Just Hanging Out

Julia playing dress up with Violet. 

Aunt Nicki's hen and chicks on her back deck.  I am going to give her a part of my 30 year-old jade plant, and she is going to give me some of these guys.

The view from Nicki and Brett's back deck.   

The view down into the part of their backyard where the kid have built a fairy tent.  How amazing would it be to be a little kid with this for backyard exploring?

Grandma Julie and Uncle Brett hanging around.

One of the best things about visiting family on vacation is just hanging out.  I have so many great memories of being on vacation at my Uncle Chuck and Aunt Erica's house and doing little things like playing games or going to the park. Joe talks about going to southern Illinois as a boy to visit his relatives and going fishing or helping his great uncle twist newspaper sticks to feed the fire.  I hope my kids have these same wonderful memories of this vacation.

New Favorite Swimming Hole

We have a new favorite swimming hole near the Grottos, natural ice caves outside of Aspen.  There was a small, brown trout swimming in the pool at the bottom of a series of waterfalls, and AJ promptly jumped in to try to catch him.  The water was so clear that you could easily see to the bottom of the pool, and the cousins shouted helpful instructions from the edge--"There he is! No, over there!  Oh, get him before he swims out!"  Iowa has been named as the state with the dirtiest river water due largely to agricultural runoff.  Since Pops and Susan live on a lake made from a dammed up river, we spend a fair amount of time there and have gotten used to the water.  It was shocking to see how clean a mountain stream really can be.

Mighty Mojo

Mighty Mojo just before we put in.

Uncle Brett's unofficial rule is that anyone who rafts down the river on a summer day deserves ice cream from Kalidescoops in Glenwood. 

The "big kids" got to go on a paddling trip today down the Roaring Fork River.  And around here, big kids means anyone over the age of five who wants to go.  So Julia (5), Violet (6), David (7) and AJ (newly 9) got to go.  We are so lucky to have Uncle Brett, who leads outdoor ed trips for the school where he works, as our uncle and unofficial guide.  Brett has his own river raft, called "Mojo" that he bought secondhand somewhere.  Plus a bunch of life jackets, a boat trailer, his own pump to blow up the raft, etc.  All we had to do was show up and he made it so easy and fun to float along the river with him for the afternoon.

I don't think I have ever seen AJ and David with such big grins on their faces as they had when we were riding those rapids.  They named each set of rapids we went through--AJ's Adventure, Davey's Doom, Julia's Joy, and last but not least, Violet's Vibrations.  They whooped and hollered and generally ate it up.  "This is the best day of my life!" was heard from both.  Julia liked it too, although she did decide she wanted to ride in the bottom of the raft on a few of the rapids.  AJ even jumped in and swam next to the raft several times, not caring or complaining that the water was frigid.  And their first question when we stopped was "can we do it again tomorrow, Uncle Brett??"

Mini Mes Play Golf

What is it about mini golf and summer vacation?  This one was on top of an outdoor ice rink in downtown Aspen.

On Top of Old Snowmass

 We rode the Gondola to the top of Snowmass Mountain today.  Cute hats are apparently required attire.

What's on the top of Snowmass Mountain in the summer you ask?  A sand box, of course!

And fly fishing lessons.

Plus a rock climbing wall, naturally. It is Colorado, after all.

Violet rang that bell wearing a dress and flats.  She is seriously amazing.

Meet AJ "Spiderman" Liss

And David "Sticky Feet" Liss

Not to be outdone by Flower Power Feet

This was definitely the summer of rock climbing.  Davey rang that bell, too.

While Zoe and Winnie whizzed some strider laps around it all. Still trying to get Winnie to talk to me.  "I just feeling shy sometimes, Mama" she tells Aunt Nicki when I am not around.  I love that one.

Mountain Rain

What do you do on a rainy day in Colorado?  Head to the Aspen Rec Center to rock climb, ice skate and swim, of course.  This is an age when the kids are learning so many new things.  Last winter AJ went to his best friend's birthday party at an indoor rock climbing facility in Iowa and was frustrated that he was the only kid who did not make it to the top of the wall.  He has inherited a fear of heights from me and my side of the family.  But he wanted to try it again on vacation and after three or four attempts, pushed his way to the top and rang the bell they have there to motivate the kids.  It was wonderful to see the look of pride on his face after conquering his fear and this new milestone.

And in the pool, I convinced AJ and David to go off the diving board for the first time.  They both have been thinking about it this summer but were not willing to do it.  There was a lax lifeguard on duty in the pool who let me swim out to the end of the diving board and wait a few feet away to "catch them" just like I did when they were little and learning to jump off the side.  Once they tried it, they both were hooked and did it over and over all morning.  By the time the next lifeguard came on duty and enforced the rule that there could not be anyone else in the deep end when they jumped off the board, the boys were confident enough to keep going.

Holiday Ro-o-o-o-o-ad

We took a family vacation this summer to Colorado to visit Aunt, Nicki, Uncle Brett and the cousins.  As an added bonus, Grandma Julie and Uncle Andy were there at the same time as well.  We did an airplane flight to Denver, rented a car and drove up into the mountains.  And we are firmly in the era of family pictures with bunny ears.  Love elementary school humor!

Little Giants

David had a great first season Little League team this year.  They were the San Francisco Giants.  In a youth sports world that has gone a little bit nuts around here with competitive leagues starting in second grade, they were just the team thrown together by the league through random assignment. And they turned out to be pretty darn good.  The coaches worked really hard with them, having long practices and trying different things to motivate the boys.  My favorite was the practice where they had the boys hit mandarin oranges instead of baseballs.  The boys were really trying hard to make contact once they saw the juicy explosion that resulted if they actually connected with the orange.  

They won enough that they were in the championship game.  It was a nail biter, with the teams going back and forth on the lead.  In the top of the last inning, David's team batted in the maximum number of five runs to take the lead.  But they had to defend in the bottom of the inning and in all the excitement made a few errors that allowed the other team, whose bats were hot, to win it.  

David was not too bummed about the loss, just really thrilled that he got a second place trophy.  So thrilled, in fact, that he buckled it in for the car ride home "to keep him safe."  And I may or may not have come into David's room one day to see him (not knowing I was there) lovingly caress his trophy and give it a kiss.  The age of seven is such magic, especially when lived through the enthusiastic, joyful eyes of Davey. 

I'm A Yankee Doodle Candy

This was the Fourth of July with the candy.  Parade candy and cotton candy to be exact. The boys marched in our local town's Fourth parade for the first year with the cub scouts.  They were slightly disappointed when they heard they did not get to eat the candy but were supposed to throw it to the parade spectators.  After brokering a deal with younger sis in which she would share her parade candy with all three of them, the boys agreed to keep their commitment to march in the parade.  We'll see if we can convince them to do it again next year.

In the evening we went to watch the Iowa Cubs play and see the fireworks after the game.  I am pretty sure the kids were there for the ice cream and cotton candy.  Because after eating parade candy all day, you really need ice cream and cotton candy to top it all off.