camping in october

When you're looking for camping in October, is Wyoming the top of your list? We chanced the snow and headed up and north to the Sand Hills just outside of Walden. We did our traditional 'pull in and camp at 11 pm' move, so that when we wake up we're surprised by our surroundings. It turns out the road to the north of the sand hills ends up in mostly brushy trees. Our construction crew was a little worried. When we drove around to the other side, however, we found what we were looking for. Not nearly as big as the Great Sand Dunes, but still plenty of digging opportunities.




Katie headed straight up the hill. The boys were happy to start digging straight out of the RV.

I think we missed some excellent fall color by a week or two, but there were a few leaves left.

After we were good and frozen, we headed in for lunch. Just in time to beat the rain. It rained pretty steadily from noon Friday through Saturday morning. Luckily we were headed to the hot springs in Saratoga, WY. Population 1739.

Roger's folks told us about the Hobo pool there. Just behind the swimming pool is another free pool open 24/7. This pool drains out into the river.

Alex wasn't interested in getting wet, so he hung out up top under the umbrella. The pool was smoking hot, but there were some kid friendly spots just outside of it. We sat and watched the ducks for a while, and hopped out when we were sufficiently lobstered.

Rog found another great camping site at Saratoga Lake - which in the summer would probably be packed. We shared the campsite with a couple of hunters (I'm guessing).

Saturday morning we headed home via the Snowy Range and Medicine Bow National Forest. Luckily the plows had been out, because just a few miles out of Saratoga the rain we were showered with all night long resulted in a foot or so of snow!

Max has adopted Alex's favorite way to travel. That or he couldn't reach the sun shade on his own.

more halloween

A few more activities for Halloween. We're getting some great mileage out of our costumes!

Pumpkin carving - the haunted house lasted exactly one night before the pumpkin curled in on itself. Katie designed her own jack-o-lantern face.

One of Max's creations. My new favorite candy to use as a cookie decoration is Sour Spaghetti. It's great for whiskers and other lines, and of course DELICIOUS!

'Harvest party' with Alex's class.

Harvest party with Katie's class two days later. The boys got to come for the whole time, which was very exciting for big sister. Fishing, drop the ghost in the pumpkin, bean bag toss, stories, a ghost necklace craft, and trick-or-treating around the offices.

little fish

Swimming lessons are coming along. Katie's shyness has really come to the fore. This week we made a deal to try and get past this, and after Katie's lesson she said 'now I like Miss Janet.' HOORAY! The floating and paddling are getting more and more fun.

This handsome guy loves to go down the slide, and tries out the moves he sees Katie learn in her lessons. He does a great 'alligator' and will even put his face in the water and blow bubbles now.

Fearless Max. We just try to keep up with you.

halloween is almost here

Amazing what a difference a 2 year old makes vs. a 1 year old. We've had some time for crafts this season . . .

Glue ghosts - about the easiest thing we've ever made. Make ghost shapes with glue on parchment paper, decorate, let dry for a few days. Ta da.

Reversible table runner.

Halloween skirts - Max just served as a model for a pint-sized skirt; he remains true to the tiger costume.

A few new guys for our halloween tree. The white ghost in the upper left is wearing pumpkin mittens.

Painting pumpkins - true to form, Max chose green and Alex went with blue.

Coffee filters + liquid water color paint = fall leaves.

Pom pom spiders - mom on glue gun, Katie on design and eyes.

Decorating haunted gingerbread houses. (Note to Williams Sonoma: if you're going to advertise a great kit on your catalog, actual have it available for purchase, so psychos don't fall in love with it and then have to replicate it on their own.)

The amount of candy on the houses was riveled only by the amount of candy eaten by Max.

roller derby

In between all the Halloween fun - or perhaps in addition to the craft projects - Rog and I hit a roller derby match at the Broomfield Events Center. The crowd was totally different than what I expected - tons of families, and like no tattoos. Such a wacky sport. The first half-time show, the derby folk performed the dance to Thriller. The big half-time show was some completely lame band. I think the only person cheering for them was the lead singer's mother.

I'm not ready to sign up, but I thought it was a fun night. I was too busy trying to figure out the rules and the scoring to take any pictures during the match. Roger's final comment: 'Man, that was a lot of buns for 2 hours.'

circus time

The REAL circus was in town the beginning of the month. We made it in time to check out the animals before the show - such a cute baby elephant, climbing all over her mommy. Then we got to walk past all the PETA folk to get to the actual show.

Crazy amount of action in the show. All the kids were mesmerized. Max of course loved the tigers. And we figured out how to get him to drink milk - out of a tiger cup. SCORE!

Katie noticed EVERYTHING. 'Did you like the trampoline guys?' - there were 2 levels of 3 trampolines each, with acrobats jumping over each other, from level to level, and through hoops.

Katie: 'There were fireworks on the screens when they were jumping. Different than when the trapeze guys were going.'

Alex loved the 'ball of motorcycles.' They got up to 7 motorcycles driving around inside a metal cage! SEVEN!

I loved the acrobats that jumped on 30 foot planks. Some of them did flips in the air wearing huge stilts - and still nailed the landing.

We were too busy watching the show to even bother taking any pictures. Check out the link to Barnum's Funundrum to get an idea.

It would really be amazing to figure out their arrival time, and watch them move all the animals from the train to their camping spot.

glendo #2

For Labor Day weekend we headed back up to Wyoming for the long weekend. We had such a great time the first trip we decided to do it again with the McKrolas. There were a few differences this time around.

We got a flat tire on the way up - Exit 288 in case you'd like to go check it out. Luckily Mike was behind us, so he and Roger drove around for (what felt like) eternity looking for the parts they needed, while I entertained the troops. If you're going to break down, the RV is the vehicle to do it in. When the games failed, I popped in a movie. These kids have it so tough! We left earlier, but got the flat, so we still ended up pulling into camp at 11 pm. The water line was WAY down. The previous month we were hanging out up by the trees.

We camped down in the trees this time. It was a little cooler this trip - in the mornings we had hot chocolate. The trees did protect us a little from some serious wind storms. Courtney's friend Morgan came along, and she saved my bacon with the kiddos. She needs to come on all our adventures.

Dutch oven pot roast for Sunday dinner.

No change here: we're both still adorable!

Mud pit mania! Courtney, Morgan and Michael spent a LOT of time digging a great mud hole. Deb and I tried to get them to move it closer to the water, but the mud just wasn't good enough, so they went back up to their original spot. They set quite the trend on the beach with the other kids, but there's was still the deepest pit. Rog took advantage of the wind and busted out some kites. He totally looked like the Pied Piper with all the kids lined up to watch. Court got the hang of it really quickly.

Kasey got to come along this time, and Oma and Opa joined us for a couple nights. The rangers didn't even care about the dogs on the beach this time, even though there were a lot more people. Another great camping trip!

tourquiose lake

The last week of August we headed up to Leadville for a little camping. We found a great spot at Turquoise Lake. 'Matchless' boat launch has a ring of parking for cars/RVs, with campsites down in the trees. We scored a spot on the lake side, right along the water. Here are some highlights:

camping spot right on the water

posing by the lake

throwing rocks in the lake

pudding by the lake

taking a break from walking around the lake to throw more rocks in the lake

climbing on markers by the lake

recovering from the lake on the way home.

10,000 feet gets a little chilly at night, but still a perfect camping trip.