Casting Crumbs

The summer keeps marching along. . .

We had a local county fair the other day, so we attended the parade and then went over to the fair grounds and checked out the rides.

Here are several pics from it. I love how colorful everything was, so I am posting quite a few.

The parade

This was a wonderful parade! In the first 10 minutes we saw so many fun things – it completely blew away the Breckenridge parade on the 4th of July.

Lots of horses!

And lots of candy!! Julian is just holding HIS bag. They threw whistles too. We are still “enjoying” those around here.

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The other day we were outside and I saw this hanging off the birdbath:

It looked like a bunch of leaves hanging there and as I looked I could see it was a bag worm. I was amazed at how it had disguised itself to look the tree next to the birdbath. I called for Tom and the kids to take a look at this. Then after careful consideration of the tree, it was covered in these bag worms and we never knew it!

So I looked up some facts about these little guys and thought I would share it with you:

Winter The eggs over-winter inside the bag made by the previous year’s female.

Spring Egg hatch occurs from late May to early June, at which time the larvae crawl out in search of food. Each constructs a small bag around its hind parts with silk and plant material.

Summer Feeding, growth and molting continue until August, at which time the mature larvae attach themselves to twigs. They close the bag and reverse themselves so that they are head down in the bag. They remain there for about 4 weeks as pupae.

Fall During September and early October, the female releases a sex attractant pheromone and the males leave their cases and fly to the female bags to mate. Females lay 500-1000 eggs in each bag.

I am constantly amazed at the intricate design that our creator uses in our beautiful world around us!

God, Creator of the heavens—
he is, remember, God.
Maker of earth—
he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch.
He didn’t go to all that trouble
to just leave it empty, nothing in it.
He made it to be lived in.
Isaiah 45:18 The Message

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I love pool pictures! There’s just something about the blue water and happy faces that make them so endearing. Maybe it is also that I have so many fond memories of swimming every day during the summertime when I was a child. Either way, I am going to share some of the pictures from Swim Lessons with you all.

I am so glad that my parents taught me how to swim as a very young child and we spent so much time in the water. I am not afraid of water now and I also want to pass that on to my children. There is safety in knowing how to swim and I just want them to enjoy the water too.

This year Julian was in Level 3 and Jaden began Level 1 (which was the cutest thing ever!) My awesome friend Jules and I have enrolled our ever growing group of kids in swimming lessons each year together. That is always a highlight for us to see the kids progress together and see the young ones begin.

Anjelia, Jaden, Lydia, Evely (didn’t swim), Jessica, Julian and Elaina
(Pretty good crowd for two Mom’s who never thought they would have children. . .that is a whole other story for some other day)

Here’s Julian and Lydia learning what to do if they fall out of a boat and how to handle a life jacket. The lessons are put on by the Red Cross standards so they teach them a lot of things other than swimming.

Here is Anjelia and Jaden learning to float on their backs. The teachers are so good with the kids and they even remember them each year which is great.

The big highlight of the week are the diving boards. The last day at the end they take them to the boards and let them jump or dive off. Jessica is the strongest swimmer of the bunch and she dove. If anyone doesn’t want to go off – they MAKE them. They walk them to the end of the board and lower them into the water into the arms of a waiting lifeguard. They really want them to face their fears of the water.

Jaden walked to the end and bounced right off!

Julian even went up the high dive and stood there looking down. . .I didn’t think he would go

BUT he did!!

I’m happy to say that all 6 kids passed their level and will move on next year.

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Here are a few more highlights of our trip. I will stop boring everyone with all the details and move forward, don’t worry.

The final things I wanted to tell you about was our 4th of July and Rocky Mountain National Park. So here are the details.

I heard that all of you in our vicinity were hoping to see fireworks because of all the rain that day. We were in GREAT weather for the day. It was sunny and 80 when we went to Breckenridge to see the parade and we were actually hot in the sun.

Here we are waiting for the parade. There was huge turnout and just seeing the crowd in all red, white and blue’s was beautiful. The parade itself was “okay”. I have seen so much better, but we still enjoyed it and the kids got some candy that they threw. One thing that was definitely different was the float that was covered in snow and as they drove by they threw snowballs at everyone. One landed right on Evely and scared her.

After the parade the Fire Department got out their hoses and had water wars with the kids.

Here’s Julian helping hold the hose.

He was a little bit wet.

That night we drove to a place on the lake in Frisco to watch fireworks. We wore our WINTER coats it was sooo cold. That was quite a change for the 4th. We saw some beautiful fireworks but they were pretty far away.

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Here are two more highlights of our trip. It’s hard to really nail down in my mind what was my favorite thing but I think these were the top two events of our week in the mountains. These were the most adventurous things that we did and it was truly exhilarating!

St. Mary’s Glacier

This sign said 3/4 mile to the base of the glacier, but it seemed much much further than this. When Tom and I got out of the car we just looked at the trail and looked at each other. It was completely rocky and a steep uphill climb. We could do this but we had a sled and 3 kids in tow. We comforted ourselves with the thought that this was probably just the trail head and the terrain would change once we got up this first hill – HA!

This is what the trail looked like the whole way up the mountain. I have to say that having Bill and MK, Jonathan, Daniel, Carol and Stu is what got the kids up the trail. They distracted them and had them jumping and climbing the rocks and before you knew it, we had made it to the lake.

It was a truly spectacular site!! The most beautiful, pristine lake on top of the mountain. In the backdrop you can see the snow glacier. It was sooo peaceful. You could just feel it. I was in awe and amazed at the scenery before my eyes and I immediately felt such satisfaction that we made the gruelling hike up there. It was worth it!

We played around the lake, watching fish jump and people fishing and caught our breath. Jonathan went way on ahead and hiked toward the glacier. The kids followed him so that made our decision to continue on to the snow. It seemed like a really long way away, but we made it. As we neared the snow bank you could feel the temperatures begin to drop. It was like walking into an air conditioned room of God’s house.

The glacier was pretty slippery and steep, so the kids slid down on the sled pretty carefully. One person got them started and another would stand at the bottom and catch them. It really could have been pretty dangerous otherwise.

It’s fun to be able to say that we had a snowball fight on July 2nd.

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White Water Rafting!!!

I first must give another big “Thank You!” to my parents and to Tom’s parents for watching the kiddos all day so that Tom and I could have this wonderful exciting experience together. So thank you soooo much!!!! We appreciate all that you do for us.

If you ever get to Colorado, the rafting is a MUST! This was exciting and adventurous and I am so glad I got to try my hand at this. I could see how this would be addicting. One thing I plan to do since coming home is to watch The River Wild again. We thought a lot about this movie while floating down the canyon.

Here are both of our rafts. We filled up two of them. Our boat had Brandon as a guide and he was great. You can see him in the picture below – he’s the skinny one. He’s the tall guy on the right. The other boat had Erin as their guide and she was the only girl guide we had with all the boats we floated with.

Kenny, Barb, Tom , me, Shawn, Christi and Brandon

Daniel, Stu, Jonathan, Carol, Mary Kay and Bill

It was all out war between our boats. Anytime we got close enough to fling water with our paddles at one another, we did! We were pretty soaked all the time. I kept having a problem remembering to close my mouth and was constantly spitting out the water.

We started our float by getting all suited up with our jackets and booties, grabbing a paddle and getting on the bus. It drove us up to the river where we got the rafts ready and met our guides. We then picked up the boats and carried them down this steep hill to the river.

Tom was the first to get into our raft and we all watched as he put a leg over, tried to pull himself in and fell backwards right into the water! It was really funny! We also were informed of how cold the water was at that point. I don’t have a picture of his big splash right now, but if I get it I will be sure to post it.

If you have never been rafting . . .you sit on the outside edge of the raft. The only thing keeping you from falling out is your feet. You kick and wedge your feet into the raft in order to hang on when in the rapids. Your feet get really sore after awhile, so whenever the river is calm you pull them out and relax.

This is how the river looked a lot of the time. You could just sit and look at scenery or have a water war with other boats, but then the rapids would come and it was a blast. You really had to listen to your guide and row together to get the boat through them. One of the rapids was called the toilet bowl and it looked just like one. It was a circling huge current of boiling water and we were told we would either do it correctly or all end up swimming. We did it correctly! Jonathan was the only one of us that ended up swimming in the water. They had just gotten through a set of rapids and were high fiving with their paddles when they hit a rock and he went flying out of the raft.

Once we got Jonathan back in the boat, we pulled off for a break and for lunch. They had a wonderful spread for us! I was shocked it wasn’t peanut butter and jelly.

Here’s some of our cool rafting pictures. . .

If you are now reading this line, I know you have endured this long post. Thanks for sticking with it. I will try to make the next ones shorter. There is just so much to show and say about our trip.

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After settling into our beautiful home away from home and having our first nights rest, we had our first excursion into the mountains. Bill and MaryKay talked us into going on a “short” hike up a mountain that was pretty close to where we were staying. It was called McCullough Gulch trail. The drive to the trail head was scary enough for me. It was a dirt road that wound around the mountain with not too much on the other side – no guardrails just occasional trees. We would pass cars on this road too and it about did me in. I was glad to finally park and get out.

This was a relatively easy hike, even though we were having a hard time breathing from the altitude. We had our first taste of the beauty of God’s creation around us. Wildflowers grew in abundance along the path, beautiful rocks and foliage everwhere. The scampering chipmunks were a big hit with the kids. We hiked to a beautiful waterfall and then on up to a really pretty small lake.

Bill and MaryKay had hiked here before and they called the big rock at the top Smooch Rock because they had many pictures of them kissing there. So here’s another one for the annals -

Julian had been sick the day before and was having a hard time keeping up. Tom carried him a lot. Look at my big strong man!!!

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Our next really big adventure was the Alpine Slides!!

During the summertime they turn the ski slope area into a dry summer adventure place. They have all kinds of stuff to do like a zip line, scenic ski lift to the top etc. We actually did the alpine slides several days but here is a few pics from all the days.

Here is what the slides look like. They are like a dry water slide that you ride a sled down.

You first get on a ski lift that takes you to the top. This is Tom and Jaden taking a ride. This was quite scary for me the first time -actually I was petrified! I had Evely with me and she wouldn’t sit on her bottom and I was too afraid to move her to get her situated. I kept imagining the sight of a little two year old falling out of this hanging seat in the sky. The next time I went up it was much better. My hands would still get sweaty and I would hold on tight, but I wasn’t so freaked out. (I guess I should tell you all if you haven’t figured it out – I am deathly afraid of heights!)

Here’s Tom and I on the ski lift – you can see the slides behind us.

When you got to the top you would jump off the ski lift and exit to the left very quickly to avoid being knocked down by the moving seat. Then you would get your sled and move to the top of the tracks.

There were workers at the top that would instruct you to check your brakes by pulling up on the lever between your legs. To make the sled go you would push it forward. You can easily control how fast or slow you would want to go this way. The other thing they would tell you was that if it started raining to get off the slide, take your sled off and walk down the mountain.

The last time I went down, it was almost closing time and we were trying to get in one more slide. The clouds had rolled in and it was starting to barely sprinkle. So when we sat down to go the instructor told me that if it started raining any more than it was to get off the track, that I would have NO brakes. I was on the fastest track and started on my way. I was racing along at a pretty good clip and I could start really feeling the rain hit me in the face. I wasn’t sure if it was raining harder or if it was just my fast speed. So I decided to test my brakes to see how I was doing – and wouldn’t you know it – I HAD NONE!!! Talk about scared. I did not feel excited or thrilled like some daredevil’s do – I was soooo scared! I was trying to do everything possible to slow myself down and I decided that when I got to the bottom I would just have to crash going full tilt. Luckily they had some guys out with blankets drying the bottom of the track so we could brake. I couldn’t stop shaking for about an hour after we left!

Here’s Julian

And Daniel

This was really fun! I would highly recommend the Alpine Slides to anyone. Small kids to older adults were doing this. Just don’t do it in the rain!

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We are back! We took another FIRST in our lives and took the whole family on a real week long vacation to the Rockies. We have done a few weekend trips here and there – but never a week long vacation. It went very well – the kids did awesome!

I must preface this by saying that my next few posts will be of the different adventures that we experienced during our stay in Breckenridge and the surrounding areas. There is just too much to tell and show for one single post. So bear with me as I tell our story.

I must first say a big SHOUT OUT to Bill and MaryKay (my wonderful Brother and Sister-in-law) who spent countless hours and legwork to plan this trip!! Major thanks are sent your way, guys. Thank you sooooooo much. We thoroughly enjoyed all the details that you put into this trip for us. We can’t thank you enough.

This was a family trip. Nineteen of us headed out to Colorado and met up at the Red Fox Retreat to make memories together that will last a lifetime.

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Our adventure begins at 4:00 AM on Saturday morning. We dressed all the kids in their clothes they would travel in and put them to bed. They thought that was really neat to wear clothes to bed. Then at 4:00 AM we arose to pack the last few things, put the cat outside and carry the sleeping children to the car.

Yup, they are sound asleep! They were as excited as we were. Evely had to have her sunglasses on even though it was dark.


Here’s Tom with his invisible toothpicks to hold his eyes open.

After hours and hours of driving, we arrived in Colorado and made our way toward the mountains. The kids were very bored by this time, but they gained some excitement when we saw the mountains looming in the distance.

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THE RED FOX RETREAT

We were so excited when we saw our accomodations. This was a huge duplex made into a big house. It was beautiful. It had everything you could want while on vacation.

Here’s what you would see when you walked in the front door. The stairs led up to our bedroom and the hallway went back toward the pool table room, kitchen and living room.

Here’s what the bedroom looked like. One interesting thing was you could lay on the bed, look through the fireplace into the bathroom and watch someone take a shower!

The bathtub!! The kids loved this.

The hot tub was great after a day of hiking or rafting.

Here’s the bar in the kitchen.

The living room. You can see the beautiful mountain scenery outside the windows.

We immediately felt the altitude difference! We carried our suitcases up the stairs and would flop on the bed completely out of breath. It was something that took us several days to get used to.

It was nice to be out of the car and at our destination. This was our first day of vacation.

More to come. . .stay tuned!

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