Backyard Splash Park

As much as I'd like to say we've been at our awesome neighborhood pool every day this summer, we haven't.  Blame it on afternoon thunderstorms.  Blame it on laziness.  Blame it on my fears of taking 2 small boys who like to run away from me to the pool by myself.  We just haven't gone as much as usual. But we do spend a lot of time playing in the backyard with water.  All the cooling fun without the work and worries.  We've had a great time.

Don't worry, we'll go to the pool, too.

Scheming.

Splashing and laughing.

Zach loves to jump in our tiny baby pool and make big splashes.

"Taking turns" playing with the hose.

Eldorado Canyon

A couple of weekends ago we decided to go explore Eldorado Canyon.  It is only about 15 minutes away, but we hadn't really explored it as a family before.  We went with my parents and had a nice picnic before playing.  It is a beautiful place and I'm not sure why we hadn't gone there, but I know we'll go back.  It is like going up into the mountains, but so close and easy.

There was an area of water that was to the side of the river so it was nice and calm, and the boys loved it.

All of the boys.

There was plenty of dam building.

An attempt at a family photo.

Austin is our water baby.  Zach loves water, too, but it is Austin who really wants to jump into any water he sees.  He was dying to get in, so we let him put his feet in.  At first he liked it...

Until he realized how cold it was!  He cried and glared at the water for a couple of minutes.

Zach was too focused on the dam building to let the cold get to him.

Getting cookie bites with Dad.

We went on a little hike and enjoyed some gorgeous views.  This is looking out the canyon, towards where we live (just over the far hill, and to the right a bit).  The canyon is known for it's impressive climbing, and you can see why.

Hiking and climbing with Papa.

Austin rode in the stroller and loved when Zach and my mom would run ahead and "hide" and jump out at us.

In this picture I circled a climber.  Can you see him?  We could see through a viewer that is set up there that he was free climbing.  No ropes!  Insane.  The cliff even goes down farther than you can see in the picture.  Luckily, we saw him make it to the top.

We had so much fun and look forward to going back soon!

Sunflower Farm

While we were in Vail my parents took the boys to Sunflower Farm. I had been wanting to take them somewhere like this, so I was excited when my Mom found it. They raved about how neat it is, so when the weather was nice enough my Mom and I took them again. It is only open to the public in the spring and fall, so we made it on one of the last days of the season. It was an amazing place with so much to see and do! I know this is a lot of pictures, but it is only a fraction of what was there.

There was a zip-line there and I was impressed that Zach jumped right on it. It went pretty fast and far and I was a little worried he would fall off when he hit the end, but he did great. He loved it and would have done it again, but the seat swung up and hit him in the face right before his turn. Another time...

There were lots of really tall trees, which allowed for some swings on really tall ropes.  Zach loved the tire swing made into a horse.  Austin rode in a baby swing and loved it too.

Also in the big trees were a bunch of tree houses connected by little rope bridges and walkways.  Zach got a little scared on one of the bridges and I went up to help him.  It was safe, but pretty wobbly and I don't blame him.

"Driving" a tractor.

Austin checking out the goats.  There were some cute little babies, too.  There were also horses, cows, sheep, a llama, ducks, geese, turkeys, peacocks, pigs, ponies, roosters and hens and chicks...

Austin has been working on communicating and is actually doing really well and saying quite a few words.  Sometimes he likes to stand a certain way and look at you with his eyebrows raised and "talk," or make lots of noises.  Here he is talking to a goat.

GIANT hay bales.

I wanted a picture of the two boys together.  This was as good as I got.  Austin was not very smiley that day, I think because of 2 teeth trying to come in.

On a front loader.

Austin really wanted to touch the peacock.  He would follow after it and my mom had to stop him from getting it.

Another tractor.

They also had multiple little houses for the kids.

Feeding some animals.  Zach thought it was fun, but Austin couldn't get the hang of how to hold your hand out.  He wanted to hold onto the corn, or play with it in the buckets.

It was so much fun and we can't wait to go back!

Getaway

A couple of weeks ago Cal and I got to take a little trip without the little ones.  Technically, it was our anniversary trip, but it was about a month early.  My parents were generous enough to watch the boys while we spent a couple days up in Vail (thank you!).  We missed the boys, but it was so nice to have a break and returned ready to dive in again.  We got to enjoy some down time:  sleeping in, eating meals without wrestling, working out at the same time, going to a movie, and a little exploring around Vail and Beaver Creek.  We had planned on hiking around a pretty lake and taking pictures, but it was way too snowy and muddy for anything like that.  We had some fog on the way home, and it was so beautiful we "had" to take a little detour near Evergreen to take some photos.  We rarely get fog, so I love it.  As a bonus, there were 2 elk grazing in a field where we detoured.  Luck!