We have been busy around here for the past week. Conny, Jacob and Olivia have been visiting us from Lubbock. The key to keeping 4 very active kids content is to keep them busy - so we've been all over Denver. I'll post more on that later, but this past weekend we went camping. It was the first time that Greg and I have been camping in several years and it was the first time ever for all 4 kids. They had a great time. We left Denver Saturday after the boys' soccer game and went to the Glenwood Springs Hot Springs, the four of us had gone there last year, as well. We didn't have as much time there as we would have liked because we had to get to our campsite before it got dark. We camped near Aspen and the highlight of the trip was roasting marshmallows and making smores.
Olivia and Jacob loved the slide and the warm pool.
Luke is our water baby and he had a great time. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time.
Ryan went down the slide once with Greg. He wasn't a huge fan, but he did like the pool and he liked watching everyone else come down. Last year, he wouldn't go on the slide at all, so this was a big improvement.
Luke is the most fearless kid. There are 2 slides - one that you can ride an inner tube and a child can ride on your lap (which is what the other kids did), and then there is a slide that you have to go down by yourself and on your back. Luke and I watched some people come down and he wanted to try it. We got the top and with no hesitation, Luke went down. I went down after him and the whole time I thought "what have I done to my child?" It was really fast, long, twisty, and somewhat scary. But Luke loved it, as you can see from his picture below. He went 3 times - twice with me and once with Greg. Greg was shocked after he went down that Luke wasn't scared because it kind of scared the both of us.
Below is me coming out.
After the pool, we drove down to Aspen and stayed at a campsite in the White River National Forest. My requirement for camping is to have access to a bathroom - and this campsite was great and beautiful. We were really close to the river and we could hear it roaring all night.
Greg and Conny putting up the tent.
The kids loved roasting marshmallows.
There is nothing better than eating your toasted marshmallow right off the stick.
Luke really liked setting his marshmallow on fire.
Ryan, as usual, woke up early the next morning, so the 2 of us went on a little walk to the river. After breakfast, we all headed down so the kids could throw rocks into the water.
After we packed up, we headed to the Maroon Bells to take the kids on a little hike. It was pretty hot, but they did great. We hiked about 3 miles along the creek and around the lake. Ryan is our little outdoorsman. He led the hike the whole way and would have been fine never stopping for a break.
The after hike treat/incentive was a bag of Skittles.
We had some super tired kids. This was on the bus back to the parking lot - Ryan fell asleep within minutes of leaving.
Conny asked the kids last night what the liked best about our camping trip - Luke said it was seeing the beaver den on our hike and the slide, Ryan's favorite part was throwing rocks in the river, Jacob's favorite part was roasting marshmallows, Olivia's favorite part was the Hot Springs pool, and Uncle G's was lighting the fire.
