Breckenridge

On Thursday night Luke and I decided to go up to Breckenridge for the night.  It had been years since we had been there.  I seem to recall last being there with a double stroller (Nathan and Julia).

We left Saturday morning and got up there in about 2 hours 15 minutes.  We reflected on how lucky we are to be that close to the mountains.  We don't take advantage as often as we should.

After arriving in town we headed up the gondola to peak 8 where all the summer fun activities were set up.  After spending an insane amount of money we had our passes and headed up the short chairlift to the alpine slide.

We rode it twice (it takes several minutes to ride to the top - it is a nice long slide!) and proceeded over to the bungee trampoline.  On the way we ran into friends and stopped to chat a bit.

Then, the girls got to jump!

The girls both really enjoyed the jumping and then we went inside for some lunch.  After lunch we took the big chairlift to the top of peak 8.

After that, the girls and Luke went into a maze, the girls panned for gold and went into a jumpy house.  Julia accidentally caused Lauren to get a massive nosebleed and so we had to pause for a bit to take care of that.   Afterwards we went down the alpine slide again and then Julia went up the climbing wall.  The first part she tried was too hard and she got frustrated but the man let her move to the easier path and she had fun doing that.

We were all tired and sunburned by then so we checked into the hotel and then went swimming and soaked in the hot tub.

After some relaxing we walked to town for dinner.  We had a fabulous meal!

After dinner we got some ice cream and called the shuttle for a ride back to the hotel.

All I will say about Saturday night is that we got very little sleep thanks to one member of the family.  It was not good.  We lazed around for quite a while in the hotel room in the morning before heading out.   On our way out of town we saw the the art show had opened and so we stopped and looked at the booths for a few minutes.  There was some very cool stuff.

We had picked a hike off of the internet and so we headed up to Boreas Pass.  It was paved for  a few miles and then unpaved for about 9 miles to the top of the pass.  The scenery on the way up was breathtaking!

At the top there were old mining buildings (including a very nice outhouse!) and we took a little hike.  We could have hiked to the saddle between two mountains but with the lack of sleep and Julia still a bit drugged up from multiple doses of benedryl for her allergies we didn't push it.  

When we came to the top of the pass we discovered it kept going (yes, it was a PASS so that should have clued us in but we were just reading something I printed off the internet!).  We found out what was on the other side and proceeded down (more unpaved roads!) to the bottom.  We saw may more beautiful sights including many trees already changing colors!

We came off the dirt road in Como, Colorado.  It looks to be an old railroad town.  We stopped for lunch at a cool B&B there.  It was a great lunch with friendly people.  We might go back sometime to stay!

After lunch we headed home, but we had seen a "short cut" on a map and so we took another dirt road that cut across south park.  It was a good quality road and there was more nice scenery.  From there we were back on 24 and headed home.

August 2010 Pictures

Not so many pictures this month without the Florrisant Hike.  I'll repost that one as I decided not to make a new album with both.

My Week.

So - my attempt to blog more has failed a bit this week.  I'll try to recap.  Oops - it is kind of long, sorry.

Monday:  Lauren and I hung around in the morning and then Luke fed her lunch and took her to preschool so I could have lunch with my friend, Carol (Hi Carol!).  We try to have lunch once a month or so.  Carol is in my choir and I certainly haven't seen her there lately since I have have not been going so much.  Monday after school the girls both have ballet - one right after another.  I stayed through Lauren's lesson and then she and I left to go give her new violin to her violin teacher.  Lauren doesn't get to play it quite yet but she is about to earn it.  It is a 1/8 size.  The shoe is for scale.  It is so cute!
Dinner was a mixture of cheese tortellini with ham and broccoli with fresh bread.

Lauren also practiced violin because she is working on practicing 100 days in a row to participate in an ice cream party.  She has a fake violin and bow she has been practicing on for now.

Tuesday:  Lauren and I went to my friend Linda's house and I helped her with some tech stuff and chatted while the little girls played.  Lauren went to preschool and then we found out Julia's music lessons were cancelled so that was actually kind of good because we had a co-ed wedding shower to go to right afterwards.  The girls went over to a neighbor's house while Luke and I were gone.  Most of the shower was outside under a gazebo in a house in Black Forest (treed, more rural area of the city).  There is a little bit of the fall chill in the air now and it was lovely out there.  The shower was fun with lots of good company.

Wednesday:  Lauren started swimming lessons.  Lauren likes to be in the water but is fearful of a few things so we have decided to try some lessons.  The lessons are fairly pricy even though we are members but her class only has 4 kids so I think it will be good.  She was afraid of a few things but the teacher (an older man) was very good with her and reassured her she would not have to do anything she is not ready for.  She will be going on Monday and Wednesday  mornings. Lauren went to preschool and the girls played outside after school.  Dinner was beef satay with peanut sauce, rice and zucchini and summer squash.  

Thursday: I need to start with Wednesday night because I was having some restless leg and general not-going-to-sleep-well vibes so I dug into my bedside table for one of the many prescriptions I have tried that have not helped my night terrors. This one I may have only tried once and must have only tried one, not two as is an option on the bottle.  So - I took two and it took me until about 10:30 in the morning to be fully functional.  I got up at 7:30 but was very groggy and out of it.   I tried to take Lauren to the library around 11:00 but she threw the biggest fit (about her hair and her show and tell) that I ended up turning around and coming home and putting her in her room.  Luke got her some lunch and took her to school (one of the many perks of Luke working from home and being able to do family things on his lunch break). I ran some errands, including a whole van-full of donations to Goodwill, and got her from school.  The girls watched James and the Giant Peach after school and then did homework and music practice after dinner (roasted whole chicken, raw green beans and sweet corn).  After they went to bed Luke and I went outside and turned on the fire pit and made some plans for this weekend that we are excited about. I didn't go to choir rehearsal and I am grappling with some things about that but that will be another post.  I plan on resuming it full force next week even though these weeks have been light compared to our full school-year schedule.  In addition choir being missinb this week, it was also missing morning bible study, Julia's music lessons, Lauren's violin lesson, volunteering at the school, and children's choirs at church (where Luke and I help out in the kindergarten choir).  These things will be added next week and the weeks after so I had better gear up!  It is proving hard to give up the summer habits.  Luckily Lauren has afternoon preschool so we are not running around in the mornings.

Today!  I sit here in my PJs and I know there will be some cleaning and organizing some things.  Dinner must be planned and I think we will be watching "The Princess Protection Plan" this evening with the girls.