School Boys

2015 is a big year for both Beckett and Felix. Beckett started kindergarten, and Felix started preschool. They are both really enjoying school so far.

Kindergartner 

Preschooler

Summer Trip Part 3: Utah

On to the next stop. The drive from Glenwood Springs to Lehi wasn't quite as nice as the drive from Colorado Springs to Glenwood Springs had been. Still, the boys were so easy. My parents have a dvd player in their van, and we stopped at Walmart in Glenwood Springs and picked up a few more movies. The boys have never been so entertained on a road trip before. We stopped in Green River at a park that my family stopped at many times before. We didn't linger too long because it was crazy hot, however. We also stopped at a rest stop near Tucker, Utah that had a train theme. Fitting.

So, I didn't take as many pictures in Utah as I did in Colorado. We still saw tons of people there and were super busy.

On Sunday we had lunch at Chuck-a-Rama with Gramma and Aunt Sharon. I was surprised how well the boys did there. They found lots of things they liked to eat. Beckett even ate peas. We also got some nice photos of Gramma Great with the grands.

Then we got my parents into the shot. I picked a great shot of my mom and the kids at the expense of my dad. Sorry dad. You're welcome mom?

That evening we went to Toby's house and played in his yard with its fabulous tree house, but we were too busy visiting, and I didn't take any pictures.

Back at Kristen's, Utah put on a light show of its own for us. Kristen and Corey kindly let us stay in their house while they were out of town. It was so nice to have a whole house to ourselves. Now we owe Kristen and Corey an empty house.

The next morning I went over to my friend Jen's house. Jen and I were pals in Kansas. Then I left for Maryland, and, earlier this year, she moved to Utah. She lives like 4 minutes from Kristen and 10 minutes from my sister so I see more reunions in our future.

That afternoon we went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. Beckett has not stopped talking about it since. He wishes it was closer. And I think I do too.

That evening we had a big Burt Family Reunion at Jenny's house, and I was too busy chatting with people to take pictures. I hope someone did take pictures and that they will post them somewhere where I can see them.

The next day we did a Gillespie Family excursion to the train museum in Ogden. Remember that Denver & Rio Grande train we saw in Colorado Springs? Well, we made it to the other end of the line. I love nerdy tourist stuff like that.

This gigantic beast is the Union Pacific Super Turbine Locomotive #26. It's one of the biggest engines ever built and can pull 735 fully loaded freight cars. That's seven miles worth of train! And yeah, like the name implies it uses a turbine engine like a jet plane. This is one of only two turbine locomotives on display in museums. The other is in Illinois, so I'm glad we took the time to see this one.

The inside of the museum was pretty fun too. I really liked how all the model train sets were designed to look like the landscape between California and Utah.

So, I had this idea that I could get a shot of all the cousins on this caboose, but no one really complied. Not surprising, I guess.

After our trip to the train museum we ate lunch in the park and got some ice cream. We battled the horrific construction on I-15 on the way home. (I can't believe we voluntarily drove through that mess so many times.)

The next day Nate had plans with Toby, and I met up with some old teammates at the park. Kristen was home from Hawaii (hooray!) and Liz and Nan both just recently moved back to Utah. It was so much fun to see them. I hadn't seen Liz in ages, and we enjoyed hearing all about living abroad. Beckett had a really great time at the park too. He got along really well with Walker, and he especially liked Simon, Liz's kindergartner. When we left Beckett asked if Simon could come over to our house. Anytime, kiddo. Anytime.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with Paige. We got Cafe Rio again (third time of the trip), and I have to say, it was really nice to go to a Cafe Rio where they really know what they are doing. The cousins played all afternoon, and I think it was their favorite day of the trip.

That evening we battled the construction again to go to Hire's with Brandon and Stephanie. I didn't really get to talk to them at all because I was dealing with kids in a restaurant. Grr. And then I had to say goodbye to everyone in the Hire's parking lot, which was a real bummer. The silver lining was that Kristen and Corey were home, and we all sat around chatting late into the night after the kids were in bed. The next day it was back to Maryland to prepare for a new school year.

All in all, it was a great trip. I would definitely do the Colorado to Utah plan again. We are already thinking about other cool places we could stop and see along the way. On the top of the list is a train museum in Cheyenne.

Summer Trip Part 2: Glenwood Springs

After a few days in Colorado Springs we all loaded up in the van to drive to Utah, but we took our time getting there. We stayed in Glenwood Springs for two nights. 

My dad found this great park in Vail where we ate lunch. There Felix practiced his ball game.

I love the drive from Utah to Colorado Springs. I drove it a lot when I was in college. My favorite part of the drive has always been Glenwood Canyon. The road is elevated almost the whole way through and it follows the Colorado River as it wends its way through the narrow canyon. When we were young we always stopped at the Grizzly Creek rest stop. We wanted to do that on this trip too, but all the road construction prevented us from exiting the freeway. We made it to Glenwood Springs but a few wrong turns later we were back on the highway, so we headed to the rest stop where we threw rocks into the Colorado River.

After a second u-turn at another Glenwood Canyon rest stop (necessary because of the construction) we headed back to Glenwood Springs. We checked into our motel, ate dinner, and took the kids swimming. Before we left Colorado Springs Nate really wanted to find Felix one of those puddle jumper floaties. Felix had fallen in love with the floatie after borrowing one during our trip to North Point. Anyway, so on our last night Nate and I made a couple of stops and found one at Dick's. It was a little pricier than we wanted it to be, but it was totally worth it. When we brought it home Felix said, "A floatie for me!" In this excited high voice. He asked about it several times on the trip, just making sure it was in the car with him. In Glenwood Springs we let the kids swim in the pool by themselves while we lifeguarded. We ended up using the floatie again at our family reunion, and we were really relieved that we had it.

The next morning we went to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. We were thinking about going to the hot springs, but we hadn't really counted on the hot temperatures. Swimming in a warm pool didn't sound too refreshing on a 95 degree day. But I'm not sorry at all that we missed the hot springs. The adventure park was really fun.

To get to the park you ride these trams up the mountain. 

Source

I really enjoyed the alpine slide. I think I went on it four times. Beckett and Nate really loved the zipline. Here's Felix on the little Ferris Wheel. That snow cone made Felix's mouth blue for the rest of the day.

The views from the top of the mountain were spectacular. I love the red rock in Glenwood Canyon. I especially like it in the winter time when it contrasts with the evergreen trees and snow.

In the photo below you can see the Colorado River and I-70. That's the route we took to get to Glenwood Springs.

Next we ventured into the mountain. Glenwood Cavern's Adventure Park is home to a vast cave system. We took the two cave tours.

The whole crew went on the King's Row Cave tour. The kids actually did pretty well. The cave features some pretty stunning formations. In this room the guide told us he was going to do a light show. First he turned all the lights off to show us how dark a cave is. Dark dark. Then he turned on his flashlight and pointed out some formations, at which point Beckett said, "Ahh. This isn't a light show." Then the guide switched on the blacklight and the cavern looked purple, at which point Beckett said, "Now that's a light show."


This photo is a photo of a photo, so it doesn't look so great on the computer, but it's pretty nice in person. It was so lovely to go on vacation with my parents. We've never really done that before, and it was just nice that no one had any everyday obligations. We all got to enjoy a break together.


After the King's Row Cave, Nate took the boys to do some more rides and attractions and my parents and I went to do the Historic Fairy Caves tour. We all thought it was really interesting, and I wish that Nate could have done it too. We thought about swapping out kid duty, but the kids didn't have that much more time left in them. Anyway, the Fairy Cave tour was very historic. Our guide told us all about the owners of the caverns through the years. Tourists walked through these caves in the 1890s. They were the first caves in the United States to have electric lighting. It was installed in 1897 and a portion of the cave has been fitted with historic fixtures.

As Nate and I were looking at options of stuff to do in and around Glenwood Springs we saw some pictures of Hanging Lake, and then I just had to go there. Getting there was a little tricky because of the kids and the the parking situation at the Hanging Lake trailhead. What we ended up doing is getting up at 6am on the day we left for Utah. We left our sleeping kids with my parents and drove back through Glenwood Canyon to Hanging Lake. (Information here)

On our way out of the parking lot we admired the cliffs across the river. I-70 goes through a couple of tunnels in Glenwood Canyon, and the longest one goes right through the mountain on the right. If you look closely you can see the road in the bottom left before it disappears beneath the cliff.

The hike to Hanging Lake is not long, but it is very steep and rocky. Basically it's like walking up stairs for a mile. I was glad that we didn't have Felix who pretty much insists on being carried through every hike. Nate and I really booked it up to the top. I love hiking fast, and I felt pretty pleased that I was still able to be such a fast hiker even at high altitude.

 A love a good destination hike, and Hanging Lake does not disappoint. It's a real stunner.

 Not the best picture of us but proof that we were there.

A short jaunt just up from Hanging Lake revealed this surprise. Water is just shooting out of the mountain. It was really loud.

We then booked it down the mountain. I quite enjoyed the walk down. We were going fast but I didn't feel nearly as winded. Nice how that works out. On our way down we kept seeing more and more people climbing up and we were getting really confused about where all those people were parking. Once we got to the bottom we realized that the parking lot had an upper lot too. We had taken one of the last spots in the lower lot at 6:45am! Really, if you want to do this hike, get there early. When we left a ranger was monitoring the line of cars waiting to park and letting them in one at a time as other people left. We were back to the hotel by 9am. The kids were in the breakfast room with my parents. It all worked out pretty well. We got to see an amazing place and hiking kid-free made me feel like my old self again.

I've always loved Glenwood Canyon, but my experience with it had always been of the passing-through variety. I really enjoyed getting to spend a few days in this place that I've loved for so long.

Summer Trip Part 1: Colorado Springs

We squeezed in a trip out west between the end of my summer term and the first day of school. Getting out there was a little stressful. My students took their final on Thursday; grades were turned in on Friday; we spent all of Saturday cleaning and packing and left on Sunday. All the back-to-school prep we did before vacation really paid off. We were able to completely relax and enjoy our trip, and then getting back to school wasn't too painful.

We arrived in Colorado Springs on Sunday morning thanks to the time change. In the Denver airport I realized I had forgotten my nice camera. That was a major bummer. All the pictures from our trip were taken on my phone. On the one hand, I miss the higher quality of the dSLR. On the other, it was nice to be able to post pictures to Instagram as they happened.

After lunch at Cafe Rio in Denver and a peaceful car ride to the Springs, while we waited for my mom to get home from Chorale camp, Nate settled in for a nap, Beckett stayed home and played, and my dad and I took Felix to the park where he pushed Grandpa. After my mom got home we went over to Sue's for dinner. There we heard Megan's big news! Excited for May 14th.

Traveling west with small children is a real killer. The full first day, especially, just about does me in. We were so tired from the jet lag and the early rising kids that everyone was perfectly happy to spend the whole day at home. It worked out fine because my mom had to work that day.

These were my brother's LEGOs from the 1990s. He took such good care of them that Beckett and I were able to build the whole castle with very few substitutions. (Apparently what I like to do on vacation is dig through a huge pile of dusty LEGOs all day. Ugh.)  That evening we went to Freddy's. One of the few items on my Colorado Springs to-do list. 

Nate's old high school friend, Julienne, recently moved to Colorado Springs. So, we went to see her. She lives in a neighborhood where a bunch of my high school friends lived. As an aside, I made up this hairdo and wore it a lot on our trip. My mom called it a good Catching Fire hairdo.

When we got back from Julienne's the weather was so nice that we decided we'd better go down to the park before it started raining. So we loaded up and went to Monument Valley. When we got there, there was a train waiting on the track. Perfect timing. We went to wave to the engineer before he started driving again.

Then I handed off my bag to my mom and Beckett and I booked it to the pedestrian bridge so that we could see the train from above.

Over at the playground we blew bubbles,

and played softball. The kids got lots of good ball practice in while we were with my parents. I enjoyed throwing the ball around too. I think it would be fun to get some mitts.

Because they know how  much Nate loves donuts, my parents were eager to take us to Amy's Donuts. They have so many varieties.

The next day we had a picnic at America the Beautiful Park. Megan came too, and we enjoyed the weather and the beautiful view.

The kids played in the fountain. Felix got in trouble for running and got sent back to my dad for awhile. As he was looking at the pictures just now, he relived the entire experience with me. He remembers everything about breaking the rules, running, getting in trouble, deciding to behave, and being invited back to the fountain. It's such a relief when I win a battle or two.

After the park we stopped to see the train near the old station. Engine No. 168 is a narrow gauge engine that pulled the first Denver & Rio Grande passenger train from Denver, Colorado to Ogden, Utah on May 21, 1883. The engine ran for 50 years and was retired in 1933. We would make it to the other end of the line before the trip was over.

Beautiful Colorado. This is the view from my parent's driveway.

Up Next: Glenwood Springs