maroon bells

Yes, I spelled that correctly and I am not talking about Maroon 5 - the band! 

I am talking about Maroon Bells - the most photographed mountains of Colorado!

 These Maroon Bells!

I seriously could not stop taking photos, and when I was sifting and sorting through photos (which I tend to do at this time of year), I came across these photos and realized I never shared them. These are from a weekend trip we took in October 2016 - yep, 2016 and yep, I am that far behind in my sorting and purging - which technically isn't too bad given I know many more people who are further behind than me, but October 2016 is definitely behind for me! But back to these Maroon Bells and our trip to Glenwood Springs.

Maroon Bells was actually Dennis' idea or Plan B! But to be fair I thought we were going to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It wasn't until we arrived at Glenwood Springs that Dennis and I realized we were talking about 2 different places! 

Then Dennis brought up the idea of driving to Aspen (not far from Glenwood Springs) but stopping before Aspen to hike the Maroon Bells. I had no idea what we were venturing to so I did some googling on the drive there. I discovered the Maroon Bells are the most photographed peaks in not only Colorado, but the entire United States! No way! I also discovered that it is such a popular destination that typically you are restricted from driving to the trailhead and during peak season, you ride a bus from Aspen Highlands. We were there in the off season so we were able to drive to the trailhead. That drive up was amazing despite the aspens were bare. Then, I was still amazed at how many cars and people were at the trailhead. I clearly had no idea about any of this which made this a true adventure!

The start of our adventure began here...

It was only 1.6 miles to Crater Lake but when you are hiking with a 10 year old who does not "hike", we tell her it's a stroll or an exploration and hope she doesn't notice how rugged the trail has become!

She would not turn around for this photo, but I took it anyway. I love this photo of her. I doubt she was admiring the beauty, more likely wondering how she was fooled to believe this was someone's idea of fun. 

 This next photo shows how rocky the trail became. But we ventured on and were reminded of the Boulder hike we did at Priest Lake.

 This is my first view of Crater Lake, not nearly as impressive as some of the photos you might find on the web when googling Maroon Bells. I tried to capture a few with the mountains, however, in the end, it was too windy and no reflections were going to be seen. Alyssa is already sitting on a log enjoying some snack we brought along.

I tried a selfie to show how windy it was but it was so bright, I couldn't really see my phone's screen nor did I see Jaiden's hand behind my head!

 Jaiden taking a break on the trail back. The mountains behind him are not the infamous Maroon Bells but they are part of the same amazing Elk Range.

Walking away from Crater Lake, opposite of the Maroon Bells were these also stunning views of red rock mountains. The contrast with the sky was too much and I had to take a photo. You can see all the barren Aspens so take a minute and imagine how magnificent this might look if those Aspens were at their peak yellow, with the red and blue... makes me want to actually come back and deal with the crowds to get that photo.

 After the hike, we drove into Aspen for lunch. It's an interesting town and one I would probably love if it wasn't so pretentious but even just trying to find a casual restaurant is a feat in itself! We did enjoy a really good lunch but then strolled to a park where we took the kids almost 6 or 7 years ago. They still enjoyed climbing the rock structures!

 On the way back to the car, we found this sculpture! I am sure some of you might recognize this from our 2017 calendar. I can't remember if I included both of these photos or not, but it doesn't matter. Their interactions with public art are the best.

And that wrapped up the most amazing, unexpected adventure for the day!

x-country life...

What is this x-country I keep referring to? First, it's new to Altona this year. Second, Jaiden has always been interested in it. Third, I had no idea how exciting it was!

X-country is an individual and team sport in one. The team runs "invites" or meets and gets scored for their times, but at the same time, you run on your own to improve your endurance, pace or maybe just boost your ego knowing you can finish. Middle schoolers invites are typically 1.5 to 2 miles. His longest invite was 2.4 with over 900 boys running!

For Jaiden, he loves running. He prefers distance running, in fact, these invites just might be a little too short for him. 

These photos are from this week's meet and was a much smaller race, maybe 100 + boys but this photos captures the craziness of the start... and yes, you can catch a glimpse of Jaiden behind one of the boys in a green jersey on the far right!

I have yet to actually capture fully. This was a good attempt and would have been great if I hadn't cut of his shins and feet!

 After awhile the crowd disperses as they settle into their own pace. 

 And then the final sprint to the end.

I am not sure what his time was on this one but he seems to average a 7 min mile so it was probably around 10-11 min. I did the math once and tease him that I have driven an hour to an invite to only catch glimpses of him on the course and to have him run for less than 12 minutes! He thinks that is funny, and I think he is awesome for trying something new and really doing so well at it! 

george washington returns

If I had a little more time, I would go back and find the original story and link to this one, but I told myself I would try to get more stories up here and not get hung up on details like that.

Yesterday, Jaiden had another x-country meet and he did awesome (photos ... yay, maybe later!). He placed 8th on his team but we don't know the overall placement against all the other teams. On the way home though, we needed to swing by the CSA, collect our veggies, head home to drop them off to then turn back out and get Alyssa at volleyball.

Of course, Jaiden was starving and he found this amazing huge watermelon at the stand for $5. He paid for it and we headed to the car. 

By the time we got to the car, he had named it George Washington and as I opened the slider door for him, I caught him buckling George in...

very carefully...

... and one more photo before I pulled out of the parking spot because this makes me laugh remembering when he was in 3rd grade/ Alyssa in 1st and the first summer they did this, naming the watermelon George Washington, buckling it in and giggling the whole way home!

As for this year, he's in 8th grade, still names the watermelon George Washington, buckles it in and we joke on the way home.

The best part? 

After bringing Alyssa home, she walks in, sees the enormous watermelon and says "Yay, George Washington!"

first day as an official 8th grader...

Jaiden's first day was not the same first day as Alyssa's... however, this year he did go to school on Alyssa's first day but as a WEB leader ... which is basically an 8th grade role model to help orientate the 6th graders but it's a year long commitment. It's a bit of an honor to be part of this group because you need to demonstrate leadership qualities, good behavior (no lunch or iPad detention), good grades and a few other things. And you have to apply giving reasons why you think you'd be a good WEB leader.

At first, he wasn't sure he wanted to apply except that he really did want to sign up but none of his friends were. We talked about how he has wanted to be a WEB leader since 6th grade and it didn't matter if friends were in it or not, and maybe you should just try it out and see what happens. To my delight, he applied.

He stayed signed up even when he found out he'd have to do 2 half day from 8am - noon workshops just before school starts in August. 

He stayed signed up even when that meant he'd be at school on the 1st day for 6th graders while his buddies had one more day of summer. 

He stayed signed up even when going to school on the 1st day for 6th graders meant he had to be there at 7 am! An hour and 20 minutes earlier than when school starts!

He headed out of the house Tuesday at 6:45 am like this...

 I should have taken a photo of the back of his shirt as it says WEB leader but I loved that he wrote his name so creatively. He did get to come home at 1 pm and we went to the comic shop and lunch before Alyssa returned. The best part was how he told me all about the details of what it was like to be a WEB leader. Three interesting things he said was:

1.  that as WEB leaders they are supposed to be dispersed among the 6th graders, not clumped together but how hard it was when they sorted the 6th graders into Oldest child, Middle kids, Youngest child and Only child. He said most the WEB leaders were oldest kids and most the 6th graders were not!

2. He sat between 2 chatty 6th grade boys and then when the teachers were making jokes or getting kids to dance, he'd get up and get silly (they were told to do this), but what he thought was funny is the surprised looks on the 6th graders as they were trying to figure out if this was cool or not! 

3. Finally, the most hilarious part was he told me how the WEB leaders debriefed with the WEB teachers and when asked what was most hard or challenging? All of the leaders commented how rowdy, not paying attention the 6th graders were. The WEB teachers chuckled and said that happens every year! Even I chuckled over that one but it was great because they also talked about how the WEB leaders can work through that next time in all the other activities the WEB leaders host during the year.

So proud of him!

He did finally have his first "official" day of school on Wednesday, and I had to be quick with his photos especially when he tried to tell me the one above counted for the first day. Out of 5 photos total, here are my 2 favorites...

 I tried to get him to pose with this photo but he was like "mom, just take the photo!"

So there it is, his last first day of middle school... sigh, just where did the time go?

first day blues...

first day of middle school... sigh... I had the blues but her?

 she had butterflies in her tummy and was torn between excitement and nervousness... she also woke up at 4:30 am claiming she was fine and was not excited or nervous! I captured several favorites of her... 

 including this gem which I threatened to blow up to 8x10 and hang in the family room!

But my absolute favorite was this one... 

I mean seriously? This girl's style is truly her own and she always pulls it off looking so darn cute! 

Here's to being a 6th grader... 

hang one while I grab a tissue and also say... sniff, sniff ... that officially I have 2 middle schoolers in the house and the other's one first day is technically tomorrow! But more on him later ... 

for today, Dennis and I walked our baby over to middle school!

zip life...

... the life of my kids ... one word says it all - 

spoiled!

I so envy their adventures. I know I had my own growing up but I think I would have really loved going to Girl Scout camp for a week with my best friend (or BFF as they now call it!) 

So today, I drove a long, long, did I say long? way to drop them off at Sky High Ranch for a week of the Zip Life!

I had to beg for this photo from Alyssa while Charlotte jumped right out of the car to have her photo taken!

 Again, Charlotte was all about the photo and Alyssa was ready to ditch me! The cute thing about this photo was Charlotte decided to rename the walk from "Cardiac Hill" to "Cardio Hill"... loved that because at 8500+ ft, we definitely had a good cardio workout up that hill!

I checked the girls in but had to make a stop to check in Charlotte's meds, but I let the girls go ahead of me to find their cabin... they were just too excited and it does seem a little annoying how many steps it takes to check in! I get it - so I said yes, I will catch up with the two of you! 

When I caught up, they were making their name tags in the shelter near their ... not cabin, but tents! Technically platform tents but still canvas walls!

Inside their tent! 

Outside their tent! 

 Then it was goodbye and I took my time walking back to the car taking a few photos of the camp... it was so beautiful! Exactly why I wanted to stay and play too!

This is their tent looking back...

And when you first walk up to their area, you see the shelter, their tent is behind it slightly... 

 Still walking down the hill, but not "cardio hill", just the hill from their place, this is the craft cabin...

 And the main lodge!

I can't wait to hear about their adventures on the way home! And I really, really hope I catch a glimpse of them on FB this week when the camp posts random photos!

monkeys and bread

It's awfully cute and kind of fun to receive emails in the middle of the day from Jaiden. He doesn't send them often but occasionally I will get something from him. Sometimes they are serious emails, sometimes he's sharing a score on his test or assignment that he worked really hard on but today it was his monkey bread in FCS (a lot like Home Ec)...

Looks like he might make this for his family for breakfast soon!