Snow!

 It's a good thing we went hiking when we did, because it snowed 2 days later! 

Winter, here we come.

I will say, these two and their energy make shoveling the driveway a lot more enjoyable than past years.

Literally the cutest snowman I've ever seen! ⛄🧡

Hiking to Patsy's Mine

The beautiful Fall weather continued well into November. We weren't complaining!

We heard a rumor that the Forest Service were closing off the entrance to Patsy's Mine, so we took the girls up for their first and last time. Mines are creepy, but cool. Kind of sad they're closing it off, but whatever I guess.

We saw these pack mules on their way down from carrying cement blocks up to the mine entrance. I'm impressed this guy can maneuver 4 animals up the trail, unload them, then turn them around and lead them back down. I want his job.

Being in the mountain was an eerie feeling.

But the girls were absolutely loving it.

Greg had been here lots, so he waited at the entrance while we had our fun.

Nothing like a little dance party in a mine. Thanks Patsy!

We came, we saw, we went.

I came across this picture and had no idea what Claire was doing.

Then I found this video 🤣

Burping, humming to "Octonauts," and doing other Claire things. She is hilarious.

Ending the day with a Sofi Selfie. I love finding these on my phone 😇

Claire Shenanigans

 I found these video's of Claire, and they are perfectly her. Absolutely hilarious!

I'm glad Claire enjoys the cat house. We all know Mittens doesn't.

Sometimes it is a pure pleasure watching Claire eat. She zones out and can put the food down. And the fact that she is listening to "The FInal Countdown," her favorite song, just makes this video even better.

When Claire finally started talking, she would say this little sentence all the time. To this day I still don't know what it means, but I'm glad I got it on video to remember how far she has come vocally in such a short amount of time. And, she's saying "Mom" to a song she learned from "Octonauts," so there's that too 🤣

We go to this fun park on sunny days while Sofi is at dance and we brought Sof back for a little bit one day. I'm including this picture so I can remember her cute freckles. I love them!

Halloween, COVID style

This Halloween had to be the warmest one I can remember. The day was absolutely beautifu! Greg took the girls to the park and they had a blast playing and watching a bike race we knew nothing about. I'm hoping Greg signs up for it next year.

Claire was Kitty-Elsa this year.

Both of my beautiful Elsa's.

Our cute neighbor gave Claire this beanie when she saw who she was for Halloween. She makes them! isn't is so cute?

Beautiful Sof. I had to take advantage of this rare moment where she let me take a picture.

The girls had so much fun! They weren't too capitvated by the candy as much as being able to walk around and actually see other people. COVID has made things weird. No one was wearing coats, Claire was walking barefoot, and candies were outside for you to take or individually wrapped on a table. It's nice people took the effort to make this holiday fun despite our circumstances. All I'm saying is, the beautiful weather more than made up for it. Holy cow!

Gardner Village Fun

We kept the fun in October going by sneaking down to Gardner Village one day. Thanks to COVID, the place was surprisingly bare - a complete 180 from how it usually is around Halloween.

Before we even made it into the cute shopping area, the girls spied the ponies and had to ride them. Being the softie that I am, I let them ride them, and I am so glad I did. The pony Sof was on was absolutely hilarious! I was dying.

Then we walked into Gardner Village and this shirt is the first thing I saw. Truer words were never spoken.

This llama was everything! The haircut down to its cute little hat. This man loved her, and she was the sweetest llama I've ever met. Instead of spitting, she kissed people. So cute!

Matchy matchy.

I'm realizing this witch may have been my future if I had stuck with firefighting.

Colorado, Day 5 - Driving home

Sunday was our scheduled day to come home. Tiff jokingly asked if we should stay through Monday, and in hindsight, I'm realizing that we really should have. But, I had a few things I needed to get back too, so I made the executive decision, and home we came.

We left around 8:30 am. The kids were sad to leave, but it was nice to know I would be back in my bed before nightfall (or so I thought). 

Jess sent us home a different way and it was beautiful, but super windy. First, Sof threw up, then Kobe, then Lexi. It was horrible - and Sof has informed me she never wants to throw up again. Hopefully it is the first and last time for her. 

What was supposed to be a 9 hour drive turned into a 15 hour drive. We made good time until we reached Price and realized it was going to take 2 hours to get through Spanish Fork canyon. There was no good route that would save us time, so we opted to stop and let the kids play at the local elementary, where I stayed to supervise and Tiff left to get dinner. Dinner ended up being delayed too, so we were all hungry and tired by the time we all climbed back in the car. 

We ended up just braving Spanish Fork canyon, and everyone but Claire and Dayton fell asleep, which was no surprise. Why would Claire sleep in the car? Anyway, we eventually pulled into Tiff's driveway around 10:30, we unloaded her car then loaded mine, and we pulled into our driveway around 12:15 am. Greg was asleep, so I was tasked to carry our finally-sleeping girls into their beds, where they were blissfully unaware of me having done so.

Road trips are so fun, but it sure is nice to always have a place to come home to. Until next time Colorado ☮.

Colorado, Days 3 & 4

Day 3

We ate lunch on Friday at a local diner that had absolutely amazing shakes and burgers. My mouth still waters just thinking about them. We ate well on this trip, between the food Jess made us and the places we stopped to eat. No one went hungry.

And they had the cutest little picnic tables for the kids to eat on.

Canon City, CO is known for their famous bridge. I can't remember what it's called right now, but it's one of the longest free-standing bridges in the World(?) or maybe the USA. Anyway, we went to visit it one day and it was amazing! If you wanted to pay the atrocious tourist fee, you could cross the bridge and have fun at the carnival on the other side. We weren't too keen on doing that, so just seeing the bridge was good enough. And the girls each got a souvenior, and I got a cute ornament to hang on our Christmas tree, so all was well. On the way back, we drove down what the locals call "Skyline Drive." It's the road along the spines of one of the mountains where a man who had money to burn paid to develop. It's a one-way road, and pretty amazing to drive along.

Claire was being Claire, so this is the best picture I got. I'm realizing now I should've taken more time to actually look at the bridge. Oh well, next time.

I had Sof snap this picture of me just to prove I was there. The older I get, the more fascinated I become with trains. They are so cool! And remember the passenger train in the previous post? The tracks go through the canyon under this bridge. How cool would that ride be?

Day 4

Jess is a people person, so she was so happy to have family visit around a holiday. She planned and executed the funnest Halloween party ever! She is the type of person who doesn't care what people think and is so fun no matter what she does. I'm glad we were able to visit her.

I die every time I watch this video. The kid's faces tell it all - no one knew what to think or where to look. Claire chooses not to react. Her Daddy would be proud 🤣

Painting pumpkins

I wasn't as prepared as I should have been costume-wise for myself. Luckily I'm small enough to fit into a youth size 7 Batman costume. Yay me.

Willie won "Best of Costume." The memory of him strolling into the room so confident as a pregnany lady in a swimming suit will forever be with me 🤣.

The whole crew

Claire was in her element with all of the dress up's to play with.

We ended the night watching Hocus Pocus. The kids were in heaven.