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| This is Dan and I on the lake. Honestly just had to include it because he is so cute! |
MIMI, MONKEY BARS, MOOSE, and MINI-GOLF.
Mimi is the name that Joe gave Dan’s mom a few years
ago. She was trying to get him to call
her Grammie, but all he could say was Mimi.
It stuck. We got to see Mimi at
Diane and Keith’s in Boulder for lunch before we all headed home. She had been visiting to celebrate her sister
Mary’s 70th Birthday.
LynnAnn conquered the monkey bars at the playground in Grand
Lake. It was her favorite place in town,
and we visited it at least once a day while we were there.
The only wildlife that Dan really wanted to see was
moose. He got his wish as we were
driving up to Grand Lake. We saw several
more on our drives around the area during the week.
We headed to Winter Park to spend a day playing. There was a Mini-Golf Course that we all made
our way through. I would like to say we
had low scores because we were so good, but mostly it was because we: a)
cheated or b) gave up on some hard holes.
Even then, I’m not sure we could say our scores were low. We did score high in the laughter category
though.
N is for
NATURE.
We spent the whole week really relishing in the beauty
of the natural world. Dan always has an
eye for capturing that beauty on film.
O is for
OUTLETS
I am a teacher, and I have a confession to make. I don’t read directions. I mean, I read them, but… Let’s just say they
don’t always stick. It is a fact that if
you plug in two space heaters in the screen porch a fuse will blow. Yes, I skimmed that part of the directions,
and when the fuse blew I remembered it.
Hey kids, (and teachers) sometimes it doesn’t hurt to read the
directions more than once. Lesson learned.
P is for
PARADE and PONTOON BOAT
I have been to some interesting parades in my life. In fact, the Meat Days (yes they used to
have a festival weekend called Meat Days celebrating beef, pork, and turkey)
parade of Albert City, Iowa is so short they turn around at the end and come
back through so “you can see both sides” of the parade. The parade in Grand Lake for their Buffalo
Barbeque Weekend is now on the list of most interesting parades. Our first hint that this wouldn’t be typical
is that we were told several times where to stand if we didn’t want to get
wet. We soon found out that near the end
of the parade route it was customary to have a water fight. This fight happened between the people in the
parade and the people watching. We
decided to watch from the corner right before the “wet” area. This ended up being a great choice. We got to see the parade participants
prepping to either get wet or to go on the attack. Political candidates pulled out umbrellas or
covered their golf carts with plastic sheeting.
Water pumps were turned on and giant water guns appeared from behind
props and under costumes. Spectators
were armed to the teeth with water balloons and water guns. They attacked from balconies and windows
lining the street. These people were
serious, and we were all seriously entertained.
We rented a pontoon boat with the Reberrys for an hour one
afternoon. Everyone but Ender took a
turn “driving” the boat. We got some
great pictures of the kids (probably because they couldn’t get away from us)
and some different views of the mountains surrounding the lake.
Q is for
QUARTERS
Aunt Diane has a tiny basket of quarters on the front hall
table that is specifically for the purpose of buying kid sized ice-cream cones
at one of the shops in town. I’m pretty
sure that may have been Joe and Lynn’s favorite part of the house.
R is for
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK and RAFT
We spent a day driving through the park. It was amazingly beautiful. It was also amazingly cold and windy, hence
the absence of any pictures of our family with great views in the background. We all got out of the car exactly once to go
to the bathroom, and we had to build our courage up for even that.
There was a little paddle raft in the garage at the house
that the kids and I decided we needed to try out. We tried, we failed. There was yelling and
crying. Then the wind blew so hard the
sand was stinging our legs. Dan rescued
us with the car just before the previously mentioned hail began. You are allowed
to laugh at the picture as long as you promise to never mention the raft to my
face.
S is for
S’MORES and SWIMSUIT
Diane and Keith really do have the house stocked with all
the necessities. You know, chocolate,
marshmallows, graham crackers, a fire pit.
S’mores were of course on the menu every night. The extra bonus item was the set of rotating marshmallow
roasting sticks that made us all feel like fancy gourmet ‘mallow roasters. I am now convinced that an even rotating
speed is what makes the perfect marshmallow.
Lynn and Aria changed out of their swimsuits together before
the Reberrys had to head home. Aria was
so good at picking up the room and packing that she accidentally packet Lynn’s
suit as well. Of course, being the
observant parent that I am, I noticed that the suit was missing a day later
when we were thinking about going down to the beach. Luckily, for us, there was one store with
swimsuits with one suit in Lynn’s size.
Luckily, for the owner of the store, we paid a million dollars for the
dang thing because we were desperate.
Okay, exaggerating there, but it was stupid expensive.
T is for
T-REX HAT
Joe loves all things dinosaur so he chose an awesome T-Rex cap as his
souvenir from the event we went to in Winter Park. A picture will be in the final edition of my "Remembering Summer" series.
U is for
UNBELIEVABLE VIEWS
Pictures do no
justice. Just believe me that they were
unbelievable and forgive me for copping out on the letter “u.”
V is for
VIESTENZ-SMITH
MOUNTAIN PARK
On the day we drove
through the national park we planned on stopping in Estes Park to eat the
picnic lunch that we had packed. Once we
saw how busy the little town was, we decided to keep driving until we found a
place that looked peaceful enough to stop.
We happened upon this little park situated outside of Loveland, CO. At one time it had been the location of a
power plant. It was wiped out by a flood
in the 70s, and unfortunately was hit again this fall in the floods. We had an amazing afternoon there relaxing in
the shade of the trees and playing on the playground all while listening to the
great rush of the river near by. We feel
pretty blessed to have been able to enjoy this little jewel before it was
completely destroyed.
W is for
WATER BOTTLES
All four of us picked out Camelback water bottles on our
trip to REI with Liz, Aria, and Ender. They
are the perfect size, and they fit in the cup holders in our vehicles.
X is for
X-TREME FAMILY BIKE EVENT
We decided to head into Winter Park to enjoy the summer
activities that are offered there. We
ended up being there on a day that they were holding an X-Games type
event. We got to see mountain bikers
doing all kinds of amazing tricks on a jump course. Every flip and landing had me holding my
breath and silently praying that my kids don’t ever want to do anything like
that for fun. I don’t know how all of their
parents haven’t died of heart attacks.
There were several vendors at the event giving away free things. Lynn stocked up on one of her favorites, chap
stick, and our family was introduced to Clif Bars for kids and Mint Chocolate
Clif Bars. Yummy on both counts! We also were able to pick up a bunch of
really fun logo stickers and patches from various groups.
Y is for
YOGA
During the summer (that I am so blessed to have off) I enjoy
going to a weekly Yoga class at the Y.
They have free childcare. I get an hour and a half to myself, and I get
an amazing work out. One afternoon while
Dan and I were hanging on the front patio, I decided that I really missed my
yoga workout, so I decided to do it right there. Dan thought we needed some pictures of this,
so here is one. I am pretty proud of my
Warrior pose.
Z is for
ZIPPED BY.
Like all vacations tend to do, this trip zipped by so
quickly, but the memories have lasted. As
a family, I think this turned out to be one of our favorite vacations because
of all of the little things.
I am finding a theme that seems to be threading throughout
this blog. Life seems really big and
amazing when you start to give value to all of the little moments.
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