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Camping Catch-Up

1Life has been moving along. I’ve really been intending to do lots of things … but I find between work (where I’ve been playing catch-up) and lots of other things, my energy is pretty drained by the end of the day. I’ve been doing good to get dinner on the table and keep up with the family. I think there’s a bit of depression in there, honestly, but I’m allowing myself to be a bit off right now. I don’t have to be super woman. It’s OK. Anyhow, back on topic.

We had two great camping trips this fall that I haven’t talked about. The first one was a group trip (they’re all groups, but this was a BIGGER group). We had 6 campers (pop-ups, hardside campers, an RV and a teardrop) plus a family of tent campers. It was a great site.

Across from where we parked the trailers was a huge hill and about 2/3 of the way up was an abandoned wooden corral that the kids took as their fort … and at the top of the hill …

2A gorgeous view of the lake and the mountains. Then just a quarter mile away

3The lake! Where all the kids, both the dogs and a few adults took a chilly dip.

The kids ran feral. We rode bikes. We played Cards Against Humanity. We saw a wedding from afar. We got rained on. It was easy and fun and nice.

4The next trip just a few weeks later was very different, but no less fun. It was, however, a bit chillier. We saw flakes falling down as we headed up on Friday night, but by the next day it had warmed up and got pretty nice.

5We went for the fall color, but there wasn’t a ton of it available. It didn’t matter though! It was still beautiful weather.

6We were a Mueller State Park and the staff there put on some fun activities: paper making and a nature hike. We also went on quite the long hike of our own.

7My dad and sister joined us, but somehow we didn’t get them in the photos. We didn’t do so well overall with photos this trip. This was far more about the feeling for me … very restive and nice.

And thus ends our epic camping season. It was a decided success and we’re anxious to start panning for 2014.

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Camping at Sylvan Lake

1This past weekend we went camping at Sylvan Lake State Park, just outside Eagle, CO. It’s a beautiful Colorado State Park near a crystal clear mountain lake.

2Gorgeous.

4We spent lots of time out on the lake, canoeing around and “fishing.” The rangers at the park put on some good programs too and we went to the one about insects!

3Everyone loved that. The kids caught damsel flies, bee flies (they’re flies that look like bees), grasshoppers and probably 10 more bugs I’ve already forgotten about.

5We did a lot of relaxing which was great. We did make it up the pass to check out an old abandoned fishing camp. You could peek in the windows and see bunkbeds and wood stoves and newspapers from 1985.

This was the last of the first batch of camping trips we scheduled this year, but we’ve got two more planned for September. It’s been really great fun and I’m so glad we’ve been able to do this with the kids.

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Down but Not Out

I’ve had nice little emails and texts from people who have been missing the blog – family from far away who only get to see us regularly through this medium and friends from afar who enjoy catching up on my life as I do theirs (even though I haven’t had time lately). I’ve been missing it too, along with other things. But work is the time bandit right now, stealing what precious time I used to use for blogging. It hasn’t been unusual lately for me to work 11 or 12 hours in a single day without a break. I know it won’t always be like this, but it is going to be different. Anyhow, let’s play catchup:

bathingcuties

The Kids

The kids are having a great summer. Tabby is at school with Ben and both of them LOVE IT. She also has a couple of friends from school and other venues (a family friend, soccer) in her class and that makes her very happy. Ben was moved up to the next level at the beginning of the summer. This was bittersweet because he and his best friend, Cruz, were separated. However, it was in some ways for the best as they are a wild comedy duo and his behavior is improved.

We have been going swimming at least once weekly and traveling tons which the kids LOVE. They are both looking forward to our cruise immensely and Ben keeps asking to “see the Disney Cruise stuff!” whenever he sees Matt or I at the computer. Tabby is reading everything she comes across and has really stepped up her game big time. There’s not much now she can’t read, at least with a little help.

me+mattyMatt and I

With me working so much, it’s been hard not being able to spend as much time with Matt. He’s also been picking up some major slack that I’ve dropped lately and doing it with grace and generally good humor. Since the weeks have been so crazy, we’ve been trying to get out for date nights whenever we can. We’ve tried out some new restaurants, gone to see some movies and been pretty lazy. It’s nice.

tritrainTraining

Another thing we’ve been doing together is training! I am signed up for my first triathlon near the end of August and so I’ve been training with one of my friends and then sometime with Matt. It’s been some early morning swims in the pool and some weekend bike rides. A few weeks ago my friend and I did an open water swim. The best thing I can say about it was that I didn’t drown. Still, by the end of it, I had new confidence in my abilities and I feel like when I attempt it again later this week, I will do much better.

Aside from tri-training, the rest of my working out hasn’t been awesome. I was going to bootcamp only once or twice a week and since I’m going to miss the last two weeks of July anyway (since we’re traveling), I took the month of July off. The lack of fees alone paid for me wetsuit. Yay.

cowcreekTravel

What’s probably compounded this whole work situation immeasurably is all the travel we’ve been doing on the weekends. A couple of weekends ago, we had our third camping trip of the season, to Cow Creek (above). It was wonderful, but it’s also been exhausting. In addition to camping, we went to Vail for the holiday weekend (and got back around 11:30 on Sunday night). We’re heading off for our big summer trip with Matt’s family in less than 2 weeks.

Still, we’ve had a wonderful time, and I want to share some of our adventures.

workWork!

Despite the fact that I’m working hard, overall, I am really enjoying my new role.  It is definitely not all rainbows and sunshine, but we’ve won a few projects since I’ve started and that is a really really awesome feeling. I get to do a lot of stuff I’m good at and enjoy, like laying out pretty marketing materials, managing databases and organizing things. It’s also an excellent challenge, which I really thrive on.

But my vacation in 2 weeks is going to be very very well deserved.

 

So that, in a nutshell, is life right now. I hope to make at least one more post this week and slowly get back to doing 3-5/week and also reading some of my other favorite blogs. Life is good. It’s just very very busy.

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Camping at Maroon Bells

1We had the good fortune of booking the only two camper sites in the Silver Bells campground near the Maroon Bells outside Aspen. Aside from the nearly 4 hour drive, there is nothing but good to say about this spot. The campground is beautiful. Check out the views.

6The bells, super famous and very beautiful aren’t far from the campsite. We parked nearby and took a short hike to view the bells.

3Then we hiked to crater lake, about 2 mile away. The water is so clear you can see to the bottom of the water from all the way up on the trail.

2Ben, our most novice hiker, did a great job, hiking almost the whole way without too much whining.

4Loki probably enjoyed the hike more than anyone. He went swimming in Crater Lake, chasing sticks for about 30 minutes. Just wish it had helped out his spring shedding!

5The area is named for the beautiful aspen trees that are found everywhere. Aspens are the largest organisms in the world as a whole grove is linked by roots underground. This accounts for them all changing color at once.

We went into the town of Aspen a couple of times … once by car. We walked around and got ice cream and firewood and checked out the scene. It’s a pretty town. There are a bunch of pretty older homes and it’s been kept up well. We also got a nice bike ride with the kids in on Sunday just before we left.

We’d love to go back and next time we’d love to stay a little longer.

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Camping en Masse

frozenlakeThis weekend we headed back to Leadville for another group camping trip. This time we had invited over double the group from last year and so we were bummed when the reports out of Leadville were rather … chilly. No water. Lake is frozen. Some folks backed out (reasonably so) and as we climbed the hills to our destination, the top of one pass revealed this little gem … a totally frozen lake. On May 31. Yikes.

TurquoiseLakeHappily our lake, Turquoise Lake, looked like this. And, honestly, it didn’t seem that much colder to us than last year! We still had DOUBLE the number of people. And it was a wonderful group.

campgroupEvenings looked a bit like this, with loads of chairs around the fire and everyone finding something yummy to eat.

benbike

The kids ran in one big pack, kinda feral and crazy and over-sugared. Ben almost learned how to ride his bike and got some nasty bug bites.

tabbymallowTabby got gobs of marshmallow in her hair. No one got enough sleep. But MAN it was fun! We went fishing. We hiked around the campsite. The moms and dads went for bike rides and runs and had sipped wine and whiskey.

We have already reserved it for next year and I already can’t wait … so we’re going to do another group camp thing at the end of the summer. Woohoo!

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Adieu to Camping

After a crazy week, we set off on Thursday night for our final round of camping for the season – at Mueller State Park. Of course we got going late, but luckily the camping spot was only a couple of hours away and even with some stops, we made pretty good time. We couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like we’d still get to see most of the pretty fall color. Despite the chilly weather, we were snug and warm in our camper!

The next morning, we made some pancakes and then started driving around to check out the scenery we’d missed in the dark. We drove through town and were immediately sidetracked by a dinosaur museum and spent the next couple of hours there, doing everything dino. The museum is primarily a working dinosaur lab and they have sent dino skeletons all over the world. The kids were enthralled by their specimens and our bizarre tour guide. Continue reading “Adieu to Camping”

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Camping in RMNP

We spent last weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park, home of breathtaking views of the Rockies and some truly amazing trails and wildlife.

And for a few days … our campers. We stayed at Aspen Glen Campground. I swear to you, Matt has some sort of genius for picking great campgrounds. This one compared to some of the others wasn’t quite AS amazing, but in RMNP, the pickings are slim because it’s so popular. Continue reading “Camping in RMNP”