September Snowball Fight

Attempting to make the best use of each Saturday we have left until the snow flies in the mountains, we headed for Mt. Evans. We hadn’t bothered to notice that the mountains were covered in snow until it was too late to turn around. We could only go as far as Summit Lake, but it was absolutely beautiful!

We started hiking on a snow covered trail when Regan yelled at us to stop! We thought something was wrong, but she only wanted to throw a snowball…Regan loved playing in the snow and has pretty good aim when it comes to throwing snowballs. She got Clint several times.

Haden was a good sport-he was definitely intrigued by the snowballs Clint fed him. The kids were so worn out they slept nearly all the way home!

Lost Creek Wilderness

The weekend after Labor Day I was able to get out and do a little backpacking with Jared Seeman and his bother Jon.

Although we were never truly “lost” in the Lost Creek Wilderness, we did end up doing a little back-tracking (you might want to ask Jared why the hike was 9 miles when the campsite was only 8 j/k ), and at times had to drop our packs to scout for the trail… But the magnificent views during the 2000 ft. + vertical drop into the narrow canyon were well worth the hike/scramble.

The climb out…a different story.

Maxwell Falls

Usually, when the term “falls” is used in connection with a high mountain location, you conjure up images of high volumes of water roaring or cascading down tens if not hundreds of feet to pools below. With this image in mind, last weekend we set off for Maxwell Falls, just outside of Aspen Park for our Labor Day adventure.

Although the directions we pulled off the web turned out to be inaccurate, we finally found the trailhead. You would think we’d have realized that if the directions on paved roads led us astray, we were in for trouble if we followed those same directions on the trail.

Well, we followed the trail anyway, and although the first section was relatively well marked and none too technical, the latter part became trailblazing and descending some pretty rough terrain. We survived with only minor scrapes on Regan’s leg. She is very tough!

Because we had to do our own trailblazing, we got turned around and asked someone “which way to the trailhead?” Following their directions, we then hiked several miles before realizing there were apparently two trailheads and we were heading in the wrong direction. Clint commented several times that the river was on the wrong side, but we assumed the person had given us accurate directions.

Although the “falls” ended up being a stream cascading over a few boulders, the kids had fun. Regan is becoming quite the avid hiker and Haden behaves very well in his backpack.

What have I started??

So I have finally given in and started a blog. Hopefully I will be able to keep it more up to date than my scrapbooks…

Regan turned three this summer and is all girl. She absolutely loves anything pink or “princess.” She must have come hard-wired. She has even been known to steal Haden’s toys because they had some little bit of pink on them. Regan began preschool last week and really seems to enjoy it. She has complained a few times about there being “too many kids there.” I can’t understand much else of what she says about it, but she always has a smile on her face when I come to get her. I hope it continues to be a positive experience for her. She is getting so grown up! The other day I called for her and she told me to hold on, she was texting Aunt Savannah! She has recently mastered protecting her toys by grabbing Haden’s ankles and pulling him away. She loves her little brother although has begun asking for a girl, because boys don’t play princesses. We love having Regan in our family!

Haden, at eight months, absolutely worships his big sister. She can make him laugh like no one else can. His main mode of transportation is the army crawl which he can do remarkably fast. He loves being in the kitchen and always makes a beeline to the open dishwasher, refrigerator, cabinet doors, or anything else he knows he is not supposed to be into. Haden loves being outside. He is always very well behaved when we go hiking and very tolerable of his sister’s antics in the bike trailer. We are so lucky to have him in our family!