The Christmas Season: Christmas Lights, baking cookies, a visit to see Santa @ the Spring Creek Gardens, decorations

M&M cookies:

Peppermint Molasses Cookies:

Meringues w/ Dark Chocolate Sprinkled on Top:

A good book and a cup of eggnog with toasted homemade marshmallows:

Neighborhood lights w/ kisses for the reindeer:

Spring Creek Gardens:

There won't be any pics of the kids with Santa this year...he was late showing up!

Lights around Fort Collins:

The girls trip downtown:

 The lights were beautiful and could get even the biggest Grinch in the spirit of Christmas!

 The trip downtown wasn't complete without a stop at Walrus Ice Cream:

 You know you live in Ft. Collins when...

they light up their bikes!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas.  Don't let it run you around!

A gloomy, chilly, and icy day @ Riverbend Ponds

This hike became day 3 of our 3 day exercise plan to rid the kids of all their negative energy (ie. constant squabbling that mommy couldn't put up with).  I wasn't very motivated since it was gray but wanted to stick to our original plan to tire these kids out!  This was a quick close to home adventure and the kids have always had fun with the water and rocks.  I was hoping we were going to see lots of geese (since they are everywhere in town lately) but hadn't counted on all the ponds being frozen.

The kids quickly got in the spirit of the walk by trying to break the ice.  Try as they might it was just too hard.

We spotted quite a few beaver chewed trees right out of the parking lot by the first pond but didn't see any beavers or dams.

The ice provided many opportunities for play.  It was hard to keep them off of it.

The boardwalks provided areas for exploration.

Smiles=no squabbling=happy mom! 

We discovered that when you hit the air bubbles in the ice that water would come shooting out.

When we got along the Poudre River we finally saw some ducks and geese.

Hike: Riverbend Ponds

Trails Used: Riverbend Ponds off Prospect Road

Distance:  2.82 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Overall average:  1.7 mph
Overall Time:  1 hr, 40 min
Total Ascent:  151 ft.

Hiking Blue Sky to Coyote Ridge

Day 2 of day 3 to tire the kids out so they'd stop squabbling.  Day 1 consisted of walking the kids to school and back.  It's not that far (1.25 miles one way) but every little bit of exercise in the winter counts and they obviously hadn't been getting enough!  This is one of the less inspiring hikes around but it's close to town and we didn't have to go out and back.  Q still managed to find some nooks to hide in.

We did see a couple of deer and

lots of prairie dogs

and even this bunny pretending to be a prairie dog! 

C even tangled with a wild Prickly Pear Cactus...by the looks of things I think the cactus won!

Taking a break!

Hike: Blue Sky to Coyote Ridge
Trails Used: Blue Sky to Coyote Ridge

Distance: 7.04 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 2.2 mph
Overall Time:  3 hr, 7 min
Total Ascent:  749 ft.

One of the most studied watersheds in the world: Loch Vale (Rocky Mountain National Park)

In an attempt to get the kids in skiing shape, we went for a hike up in RMNP.  The Loch proved to be a beautiful lake and a relatively easy hike.  We stopped at the Donut Haus (very tasty and great service) in Loveland for the breakfast of champions.  After an hour-ish drive up the curvy Big Thompson Canyon and another curvy road into the park to the Glacier Gorge Trail head my little girl (who read most of the drive) was feeling queasy.  Luckily, we got her out of the car in the nick of time but not quite quick enough to save her shoes from a splash of the sick.  She's quite the trooper...within five minutes she was ready to get going and joking around with everyone.

 The trail winds through some nice Aspen.  It was snow packed and not necessary to wear snowshoes if you stayed on the trail.  Yak Traks and poles would have been helpful on the steeper sections of this trail.

 The trail splits after a bridge early on and there are no signs to tell you which way to go.  We went right and bypassed (unknowingly) Alberta Falls.  I believe this was a more direct route to the Loch. On the way back we took the path towards the Falls.  We essentially did a loop.  The right we took merged with the other trail right before this sign.

On one of our breaks we saw what we assumed to be ice climbers.  They were still in the same position on the way down so we don't know if they were actually going to do it or were just checking out the ice.

 The camp robber was just waiting for us to drop some goodies.

 The Loch was impressive.  Taylor Peak & Glacier rise from the background along with Thatchtop Mountain and The Sharkstooth.  Judging by the ice and snow on the lake this area can get pretty windy but we had no wind that day.  The kids had fun walking on the ice and trying to break through.

 We had a great lunch spot with views of all the peaks and many Camp Robbers (at least six) stopping by to see if they could pick up some loot.

 On the way back down we went by Alberta Falls.  I thought they would have frozen cool but was disappointed with how they looked.  We didn't miss anything by taking the other way on the way up!

 At the steep sections the kids got on their butts and sledded down the hill.  After starting this hike off with one star the kids were giving it four stars by the end raving "We should definitely do this hike again!"  Funny how their attitudes can change so quickly...

 The only casualty of the trip was the puffer.  It got torn by a tree branch!

Hike: Loch Vale

Trails Used: Glacier Gorge Trail Head to Albert Falls to Loch Vale

Distance: 6.05 miles
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Overall average: 1.7 mph
Overall Time: 3 hr, 32 min
Total Ascent: 1286 ft.