Colorado! Part 2

Picking up where I left off in Part 1, we arrived exhausted but giddy, and set about exploring our rental house. The rest of that first day was a blur. Over the next day or so, I managed to get groceries (Ouch! expensive in the mountains, and I didn't have the time or energy to go all the way back to Colorado Springs. Still, cheaper than eating out.) We spent most of those first few days just getting settled and exploring our new environment.

Natalie and Rachel love the soft-headed grass growing out in the yard.

Bobby and I road-tested the hiking carrier. After a few adjustments, it's working well for us.

Here's the rest of our tribe, all of us heading down to the two neighborhood lakes.

The two lakes are connected by a narrow stream slithering through the grassy bank. There were several places to cross via rocks or simple board bridges. The kids loved this stream and were pretending to fish in it.

Natalie and Rachel took over the photography, and got some good close-ups.

Ian didn't want to be left out of the photo fun. After grabbing my phone, he took about 43 pictures of the inside of his hand.

They have a gas grill, and this chicken and squash turned out great.

There were bubbles. There will probably be more bubbles.

The 2-acre property includes a great multi-level playscape and a trampoline. I have mixed feelings about trampolines, but the kids are crazy about them.

Day 4 was July 4th, Independence Day here in the U.S. We drove to the nearest town with grocery stores, the charming hamlet of Woodland Park, which happens to be celebrating its 125th anniversary  this year. They were having a festival, the weather was drop-dead gorgeous, the big inflatable slide was free, and a symphony was playing in a big bandstand facing a grassy hill, with Pikes Peak in the background. It was a pretty great place to be.

We parked at an elementary school with this wonderful, open to the public fort-style playground. We let the kids check it out for a while before we all headed over to the festival. They had one of these playgrounds in Ruidoso, NM, too, when we went there in 2013. I bet it's still there.

The girls, having bought themselves some fairy wings for $2 each, waited with Ian and me at the bandstand while Rob went to get the car. We found out, by the way, that it was also the 125th anniversary of basketball, which was invented by James Naismith and first played on a court at Springfield College, Massachusetts. They were having 3-on-3 b-ball games at the festival, and the announcer explained that this had been a festival tradition every year since the invention of the sport. Pretty cool. 

Rachel consoled her tired little bro.

 We came back later for fireworks, which were okay, but not as much fun as the festival. Had we all been less exhausted, we would have gotten more out of the fireworks. All in all, it was a great day and a fun way to kick off our Colorado adventures.

The next day, we checked out the Florissant Fossil Beds, and the following day, the Florissant Public Library. I'll tell you about those in my next post. Au revoir!