DEN to DC

Eric had a work conference out in the D.C. area last week and he asked me to tag along with him and after some long thought (about 1 second) I said sure thing. My mom was gracious enough to fly up and watch the kiddos so I could go solo. Eric went out Tuesday and I went out Wednesday and we came back together on Sunday. Here is the fun we had.

Thursday I went out on my own and visited the beautiful Washington D.C. LDS temple that can be seen from the beltway

Then I went to Great Falls National Park where the Potomac narrows through a gorge and some rapids are formed. I got to enjoy a good D.C. thunderstorm while hiking around and found safety in a rock outcropping. Proof I was there and didn't just take the picture off the internet somewhere.

After my hiking adventures I got to enjoy another one of D.C.s finest attractions--traffic. I grew up in southern California so I know traffic and D.C. was as bad or worse and I was amazed at all the ongoing construction on the beltway around the city.

Friday I struck out on my own again and found our home should we move out east (very unlikely event)

Wait, it's already taken by George Washington and called Mt. Vernon.

View of the Potomac

Here's the vegetable garden that I would love to have.

Burial Place

Just hook up a La-Z-Boy to this buggy and go
Saturday Eric and I went down to D.C. proper and took a tour of the capitol. We saw one of Colorado's statues, the mold of the statue on top of the dome (I didn't know it was up there), the mural on the inside of the dome made famous by Dan Brown and all the official rooms the tour showed us.

We also went to the Air & Space Museum, Nature & Science Museum (our kids are apes), Arboretum, and saw the White House (notice the snipers on top?)

In the evening we went on a bike tour of the national monuments and let me tell you, that was the way to do it! Even though it doesn't really cool off much like in Denver, I can't even imagine walking that whole thing in the sun and awful humidity! In the order we saw them--Jefferson, FDR, Korean War, Lincoln, Vietnam War, WWII, Washington

Sunday we went to Arlington Cemetery and the Holocaust Museum before flying home

Whew, I'm exhausted just thinking about all the walking we did over the weekend. We came home to this, I think some little ones were excited for mommy & daddy to come home and it feels good to be in my own bed again.

Running of the Antelope

I realized last school year how much I hate fundraising for my kids. It's funny because I was the one always selling candy bars and tickets to car washes to fund choir, soccer, track, etc. I just can't seem to get into selling overpriced gift wrap, cookie dough tubs or whatever the school sends home. This year for our one and only fundraiser (hopefully) they did a Running of the Antelope where kids got straight pledges (not even per lap but total) to run for 20 minutes on a Saturday morning and get a pancake breakfast, shirt, and medal. That kind of fundraising I can handle so here are some pictures of the girls, not too many action shots because there were so many people.
The school also started a girls running club one day a week and I signed up Elizabeth and Rachel whether they wanted to or not. I'm still hoping that one day one of my daughters will be my running partner.

The Knack

Borrowing Craftiness from Others. . .Again

So what have I been doing with myself while the girls are in school? Trying to keep out of trouble, that's what! The first week I found it a little too easy to go shopping with just one and did a lot of it. One day, I saw my friend Devony at Target (when do we ever have a Target trip without seeing someone we know?) and she said she was teaching someone how to make easy circle skirts and I asked if I could join in the fun. Last week she came over and we made circle skirts and as an added bonus Devony also showed me how to make cute matching hairbows (yes mom, more hairbows!). I finally finished the hairbows today and thought I'd post a picture of Evelyn and her skirt. Rachel picked out the material and I made matching skirts and bows for all the girls. I have a little too much fun matching my three girls.

Thanks again Devony for sharing your talents with me.

More Copper

Since Eric did the post about his ride, I'll do the post about the rest of our family weekend. We rented a two bedroom condo in Copper because I can't sleep in the same room as the kids very well and I wanted a kitchen to prepare some food. The kids loved the double bunk bed in their room and kept saying they were forgetting they were on vacation because it felt like home. We did many fun things in and around Copper as they try to cater to the summer crowd as well as the winter skiers.

The girls went "bungee" jumping

Rode the chairlift up the mountain

Did go-karts (I drove and it was fun), bumper boats where Elizabeth had fun soaking me, and paddle boats

Played the giant checker board

Climbed the climbing wall like a pro

Celebrated someone's 34th birthday

And while Eric was riding on Saturday, we had our own adventure as I took our budding hikers on a beautiful hike up Shrine Ridge. I wasn't trying to go all the way to the top, just wanted to see how far the girls would last walking and they did pretty well. We saw gorgeous wildflowers, little creeks, and lots of dogs for the girls to give attention too.

Thanks Eric for giving us an excuse to get up to the mountains again and doing such a good job on your ride. Maybe I'll join you next year!