.21Suddenly, a couple days before we were scheduled to visit, I thought of the train and we decided to see what it would take. Matt had to rearrange a meeting, I had to take a day off work and we had to figure out transportation to the station and home, but in the end, $90 netted us tickets and a few phone calls did the rest.

We got up early on Friday, went to my sister’s house, where we parked our car for the weekend, and drove to Union Station. We boarded our train and about 3 hours after we got up, we were trundling right back by our house! ha!

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It was a fascinating experience. We got to see parts of the state that are different from what you see on the well-traveled highways. And I could track our progress on my Google Maps app which was fun too.

There was a dining car (bottom left) where you could have a (pretty uninspired looking) nosh and an observation car that had a volunteer from the forest service narrating the scenery. This was pretty hard to get a seat in, but it was cool to pass through.

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I liked train travel a lot and the whole family agreed. Tabby would love to do a longer trip.

The seats were large and comfy and reclined nicely. We had power at every seat too which is a huge winner. Probably the only thing I didn’t love were the restrooms which were similar to airplane restrooms but didn’t seem to be in as good repair or as clean. Boo.

If we were going to do it again, especially for longer, we’d bring more things to do and plenty of snacks (offerings were a little iffy), but I think it could be a really fun way to travel! And I’d love to check out a sleeper car!

But the very best part was rolling into Granby and seeing my uncle and aunt!

Happy Trails

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A little over 11 years ago on a beautiful Easter morning, Matt and I made a decision that would forever alter our lives. We decided that it was time to adopt a dog named Groucho, if he was, in fact, still available.

We had lost our first furry friend, May, a few months earlier. I had said I wasn’t ready for another dog, even though I was really taken with the then-named Groucho. But Matt was, and so I said, “If he’s still there, let’s go for it.”

It’s not very common to still find a relatively young dog, especially a lab-mix, still in a shelter after a week, but as luck would have it, he had gotten kennel cough and had to be sequestered away from the other dogs and other potential adoptive parents. He was not even strictly on the “adoptable” list, but we had seen him, had loved him … and they let us adopt him. Of course, I was smitten within minutes of him becoming ours.

He was an insane little ball of fur – pure energy. Matt says now that he’s the dog equivalent of himself. Can’t sit still, always wants to go, wants to eat everything in site and a little crazy. In short, he was the perfect dog for us, particularly for my better half.

So we brought him home and named him Loki.

The first months he was with us I was insanely distracted. He was constantly into mischief and though he wasn’t a puppy, he wasn’t too far off. Matt went out of town for a couple of weeks and it was just Loki and me. And during that week, I suffered a severe burn on my hand and lost two credit cards in completely separate incidents as well as a handful of other mishaps completely outside my normal even-keeled, organized ways.

But we had tons of fun – trips to the park and the mountains and endless walks around the yard. He learned to sit, stay, shake, beg and, all on his own, how to open doors. He liked to chew and in one memorable incident, he got an unopened package and managed to chew a hole through the brand new bag I’d bought Mom for her birthday.

There was also the incident in which he ate a piece of a giant playground ball and we had to have him cut open to remove it. We felt terrible, but he felt worse. He looked like doggie sushi with a green bandaid all around his middle. The drugs to keep him calm made him manic and crazy and I still am not sure how he managed to heal.

He was next to impossible to wear out. So we sent him to daycare a few times a week to wear him out, but he was a bit of trouble there too. He kept getting into fights with boxers (why? who knows??) and shortly before Tabby was born, he was kicked out of doggy daycare. Our little juvenile delinquent.

Lucky for all of us, he was amazing with kids. We had a preview as some of our closest friends have a son a year older than Tabby, but when it was his own baby, he was even more attentive and protective.

And as they grew, he got food dispensers at first, and then playmates. Tabby in particular has always had an incredibly strong bond with Loki. One of her first sentences was, “No Yoki! Dis my caka!” The translation of which is, “No Loki, this is my cracker.” Cracker in this case actually referred, I believe, to a fruit roll-up.

I sometimes wonder about Loki during the early years of the kids lives. I was mostly tired and probably cranky during that time, and I wonder if he really got his fair shake. But Matt remembers it differently and probably somewhat more accurately. We were doing a lot of running/walking with the stroller during that time and Loki spent a lot of time pounding the pavement right along with us. And he was getting to know his little people.

As the kids grew, we started going and doing more. Loki got to go camping in more places over the state of Colorado than most people will ever see. Those paws pounded hundreds of miles in trails and thousands by car. There was nothing Loki loved more, with the exception of being with his people, than to be going and doing and sniffing.

His senior years were marked by lots of sleeping during the day and going and doing on the evenings and weekends. We were lucky that Matt works from home and so he’s never had to be alone all day.

Over a year ago, he started developing swollen lymph nodes. He went on steroids (no fun for anyone involved!), but that didn’t help. And they grew. The vet suspected lymphoma or another kind of cancer. We weighed our options but the treatments were awful and wouldn’t prolong his life anyhow, so we opted to just let him be and hope for the best. We were blessed with many good months.

About a month ago, we started seeing some decline. Once ravenous for food of any kind, he started turning down or only partially finishing his kibble. But he was still eating other food that he deemed delicious enough, including peanut butter with his old man supplements, so that was OK. He also started breathing more heavily and sneezing more frequently. He had new swollen spots that bothered him.

Last weekend, he went to the B&B for the weekend while we took the train to Granby to stay at my uncle’s house for the weekend. Saturday, we got a call from the B&B that he had developed a nose bleed that wouldn’t go away. They said it wasn’t too bad and that they would keep an eye on him and we picked him up just a bit earlier than planned on Sunday.

His nose bleed, though not bad, was consistent and even after a trip to the vet, couldn’t be stopped. He also started refusing food entirely. After an awful night where none of us could sleep, we took him back to the vet to see if there was anything that could be done.

They could do lots but the bottom line is that it wouldn’t amount to much of anything. He was in pain and he couldn’t be fixed. So we made the right decision, even though it was the hard decision. Though we cried pitifully, he went peacefully.

It’s been hard – so hard – but we are trying to be grateful for Loki and the tremendous companion that he was to our family. Happy trails to our dear furry friend. May he eternally travel the wilderness of heaven.

We Found Lost Lake

2016-06-30 18.59.29 HDRWe took Friday off to do our second backpacking trip of the season.

Since it was mostly overcast and rainy and I only had my iPhone, my photos are not up to snuff – many of them grainy and blurry. But you work with what you’ve got.

2016-07-01 18.12.14 HDRWe went to Lost Lake, a 1.7 mile (each way) hike from the Hessie trail head with a the other families we backpack with.

2016-07-01 12.40.23 HDRWe arrived later on Thursday and stayed up all day Friday, completing a 7 mile day hike with amazing views like this

2016-07-01 10.58.34 HDRand this

2016-06-30 19.05.10 HDRand this. It rained, but not enough to dampen our spirits – just some of our equipment.

2016-07-02 09.57.39-1We briefly lost one of the kids on the hike, but other than that, this was the worst incident we had, which was on the way out. Ben’s big backpack took him down hard and he came up with a piece of gravel embedded in his forehead (ouch). But after just a few tears and some assurances from his buddies that he’d have “a cool Harry Potter scar.” He was just fine.

2016-07-02 09.17.46-1 HDROld Man Loki continues to enjoy his forays into nature, but was so exhausted when we got home Saturday that he’s been sleeping pretty much since then.

It was a great spot to camp and we’d love to go back again next year.

Weekend Riding

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We did lots of fun things this weekend: went to REI, had a block party, played Bunco (me) and Catan (Matt), went to a pizza party at a friend’s house, had friends over for dinner, etc. etc. but probably the most memorable thing we did was a bike ride.

Because this wasn’t just any bike ride. It was a nearly 3 HOUR bike ride.

Normally when we take the kids to a new spot, we scout it out first. But we had … kinda. See it’s a trail we used to ride before we had kids and they recently added some pieces to it making what we thought was a full loop. Turns out we were wrong. It basically improved it and made about a 3/4 loop. Which because it isn’t a total loop we rode twice … for a 1.5 mile loop. Or 50% more. The worst part is that in addition to the 50% more, we took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up at a dead end … at the END of a giant hill. And then we had to go down and back up another giant hill. It was exhausting and no one was having any fun by the end.

Hate that. BOO.

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Ben was the “total trooper” winner award this go around. Little if any whining from him.

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That kid is becoming an amazing mountain biker. Anytime he encounters anything where he needs more power, he’s straight out of the saddle and powering up the hill. He didn’t have to stop much at all. So cool.

2016-06-26 09.10.49Tabby tried hard and did pretty well, but she just doesn’t have the same stamina Ben has built up. Hopefully we didn’t permanently ruin biking for her and she can get some muscle built up.

2016-06-26 11.40.22We did have a couple of fun bright spots! Tabby was very excited to see the tipis above and even more excited to hear you can rent them out for a night (we will do this sometime this summer). We also got to see the goats!! Goats of all colors, munching weeds and making very funny noises. Glad to have a little bit of comic relief in a pretty brutal ride.

Fab Dads

 

 

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I’m pretty lucky to have my amazing dad and a bunch of father-types in my life. Strong men who value women have never been in short supply and I am old enough now to fully appreciate that.

#1 of course is my own dad, who has always been there for my sister and me in every way possible. He taught us great life skills like how to ski and balance a checkbook and mop a floor and always gave us hugs and told us we look nice and made it clear he thought we had something valuable to contribute to the world. If only all little girls were so lucky.

Now my kids get to call him Papa and of course, he is just as wonderful to them. Plus he gets to spoil them and dote on them and truly believe that they can do no wrong.

2016-06-19 20.47.08-3I was then lucky/smart enough to marry this catch. He is like my dad in many ways – hardworking, kind, fun – but with his own little crazy twists that make being his kid different, though no less awesome. He is an awesome dad. He got up in the night more than I did (I do not go back to sleep easily) and he’s the one that gets the kids off to school each day and usually welcomes them home too. We’re purely spoiled by having him work at home. We get to spend a lot of time with him! And it’s keenly felt when he has to be away for a week. We all adore him!

I am also so blessed to get to work on a daily basis with my uncle. He’s a wonderful role model in all areas of life – business, parenting, fun music and another one of my favorite people.

And on top of these two great guys, I have a wonderful father-in-law who is lots of fun for his grandkids and very good to our family.

And still further are all the amazing dads who I’m friends with – these guys are growing an awesome new generation of cool, fun, smart, thoughtful, kind kids with something to bring to this world.

And if that wasn’t enough, I get to remember two amazing grandpas and the great memories I have with them – time in the shop, collecting chicken eggs, going to Broncos games, the flea market, McDonald’s.

Let’s give it up for the amazing men in the world!

The Purple Belt

2016-06-18 13.50.28About a week ago, Ben finally go the OFFICIAL nod to test for his purple belt.

For the uninitiated, belts and their corresponding tests come pretty quickly at first and then they get harder and harder. It’s been over a year since Ben got his orange belt. The fact that he took last summer off slowed him down, but Ben also has some challenges with ADHD that he has been working hard to overcome. Technically, his medicine will have worn off by the time karate class rolls around, but the focus it is allowing him to cultivate when he’s on it seems to have a carry-over effect and apparently, it’s pretty noticeable.

2016-06-18 14.06.49The test took about 1.5 hours.

2016-06-18 14.08.05They had to go through all their forms and really show their stuff.

2016-06-18 14.48.58But what is really crazy (especially if you know Ben) is that he had to spend 20+ minutes of his test meditating. That is sitting.perfectly.still. This is a kid who NEVER sits perfectly still, except when he’s sleeping, or as we say, “recharging.” !!!!

2016-06-18 15.12.46But he persevered through it all, nosebleed included (you can see the aftermath above), and got his belt!!!

2016-06-18 15.16.17I’m not sure who’s prouder of him … us, or himself. Victories like this are amazing for Ben and now, he is at the same rank as his sister, which is pretty darn sweet.

Backpacking Trip Numero Uno

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I love the outdoors, but I have always had a rocky relationship with camping and backpacking. It comes from my intense dislike of two things: 1) not sleeping well and 2) lack of shower. I have largely gotten over #2, but #1 was still plaguing me.

But last fall, two of my best girlfriends convinced me last year that I should really give backpacking another try. And my darling husband bought me a backpacking cot (!!) – pretty sure they didn’t have those the first go around. I also purchased myself a backpacking chair and suddenly, backpacking got a lot more comfortable. We went on one trip and had a great time. Good company + good gear = good time.

2016-06-18 17.01.40The kids are in on the act. They have their own gear – tiny adorable versions of what we carry (though of course, we carry the bulk of the gear) and they have a great time playing with their friends in the woods.

2016-06-19 09.15.20-1Well, mostly. It’s sometimes a bit harder for Tabby. The families we hang with have older boys and younger girls. Ben doesn’t seem to have any problems playing with the older boys, but Tabby sometimes finds herself at odds with the younger girls. I’m going to work on some strategies with Tabby to ensure she has more fun next time. I want her to enjoy this. Maybe I can find a way to bring along more books or some art supplies. That might go a long way with Tabby.

2016-06-19 06.43.47… because it’s so very cool – waking up to views like this…

2016-06-18 19.59.05-2And seeing the sun set on views like this. Ahhhhhh!