Fun Times in VA

Well, our first 3 week in Virginia have been...interesting. :o) The girls really love their school and are making tons of friends. One of her best friends from school lives in our apartment building, so they get to play everyday, which is nice because Hannah gets upset on the weekends when there's no school. I'm reminding myself that part won't last (about being sad about weekends), but its so cute and endearing now.

One of the best parts of where our apartment is, is that its right next to a little park area with a HUGE playground. The girls both have a favorite thing to play on - the swings!! Our second week here was REALLY cold, and we thought we were in for an early winter. However, this week its really warmed up again (it was in the mid-70's today!) so we've gotten a lot of outside time. We live about a 5 minute walk (if the girls are in the stroller; 15 if they walk, too) from the girls' school. So, there were a few days when we really had to bundle them up!

Well, not ALL outside time. Cailyn came down with a case of Roseola and was out of school all the past week. We were going a little stir crazy by the time her fever broke yesterday and we were all glad when she was able to get outside and play today!

A really cool pattern of airplane trails

A little Saturday morning reprieve from all the hubbub watching a movie

Ready for school!

All bundled up for the short walk to school

Enjoying some sun on the playground

(the playground has old tire pieces instead of sand or bark)

Life's so sad when there's no one to push you on the swing...

All is right with the world!

Look at that HAIR!!

"Awww, I sure do love to swing, Mommy!"

Ouray, CO - Part 2

Day two started with us getting up bright and early and partaking of the breakfast provided by the hotel which consisted of DIY belgian waffles, scrambled eggs, milk, and lots of coffee for the parental units. :o) It was 33 degrees when we set out for the trail!! I was a little worried about how the girls would feel about spending another day ALL day in the car, but here was their reaction when we told them we were going back up into the mountains:



Day 2 took us up Black Bear trail into Telluride, with a stop at Bridal Veil falls. Then we left Telluride via Imogene trail and that took us up, up, up and then down, down, down, back into Ouray (Clif and Nekol, we looked for your tree, but couldn't find it). I'm afraid these pics are a bit out of order, but oh well. :o)

Just over the summit of Black Bear looking across to the trail we will be on! (Hannah took this pic!!)

Obligatory Jeep Shot :o)

This was right out my window....I locked to door. LOL


Hannah was proud to be at the top of yet another mountain, and was very excited about the snow!

If you look closely on the top of the rock on the left you can see a brown animal hanging out. This is called a marmot. He was RIGHT on the edge and just chilling in the sun, paying no mind to the plummit of death that awaited with one false move...

Hannah and Daddy at the summit - 12,480 feet!

Hannah just HAD to get out and "play" in the snow (which was more like ice). But her and Daddy got out and made snowmen. (I love this one b/c of the big smiles they both have)

Hannah putting the head on hers

Cailyn and Mommy stayed in the Jeep where it was warm :o)

After you cross over the summit of Blackbear and head down about halfway the other side, you come to Bridal Veil falls. Its an amazing site. Our girls loved any and every waterfall we saw, big or small, and there were a lot. But we stopped here and had a yummy pic-nic.

Hannah presents: "Bridal Veil!"

Hannah's true rock-climbing experience. Notice Mommy watching on nervously, holding Cailyn so she won't tumble down to join sister.

Our perfect pic-nic spot - it was COLD!!

They were so happy to get their picture taken!

Nature Girl

Towards the bottom of Imogene Trail.

Cailyn's turn to drive!

The leaves were AMAZING. These were near another waterfall we stopped at

Can YOU find the trail?? This is right towards the summit of Imogene. That little building you can barely see at the top left is the summit.

Daddy and the girls exploring Tom Boy mine

Daddy took this AMAZING picture!

Another Obligatory Jeep Shot

At the summit of Imogene Pass - 13,114 feet

After having lunch, all warm and heading UP Imogene, the girls finally conked out!

A cool mine-shaft we came across. It was totally open, but we decided against exploring inside. :o)

You guessed it... LOL

Daddy showing Hannah how to drink from the waterfall

Hannah enjoying the waterfall

What a great-looking family!

Better shot of the waterfall - this is Seth and I's favorite one in Ouray

Cool tunnel on Imogene Pass

Ouray, CO - Part 1

So, I'm finally getting around to posting about our trip to Ouray, CO (pronounce your-AY) that we took a month ago! You will see a TON of pics on this post, and believe me, its not even half of them!!

This post is from our drive up and our first full day there. We left on a Monday morning right after breakfast and got there right about dinner time. The girls didn't sleep a wink the whole trip!! Thank God for portable DVD players is all I have to say (and thanks to Adam and Leanna for letting us borrow theirs!!). Let me tell you, packing 2 adults and 2 kids into the back of a Jeep Wrangler for 3 days is not easy!! But we managed to squeeze in and had a really great time.

Here are a few pics of our way in:

The beautiful Colorado skyline

Trout Lake - one of the most photographed lakes in the world!

My attempt at being artistic :o)

I love this pic with the shadow and sunlight

One of the main things you do in Ouray is go offroading. They say you can spend 3 weeks there and take a different trail everyday and still not go on them all! Ouray is an old mining town and there are tons of little mining trails and all kinds of offroad trails to go on. Our first day there, we tackled Engineer Pass. It took us all day, and we had a lovely pic-nic near the top. Come along on our journey:

This is Hannah's first picture ever - nice little Jeep ad, doncha think??

Here's Seth ready to go - that smile didn't leave his face the whole time

The girls are ready to go!!

And away we go...

The view from my side of the jeep

One highlight for Seth was finally being able to carry on some traditions to his own kids. One these trails, you drive extremely slow and enjoy every bit of scenery. So, the girls got to spend a lot of time on our laps, and even driving! (You see Hannah driving below, you'll see Cailyn's debut on the next post). Before you freak out about being on these huge cliffs with no seatbelts on the kids, the rules of offroading state that you do NOT wear a seat belt so you can bail out quickly when you need. So, on that note:

Hannah Driving - she did not want Daddy to help!

Cailyn and Mommy hanging out

When she got sleepy, she just snuggled right in

Seth took this pic - I think its AWESOME!

When we were there, the leaves were in the height of changing, and we took literally hundreds of pictures. Its nearly impossible to capture the grandure on film, but here's a few attempts:

Here's the girls at the summit at 12,840 feet! They were happy to be out of the car!

Mommy and Cailyn stealing a snuggle (check out the jeep trail behind us!!)

Hannah insisted on "mountain climbing", so here she is with Daddy. If this picture doesn't make you feel tiny, I don't know what will. What a mighty Creator we have!!

Continuing on the climb...

"Woohoo!! We made it!!"

Once we made it over the summit of Engineer, we headed down to see the Animas Forks mine which boasted one of the highlights of the day - a real bathroom!!! I never thought about how difficult it would be to convince our 3.5 year old - into whom we've been drilling the concept that you ONLY go on the potty- that its actually ok to go on the rock...but that's another post.

This neat little ghost town has some structures that are still in tact and you can even explore some of the houses - including the home of a former owner of the Hope Diamond - he bought it for his daughter. Oh Daddy.... :o) Anyway, while Daddy was away with Hannah, Cailyn and I had a fun little photo shoot.

Coming down into Animas Forks




Cailyn's Photo Shoot:









Hannah's Turn:

Coming down the stairs of one of the houses

To round out the day, we got to go through the tunnel outside of Ouray - the tradition is you honk the whole way through. As you can imagine, it was one of the girls' favorite things!

Finally we see "home". They call Ouray the "Switzerland of America".

So, that concludes our first day. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can post the pictures for day 2!