Makin' Memories at Cheyenne Mountain

This weekend we joined our friends (and many cumulative children) on a camping adventure at Cheyenne Mountain Park outside Colorado Springs. I had started pulling out the camping gear on Tuesday, so Ryan and Jack were positively frothing with excitement.

Of course all camping trips revolve around food - I didn't take pictures of Saturday's dinner, so our story begins with Sunday breakfast - eggs, sausage and hashbrowns.

I love how Maia is wisely keeping her distance (though Grizz, the black dog behind David, is wisely moving in closer for discards)

Glamour camping at its finest (though after wrestling with the 8 bajillion tent poles in a windstorm, we will be retiring this particular pain-in-the-ass moon cabin). 

After breakfast we headed into Old Colorado City for the Territory Days festival.  It was a surprisingly big event, with lots of crafts (LOTS of tie-dye) and old-timey costumes (LOTS of spurs). We learned there was an HO train layout in the museum so of course we headed right over.  It wasn't huge but Jack was entranced. 

 I let Ryan and Jack pick out polished stones from the gift shop, which thrilled Ryan to no end. 

Next up we headed out of town towards Pike's Peak.  Max & Suzy found an idyllic little mountain town called Green Mountain Falls where we put up our sunshade and unpacked lunch. Jena and her family joined us, just in time for Andrew to decimate the supply of sliced watermelon.

You see everything in Colorado - including a small wedding in the lakeside gazebo.  I love the image of a bride standing next to dirty Jeep!

 Even though Jack didn't get a very long nap on the drive, he was in pretty good spirits at the park.

After an ice cream break at a local shop, we loaded up the now sticky, tired boys to go for a longer drive.

 Even driving on washboard-rutted dirt roads, the boys quickly fell asleep.

We had a lovely drive through the mountains and the boys woke up refreshed (and frankly, a little nutso).  We arrived back at the campground to find Matt, Jillian and Ava had arrived (the twins stayed back in Denver with Grandma).

Our friends Annie & Brian had also arrived, bringing the number of children in the campground under the age of five to 800 gazillion. Fortunately, the number and type of adult beverages also increased with their arrival, so  we were all good.

We were doing a pretty good job keeping track of all the kids when I realized I hadn't seen Jack in a while.  Turns out he was on a trail right above the BBQ area, just standing there.  He seemed fine, so I went back to dinner prep, but I soon heard Annie call for me.  Apparently, Jack had decided to investigate some cacti, resulting in a fistful of prickers. (They're very fine and hard to see, but they are there!).

Jack was very brave and sat patiently while I used the tweezers from Brian's Swiss Army knife to pull them all out. Soon he was off exploring again (though giving a wide berth to the cacti!).

The other boys were keeping their parents busy as they scampered up this giant rock overlooking the fire pit (poor thwarted Andrew in the lower right corner!)

It goes without saying that everyone slept VERY well that night. We unpacked the kitchen supplies again (apparently this campsite is a popular bear hangout - though we didn't see any - so we had to put all the coolers, stoves, etc. in the car each night) and made our favorite oatmeal-cinnamon pancakes with fruit & yogurt parfaits (with homemade granola and tangy greek-style yogurt, of course).

With their tummies full, the boys were off and running... without their shoes.  It was only a matter of time until those omnipresent cacti reared their ugly heads again - this time into David's foot.  The Swiss Army tweezers to the rescue again!

It was pretty traumatic for him, so I pulled out my iPod and let him play the animal matching app, which made the extraction process go a lot smoother.  Finally, with shoes and socks firmly in place, he was off and running again.

 We had brought the boys' bikes with us and Ava decided she would take a spin on Jack's bike.

 She took to it easily (unlike Jack, who still won't ride it) and with Dad nearby, she cruised around happily.

Next up, Trace decided he wanted to take a spin.  Jack seems utterly baffled as to why anyone would want to cruise on just two tires.

Finally it was time to tear down camp and start loading up the car.  Jack found a headlamp we thought had gone missing and posed for me.

 The boys came over to say good-bye, and then were off and running again!

More photos from the weekend's adventure posted here. 

Photo of the Day: Zoo Friends

Today we met Ava Grace and Atlas (our new friend from music class) at the Zoo.  Here they are (l-r Ryan, Ava, Jack, Atlas) admiring the pelicans (white blob to Ryan's left) and capuchin monkeys (you can see one in the tree straight up from Ryan's head).

Swim-tastic!

On a whim today while shopping at Wal-mart, I let the boys pick out snorkel masks - which they then promptly forgot about. In lieu of a bath tonight I told them we would get in the hot tub and we could use the masks. They were initially excited, but trying to fit snorkel masks to squirmy boys is never a fun task.  I even managed to put Ryan's on and went under to show them how cool it was, but still they resisted.

Finally, some planetary shift occurred to make Ryan ask to put his mask on.  It's not the greatest-fitting mask (see above: Wal-mart), but once he put his face in the water and realized he could see and not get water up his nose, he was hooked.  

I also bought him this snazzy long-sleeve one-piece shortie SPF 100 swimsuit at Costco, which he describes as having a "fire water" pattern. 

(these photos were taken with my oh-so-not-smart phone, so forgive the fuzziness). 

He kept popping up to tell me about all the fishies he could see. I asked if there were any honu (turtles), whales, or sharks.  He said yes, there was one honu and one very nice whale, but no sharks.  

Just imagine what his reaction will be when we go snorkeling in Kauai and he really can see fish and honu (but no whales, and hopefully no sharks!). 

I never could get Jack to put his mask on - it was a slightly different style and didn't fit as well as Ryan's so I will probably have to get a 2nd one for Jack.  It came with a snorkel too but we'll introduce that at a later date...

Happy 3rd Birthday, Ava!

Today we headed across town to celebrate Ava Grace's birthday.  Jillian always throws a great party, so we were really looking forward to seeing our friends.  Of course the first thing I noticed were the two (TWO) homemade birthday cakes - chocolate layer and a decadent crunch cake.

Ava was eager to show off some of her toys - Jack was happy to help push her on the Sit N Spin, but had absolutely no desire to take a spin himself. 

He was more interested in taking the hula hoop for a spin...

Jillian made these cute ladybugs out of little Babybel cheeses and the boys went crazy for them.  I'm still not sure why they felt the need to taste/eat the wax, but it was a hit nonetheless. 

Each child also got a crazy straw bottle and Jack proudly announced he figured out a "different way to drink" through the straw.  Here you can see the road rash he got at preschool on Friday tripping over a truck on the playground. 

 He was running a little slow today (waking up at 6:30 a.m. probably didn't help) so when Grandma Carol offered to snuggle with him for a few minutes, he accepted. 

 Then he was up and raring to go again, this time to blow bubbles with Aunt Marcy. 

 Finally, it was time for birthday cake!

 Ava was all ready to blow out the candles when one of the older neighbor girls found a roly-poly under the table.  No way will a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old ignore bugs, even if it means delaying cake!

 Then Jillian arrived with the matches and the focus was restored. 

The wind was not cooperating, but finally the candles were lit and we all sang and the kids were allowed free rein on the cake. 

 

 

Jack was excited about the mini mint-chocolate chip ice cream cones, and the colorful marshmallows on the mini cakes .