Six Days in Steamboat: Days 5-6

Thursday we drove up to Steamboat Lake to scout out trails. We did lunch then started our hike over at nearby Pearl Lake. Boys got to skip some stones and we enjoyed the many wildflowers along the way (despite the afternoon rain shower that we encountered).

And then we drove back to Steamboat Springs to stop at Fuzziwig's for ice cream before going back to the unit for swimming and dinner and pinochle while younger boys watched a dvd. End of Day 5.

The Fourth of July started out overcast and drizzly. We had a bit of a bus snafu (the buses we were waiting for were full so we tried a different one that took a different route than it was advertising) but managed to eventually make it downtown to watch the parade:

(The blue and orange shirted ones are mine. We managed to find a way to get them up front but they refused to run out and collect any candy, lol. Also, as you can tell, the clouds passed and the rest of the day was rather hot. We were a bit unprepared, lol.)

After the parade, we checked out the block party but opted to stop for lunch instead. (While at lunch, we ended up watching a national hot dog eating contest...that's, um, disgusting.) Then we walked down to watch some of the ski jumping competition:

We managed a much smoother bus ride back to the unit to cool off and watch the Brazil-Columbia World Cup game before heading back out for an early dinner then over to the rodeo, where we had a great time watching the various events (though disappointed in the lack of dessert offerings for sale). 

We then stayed after the rodeo to watch the fireworks:

The show was pretty impressive (and many thanks to our neighbor and optometrist for giving us the heads up that the rodeo was the best place to watch the fireworks from)...with multiple launching sites over and around the rodeo arena. Awesome.

We managed a surprisingly easy drive back to the unit (having expected to get stuck in traffic) and proceeded to pack up. End of Day 6.

And then on Saturday, we loaded up and headed home, dropping John & Nancy at the airport on the way. Nathan and I fell asleep after unloading the cars, woke to deal with dinner and collect our mail and gossip from our neighbor, and unpacked everything but the laundry, lol. Today, we're slowly getting back on track. 

Whew. :)

Six Days in Steamboat: Days 3-4

Tuesday was my Asher's birthday! (more on that before long) We celebrated quietly for the most part...watching some soccer (which went to overtime) and taking it easy in the morning. Then we took Asher back to the gondola square area to do this bungee trampoline thing that he's been wanting to try:

He had a blast and was doing flips by the end. :) 

After that, we did lunch back at the unit and watched the Belgium-USA soccer game, which was disappointing but still fun to watch. And there was swimming:

...followed by games and dinner at Beau Jo's and more games and then ice cream cake before bed. ;) End of Day 3.

Wednesday, remembering the fun we'd had the first/last time we were in Steamboat, we found our way to Amaze'n...a family amusement park. We were having such a good time I didn't get many pictures, but trust me when I say that we made the most of our day passes. ;) 

First we played some miniature golf (during which I made an epic hole in one through a metal loop/ramp, thank you very much). Then we tried these new water walker things:

Oh my gosh. That was hilarious and awesome. The boys went first, followed by Nathan and me. It's way difficult to stand up in those and was more of a work out than anticipated, lol.

We took a break to go back to the unit for lunch then came back to run the maze...

It's timed. ;) You have to punch your card, then run through the maze collecting punches for each of the letters in the word "MAZE" (which you have to find scattered throughout the maze), then find your way out and punch the time clock again. If you make it in less than 12 minutes, you get a prize. Micah somehow managed seven minutes in his first run (the other two boys managed 8 minutes their second time through). It took a bit, but I'm pretty sure I've got that maze memorized now. ;)

Anyhow, after that we washed gems and did the maze again...this time with squirt guns! Yup. They give you these big squirt guns and have loading stations scattered throughout the maze. We got soaked! (Incidentally, we learned that they let people into the maze doing just the timed (dry) portion *while* we were already in there squirting each other. We were nice, though, and did our best to avoid spraying the other folks, lol.)

We played another round of mini golf while we were drying off then let the younger two play in the bounce house for awhile before heading back to the unit to clean up. 

For the evening, Nathan and I got to enjoy the benefits of having grandparents to watch boys...so we went out to dinner at a lovely place called the Mahogany Ridge Brewery (YUM!) and delighted in their tiramisu:

...then wandered the streets of Steamboat before heading back to play some pinochle. 

End of Day 4.

Six Days in Steamboat: Days 1-2

Whew. So...we've been gone for the past week. I've got the laundry to prove it, lol. Home again and catching up now...so here's a run down of how things went:

Nathan picked up his parents at the airport late Saturday. We finished our packing Sunday morning, grabbed some lunch and headed out for Steamboat Springs...arriving just before dinner. We unloaded at our unit and found a local Mexican food place for dinner then did some grocery shopping and game playing...just settling in. :) End of Day 1 in Steamboat.

Monday, we enjoyed the morning and headed up the gondola, watching the mountain bikers coming back down the mountain below us. At the top, we took a short nature hike:

Then we grabbed some drinks and headed back down (with the younger two trying to get all the other gondola passengers to wave to us, lol):

At the bottom, we discovered a lovely little water feature that just begged us to wade in:

After that, we ate a delicious lunch and watched the start of the Germany-Algeria World Cup soccer game. We ended up heading back to the unit to watch the end of the game before going back out to find the Alpine Slide. Here's Nathan and Asher on the way to the top:

...and here's Micah and me:

...and this is Micah and Nathan at the start of the slide:

It was pretty fun and not as fast as Micah worried it might be. :) 

We made dinner at the unit that night and played more games together...

End of Day 2. 

#13 Splurge on a "Good" Bra

I rarely do it, but something compelled me to click on one of those Facebook advertisements not long ago. So far, I'm pretty happy. The ad was for a place called True & Co...where you can select bras, have them sent directly to your home, try them on, and send back any that you don't want. Pretty slick.

First they have you take a survey thing to determine your fit...not using just your bra size, but actually useful questions like how your current bras fit and whether you tend to spill out the sides or sag or bust out the top. ;) Using that information, they assign you a category and recommend bras based on that (you can still shop all of their store, but they list recommended items and sizes just for you). 

Then you can pick up to five bras to try. They ship them to your house in a lovely box like so:

You try them on and fill out feedback (letting them know what worked and what didn't and why) so that they can tweak their recommendations. Send back any that you don't want within five days in their easy-peasy return envelope (which also comes with a return mailing label...all shipping was free).

If you keep any, they charge you at that time. Done. :)

So. I tried four with my first box. I kept one. And now I can check that off my list. ;)

(Yeah, they're definitely not the cheapest bras but I really enjoyed the experience and the no hassle/no required purchase aspect of it all. I have codes for $15 off your first order. If you want one, email me!) 

Thanks, Dad!

So. It hailed last night. ;) Remember how we just planted all sorts of new plants? Yeah.

These pictures were taken this morning. I'm waiting for the hail to melt to decide just how gone these are. The plants in the pots actually held up considerably better than the ones in the ground, though there are definitely some losses.

The storm went through here last night from about 11-midnight. Boys had just gone to bed but the younger two promptly popped back out of bed to hide downstairs with me. Noah was amazingly still asleep (it was VERY loud)...was woken up by Micah so that he could see what was going on...and then went back to sleep. Took some convincing to get Micah to go back to bed after things had died down...he was, unsurprisingly, convinced that the world was ending, lol.

Let me also point out the many pieces of roof shingles...

Yup. Call's already in to the insurance adjuster (for the roof and also for Nathan's car, which unfortunately was parked in the driveway rather than the garage last night...it's quite dimpled but not as bad as some we saw on our walk this morning). I'll keep you posted.

And here's the back deck. You can see pieces of the roof here also. (Even the grill is dimpled.)

And this last picture is just because I thought it looked cool. ;)

I don't have the hail stone in the hand pictures like so many others, but trust me when I tell you there were definitely golf ball sized stones in the mix last night.

And it would be so easy to decide to just pave over the area out front that's now been decimated...to join the ranks of other locals bemoaning the loss of their gardens and plants. (And, yes, those new plants aren't looking so hot and most don't look like they even have a chance of struggling through.)

But. You know what? I'm a farmer's daughter. :) I can't count the number of times I watched my dad hope and pray that it wouldn't rain only to have a single storm take out most of our cherry crop. Acres and acres of cherries. Or the times he'd be up in the middle of the night to light the smudge pots to try to keep the fruit from freezing in the spring...only to have a single bad frost destroy buds. And, still, he'd smile. It's just Mother Nature, he'd shrug. And he'd repeat the entire cycle again the next year...full of optimism. And even when the crops were gone and income was thus severely affected, we managed. I had a full and happy childhood. :)

And, so. I'm choosing to be happy this morning...to delight in the faces of my neighbors who were out this morning cleaning up the mess with looks of "what can you do?" and smiles...to be thankful that we were safe and dry inside (some of our neighbors had skylights that were broken and, thus, water in their homes)...to marvel at how Noah could sleep through all that (and is, in fact, still asleep), lol...to appreciate the fact that we don't have to garden for food or livelihood...to laugh about the fact that I now don't really have to worry about those rabbits any more... ;)

Whew. Happy clean-up, y'all!