Christmas spent with family!

Christmas seemed to come too quickly this year for me but I don't think it was quick enough for my kids.  They had an action packed week with their four cousins, aunts and uncles, and one set of grandparents.

A visit with Mr. & Mrs. Claus

Soccer & Football is over!! We can start hiking again!

With the fall sports season over we were able to resume our hiking this past weekend.  We stayed close to home and headed out to Soderberg trailhead.  We followed the Tower Trail, Stout, and Sawmill Trails for a small hike.  There was a little fall color left to be had 

and I even stumbled upon this aster at the end of it's bloom cycle.

We saw a couple of deer (not that this was a great photo of one...it is missing it's head).

  These are my crazy trail running children & hubby.  Apparently they are in pretty good shape since they managed about a mile.  I guess I will have to dress for the occasion next time!

Hike: Horsetooth Park
Trails Used:  Soderberg Trailhead to Tower Trail, to Stout Trail, to Sawmill, and back

Distance:  4.89 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 2.4 mph
Overall Time: 2 hr, 2 min
Total Ascent: 836 ft.

Boo! I bet this lobster and unicorn will scare you!

 The kids enjoyed their class parties!

 We got bundled up and went trick or treating with a friend.

 And when we made it home it was time to check out our loot!

The Three Amigos Adventures! (Home Alone for Mommy!!)

 The three amigo's took off this weekend to visit the Gparents in South Dakota leaving mommy home alone for 5 whole days (the longest I've ever spent in this house by myself).  Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska was their first stop.

Even though they had some blah weather (rain & wind) they managed to pack in some fun activities with the Gparents.  Look at that form!

And a trip to South Dakota wouldn't be complete without Spam sandwiches!

The kids on their bikes went round and round all through the town! (21.8 miles!)

We decided that the kids needed to do a 20 mile bike ride before winter started since they are in such good biking shape and since they have so much energy during the week (i.e. picking at each other and driving mommy insane.)  Amazingly, they did it without complaining and seemed to have a good time doing it.  We took lots of breaks (with many different types of snacks and drinks involved),

(cool Cottonwood on CSU's campus)

and had a nice lunch at a park.

Can you believe she went this far on this bike?  It's a one speed!  Those little legs were just a pumping!

The home stretch:

The weary bikers:

What did these hard workers need to recuperate?

A strawberry milkshake!

Bike: All around town

Trails Used:  Power Line Trail, to Spring Creek, to CSU, to Spring Creek, to Spring Canyon Park, to Cathy Fromme Prairie, to Mason Trail, and back

Distance: 21.88 miles

Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 7.0 mph
Overall Time: 3 hr, 07 min
Total Ascent: 373 ft.

Socked in...rain, flooding, and fun in Fort Collins this past week!

 Day one of the storm and we had almost 3 inches of rain.  For those of you who don't live in Colorado that is unheard of.  It seems like we rarely get that much in a year (yes, an exaggeration but not by much!)  We ended up with 5.1 inches over 5 days.  Lucky for us there was no flooding in our area.  We had overflowing drainage ditches

 but you had to get near the Poudre River to see any real flooding or damage.  During one of the breaks in the rain I got the kids outside to release some pent up energy.  I found these cute mushrooms springing up out of my lawn.

 We went worming for my garden.  Usually we can get some pretty fat ones in the drainage ditch behind our house.

 I love that you can see my daughter and I in the middle of the bubble.

 Playing in the running water with our rain boots started out innocently enough....

 then turned into full on celebration...

capped off by out of control chaos!

The smiles just wouldn't stop!

We even saw this crayfish camping out in the ditch.

I'd say they probably had more fun staying home with mom today then going to school!