Heading home early

Slowly, everyone woke up this morning.  Andrew was the last one up but he immediately got to work, tending the fire.  I think he even forgot to eat.

 Dad cooked up some oatmeal and Cairn dug right in.  Oatmeal is her favorite breakfast.

 Andrew continued to work the fire.

 Skylar woke up and was ready to get some warm clothes on.  It was a little chilly in the morning.

 After everyone, was fed and dressed warmly, we headed back down to the lake to see what new adventures we could find.  I chatted with my friend.

 And the kids got INTO the lake to play.

 Skylar was catching minnows with the frisbee.

 Andrew was just being a boy - picking up rocks, playing in the sand, finding bugs...

Clouds rolled in so we decided to head over to the Leadville Fish Hatchery.

 The girls got some food to feed the fish.

Today, this fall was flowing and some of the fish were trying to jump up.  It was fun to watch.

 Still more feeding.

Everyone moved over to the BIG fish pond.  There were some really big fish in here.  .

I tried to get a picture

The clouds and rain moved in this time so we decided to head into Leadville before heading home.  We stopped at a candy store and got some candy and drove home.  The kids were getting sicker by the minute and losing energy quickly.  Andrew was coughing a ton and Skylar and Cairn were looking lousy.  

On the drive home, all the kids fell asleep.  I was glad to be home so I could take care of the kids properly and they could stay warm. 

Camping trip

Dad got home late last night so he didn't have time to unload his wood.  This morning, Andrew was dressed and ready to help him.

They got it unloaded quickly so we could load up the mini-van and head out on our camping trip.  This one was going to be a little bit different.  We were meeting some of our homeschool friends at a campground to try camping together.  The kids were excited that their friends were going to be there.

We drove a couple hours into the mountains to Leadville and then headed a little westward to the San Isabel National Forest to Turquoise Lake.

 We had to stop at a map to find out campground.

 We found our campsite and Dad immediately put up the most important part of camp - the hammocks.  The kids relaxed for a few minutes before heading out to find their friends.

Dad finished setting up camp and then joined us at the lake.  It was so beautiful.  The kids skipped rocks...threw rocks into the lake.  They fished...practiced casting - you have to have bait to actually fish.  They found a rock fort that Dad helped refortify and the kids just played and I got to talk to my friends.  Eventually, we returned to camp to cook up dinner.  The other families had a campfire and cooked smores but our kids were kind of smore'd out so they weren't interested.  We stayed at our campsite the rest of the night with Dad's campfire.  Andrew fell asleep pretty quickly and slept all night even though he was struggling to breathe he was so stuffed up.  Cairn and Skylar had a really tough time falling asleep.  I was awake most of the night too because the girls couldn't sleep and I was listening to Andrew breathe.

One of the things I was most excited about with this trip was the Perseid Meteor Showers that were supposed to peak on August 12th.  I had set my alarm for 3:30 AM so we could get up and see them but I ended up turning it off because people were finally falling asleep.  Skylar did wake up about 2 AM needing to go to potty so I walked her to the bathroom.  As we walked, we saw 10 shooting stars.

Last day camping

We woke up at the top of a hill surrounded by animals - some dead, some alive.  We hadn't looked around much last night since it was so late and we needed to eat and get the tents up.

Last night, Skylar, Andrew and I slept together while Dad, Grandma and Cairn slept in the other tent.

Andrew was up and out the door.

 

 Finally, he got dressed.

 Then Andrew and Skylar went off exploring.

 They found this animal

 Then this one.

 Skylar found these beautiful flowers and insisted on her picture being taken.

 After eating breakfast and packing up, we headed down the road when we found these cows.  Skylar and Andrew wanted to see them up close.  The minute the kids walked up all the cows came over - they thought they were going to be fed.

 Then Andrew stepped closer and they all backed away.  Too close!!

 Dad stood on the fence to get this picture.  The cows just went on and on and one.

 The kids found some grass to feed the cows.

 Then Andrew found something to climb on...

 and investigate.

We got back on the road and headed back to Guernsey trying to find Cairn's lost croc.  We didn't find it but a very nice policeman found Dad and ticketed him for speeding.  We saved $10 because we all had our seatbelts on.  We didn't find the croc so we headed home with one sad girl in the car.

Another great trip - this one included a flat tire and a speeding ticket.

Mount Rushmore

Today, we woke up to a slight chill in the air and some clouds.  Hoping that the sun will arrive at some point. We decided to go with 2 tents since there are 6 of us.  Skylar, Andrew, Cairn and Mom slept in the green tent, while Grandma, and Dad slept in the yellow.

 We ate our breakfasts of PBJ's, loaded up and headed out but first a stop at the camp sign.

 We found a cool lake to hike around and investigate.

 Then we headed towards Mount Rushmore.  We picked up our Junior Ranger books and got right to work.  One of the first questions, "how many workers worked on Mount Rushmore?"  Over 400.

 We walked down the walk of flags.  Cairn did a great job of pointing out State flags that she knew.

 We took pictures everywhere.

 We went into the Visitor's Center, the Studio and took the hike.  The sign said it was a strenuous hike with 298 steps.  Other than it was hot, it wasn't hard at all.  The kids even stopped complaining.

 After Mount Rushmore, we drove into Rapid City to see the Berlin Wall and have dinner.

We had to hurry after dinner to find our next campsite.  Tonight, the kids got to pick the site.  They wanted it near some logs and just barely off the road.

Good night!