Moving on

It's that time again!  Time to move on.  We're starting a whole new chapter in our lives, and we want to share it with you.
Come on over to http://thedudesfamily.blogspot.com/ and see what we're up to.

Get Thee to the Mountains!

I'm sorry.  

Clearly I had gone done lost my mind, because I had not dragged my family to Rocky Mountain National Park in months!  WHAT?!  How could I let that happen?  What kind of nature lovin' mama am I?  

Not to worry, once a free weekend opened up, we were all over it, and off we went to one of our favorite Colorado spots.

It was one of those blinding-mountain-sun types of mornings, but it felt good.

We drove up and over Trail Ridge Road and ate lunch at our favorite Grand Lake spot.  We kinda dig Grand Lake.  In fact, it's getting to where we spend more time there than in Estes Park.  There aren't as many people, and the drive there is crazy beautiful.

The beach at Grand Lake is an area we have yet to explore in detail, but Dale and Rose were in complete awe over the sand and waves.

We explored town just long enough to find a cool moth and yummy ice cream.

Driving through Rocky Mountain National Park is always full of new surprises.  This is Dale's I-see-a-moose-face.

We saw seven moose that day.  Maybe you didn't hear me...I said, we saw SEVEN moose that day.

I seeeee you!

We stopped at a favorite spot of mine, where I made Dale stand in a field of yellow flowers and smile sweetly for me.

Ahh, the flowers.  They were everywhere!

As always, we also saw bulls...

And rams...

And marmots...

And pikas...

The animal count for the day may have been our highest yet!

What a glorious day for our family.

The Rest of July

Goodbye Kansas, Hello Colorado.  That pretty much sums up July.  Oh, and hot hot hot and wretched apartment and mounds of stress.  Enough said.

Fun Friday

The coaches declared the last day of soccer camp "Fun Friday" for the little ones, so we threw together what we had, and Dale went to soccer camp as a superhero cutie pie.

"Ooh la la!"

At the end of camp, the little ones got a poster of  Ryan Giggs from Manchester United, which Dale thought was pretty darn cool, even though he has no idea who Ryan Giggs is.  Then the coach offered to sign balls and take pictures.  Dale was less than thrilled to pose for a picture with his coach, but Mommy was all over it.

Then Rose said goodbye to the kitty art that we visited every day that week, and we were on our merry way.

Running and Playing

More soccer camp and more playing...

More adorable Dale.

Dale got to chase people...

And be chased...

Meanwhile Rose discovered how fun it was to play inside the bushes, and she spent nearly the whole time talking to her spider hands in the middle of this bush.

Rose also seized the opportunity to play with Dale's laptop.

After soccer we had another picnic in the park until the lightening came out and we had to go home.  It was fun while it lasted though.

Soccer and a Stroll

Dale's next day of soccer camp was a roaring success.  He had decorated his ball so he knew which one was his, and he could now play all the games without the fear of losing his precious ball.

Rose spent a lot of time in her own imaginary world playing with Lightening McQueen and a princess dress.

We explored more of the park and found many delightful surprises waiting for us.

City Park has a lot of colorful transformers from the Art in Public Places project.

Once soccer camp was over for the day, we had a picnic and played at the nearby park.