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!

A sighting of a baby moose, a beautiful day, and a great hike with the family!

I was excited to see this moose driving to our hike.  Luckily, we saw it leaving too because none of my pictures even resembled a moose until later in the day.  This is a better picture but not by much!

The hike was quite a ways uphill and we never actually made it to Lookout Mountain (that was never the plan with the two small kiddo's along). 

 

 We passes this mining area on the way up.

 We turned around at a split off for multiple trails and had lunch there.

 Overall, it was a great hike for the Thanksgiving day weekend with the family.

Hike: Lookout Mountain (Larimer County)
Trails Used: 

Distance: 5.6 miles

Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 1.3 mph
Overall Time: 4 hrs, 13 mins
Total Ascent: 2382 ft.

High Park Fire

I've been meaning to get these pictures up on my blog for some time now....This is the view from my backyard:

 over a couple of different days

 This was the view when I dropped the kids off for swim lessons this week:

 

This is the same view as above on one of the worst days yet.  The smell was awful!  Needless to say, we did not bike to swim lessons that day! (Notice that the mountains just disappeared.)

 

The helicopters and planes have been flying over us nonstop.

       

 This was last night coming home from Winter Park.

We have had some ash on our deck and in our yard and varying levels of smoke to deal with.  However, that is nothing compared to all those people who have lost their homes!  So sad.

Power Line Trail

We took the Power Line Trail (aptly named) today to the pool.  It was downhill on the way there and uphill back.  Don't do this trail in the heat of the day.  It gets hot quickly!  There aren't any trees along it so finding shade is difficult.  When in need of rest just sit in the middle!  I kid....I don't think the other bikers would appreciate this. 

 

There is a nice running path alongside the concrete for those people who don't want to wreck their knees and feet. 

Bike: Power Line Trail

Trails Used: Power Line Trail

Distance: 7.53 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 4.5 mph (one child biking, one on tagalong w/ burly behind)
Overall Time: 1 hrs, 40 min
Total Ascent: 210 ft.

 

Horsetooth Mountain Park

I had a nice hike at Horsetooth Mountain Park today.  It wasn't too crowded when I started (8:30 am...a little later than I thought I would get going but, hey, it's a holiday weekend, right?) but by the time I finished (11:30 am) the parking lot was packed and people were driving in circles to get find any available space.

I saw two deer right off the bat around Horsetooth Falls.  The falls weren't anything special today just a little bit of dripping water.  I did see lots of wildflowers.  (Lupine)

 
Alpine Wallflower

Yellow Salsify

Sprawling Daisy

 Butter and Eggs

 

Sulpher Flower

Hound's Tongue

Penstemon

 

Prickly Pear Cactus

Hike: Horsetooth Mountain Park

Trails Used: Horsetooth Falls to Spring Creek to Westridge to Rock and down to Parkiung
Distance: 7.36 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 2.7 mph
Overall Time: 2 hrs, 41 min
Total Ascent: 2222 ft.