Piedra Falls

After the ballooning yesterday morning, we managed to find another short hike to some waterfalls. These falls had a nice area for hanging out and skipping some rocks and getting feet very cold and such...

All in all, a pretty nice spot on a gorgeous day...

(And then we went back for a late lunch and ordering the pictures from that photographer and playing more games and taking boys swimming and dinner and more games...

Oh. And, I just realized I missed Tuesday. We had anticipated just staying in and playing games most of the day on account of the rain but were pleasantly surprised to find sunshine instead. We ended up attending a root beer float event and finding a fun miniature golf course in addition to our day of games and good food.)

Ballooning over Pagosa

Um. So, earlier this week we went to an activities preview presentation thing here where we're staying. I won a half price ticket for a hot air balloon ride. (Woohoo!) Since Nathan and I have already done that, we decided to let boys experience the fun. We scheduled it for this morning...and I ended up going along also, as Micah didn't want to go without a parent and my birthday is closest, lol. 

In any case, it was an awesome morning...here's a picture Nathan snapped as he was helping set up the balloon for take off:

...and the actual take off (see Asher giving the thumbs up? (the four of us ended up in different compartments to help with weight distribution))...

This is from during the ride...the black dot is our shadow...

...and here's me and Asher...

After we landed, we got to help with taking down the balloon and everything also. It was actually pretty darn cool. (Nathan's the one on the right out there helping bring down the balloon.)

And there was a professional photographer there who took lots of fun pictures. My favorite may have been when she had the younger two and me pose as if the balloon had crashed and we'd died. (Noah refused to act dead so is trying to rescue the bodies, lol.)

After we finally got everything packed back up, we headed to where we'd started for a ballooning story and ceremony, complete with mimosas and muffins.

Awesome morning! 

Treasure Falls

While boys are busy playing a board game, I figured I'd update. ;)

So. We're in Pagosa Springs. It snowed on our way here, of course. Yesterday, though, it was a lovely spring day...sunny and in the 60s. (The forecast calls for a storm tonight and tomorrow but then nice weather again after that. Fingers crossed.) We spent a low key day just wandering the property and checking out the activities available (such as miniature golf, foosball, air hockey, and ping pong). We also played games and ate out and enjoyed being together. 

This morning, we headed just outside of Pagosa Springs to do a short hike to Treasure Falls. Here's everyone before we started. (Note, Noah was being obstinate and is standing behind the guard rail thing but is still present, lol.)

Once we got to the bridge area...

And then we hiked a bit higher to the misty overlook area. It was wet. I couldn't really take pictures up there. Instead, most of us went back down to the bridge area while the younger two hiked back up to be little dots of color in my picture:

And then we headed back down and to the unit we're staying at for lunch and board games. There's talk of taking boys swimming later this afternoon. Fun times. :)

(We were looking for a longer hike but seem to be having issues with snow at and above the tree line, lol. Maybe we'll be able to find something later this week...)

#29 Visit a national park I've not been to before

And now that we're DONE with most of our school year (and because we're hoping most families aren't yet, such that things won't be too crowded, lol)...we're off on vacation! After Noah's last class on Friday, we drove down to Alamosa, CO. On Saturday, we ventured over to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and had a fabulous time.

Here's us climbing up, and up, and up...

We ended up climbing barefoot the entire way and were quite thankful that it's only mid-May. The sands must be scortching hot in summer time! As it was, we actually managed quite good weather...not too hot and not too cold. :)

We had a lovely couple take this picture of us before separating...as Nathan and Micah wanted to climb further and Noah, Asher and I did not want to climb further, lol.

So, Nathan and Micah continued on and we headed back down. (It's not quite possible to explain the breadth of the place. It's rather amazing actually. If we'd had more time, we'd probably have spent it there happily. As it was, we needed to get on the road and also were trying to (and succeeded at) beat the incoming storm.)

At the bottom, there's a stream that must be waded through to get back to the parking lot. While we waited for Nathan and Micah, the older two had great fun playing in the brisk waters...

I imagine the water portion of the park is much more enjoyable in the heat of the summer. Personally, I was a bit cold. Asher has a proclivity for getting himself drenched, though...hence I took his jacket away from him as experience has taught me that that sucker is hard to get dry and un-sandy, lol. In the end, only Asher required a change of clothes before we loaded back up...as expected.

So. That was our visit to Great Sand Dunes. :)

Then we drove on to Pagosa Springs...where we are now. We met up with Nathan's parents and are set to enjoy a fun-filled week. More pictures and story to come...

Done

So. It's mid-May and we're in that shifting gears sort of time. Though we continue to homeschool into the summer (on a much lighter schedule), we're now DONE with many of our school year activities...

- DONE with the archery season...

- DONE with gymnastics (The homeschooling gymnastics class that Asher loves only runs during the school year, so we're taking the summer off. I offered to try to work the "normal" gymnastics classes in, but they conflict with other things and Asher's hesitant to join those as it would be with an older age group of just boys who have likely been doing this (together) for awhile. The homeschool gymnastics will start back up in September. All good.)...

- DONE with Options (Technically, the Options school year ends tomorrow, but we won't be there. The Spring Program signaled the end of the year for us, and Asher performed with his guitar 2 class while both Asher and Micah had art on display.)...

- DONE with swim lessons (Though Micah might end up needing more, we're done with the ones we signed up for and are going to just see how far practice on his own gets us for now.)...

and also, DONE with Noah's first year of high school! So very proud of this kid! He's officially got one year of high school under his belt (a year early even) and, barring something unexpected, managed to pull straight A's in all of his classes...three of which were full-on college courses, for which he's earned those college credits (and they've also gone toward his high school requirements). Whew. :)

This is him a week or so ago for his English presentation:

He wasn't thrilled about the early morning picture, but he recognized that it was owed since he waited until the last minute to inform me that he'd need to dress "nicely" for the presentation...which necessitated a last minute shopping trip, as the last time we'd managed to get him to dress in anything beyond jeans and a tee shirt was summer of 2011, when he was about 13-14 inches shorter and 60 pounds lighter, lol. He cleans up nicely, eh? ;)

(BTW, dress pants (really all pants) for this kid are difficult. These were *just* long enough, but we couldn't find a 34 inseam with a 28-30 waist locally. Awesome. On the bright side, who knew they make slim fit dress shirts? Yay!)

So. On to summer...WOOHOOOOO!