Beautiful Colorado!

I can't even begin to tell you how much I LOVE it here. It is such a beautiful place to live and explore. Grand Junction is a very unique in that you drive just out of town, about ten minutes from our house and you are in red rock country, Colorado National Monument (aka the monument), very much like Zions. But if you drive an hour another direction you are on the top of the world largest flat top mountain, the Grand Mesa, where the woods, lakes, (and extra large mosquito's) remind me of Wisconsin.

Dave and I are like two kids at a candy shop trying to pick what we'll do next... fantastic biking, hiking, canoeing, river trails, etc. And when the flakes start to fall there will be some good cross country skiing on the mesa as well.

This weekend my brother Doug his wife Heather and their 18 months old twins came for a visit. We did a fun hike in the monument to devils kitchen, shopped and played down town in the fountain, and then rented canoes for a fun Saturday afternoon on the mesa.

It is kind of comical to look at the pictures now and see that Dave is in a boat with four kids, and there are three adults in the boat with Sydney and Ethan.

My mom also came for a visit, back several months ago, over the fourth of July.
We did lots of fun stuff with her, including the dinosaur museum and lots of time at swimming lessons, but the fourth of July was really fun. We drove the entire monument loop and stopped half way through watch some climbers on the top of that spire you see behind everyone. They placed a flag on top and then climbed down some time later, which is what we really saw. We also enjoyed fire works and a fun parade in town later that night.

And here are a few of my other favorite pics from this summer...the girls really did swim in the lake. And it was frigid. In fact there was snow on the rocks above it. Crazy kids!

Spencer loves to pretend he is fishing...hmmm...I think that is a hint...mom and dad!

And we did this short hike around a lake on the mesa and found all these mushrooms, it was like we were in a fairy tale or something.

Also on the mesa we happened to drive up when the wildflowers were in full bloom, including a few of my favorite sego lilies.

As for my kids I have decided they all have different hiking styles. Amanda is great as long as she has a destination she is excited about. Maren is like a mountain goat, and you have to remind her to not get to far ahead of the group. Spencer does really great for about a mile and half, then starts to wear down and needs some motivation (aka sugar). And Jacob just loves for his mom or dad to carry him the whole time.


Love that face!