My Life in Transition: Colorado 2015

Thursday | July 30th

{Hiking in the mountains}

I wake up to Porter crying at 4 am and come dangerously close to going into his room, but I'm not really sure what I should do. Luckily he falls back to sleep before I have to decide. I forgot that the power had flickered the night before and so the kids' Tot Clock was yellow at some obscene hour. We hear them talking very loudly at 6:15am and I could NOT deal, Nate fixed their clock and then laid with them on the couch downstairs to keep them from going upstairs too early. At 7 am he let them go upstairs with my parents and we followed shortly. Yawn, vacation sleep is tough with three littles, huh?

Porter is fussing a bit but doesn't seem to actually be awake, so we start breakfast without him. Nate and I have our baked oatmeal outside on the patio, the kids are eating with my parents. I hear mom ask them, 'So what do you guys want to do today?' Cecelia answers, 'Sing happy songs! And share, have fun, and sit at the table while we are eating.' HA!

At 7:45 Porter was up for real, so I got him and dressed him for the day, setting him up for breakfast with my dad.

I made egg sandwiches for Nate and I and we started getting ready for our hike on Horsetooth Mountain---a place we hiked twice last time we visited Colorado. I would link to my old posts here but I get very angry about the fact that somehow over 1000 of my photos on Flickr were deleted by some stupid app on my phone (apparently). So a lot of my CO trip pictures are just missing in the blog posts along with some others from that time of the year. I can feel my blood pressure rising just typing about this, but thankfully I do still have the images on my external hard drive. BUT STILL, so not cool Flickr, even though they say it's not their fault.

There are two trails, one that goes all the way to the top of the rock and is pretty steep but amazing views once you get there. And the other trail is a lot flatter but has a beautiful water fall on the path, we did that one last time with my brother and this year we just wanted to do the steep rock trail for some exercise/scenic views/good old fashioned Colorado fun. I mean, I didn't bring my nice camera and my selfie stick for nothing! Let's get some top-of-the-world shots! (Okay, fine, old post from Horsetooth Rock and old post from Horsetooth Falls).

We left the house at 8:45 and arrived at the base of the trails at 9:30. We knew it would be a 2.6 mile hike to the top of the rock and I remember it being pretty easy and not too terrifying. Turns out that hiking in the blistering July sun is a lot harder than late October because there were a few times I had to stop and catch my breath and started worrying about passing out from the thin air. Seriously, altitude is no joke! A few times we saw other hikers coming back down the mountain, like a mom with a teeny tiny baby in a Bjorn and a group of tween girls and I felt a renewed sense of confidence in my ability to not die on this trail. If they can do it, I surely could pull through!! But dude, it was hot and hard to breathe and really freaking steep at times! At the very tippy top of the rock we sat and soaked in our surroundings at 7300 ft elevation. It took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the top and it was oh, so worth it.

We have to get to the top of *that* thing?? This was probably at the last 0.3 miles and I can't believe I didn't take a picture before now. Oh wait, yes I can. I thought I might be dying before this.

See the 'horse tooth' behind us?

Pictures never do this view justice though. Happy that some random shirtless New York bros were sharing the top of the rock with us, and since they asked us to get their (very muscle-y) picture I asked for a return favor. Also, selfie stick with and without video, an apple and a Clif bar were had. I had already chugged my entire 25 oz water bottle and Nate joked with me about not stealing his (I have issues with drinking a TON of water and like to sneak his stash of H20 sometimes).

Itty bitty clouds in the distance are my fave.

Panoramic

Again, doesn't do it justice at all. Nate likes to take pictures sometimes, too.

Got the selfie stick, no worries.

No Nate. This is NOT the vision I had for this image. At all. The worst, can't even see the mountains.

We hung out on the top of the mountain from about 10:45-11:15 and then headed back down. So much easier walking down the trails but it was kind of difficult when the gravel would slip under foot and I think my legs were even more sore from our descent than our climb! We got to the bottom in an hour, so we refilled our water bottles and hopped in the car at 12:15. We were home at 12:45.

We ate lunch (starving!) and played with the kids a bit but Nate, my dad and my brother all left by 1:00 for their tee time. That was exactly when I put both Porter and Cecelia down for their naps and then took the best shower of my life, who knew your ankles could turn into one giant dust magnet while hiking? Porter fought this nap until around 2pm when he finally gave in, my mom went for a walk while I read some of my book in the recliner. And then, oops, I passed out and took an amazing hour-long nap. I cannot remember the last time I napped but it was probably on maternity leave and it was glorious. (There are several notes in my phone about this time of day being so awesome with the shower and the nap and the resting, so it must have been a really great nap). I made mom and I iced coffees and we chatted a bit, and watched HGTV while Truman was on the iPad for his quiet time.

Finally at 4:15 we decided to wake Cecelia from her 3+ hour nap. Porter woke up at 4:30 which meant he took two 2.5 hour naps this day. NICE. We all played in the backyard with silly string (a classic GoGo activity, the messier the better) and I took lots of pictures of the madness. We also played in the basement and I got a kick out of really noticing all of the old toys from my childhood, watching my kids play with little bits of my memories.

We made dinner (crockpot southwestern chicken on nachos!) and then the guys returned home around 6:15, so we could all eat together. Then Mike and Nate began playing backyard football with Truman. My mom kept one of the old Nerf footballs and they just don't make them like this anymore, Nate was obsessed with this ball and they played for what seems like hours (and we also asked to bring the ball home with us). I also got a few pictures with my brother and I with the kids, and then one of 'the original four' plus the kids.

Has an 'owie', don't 'cha know?

Uncle Mike love.

Family part one.

Family part two.

Can throw a spiral better than his mom.

We put Porter to bed at 7:45 and the big kids at 8:45. The sunset happened in between those two bedtimes and I got a few more pictures by sneaking outside to catch the final glimpse of the sun.