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!

Ahh....the many moods of my hiking children

You never know which children (good or whiny) you will get on any given day, let alone a 'hiking' day. This weekend Q started off sweet as pie and C was the never ending whining child.  I don't think he stopped talking for the first 20 minutes about how awful the hike was, how much he hated it, or how miserable he was.  After commenting on the beautiful forest, flowers, and company surrounding us and later just ignoring him he finally gave it up.  Maybe he got as tired of listening to himself as we were of listening to him.   Next thing I knew he and Daddy were walking ahead of us having one of their endless chats.  Once you get C talking about something he likes (license plates, states, state capital buildings, places to visit for spring break....) he goes to town.  Our other child started the hike off in an awesome mood, even giving this hike five stars.  She likes looking for the 'bell' flowers with me or she will find a cool bug or animal that none of us would ever notice.  However, as we neared the turn around point of the hike, hunger/tiredness set in and the switch flipped.  C was in a great mood and Q began the unraveling process.  A quick lunch helped a little but then we slowed to a snail's pace.  A cattle prod wouldn't get her little legs to move any quicker.  C and Daddy were long gone and I was left with the 'worst hike ever' child.  I kept asking about the '5 star hike' but was promptly put in my place.  Luckily we spied some wildlife on the way down (a grouse and a snake), took a potty break, and the switch flipped again.  The wildlife spotting saved the hike and restored it to it's '5 star' rating!  

Anyway....we started the morning off with the breakfast of champions!  Donuts!!!!

 We drove up the Poudre Canyon and did Dadd Gulch.  You could tell fall is rapidly approaching with all the berries on display.

We passed many rose hips.

On the way up Q saw this cool purple bug (Blue Fungus Beetle).  I don't know how she spots these bugs but she's always finding something low on the ground that is neat!  She even found the same bug or another one on the way down (2  hours later)roughly in the same place but on a different plant!

Cool mushrooms:

 A bee hive/nest:

 Pretty wildflowers:

I love my 'girl with the yellow hat' photos:

 'The Boys'

 'The Girls'

 Moss/Lichen:

 Pretty bark:

 'View'? from the top:

 Our turnaround point:

 Road Block:

 Grouse?:

 My snake...darn that slow camera...I really wanted the whole body sitting there!

 Long, tall boy legs!

 You've got to love a girl who can dress for any occasion!

Hike: Dadd Gulch

Trails Used:  Dadd Gulch

Distance: 7.35 miles

Difficulty: Moderate (difficult for the kids, Q was tired near the end)
Overall average: 1.9 mph
Overall Time: 3 hr, 55 min
Total Ascent: 1439 ft.