Hiking up Lookout Mountain….

I’ve actually been procrastinating on blogging about this event that happened almost 2 weeks ago now.  One Monday morning, I dropped the girls off at daycare and headed to Golden, CO where I found the head of trail for Lookout Mountain Trail located in Windy Saddle open area.

    I parked here on highway 6 next to Colorado School of Mines.

 

The clouds were actually really nice since they blocked the sun, but it was light enough that the scenery was very pretty.  I spotted lots of cool flowers, trees, plants and cactus

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

A cool view of the Denver skyline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a cool pic of the desert below the tree line.

 

 

 

How to stay motivated when hiking these steep trails.  Every trail I hiked, I could see mountain tracks (not mountain lions, but mountain bike tracks!)  I was amazed that some people could actually “bike” this trail.  Amazing!  This photo shows a switch back that was reinforced with a small log to prevent erosion as was common all along the trail.  The photo isn’t clear enough to make out the bike tracks.

There were a few “lookout” points that I took these from.  (in the photo with the corner of my finger) you can see a large plateau that the locals call North Table Mountain.  There is also South Table Mountain.  Coors Brewery sits between the two.

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

This pair of pictures shown below are taken from near Buffalo Bill’s gravesite.  There is a really nice overlook here that you can see for 90 miles or so.  if you see the road next to baseball field, you’ll notice two dark dots.  The left dot is a tree….the right dot (as circled in the second closeup…..) is my car!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used a GPS app on my iphone to track some stats.  7.1 miles roundtrip, and an elevation rise of 1,597 feet (max height of 7,371 ft about sea level).  it took me about 2.5 hours, but I stopped for quite a while at Buffalo Bill’s Museum and lookout.

Definitely a fun hike and I’m looking forward to doing it again sometime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prost! ADAM

Prison Break - baby edition

At a restaurant and Raven is apparently trying to escape from her high chair using a fork. (is that like tunneling out of a prison using a spoon)
www.imdb.com/title/tt0455275

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Prost!
Adam

Happy 2nd Birthday, Raven!

Hard to believe… Raven turned TWO today!

Even though Mommy and Daddy had to work today, we still planned a (very) small birthday party for Raven… more like a birthday not-a-party.  But, Daddy and Mommy decorated up the dining room with orange and blue balloons and Nemo printouts, and tonight we celebrated Raven’s birthday with dino nuggets, French fries, and cake!

Raven’s teacher, Shantel, made the cake – white with raspberry filling and yummy buttercream frosting.  We think she did a great job!  (In case anyone is wondering, Raven’s nickname is Goose because of the noise she makes when she’s upset… or tired… or mad… or… well, yah.)

First things first, the girls needed to get a close up look at the cake.

We told Julia and Raven we could eat cake after we ate dinner.  They both ate up quick and were very excited to get to eat the Nemo cake.  First, we sang Happy Birthday to Raven.  Then it was time to (spit) blow out the candles!

Frosting is our FAVORITE!!!

Raven knows she is TWO!!!

After a quick bath, it’s time to open presents!  Raven received gifts from Buscha & Papa, Grammy & Grandpa, and Great Grandma Schroeder.

One of the presents was two Beanie Baby bears.  Julia loves her bear!

One of the presents were stickers from Grammy.  One of our favorite places to place them… on our foreheads!!!

It’s hard to believe that our baby is really a toddler and is learning her letters, doing crafts at school, knows she is two, can sing the alphabet, Twinkle Twinkle, and other songs, etc.  They really do grow up so much faster than you expect!

Other notes of interesting… Raven has been in her Big Girl Bed since we moved to the new house in August… she has done a great job sleeping in her bed and never really gave us any trouble.  We also “lost” her pacifier over Labor Day weekend and except for her asking for it a few times the first few days, that also is a (not-so-distant) memory.  We’re so proud of her for these two accomplishments, especially since we know that kids can have a hard time adjusting to these two things.

We were laying bed last night talking about Raven last night, and she definitely is much more of a Spitfire than her big sister.  She goes from zero to completely insane in just a few seconds when something doesn’t go her way, and we’re trying hard to break her of slapping, hitting, hair pulling, and throwing when she is… umm… not happy.  We’re hoping she mellows out a bit in the coming months, but until then, we expect Julia to tattle quite a bit as she comes up to us holding clumps of her own hair in her hands or show us a red mark where Raven bit her.

Both girls seem to have adjusted well to their new school, and Raven has stopped throwing a complete fit when we leave them.  We’re glad that they’re taken care of during the day while we both work… what a blessing!

Happy birthday to our darling daughter, Raven!  We hope your next year is as delightful as this last has been!  We’re so proud of you for all of the adjustments you’ve made… you’ve been quite the trooper along with your sister!  Love you, baby girl!

Mommy

Hipstamatic: Arvada Harvest Festival Parade

We went to the Arvada Harvest Festival Parade this morning.  I have a new App on my iPhone – Hipstamatic – and thought it’d be fun to do a Hipstamatic parade.  I haven’t fully learned how to use it yet… ha!  But, it’s fun to take pictures with it.

Rainbow

A few weeks ago, when the girls were still at daycare up in Broomfield but we had already moved to the house in Arvada, I was on my way to pick up the girls right after a rainstorm went through. I saw this beauty and quickly grabbed my iPhone to snap a few pictures. It was such a glorious rainbow and I was so glad to have seen it, as I had missed a few and haven't seen a rainbow in quite some time.

erin

Painted Nails

On Sunday night, we bathed the girls in preparation for Picture Day, which was yesterday, in City Park in Denver. (Though, they needed a bath anyway.) I had also promised the girls that I would paint their nails, as both girls have come to enjoy having paint on their nails.

Here is a picture of Raven; you can see that I used cotton balls to separate her toes (and Julia's too)... thanks to "Draeger Toe", their second and third toes overlap a tiny bit which can make for quite the mess while painting toenails. Both girls enjoy showing off their freshly painted finger and toe nails.

As far as Picture Day itself... eh. But hey, we had a GREAT time painting nails on Sunday night. :)

erin

Labor Day Weekend: Sunset

This here is one of the few pictures Adam took with the new camera this weekend.  One thing about a point-and-shoot, like we have, and then the lack of editing software (which we are severely lacking) is that I find it really difficult to take good sunset pictures.  The photos never seem to do the actual justice.  Definitely something that we’ll keep playing and learning with on our new little camera.

Labor Day Weekend: Left Hand

It wouldn’t be a normal outing for us if we didn’t hit a fourth brewery for the day.  So, on our way home, we first stopped and ate Mexican (man, can our kids pound the chips and salsa), and then we stopped at the Left Hand Brewing Company for a flight before heading home.  Left Hand has a really neat tasting room, some great labels (and hence, great t-shirt designs), and awesome taster glasses as well.

The girls also enjoyed the outdoor patio and we felt safe to let them run around a little bit as it was fenced in.  The girls got quite a bit of that salsa on their clothes from earlier, but knowing I would want to take pictures in the evening, I had brought a second set of clothes for them.  Yes, I do like to dress them alike – I am a sucker for matching clothes.

These pictures also represent how the girls tend to look at the end of the day.  A little hyped, hair askew, and generally in the last throws of crazy before bedtime.  Surprisingly neither of them fell asleep on the way home, but that could be due to all of the singing in the car.

One more quick post to finish out our Saturday adventure… hang in there!

erin