Rocky Mountain National Park

Austin took a day off work so we could do something fun as a family. Heidi got a free pass to all the National Parks just for being in 4th grade, so we decided to explore Rocky Mountain National Park. I was hoping to do some actual hiking, but by the time we got in and drove around, there wasn't a lot of time for much more hiking than just some little paths. We saw plenty of beautiful things and had lots of fun together as a family. I especially enjoyed the aspens in their fall colors and I'm so glad we came at this time of year. We are planning to make good use of Heidi's pass this year and hike in to some of the lakes, but for this trip we enjoyed getting familiar with where everything was and exploring a few little areas.

 

Hiking in Boulder

 We took a morning off school this week to meet up with Lexi, Cedar, and River to do a little hike just outside of downtown Boulder. We had to do one not so far away because Cedar had preschool at noon, otherwise we would have preferred to go further up into the mountains to escape how hot this autumn has been and to see the fall colors more. But we still enjoyed getting to see cousins and get some exercise!

Asher and I took turns carrying Cedar (and he walked a little bit, but often just got distracted picking up rocks). He was a very silly boy and had fun joking with his cousins, especially pushing their hat bills down over their faces. 

Natalie was our leader for most of the hike and kept saying that this hike wasn't hard enough for her. It was nice to have her so energetic and not saying she was tired or asking to be carried. Trevor is usually our leader, but was starting to get sick and didn't have much energy- but he kept up, poor guy.

Torben enjoyed running free on the trail and meeting a few other dogs along the way. He was very interested in this magpie who sat in the tree mocking him while he barked madly at it.

First Day of School

We started school this week, a few days after the local public and private schools. It felt a bit chaotic since we only had a week between returning from Oregon and starting school, but I tried to do as much preparation as possible before we left (although I didn't get quite a few things done). This year we have all 5 kids officially in school, with Natalie starting kindergarten. We'll have to have a slightly different routine than we did last year and we're still trying to figure out what that is. Here are the first-day-of-school pictures for each of the kids.

We had our first field trip the weekend before when Austin decided to stop at a historical farm site in Boulder. We are studying modern history (1850-present) this year, so a farm from the early 1900s was perfect. We toured the house and learned all about how the family lived and some of the machines and furniture they had. The kids' favorite part, though, was going to visit the animals- especially the draft horses. The tour guide was extremely nice and even went and brought the horses over to them and let them feed them. We also toured the barns and learned about some of the work. Although the kids have read about this is books many times, it was interesting to see it up close.