Family Photos

Lauren got a cute new dress the other day, and when I got back from a shortened bike ride (I somehow rode off with only my cycling cap and not my helmet) we thought she looked so cute that we needed some pics before we headed off to church.

Lauren doesn't look overly pleased here, but it was really because we just woke her up. She got happier.

From Lauren's New Dress

And all the sudden my boy is not so little any more

From Lauren's New Dress

Good looking group

From Lauren's New Dress

Quick timer shot of all of us. Lauren discovered she had toes about the time the shutter clicked

From Lauren's New Dress

Like Father, Like Son

My name is Joel and I have a problem buying bikes.

(Now is when you say to yourself, "Hi Joel")

While at Winter Park, we noticed they had a collection of Strider bikes available for rent. Even before Cooper was born, I have wanted to buy him a bike. I thought that if we could tear the kid away from miniature golf for an hour, I could get him on the Strider bike to try it out and see if he enjoyed it like I thought he might. With Cooper's 3rd birthday coming up quickly, this seemed like a great present for both kid and slightly older kid.

The rentals were an absolute bargain at $5 / hour with a helmet. Cooper quickly decided on his color preference and the shop attendant got the bike setup for Cooper and away we went.

Cooper getting his helmet on and ready to go

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Matching helmet and bike, guaranteed to be fast

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Bikes are good for both big and small

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Straight to the dirt and ramps for us

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Cooper was a natural and wanted no help to hit the wooden ramps

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

After mastering the wooden ramps, it was time for the dirt

From 4th of July in Winter Park

A little help to get up one of the bumps

From 4th of July in Winter Park

And then a crash.....

While going up one of the steep embankments, he lost his footing and crashed. I quickly ran over to him and got him up and going again, and Cooper was quick to get back on and go. Even after the crash when we would ask him if he wanted help he would reply "I can do it myself".

Some post crash reflection

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

And a couple of videos of Cooper in action

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Lauren's first hike in Rocky Mountain National Park

Being so close to Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park, we wanted to get up to the park for a hike during our stay in Grand County. The good is the West side of the park is less traveled and we haven't explored as much of it. The bad is the West side is rugged. Where the East side has 3 foot wide crusher gravel paths to start most trails, the West side is rocky and typically steep terrain. We picked a repeat location for Jill and I, but it would be new to both Cooper and Lauren.

We hit the trail early to avoid the typical Summer afternoon storms as well as get the kiddos back to the house for nap time too. After a short drive, we were ready to head up the trail to Cascade Falls, a huge waterfall that should be raging given the high snowpack and late melt this year.

Jill and Lauren ready to head up

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Cooper made it a mile or two before opting for a ride. Here we stop to throw rocks in the stream

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

We trudged up the climb with a pretty steady pace, all the time laughing at how slow we moved this trip compared to our last time up 5 years ago sans kiddos. Slow pace and all we enjoyed it. We saw a big bull moose on our way up, and another on the way down.

After 3.5 miles, we hit our destination and the waters were raging. Sitting next to the falls it was very loud, making talking to each other difficult at times. Also made for very nervous parents as we had to keep an arm on Cooper at all times as the current would have swept him away to never be seen again had he fallen in.

Me and the kiddos at Cascade Falls

From 4th of July in Winter Park

When asked if she was impressed, Lauren had no comment.

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Jill is all smiles, Lauren is still rather stoic

From 4th of July in Winter Park

The whole family at Cascade Falls

From 4th of July in Winter Park

For contrast, here is the picture of Jill and I at Cascade Falls back in 2006 when we were bright eyed, young people...


On the way back, Cooper decided to walk if he could use the "sticks"

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Jill does the traditional "big arms", Lauren does "these are as big as my arms can be"

From 4th of July in Winter Park

More from the 4th

It was nice being up in the high country for the 4th of July. It seems there are less of the pyro fueled idiots shooting high powered fireworks off all night long, plus there was a big fireworks show put on in Fraser to watch. We weren't sure any of the kiddos would like the fireworks and the noises associated with them, but we kept talking them up and explaining the noises so we were optimistic.

The crowds were huge, and we quickly decided to just put a blanket down by the car and watch instead of hiking up to the epicenter of the events. We wanted to be able to throw the kids in the car and head out in case of melt downs.

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

To our surprise and despite what had to be at least an hour wait, all the kids did really well watching the fireworks. No crying and lots of oohs and aaahs.

The next day we hit up the resort early to try and get a few runs on the alpine slide under our belts before the big crowds showed up. Again, we weren't real sure the two little kids would be keen on the slide, but the big kids were anxious to try it. Jill stayed with Lauren, and Cooper, Reese, Sarah and I headed up the lift to the top for our run down. The alpine slide is basically a cement bobsled run that you do on a small little sled that has rollerblade wheels on it with a brake that slows you down.

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Ready to go

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Sarah & Reese coming down with Cooper and I hot on their tale

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

After the alpine slide, we found the bouncy house. Cooper is now big enough to love it and catapulted himself into everything inside. Reese wasn't quite as keen on it and spent most of her time outside with the adults.

From 4th of July in Winter Park

And of course, we played at least 75 holes of miniature golf with Cooper too. We just tried to find other activities like the alpine slide, bouncy house and riding the gondola to break up the nonstop rounds of rapid fire golf. Every night Cooper would say "We can play some more miniature golf tomorrow..." before going to bed and then again first thing in the morning he'd already be talking about golf again.

Still more to come from the mountains....

A much needed week off...

Our whole family has been in need of a vacation. Since Lauren was born, its been go go go for the whole family. I've been trying working and family and other activities, and Jill has been dealing with being outnumbered by kids 4 days a week. After years of talking about it, we finally decided to get tile put into our house. This need was necessitated by Cooper's splashing in the tub on the carpet, but we wanted to get the cheap looking linoleum replaced downstairs as well.

To get the tile done in a timely manner, we decided it would be best just to get out of the house so that two dogs and two kids and two adults wouldn't interrupt the work. So we found a house to rent for a week in Winter Park and off we went. We love Winter Park, so getting a place there was a nice getaway. While the Front Range was having high 90s and raucous thunderstorms seemingly daily, we were enjoying 70s in the high country.

We headed up on Friday afternoon and Sarah and Reece would join us soon after. A late addition would be Frumpy & Grumpy, who with some help from their travel agent Sarah, were able to get away for a couple of days of Grand County bliss. Here are a couple photos from the first few days with many more to come....

The doughnut bandit strikes!

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Pieces enjoying the deck and a perfectly sized chair

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Lauren found the high country tiring

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Cooper found lots of playgrounds to play on

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Cooper and I posing

From 4th of July in Winter Park

The kids love riding the gondola from the parking area to the base

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

And every time we went past this polar bear, we had to climb on it and get pictures

From 4th of July in Winter Park

From 4th of July in Winter Park

Lots of fun and adventures all week long. We weren't ready to come back down to the low elevations, but high country living isn't free so we'll come down at least temporarily....More to come.