Colorado!

     After 10 days in Texas, we headed for Colorado. We had a whole list of reason, like not having been there for a year and a half, Eldon's tractor needed some major work and the best dealer we've found is the one we bought it from (Montrose Implement), family to visit, and just plain wanting to!

At the top of my list was meeting this nephew for the first time. He's as big a mama's boy as  my children but I did manage to rock him to sleep. Once. In a hammock. When his mom was out of sight.

 

Poor Michael was still so exhausted he crawled in bed slept several times.

It was hot-but a gloriously dry heat, so unlike humid Texas. The creek was a great place to cool off.

       Nakita got a kayak for her birthday so one afternoon we took it across the road to the canal and the children all took turns floating down. We had to do it in between headgates and but it was some great redneck fun. At one point the kayak, paddle, and 3 flip-flops escaped but we got them all back 😂.

Michael getting ready to go through the culvert.

Roasting marshmallows

Katelyn and Makayla made some yummy Monster Cookies. 

 

Alex and Michael play so well together even though they are 4 years apart. 

Poor Archer was not very impressed at this point.

Emily and Nakita with Nakita's calf, Twilight.

Not only can these 2 bake cookies, they can build things! This turned out to be an adorable table for the playhouse.

These 2 are 17 months apart but I'm not sure if they would ever get tired of playing together! Here they are baking Nakita's birthday cake.

 

The playhouse 

Birthday cake turned out!

Michael has no boy cousins near his age so he's either trying to keep up with the big ones or has a trail of little ones behind him.

 

Brian's new house. It was relaxing and peaceful!

I grew up in Colorado but never made it to Flattop until this visit!

The city lights were so pretty! These girls too 😜.

The boys were all to happy to stand right on the edge for a picture.

Ethan playing in the egg room.

Ethan also loved Frosty. Silly dog just followed him around and tried to fetch anything Ethan threw. 

Eldon was happy to get in on some hay-making.

Coloring time!

 

Cascade Falls, Ouray, Colorado

So gorgeous!

Brian's and our children.

And just for fun, here's the same children (minus Ethan) at the same spot, 4 years ago.

Box Canyon was closed but you could walk up the road and into the canyon. So did and it was super cool. Let me just say that we haven't been hiking and the high altitude is brutal!

 

Sunsets are my favorite!

Saturday we went over to Evan and Kaylene's and tye-dyed all kinds of things.

I was about to delete this picture until I noticed that the photographer (Makayla) caught Logan in the act.

It turned out so well!

Michael and Alex putting puzzle together

So much color!

 

Riding Kaylene's horse was a highlite for the girls.

Michael did so well at keeping Archer entertained.

Emily and Alex.

Little stinker lunged to Makayla anytime he had a choice between me and her.

Michael and Logan had all kinds of fun on dirt bikes.

Trampolines are such a good investment!

Logan is instructing Michael how to go up really steep hills when you're not sure if you can make it 🤦‍♀️

 

Austin, Ethan, and Alex. All three, all boy, 110%! Bugs,toads, and dirt is their thing.

I taught Alex and Austin how to spit cherry seeds, good Aunt that I am :).

     Whew, I didn't realize I had so many pictures (and I even weeded a bunch out!) so if you are still here, good job! It was a wonderful week and children had a grand time with their cousins. We did get the tractor fixed AND they were even able to cover it under warranty!

     The drive from Colorado to Montana was 12 hours so we left 1 afternoon and spent the night in Rawlins, WY. It wasn't as bad as I anticipated to have to drive for hours at a time. Eldon and I had 2 way radios so we could easily chat. We drove through some of the beautifulest country I've ever seen! Makayla got tired of me geeking out every time we drove past major landmarks (you know, like Independence Rock and Devil's Gate) but she survived.

     We were extremely happy to be home and set right to work unpacking and ridding our house of flies. Even though it had been shut up tight, there was more flies inside then I've ever seen. I was also quite sad to find that our second refrigerator had shut off at some point and not restarted so that all had to be cleaned out and a grocery trip was in order. I had put ALL our food in that one so our propane fridge could be turned off and thaw completely out while we were gone but it may not have been the smartest move. After several weeks of airing out outside, it's working just fine and smells almost normal again.

Have a blessed week!

Florida Tourists

By tourist, I mean us. I've managed to get a month behind and we've done so much here and there that I'm just going to give you a pile of pictures!

It feels luxurious to be parked on concrete! The children have done lots of sidewalk art here.

So many gorgeous flowers!

And massive trees too!

Matchbox cars in color order :). This was not me!

What Eldon does everyday......fix RV's! Occasionally rigs come here to be worked on but most of the time they go to them.

 

Manatee Lagoon was a fun place to visit. They like to come hang out near the power plants in winter time because the water is warm.

These  "sea cows" are huge! 

Posing with the big statue of a manatee. 

Grassy Waters Preserve had a visitor's center that the children had a lot of fun at.

I could barely pull them away from the microscope. 

We were happy to have these nice boardwalks.

But they also offered tours where you could go slogging through the swamp. No thank-you!

These signs gave us all kinds of information about how much good trees do and what they're worth.

Air plants are so fascinating. They get all their nutrients from the air and water.

You could also rent a canoe but we didn't. 

This squirrel was certain we should feed it.

Lots of lichen around here has well.

One very windy day at the beach.

Portuguese Man-O-War were everywhere! I was silly enough to try to throw one back in the water (before I realized what it was) with the back of my flip-flop but then rubbed my arm on my flip-flop. That venom is powerful! My arm throbbed for an hour but it finally went away.

Hiking at Apoxee Trail.

Looking up  the Nile Monitor Lizard in case we saw one. They are a very invasive species. 

This reminds me of a giant house plant.

This little laptop bit the dust so I put it in the toybox. Ethan loves "doing business".

     We're doing school almost every day so staying busy isn't a problem. The children swim in the pool nearly every day over 80* . Our friends are in the process of moving right now so we'll be helping with that our last week here as well. No getting bored, for sure!