My brother Bryan, his wife Michelle and thier kids Emily and Alex came for a visit last week and we had a blast doing all kinds of cool stuff!
Sunday, August 12: We went to the Colorado Rockies baseball game. They played the cubs (and won 6-3!) but boy was it HOT!! Although we had awesome seats, we were sitting right in the sun in midafternoon and there was very little cloud cover during the game (it was probably over 100degC).
Alex getting ready for a foul ball...We were so close!! A guy caught a ball in the same row, just 5 seats away. Alex ~ we'll have to get tips from Kim. She caught a foul ball a few weeks ago!! (and what a great catch that was!!)
The Rockies have autograph Sundays, so we went to the game a bit early and Emily and Alex got four autographs: Alex is chatting with Ublando Jimenez (pitcher), Emily is getting Dinger's autograph (the mascot), Kazuo Matsui (2nd baseman), and Edwin Bellorin (back-up catcher).
Of course, we had to taste the Rocky Dogs and although there are no pictures of the Squishies they were very tasty also, especially in the heat! That's me and Emily enjoying our dogs and Bryan and Alex grubbin'.
Monday - Tuesday: Bryan and Co. went down to visit some friends in Castle Rock. I went to work.
Thursday, August 16th: We went rafting on the Cache le Poudre river, which is just above Fort Collins. It was so much fun!! We had a boat all to ourselves and our guide was Julianne. She was awesome!
The river was definitely faster than I had expected from a "splash" trip. There was one section that was even a Class 4!! (don't worry Nana and Yaya ~ Julianne was great and Emily and Alex were inside the boat on this short section). Nobody even fell out although I think a few of us came pretty darn close. I think Emily and Alex were grinning the entire two hours and they were even paddling the whole way down. Of course the rest of us weren't having any fun at all...
We stopped at one spot along the river, and we got out of the boat and swam in a neat little current.Alex also got to help Julianne guide the boat for a bit ~ he did a great job!! A paddle Hi-Five:
Friday, August 17th: Bryan and I went on a fly-fishing trip along the Blue River. It was my first time fly-fishing and I really enjoy it! Just what I need: another hobby. Of course, John said it compliments many of my other hobbies perfectly. The river was absolutely beautiful:
Bryan caught the largest and prettiest fish of the day (cutthrout) and I even caught three fish! (ok, I know it looks small but I think it was a pretty average size fish for a stream...maybe...). John said it was a tough day on the river but Bryan and I had a fantastic time! Don't worry, we let the fish go after the pictures :)
Saturday, August 18th: We cruised on out to Estes Park and did some hiking. We hiked around Morraine Park to scout out some Elk and Deer.
Alex and Emily scouting out good camera angles:
Then we hiked around Bear Lake:
Some fun sites along the trail:
And then on to the falls in Glacier Gorge. Along the way, we passed a huge beaver dam. We went back into town and at lunch right along the river ~ what an awesome little lunch spot! We also did little bit of shopping.
Sunday, August 19th: We went to church, then to the lake and did a little bit of fishing. Although we didn't catch anything, we found a nice spot on the lake under some trees. Bryan and Michelle went to Denver to meet up with some friends and Emily, Alex and I hung out at the house. We played Life (Pirates version rocks!) and Alex ended up with the Black Pearl and Monopoly and I think Emily ended up with almost everything!! Lacy even came out to play with Emily and Alex (finally!).
Below is a picture from the deck one evening. We had to have seen about a hundred of sky-divers during the last week! We saw a good amout of hot air balloons too.
And the times in-between, we enjoyed sitting on the deck, playing games (yes, I will admit Alex beat us all ~ especially me ~ in a roudy game of 31!!) and just relaxing. We also rode our bikes around the lake and went fishing. And Emily and Alex also managed to get to SuperTarget.
Can't wait to have more guests! Mom & Dad are out in a few weeks. Robyn & Steph ~ you guys need to come out soon! Anyone else is more than welcome to come out and play :)
Well Powell People, I hope you guys had as great of a time as I did!!
