Colorado, Day 2

 Oh man, I can't believe I've never come back to finish the recap on Colorado. Wait, yes I can, we are just that busy. 

On Tuesday we checked out the downtown area of Breckenridge. Right off the Visitors Center is a short walking trail to see the Isak Heartstone troll. A very cool, tall, friendly sculpture that is a must see while visiting. We then took the trolley to get to the downtown shopping. 

After we all got our souvenir T-shirts and ate lunch we relaxed back at the cabin and waited for our afternoon gold mine tour. 

Here we learned that children and men worked the mines to find gold instead of going to school and if you had red hair you were not allowed to go into the mines due to superstition; however if a miner passed by a red headed person on their way to work it was considered good luck...makes perfect sense to me.

After the tour we were allowed to pan for gold in their "lake" but you could also go into their museum and pan for gold in the provided tubs. Since it had started raining many of us went into the museum where the kids had fun dressing up in attire that was right for the times of the late 1800s. 

Summer Part IV-Colorado

 In August, our big highlight was a trip to Breckenridge, Colorado. We went with the Finks and shared a log cabin for 5 days. We had a lot of fun together! Colorado is absolutely beautiful and we loved driving through the mountains and enjoying the scenery around us. 

This was the view from our living room

There were many animal heads on the walls

Within 10 minutes of us exploring the cabin, Caroline declared that she did not like it and was uncomfortable with the dead animals. Grandma was trying to get her to pet this one to make her more comfortable. This one was probably the scariest one.

On Monday, we went to the Alpine slide on one of the mountains. We had to take a gondola ride up to the top of one of the peaks where they had mini golf, a roller coaster, food, zipline and bungee trampoline. Since the slide was a bit pricey as it was we opted not to do the other things and the kids were ok with that. We then had to take a ski lift to the next peak to get to the beginning of the slide. Evan was a trooper, as he is scared of heights. The gondola ride was not great for him but he really enjoyed the ski lift. Liam was tall enough to go down by himself but Caroline and Lucy needed an adult to go with them. Caroline rode with Evan and at the last second Lucy decided she wanted to ride with Aunt Adriane. Everybody had an awesome time on the slide!

Monday afternoon we went horseback riding. 

Lucy got to ride on an American Mule all by herself. The mule was tethered to the lead guide's horse and although I was 6 horses back I could see that Lucy was talking to the guide the entire 1 1/2 hour ride. She has never met a stranger! She also got a bear claw from the guide who first put her on 'Maggie'. Caroline's horse was called 'Tonto' and Liam's horse was named 'Cheyenne'.

First day of Colorado was a success!

Summer Part III

 In July we went to Iowa to help my Grandma Davidson celebrate her 100th birthday a little early. She turns 100 in February but family was concerned with traveling in winter and a resurge in COVID cases at that time so we opted for an early party. We had a bit less than 100 Davidson's show up and it was fun to see everyone.

Grandma with her kids

Grandma with all the Great-grandkids

Caroline with her birthday fish, Fishie

Liam enjoyed another year at Pony fields and really enjoyed pitching again

Evan giving a little advice

Enjoying watching Liam play

At the end of July, Liam went to church camp with Eli in Lake Geneva. He was there for six days and had a blast! His parents were going through withdrawals as we could not call him to check in the entire time. We were thrilled to pick him up on the last day but unfortunately he had caught a summer virus while there. He did not have COVID as we did get him tested so that was a relief. He recovered in two days thankfully.

Eli and Liam in front of their cabin

Caroline and I began reading the American Girl Doll Kirsten books. When I told her that I had gotten the doll when I was 8 years old and that we had her stored in the basement the girls were thrilled. Kirsten, I'm sure, is thrilled to be played with once again. 

We also had a small adventure one night when we noticed a small frog caught in our window well. Liam hopped down to catch him and we took him to the pond a block over so he could be free again!

The girls also started gymnastics this summer. They are both learning how to walk on the balance beam, do somersaults, backbends, cartwheels and swing on the bars. It has been a good challenge for both girls.

Summer Part II

 June started off with Caroline's birthday where she had her first friend party with two of her very good friends, Adrian and Chaya. We also had both families come to celebrate as well. 

I went to Chicago to help Adriane start packing up her apartment as she was ready to move from Logan Square to Lincoln Square. In the 24 hours that I was there we were able to pack 31 boxes. An odd number but she assured me it was a job well done!

We then got ready for our family vacation with the Walleses up to Pentwater, Michigan. This is a great break for all of us. A time to reset, relax and just be with siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and all of the extended family as well. We had the added bonus this year of celebrating Paul and Sandy's 50th wedding anniversary as well. 

Lucy dancing at sunset