House updates

Just some random notes for the sake of recording them:

- On Monday, the boys and I came home to find the house filled with smoke. Nathan was working in the basement and had left water in the kettle on the stove. Let's just say that the kettle is no more. ;) In any case, it's all good now. After open windows and fans and lots of bowls of baking soda all around the house, the smoke is gone as is the lingering smell of burnt plastic and metal. Also, we now have a lovely electric kettle that has an auto-off switch as soon as the water comes to a boil. ;)

- The insurance adjusters have come and gone. Now we're waiting on the claims being processed...which is a little irritating since we called, literally, during the hail storm to file our initial claim and then managed to get both adjusters out within four days (they needed separate adjusters for the auto and house claims). In case you're curious, the car and roof were totalled. We also have claims in for:

• repainting two sides of the house (the hail knocked off paint to the wood (especially along all the trim) so that needs to be addressed lest the spots start to weather),
• rebuilding the deck (which is toast except for the frame of the structure),
• new gutters and downspouts on two sides of the house, 
• new top boards for the fence on the north side of the house (the only one we're responsible for), and
• a cosmetic allowance for the grill, which was as dinged up as Nathan's car.

The small flooding in the basement is not covered since the window didn't break. (It's therefore considered groundwater or something.) We've let everything dry out completely now (pulled back the carpet and carpet pad sitting on the concrete floor) and have bowls of baking soda down there also for the musty smell. Hoping to try to put it all back together this weekend and just call that good.

- It may be too early to say, but it looks like most of our plants are going to survive. Yay! Two or three may end up getting replaced, but I'm waiting a bit before tackling that. :)

- Once we get all this other stuff in hand, Nathan and the boys are building a firepit in the backyard. Hopefully soon. :)

Whew. Needing a few more weeks of summer, methinks... 

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.