Ironic...?

So Monday night I was at work. I'm guessing Prom was roughly 35-40 days ago...because I sold probably 4-5 pregnancy tests to young women who should not have needed them!

But I digress.

One of these young women came through my register with her pregnancy test, and a box of "Life" cereal.

Life cereal, and a test to see it there IS life...I giggled. (But not in front of her...That would have been rude!)

Hey...You don't have to think it's funny. It's my blog.

:D

Final Day of Fun!

Today was the last day at camp. Then tomorrow morning we'd start the long drive home. We spent most of the day just hanging out. There was a playground at the campsite we hadn't visited yet. We headed down there and let the kids play. They had horseshoes and a little mini-golf course that you could play, too. Kendra and Chad played horseshoes. Sort of. :D All my kids played mini golf with Chad and Kendra. I played on the playground with Eva. The had a little train that you could climb in and pretend to drive. Eva kept telling me to "get in" the car in back and she'd take me for a ride in the train.

Then we went swimming again. (My kids could live at the pool!) Kendra and Chad put their girls down while my kids were swimming, then when we came back Syd went and hung out at their trailer with the sleeping girls while all the grown-ups (minus Lee...he was watching my kids so I could go!) went to the adult pool/hot tub. The adult pool was actually warm...quite the contrast to the chilly pool they make the kids swim in!

We had an awesome trip! My kids are already planning their next long camping trip! What great memories. I love that my kids get to spend vacation time with their grandma and grandpa! Thanks for the invite, guys!

White Pine

We had seen signs advertising another ghost town. After enjoying our trip to St. Elmo, we figured it was worth seeing. So we headed. The town has and old mine.

And an old cemetery.

And that's kind of it. Wasn't nearly as "ghosty". There were some old little houses, but it looked like people were still living there...Making it NOT a ghost town. Kendra and Chad wanted to run up to house which boasted a sign claiming to be home to the town newsletter. We wanted to see what kind of news they'd be passing on...

Then it was time for the "big kids" horse back riding. We had a great time! I've ridden horses, but just on the road. The guide took us up into the mountains on little trails, and back down over some loose rock.

Here's Lee's shadow...He was taking the pictures, so it's the only image of him on a horse we have. I'm sure he was actually trying to get a picture of the fantastic scenery, but I just like that it's his shadow.

This was the top. We stopped to have a look out at the breath taking landscape. You could see the lake below, and the mountains across the way.

Here are the kids getting saddled up for the ride...See Syd's face? She's already nervous that she can't steer her horse. :D

My horse was Trigger, Lee was riding Fancy, Sydney rode Myrtle (the same horse as the little boys rode for their "pony" ride!), Meg rode Red Hawk, and Tory was on Flea Bag. The had us lined up: The guide, Syd, Meg, Tory, Me, and Lee. I would watch Tory...every time the path would be wide enough for two horses, he would start nudging that horse. He was trying to pass Megan! He would just get started, and then the road would narrow again, and he'd have to drop back. Then Lee's horse, on the way down the mountain, would decide "Hey, I'm not following them!" and she would just head off on her own. Not far, but just far enough to be NOT following. It was funny.

We had a great time...Megan kept saying that now she wants to be a horse trainer! Talk about expensive hobbies!

Lake City

Here we are in Lake City! We came loaded with a picnic and turned the kids loose on the playground.

Hee-Hee. Nuff said.

(He didn't spend much time on the playground. Tory went up to perfect strangers playing catch and asked if he could join.)

These two were pretty much inseparable for the whole week! If I couldn't find Sydney, I just looked for Eva. I love this picture of them.

You might be thinking "Why hummingbirds?". Well I'll tell you. They were absolutely everywhere! And Lee tried very hard to get some good shots of them and only these turned out. So included them in his honor! :D

Just how many kids can you fit on one of these little merry-go-rounds?

Spencer had been spinning while leaning way back. You can see he remembered the coin box on THIS trip around.

Sometimes as many as SEVEN! (And we probably could have put 1 or 2 more in there...somewhere!)

The Not-So-Pony ride

The campground we were staying at has a stable and they offer guided horseback riding trips into the mountains. I was really excited to go! Anyone 6 and over can ride, but they don't let you share saddles. We decided to "rent" a pony for 30 minutes and let both the little boys ride that way instead, even though Spencer was old enough. (I think he'd have been a bit nervous!)

Here's the pony:

Funniest part: We didn't ride the pony! The girls says, "Let me just get Myrtle for you. We don't actually use the pony, because he tries to throw the kids off." So we keep the pony here because....?

So here's Cowboy Spencer riding Myrtle! (Note him swinging around his new hat...!)

And Cowboy Michael...wearing flip flops. Oh well. :D Spencer decided to let Michael wear his new hat while he rode the horse. That was nice of him!

Continental Divide/St. Elmo

Today we headed for the Continental Divide. I was told that if you stand on one side, your phone will tell you it is one time, but then if you cross the other side and wait a few minutes, it will reset and read a different time.

Liars. :D

Here we are - minus Lee 'cause he's taking the picture! - posing by the sign.

Gosh! Too bad I hadn't read Stephanie Hock's blog post about letting more light into your pictures BEFORE this trip! It was noon-ish...but it looks late! Here's Mom and Dad also posing casually by the sign.



Tram ride to the top of the mountain? Heck yes! And even though Lee was sort of whimpering ever time we hit a little bump, he didn't cry once! :D

Here are the Wright's in their tram car. (Note Kendra's cute hat...I totally want one! I'll also show you a better picture of it later!)

Here we are straddling the Continental Divide. (Sydney is such a HAM!)

Here we are at the top of the overlook...Gorgeous views! Don't know it you can tell, but it was a little breezy up there. (See Spencer holding his hat on?)

Next stop was St. Elmo's, a ghost town. (And before you even ask, Jennie...I saw no evidence of their fire!) You can see Spencer and I in the picture above, but all those other random people were strangers. I'm sure the goal was the BUILDING...In fact, I think I'm only in it by accident! :D

Lee loved wandering through and taking pictures. I posted only a fraction of what he took! It was a very cool little old town!

At the first stop here, we picked up a brochure. I began to read out loud, to help us have a better understanding of the history of this charming place.

But it got kinda long...

Lee is a bit of a sucker. See the boys hats? New. And pricey. But SUPER CUTE!

Here is Kara in her brand new sunglasses. She leaves them on. And gets mad if you take them off her. Funny. Mine liked glasses for about 7 seconds. Oh! And as promised...The better picture of Kendra's cute hat. I wanted to buy one, too, but the one I liked was the SAME...and I didn't want to be a copycat! :D

What a cool place to visit! Very interesting.

Although if you ever go there, I suggest stopping somewhere to go to the bathroom first.

Stinkiest. Outhouse. Ever.

Ew.

We headed back to camp, by way of Safeway, where dad bought each of the kids their own pint of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. There are no pictures of that, though. They all ate it too quick! Since it was Dad's birthday, we did some gift exchanging. (What do you get the guy who buys himself everything?) Then it was the end of another great day..

Lazy Day!

The day started out with some bad news. Apparently, all day in the sun at a parade completely fried the little Wright girls! Bad...Kara's little nose and cheeks were all blistered. It was so sad! So I was recruited to jump in the truck with dad and run to WalMart.

(And thus began his week long quest to find light-weight, long sleeve t-shirts for Eva and Kara. Um, it's summer. There aren't any light-weight long sleeve t-shirts in all of Colorado! Very sweet Grandpa, though...to think of them at every store and shop we went into!)

As I mentioned, we didn't find any. But Dad needed to go by the coffee shop anyway...so the trip wasn't a total waste! ;D

The plan was to spend today just enjoying the campsite. The kids rode bikes, blew bubbles, and threw stuff (my boys!); then we had some lunch and the kids all went down for naps.

While they slept, us adults (okay, me!) read, chatted, and dozed in our chairs. Mama had brought some billing statements from work, so she passed those out and we quickly stuffed/sealed/stamped those with her.

We had told the kids that if they slept we'd take them swimming. So true to our word, we headed to the pool/hot tub.

One of the most exciting parts of going swimming when we camp is climbing in the back of the truck, where we never ride, to drive the short distance to the pool. The kids think it's WAY fun! (And it keeps wet kids out of Papa's truck!)

This is Mama swimming with Eva and Spencer. Eva loved the pool...As long as no one splashed her! Papa splashed her, and she spent the next 7 minutes just flailing water back at him. Clearly, she has some strong revenge tendencies!

Tory, getting better at swimming all the time! He was doing flips off the edge of the pool. (He only smacked his head the one time...Jump AWAY from the edge, dude!)




Meg, who could just BE a fish she swims so well!




Sydney, too. She kept challenging Mama to race her across the pool. (I'm pretty sure Mama beat her...Keep practicing, Syd! Maybe you'll beat her next year!)





Mama holding Eva, Chad holding Kara.

Michael and I were swimming, too. But we spent our time in the hot tub. Apparently that was a "no picture" zone, because I don't have any of either of us!

After dinner we decided to watch a movie. Dad has a large TV/DVD player that we set up outside the trailer. Then we set some chairs up around, put on "Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief", and popped some popcorn. That was fun. There were a few "too scary for a 2-year-old" parts where we had to distract Eva. (I'm pretty sure Syd just sat in front of her and let her poke her in the face or something.)




Here we all are at our outdoor theater. To my hubby, who I was unable to squeeze into my poorly taken photo: Sorry! I'd have taken one more step back, but there was a trailer behind me! :D

Do you love that we belted Kara in? It you look closely, you will see that it is just a regular belt wrapped around the chair and her to keep her from climbing out and falling down. Hee-hee! With the belt on, she actually would sit and watch. (Especially if you had snacks!)

My Version of a Retraction...or Correction...

I made an error in my last post. I neglected to mention that despite Dad coming to look at the shower head, and Lee trying to buy a new one at True Value Hardware (they didn't have one that fit!), we were dumbfounded. We couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. We were sitting outside at the picnic table, talking over what we could do so that we wouldn't have to face another 7 "Water Pick" showers...Lee, Dad, and I. The next step was going to be taking their shower head apart and comparing it to ours piece by piece to make sure we had all the pieces and that they were put together the right way. Then Dad says to Lee, "I wonder if we maybe attached the hose wrong. Remember how hard it was to attach that one end to the faucet?"

Then Lee went over to manage the dogs, (which barked pretty much any time they were outside!!) and came back a few minutes later declaring:

"Dad, you are wise beyond your years." Lee had taken off the hose and turned it around...and Dad was right.

And I was so grateful that I didn't have to shower in a water pick for a whole week that I won't even mention that if I had installed this shower head I probably would have followed the directions and not had this problem. Nope. I won't even bring that up!

:D

Thanks again, Dad!

Water Picks and Parades!

Before we left on our trip, Lee and his dad installed a new shower head in the trailer we use. Supposedly it is the same as the one that Pop installed in his own trailer, and they swear by its awesome pressure, and how they wish their shower at home had the same pressure. We succumbed, and purchased.

So here we are on the first morning of our trip. I go into the teeny little shower and turn on the tap...only to find that the water barely dribbles out.

Hmm. How lousy must their HOME shower pressure be?

I manage to wash my hair in the tub faucet...where water actually comes out.

Then it's Lee's turn, so he heads in and turns on the water. He finishes up, and comes out and says: "When dad asks about the shower head, I'll tell him it's great, if you like showering with a water pick."

(I may have used my creative licence a little with this quote...meaning that I don't remember EXACTLY what he said. But he made me laugh right out loud with his line about the shower being a water pick!)

Whew! So everyone gets ready. With 13 of us in two trailers, that in itself was a feat! We had heard that Gunnison was holding a parade to celebrate their "town days", so we headed into town.

I prefer to think they had heard we were coming, and were so happy to see us they threw a parade! It was fun! Lots of people throwing candy, my kids running into the street to grab all they could.

Evidence of sweet kids: Spencer was grabbing candy, then he'd come hand it to Chad and tell him it was for Eva. Also, there was a girl who may have been Downs Syndrome just down the parade route a few feet from us. Consequently, when my kids were racing for candy they would sometimes grab what she was heading for before she could get to it. When I pointed her out, and suggested that they leave some for her, my kids would all stop at some invisible boundary and forage for candy elsewhere. Cute!

After the parade, we headed to Crested Butte, a really cute little old town. The little shops were adorable, and the whole setting of the city was fun to see.

Lee took a lot of pictures of the many wildflowers growing everywhere! Apparently, they are so numerous that toward the end of July/beginning of August every year they hold a Wildflower Festival!

He is quite the photographer!

Also...It was HOT!! Like, 100 degrees, hot. I am aware that the temperature here was also about that high...but I guess last time the McAlisters were there, the temperature was usually in the 80's. Guess what...Record highs! Thanks.