More Colorado

Mom and I are continuing our summer of adventures in Colorado.  This week, we went for a hike at Castlewood Canyon, about 30 minutes from our house.  We tried this same hike in January 2 years ago without much luck-  turns out July is a much better time to hike if you want to avoid ice and snow.

We started out with great views of Cherry Creek and the waterfalls.

We hiked up to a partially collapsed dam that was built in 1890.  It was washed out by a flood in 1933.

We were able to hike to the top of it and this is me about 1/2 way up,

and this is me all the way at the top.  It was pretty cool- we saw falcons and hawks flying around above us.

On the way back, we stopped to play in the creek for a bit.  It was kind of a hot day by Colorado standards and the water felt really, really good.

At the other end of the trail was an old homestead built by the Lucas family.  I was kind of amazed at how small their house was- not really any room for a big screen T.V. or an x-box!

We rounded out our day by stopping by the Dumb Friends League which is a local animal shelter.  I wanted to donate some of the money I made from our garage sale last week to help take care of the animals.  We spent some time there looking at all the sweet dogs and cats.  We found one we wanted to take home but decided it probably wasn't the best time.  And dad probably wouldn't be too amused to come home and find a new dog sitting on our couch!
All and all, a very good Tuesday.

Wednesday evening, mom and I went with my friend Camryn and her family to the Highlands Ranch Ice Cream Social.  Mom thought it was good, wholesome, small town fun.  I thought it was about the best time ever!!
We got our faces painted (mine is a fire breathing dragon),

 
then the moms let us get BOTH a snow cone AND some ice cream!  Told you it was the best time ever!  We ran around the park, listened to the band, played Frisbee and stayed up waaaaay to late.

On Saturday, we were up at 5:30 AM to head out for my swim meet.  I did not have my greatest showing this week but I had fun and we scored a primo spot under the big shade trees to hang out at all day.  So, it wasn't a complete loss of a day.

Saturday night, I was supposed to spend the night at my friend Olivia's but her parent's had some kind of stomach virus so we had her over here.  (We have our fingers crossed I don't get it!)  We had a great time and got to complete Olivia's bridging to Brownies since she was sick the night the rest of our troop bridged.

Mom put us to bed around 10 and we were both so exhausted that she didn't hear another peep out of us until 7 the next morning.  Mom and dad LOVE these kind of sleep overs- everyone wakes up feeling somewhat rested!  In the morning, I went with Olivia to her Sunday school.  It didn't make much of an impression because I can't remember a dang thing we did.
Mom and dad spent the rest of the weekend getting the house ready to put up for sale.  This is the third weekend of this fun and they are getting a little tired of it all.  The house goes on the market on Thursday so the end is in sight.  Whew!

June in Pictures

Even though there are only three people on the whole planet reading this blog, they are quite vocal about keeping the blog going.  To keep the peace with Mr. Walker, Dad and mostly Nana D, mom will keep blogging, no matter how boring our lives have become.

Since we are so far behind, we will update via pictures for the month of June and try to get back on track for July.

Mom isn't working a whole lot this summer so it means that she and I get to have some fun adventures. We started off at the Denver Botanical Gardens at the beginning of June.  The gardens are absolutely gorgeous and everything was in bloom and so very green.  You will notice that I'm wearing long pants and a jacket.  This is what Denver is like in June- cold.

Then we had my first swim meet.  I didn't do to bad, but I definitely had more fun drawing all over myself with sharpie markers before the meet started.

I'm the first swimmer on the left in this picture.

 
This is my first softball game.  We are the Blue Thunder and we had a pretty good game.  I have some difficulty maintaining my focus but overall, I'm showing some promise.  I'm a decent hitter and my fielding has vastly improved over the last few weeks.

 Then, we celebrated National Doughnut Day with a maple glazed cake doughnut.  It was delicious!  Crispy on the outside, warm and chewy on the inside.

My next adventure with mom was a trip to the Denver Art Museum.  We ended up spending all our time in the Pre-Columbian/Spanish Colonial exhibit.  I was fascinated by everything and they had some fun kid projects for me to do.  We ended up spending 3 hours there (which is an eternity for me) and I didn't get into trouble until the very end when I went through the revolving front door one too many times.

It finally warmed enough here that mom and I headed out for a hike at Lair O' the Bear.  It was beautiful and we had great fun playing in the creek afterward to cool off.

And so now, here we are in July and we will have more to report next week.  Hope that catches everyone up....

I'm Seven!

Whew- we hit the ground running this week and kind of haven't stopped until today.  We will start with the most important even of the week- my birthday!  It was kind of awesome!

I got to start the day and end the day opening presents and there ain't much wrong with that!  My favorite present came down to two.  I got a book of paper dragons that I can make and they actually fly like real dragons which is pretty awesome.  The other contender (and most likely the winner) is the awesome remote control car.  It's huge and powerful and can up to 25 miles an hour and is tons of fun!

We all headed out to try it on the basketball courts by our house.  That thing was fast and we think every 'tween boy within a ten mile radius came to check it out.  They must have a "remote control" sense imbedded in their brains.  I was a hit!

Since I was up at 6 AM, I spent the rest of the day laying low and getting ready for my first multiple person slumber party.  I've had one friend over for the night but never 3 and I couldn't wait.  Mom was little worried about how we all would handle it and she was justified as you will soon see.  We all started out nicely enough- everyone came over and we headed out to Dave and Buster's to play games for a few hours and that was pretty cool.

The four of us won enough tickets that we could each get a new stuffie and life was good so far.

We came from that and headed out to the park so we could all take turns crashing  driving my new car. It was a pretty fascinating hour.  Then it was time for cake.  I specifically requested a polka-dot cake like mom saw on Pinterest, stupid Pinterest but then I also wanted those little lemon cakes from Costco on it.  Now, first of all, I've never had those lemon cakes before but was absolutely infatuated with them.  So, dad made a special trip to Costco to get them for me.  Then mom got going on my cake which was really a week long project.  First, she had to bake the cake balls then she had to bake the cake balls again in cake batter.  Supposedly, when all is said and done, when you cut into the cake, you see dots.  Then comes the decorating which isn't mom's specialty and makes her a little crazy.  Here is the finished product.......

After all that work, guess how much we ate?  Go on, guess!  Pretty much none.  None of my friends wanted any, I only ate one bite, dad didn't even eat a piece.  So now my birthday cake is sitting lonely on the counter because no one wants it:(

We finally headed up to bed around 9:45 and we were quiet for about 5 minutes (which was expected) before we all tromped downstairs to announce that we could not sleep.  We got sent back up stairs at which point we decided to tell scary stories.  Next thing mom knows, she has 4 scared, sobbing 7 year olds on her hands who won't calm down and who refuse to go back to my room because "we keep hearing noises!" (Sob, sob, sob)  It was so bad that Sophia's mom had to come and get her.  The irony of that is that it was Sophia's story that scared us so bad.  Mom ended up sleeping next to us, getting a crappy night's sleep herself.  We ended up sleeping just fine though, so all is right with the world!

The ones that made it through the night headed home around 10 on Sunday and mom was secretly quite happy about that.

So that was my awesome slumber party gone bad- I don't think I will be allowed to do that again for awhile.

Now, back to the beginning of the week.  My swim team practice started on Monday.  I loved it and have a lot of friends on the team as well- which doesn't allow much time for actual practice.  

Wednesday and Thursday were my first softball practices.  Dad took me to those since this is his area of expertise.  He has determined that I need a little more practice....

but didn't do too poorly for my first time.

Dad left for his week long camping trip with The Boys bright and early this morning so mom and I are on our own.  We spent most of today recovering from the slumber party but we did manage to get out to buy some flowers for our porch and then we headed to the remote control car race track for a bit.  Now we are all off to bed.  Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

Shoes

We had a pretty quiet week around here.  Soccer practice is over, swim lessons are done, off week for Girl Scout meeting.  Mom and I weren't sure what to do with all our extra time- so we went shopping!  I was in desperate need of new shoes.  My trusty Twinkle Toes were completely worn out- Velcro falling off, socks visible through the bottoms of them.  I looked a wee bit ragged from the ankles down. Mom suggested new shoes and now I really wanted shoes with laces because I finally learned how to tie them.  I chose a pair of neon yellow running shoes with hot pink laces.  They make me run really, super fast, I can stop super fast AND they are soft on my feet.  What more could a girl want from a pair of shoes?  Mom also thought I needed a summer pair that could get wet so then I picked out a pair of neon blue Keen's- cause you can't have too much neon.  It was actually very good timing on our part because the very first day I wore my neon yellow shoes to school, my teacher had us write a poem about our shoes!  How cool was that?!

For the weekend, mom was finishing up her Dry Needling course so she was gone all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then came home tired and kind of sore every night- not so much fun.  Dad and I however, tore up the town.  Friday night, we went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and then went to buy my third pair of shoes for the week- new cleats for my upcoming softball season.  We bought a glove and a ball too, so I will definitely look good, even if I don't play good.

On Saturday, we headed to Elitch Gardens, the big amusement park near downtown.  We rode the big roller coaster twice and I won yet another stuffie to add to my already enormous collection.

And then Sunday, we went to the Aquarium for the afternoon.  Dad kept us running but he always does and I love it!

We tried hard to enjoy our slow week because starting Monday, it's going to get a little crazy around here for a while.  I start swim team practice Monday, softball practice Wednesday, Girl Scouts and softball Thursday, swim practice Friday, MY BIRTHDAY SATURDAY(!!!).  WITH A SLUMBER PARTY(!!!) and then dad leaves for a week.  And he will be gone for most of the month of June with work so mom and I will be holding down the fort as best we can.  Good times.  Not.
Have a great week!

Finally......

We have made it through another week here in Goedel Land and this time, we think Spring is really here.  We got a ton of rainy cold weather last week but mom will take cold rain over snow any day.  It was a refreshing change.  

It warmed up enough by the weekend, that people were out in flip flops.  We weren't ready to make that transition yet as we are still Arizonans at heart and the 60's still seem cold.

I had my final soccer game of the season on Saturday and even though we lost, we played well and finally seem to be figuring out this concept called "passing".  I'm not sure if you all have heard of it but it does make for a bit more exciting game.

After my game, we bee-lined home to get ready for our second trip in our RV.  We can't really call this trip camping as we were in an RV park with full hook up- meaning we had Wi-Fi and cable TV if we wanted.  We called it our "have hotel room, will travel" weekend.  We "hoteled" it just outside of Estes Park near Rocky Mountain National Park and we had amazing views from our little site.  We were right next to the Big Thompson River and I spent a lot of time throwing sticks in the water and seeing how fast they floated away.

After the stick floating, we walked into town for some really good bar-b-cue, root beer floats and more great views.

 We wrapped up the evening with a little DVD action on our TV.  Told you this wasn't really camping!


On Sunday, Mother Nature provided all the moms here with beautiful, clear blue skies and, wait for it, amazing views.....

Mom, Haile and I went for a walk- down to the river- while dad whipped up some cinnamon rolls and fruit salad for a delicious breakfast.

After a relaxing morning, we headed to Trout Haven for some fishing.  I have been fishing too many times to count and have never caught anything, so we thought we would try something with the odds stacked more in my favor.

And wouldn't you know it- success!  Dad and I teamed up and managed to snag an 11 incher.   I was super excited and can't wait to eat it for dinner.  Yummmm!

After that adventure, we headed to the Stanley Hotel.  This was the inspiration for Steven King's novel,
The Shining.  I was fascinated by the fact that it is haunted and kept asking where the bats, spiders and vampires were.  It was kind of a let down when I didn't see any but mom and dad thought it was a pretty cool looking place.

More pretty views.....

We finally got home around 2 and spent the rest of the day relaxing.  Dad grilled up our trout for dinner and with a little lemon and some herbs, it was kind of tasty.

We hope all the moms had a fabulous day and we hope everyone has a wonderful week- see you in 7 days!

The Maiden Voyage!

So I believe we got a little ahead ourselves last week by going on and on about spring and how it had finally sprung.......

This was Wednesday, May 1.  We got 6 inches of snow but thankfully since it was just in the high 70's the day before, nothing stuck to the roads.  We have warmed up a bit since then- all the way into the 50's!  Woo-hoo!  Break out the tank tops!  (Insert sarcasm here)  Even the native Denverites are starting to whine.  Hopefully, now it is a thing of the past.

The rest of the week passed pretty quickly for mom and dad but could not have dragged by any slower for me.  I was beyond excited to go camping in our new RV and Saturday was never going to get here. Mom and dad told me I could take my friend Cami and when we got off the school bus on Friday, we were both screaming "CAMPING IS TOMORROW!!! CAMPING IS TOMORROW!!"  Whew.

Dad finally got home with our RV on Friday night so we could get it ready to go.  Mom and dad got food, blankets, towels, equipment etc. packed up and ready and I got busy making The Rules.  I wrote lots and lots of rules and then posted them throughout the RV.  As I told mom and dad, "these rules are to keep us safe.  But the most important rule is to have fun!"

Saturday FINALLY came but we had to get through my soccer game first.  We lost and that's all.  We drove the RV to my game and after, loaded Cami up and off we went on our adventure!  We drove all the way to Cherry Creek State Park.  It is a huge reservoir/park in the middle of the city but a perfect spot to make sure everything worked.
After we got there, mom took Cami and I for a walk to give dad some peace and quiet and time to organize everything.

We ended up at the lake and despite the cold breeze, the 53 degree temps and the frigid water, Cami and I kicked off our shoes and socks, rolled up our pant legs and headed right in.

About an hour and half later, with blue lips and wet, frozen toes, we headed back for some hot cocoa and warm clothes.  We spent the rest of the afternoon very wholesomely, playing frisbee, collecting rocks, sticks, making the dog crazy.

We roasted hot dogs for dinner but the highlight of the evening was the s'mores.  Sooo yummy!  Even though Cami and I both loudly stated our dislike for "brown marshmallows".  Mom and dad were a bit incredulous at that one.  (How do you make a good s'more with a white marshmallow they wanted to know).

We finally crashed around 9:30 and slept hard until 6:30 the next morning.  It was a good night!
We packed up and headed home and spent the rest of Sunday relaxing and getting ready for our next camping trip!
Here hoping for no more snow!