Well, James was out of town and you know what that means; we’re doing something stupid or silly or both. I decided on both, we went camping at a primitive, walk-in site just outside Conifer. Here’s what happened:

Day 1

.5 miles. That sounds like a nice number right? It’s much less than 1.0 miles, just a little more than .25 miles. It even looks like a nice number. That’s why when I saw that the campground was .5 miles from the parking lot, I didn’t worry. Why worry about hauling a giant tent, food, clothes and sleeping bags .5 miles? That’s just like going to the bus stop and back from our house. Well…..yeah, if it weren’t .5 miles UPHILL, with .45 of those miles over ROCKS and GRAVELY SAND, oh yes and don’t forget the SWITCHBACKS. These are some rocks by one of the switchbacks.



(The red dot is the bathroom.)



At first we loaded the wagon with cots, Bethany was pulling the food and Joel and I were hauling everything else. It seemed like it was a flat path for a few seconds and then I saw the sign, campground this way (up.) So, we headed back to the car, unloaded the cots (I was so sad about that) and started again. The further we tramped the more worried I got. What if I was wrong? What if it was 5 miles, not .5? Then I saw a picnic table, bathrooms and could it be……a campsite! Yeah, sweaty and tired we had made it! (Well, most of the stuff had made it, we abandoned the food and clothes and I had to go back later and get them.)

So, because Joel and I had practiced setting up the tent the day before, we had it up in 15 minutes.

Here are Travel bunny and Mr. Otter helping.

Unfortunately I didn’t think to move the picnic table and set it up there, so we slept on a slope for 2 nights (more about that later.) Joel was the fireman and he made a roaring fire to cook our chicken turtles on.

(Bethany thought we were really having turtle, it was just chicken, potatoes and carrots in foil though.)

We were supposed to have water but the well was locked because the water tested badly. I had 2 gallons of juice and Gatorade, but as you’ll find out it wasn’t enough and we had to leave the site to get more.

While the food cooked, I snapped some pics of our views and set up the inside of the tent.




Here is the bear proof food box that all food (even toothpaste, because it smells like food) had to go in.

There was fresh bear scat at the perimeter of the camp area so we put everything that a bear could want in the box and locked it. NO FOOD IN THE TENT was my mantra throughout the days and nights. The firewood was free and I think we used 6 cords of wood over 3 days, I know a lot, huh? I realized after unpacking that I had left the diapers in the car and only had 2 in my backpack. Yet another reason for a trip to the car tomorrow.

I know you’re wondering how we got that wagon up the switchbacks and over the rocks, pure willpower I tell ‘ya.

The first night we went to sleep after smores and spent all night slipping down to the other end of the tent and climbing back up.


Hannah wasn’t too sure what to do with the marshmallow, she thought it was just for sticking in the fire.

Then she thought she’d eat it.

Hot!

Some of us didn’t put on our pants and got a little cold. As soon as we got in bed a gentle rain began to tap on the roof of the tent. I was hoping we wouldn’t get wet (we didn’t.) It was very nice going to sleep by the lullaby of pitter-pattering raindrops against nylon. And, of course, much nicer to know that we wouldn’t end up like that one night in Austin, TX (with a deluge of rain and 4” of rain in the tent during the night.) I have come to expect rain when we camp, it almost always does. But, we were so tired from the hike that we fell asleep pretty quickly and we woke up early because the sun was peeping into the tent.

My week is turning out like that commercial ‘mink coat - $5,000, her expression – priceless’, except a little cheaper.

Taking 5 kids ice skating should have been $45 – my cost $0 .
Taking 7 kids to Fat city to play games should have been $70 – my cost $0.
Camping spot for 2 nights should be $36, my cost (yep) - $0.
Firewood for 2 nights should be $10, my cost - $0………..total effect – priceless. I love free coupons and free camping, yay!

Today we’re doing school and Grace has an eye doc appt. Maybe he’ll say she doesn’t need to wear glasses anymore, one can hope. At any rate he’ll say whether her glasses that are broken need to have the lenses replaced or if they are fine. Then we get to practice putting up the tent to make sure all the pieces are there (and to ensure that we can do it tomorrow.) The kids need to practice their presentations for tomorrow one more time and I need to get everything but food packed in the car. We’re leaving tomorrow right after presentation club, but beware burglars I have this (the cat not the baby) to protect my assets, which can’t be found at home anyway (see pics under the last fat cat one.)

Last night at the park Grace was swinging and engaged in conversation with the man swinging his daughter next to us. Her name was Grace too, so my Grace began thinking about how many Grace’s she knew. She said four, herself, the girl next to her, a girl from GS and a girl she met at the pool. Then she was telling him about how we found a toad at the park and that I finally caught it so they could touch it.
‘How did it feel, slimy?’
‘No’, Grace replied, ‘I told you it wasn’t a frog, it was a toad.’
Then she had to think about what the toad did feel like. I knew I was going to have a good word the longer she thought.
‘Ya know what it felt like? Stale toast!’ and then man laughed.

What an accurate description of a toad’s skin. It does feel like stale toast, dry and bumpy. Actually Grace was wrong about one thing: toads are a kind of frog. They are usually dry and bumpy not wet and slimy, they lay eggs in chains not clusters and toads sort of walk, not hop (so they’re easier to catch!) I had 9 kids with me at the park, and no they aren’t all mine! I had my 4, 1 friend, and 4 neighbor kids. I managed to keep them in sight and only 1 fell in the water, pretty good for having 9 of them. If I had 9 kids, we’d be going to the ER more frequently than we do now.

Z had a bad night sleeping over; she missed her mom and dad. That’s so sweet. When my kids sleep over they don’t even say bye, they just run out the door. So, she had a mostly sleepless night. I’m sure there will be naps today.

Today we’re going to the park and Fat city to play. I’ll have 7 kids today, so I’ll be growing extra ears and eyes to keep track of them.

Today we’re watching a friend’s daughter, Z. She’s great! She is girly enough to play with Grace and Bethany and she has a PSP and can talk ‘video games’ with Joel; the best of both worlds.

This morning we went ice-skating. Now I have never, to my knowledge, been ice-skating. My kids had lessons 1 ½ ys. ago and Z hasn’t been skating since she was 5 (she told me.) I expected my kids to fall down, but I guess skating is like bike riding, once you do it you never forget. Joel was spinning and gliding, Bethany was racing around and Grace was skating with and without a walker.

Grace is funny if she’s holding onto the walker she runs, if she’s going solo she keeps her left foot straight and pushes off with her right foot. Z made it all the way around the rink by holding onto the sides and then used a walker. I stepped onto the ice thinking I was going to regret this in a hundred ways in a few minutes, but since I was using 2 walkers I didn’t fall down! I had Hannah hanging onto one and then I had one, but I had one hand on each of the walkers. I might have looked like a cross between an old lady and the hunchback of Notre dame (those walkers are short!) but I didn’t fall.

Hannah spent maybe 10 minutes total on the ice. She was afraid she would fall and it wasn’t much fun for her. By the end of the session I was getting pretty good, I could almost stand up straight while holding the walker. Joel kept encouraging Z and showing her how to de-ice her skates or push off with her toes, but his advice fell on deaf ears when it came to me. ‘But you can go faster Mom’, I don’t want to go faster; faster = fall on my butt. I was perfectly happy going .000000005 MPH while 3 yr. olds flew by me. Grace tried to get me to run and push, but again I saw disaster looming with that.

Finally the Zamboni came out onto the ice and we had to leave. I might actually do that again someday. We snacked through Whole foods where I squished a cherry and got cherry juice all over my shirt. Each of the kids got a cookie bag and lots of samples, and then it was home to eat lunch.

Notice there are no pics. Sorry my camera was out of batteries and I didn’t have time to stop and get some. Not that you wanted to see a picture of Mommy-hunchback-old-lady skating anyway!

Oh, yeah got my permit, oh yeah got my permit!

I got my free camping permit yesterday from Jeffco. It’s for spot 3 in Reynolds park.

Shhhhh………I hate to let everyone in on my secret. Yep, you can camp for free at 2 Jefferson county parks, Reynolds and White ranch park. It’s primitive, walk-in tent camping. You can reserve a spot up to 3 months in advance, interesting.

Anyway the kids and I will be off Fri/Sat/Sun camping up there and hopefully having a good time. (Of course we’ll have a good time; 3 days with no bath, drinking water from a pump, eating gooey marshmallows and trying to cook bagel pizzas in a solar oven - woo-hoo!) Yes, we are making a solar oven to take with us and maybe we will eat something out of it.

Well, for COVA officials.

We’ve been at the new grade levels since June. I school year round, so when the kids are done we get our new stuff and plug on. We have some busy months coming up with co-ops and vacation, so it’s nice to be ahead. Joel has to do some new things this year for middle school, like virtual interaction with his ‘class’ and threaded discussions. The first on-line session isn’t until October I think, so we have some time to get to look at it beforehand.

It’s already shaping up to be a neat school-year with our co-ops and field trips and general ramblings. This weekend the kids and I are going camping while James is out of town. Next month we’ll camp at least once with the GS troop and I know CAP has stuff for Joel to do when he’s official with them (2 more meetings.) So we’ll be busy, busy, busy; but, not too busy to have fun and learn at the same time!

The lesson today was fishing for men, which I’m pretty sure we did at the beginning of the summer. But, I guess a little repitition is ok. The kids were all very good today and we had a lot of new little 2’s, so Hannah’s not the youngest anymore.

I actually got to take a nap today, don’t know why I needed it though, but it was nice. Joel mowed the lawn and the girls played outside with friends. Later we went out and then came back to watch Monk and play some games. (I got another new game, scrambled states. You have 15 cards lying up on the table and 1 center stack. You roll the dice and try to match border, pop., and size with the other cards. So if you see Texas you could slap Oklahoma or Louisiana if you saw it because they border Texas.)

Got a busy week ahead and hopefully I get my tent spots for this weekend.

Bethany had backwards night at church last night. She was dressed in an inside out backwards shirt, one boot, one sandal, 1 braid and 1 ponytail and a hair tie on her arm. When I dropped her off they said ‘Hello’ to me and ‘goodbye’ to her. She went in and played backwards games, ate backwards and when I picked her up they said ‘don’t forget to put on your nametag so we can have a good time.’ Also I dropped her off at the exit of the church and picked her up in the entrance. That was fun!

We went to the balloon fest this morning to see the mass ascension. Well, we didn’t really go in the festival.

The line was so long, we just parked on the side of the road and got out for a few minutes. The balloons hung in the air like the weights in Galileo’s barometer. Barely moving, slowly shifting up or down.

There was a flying pig, a serpent, colorful balloons and other kinds. We counted 31 up in the air.

One guy floated over the hill, I’m not sure how or if he got back to the park.

There were some paragliders flying around too. Then most of the balloons landed and we took off.

James went to work; I went to the thrift store to find some other camo pants for Joel (the ones I bought were too faded.) I found them and they fit! Bethany scored 2 pair of jeans, 3 shirts and 1 skirt for $5, good deal. Grace and Hannah got some board games. One of the games is Hebrew, but I don’t have to read it to play it. It’s a matching game where you have a face made up of candy, bread, or noodles. Then you pull a tile and if it matches you face you keep it. It also has a bingo type board on the back. Grace thought it was fun and even Hannah was trying to match up the pieces. I also got a game called ‘toot/otto’ It’s like connect four except instead of colored pieces you have a ‘t’ or an ‘o’. It looked easy, but it can get difficult when you have someone who understands the concept of the game (Bethany forced me to drop 2 t’s where I didn’t want to and she made 2 more ‘otto’s’.) The last game I got was geografacts. You pull a card with a number on it corresponding to a number on the map of the world. Then you answer 5 q’s: what continent, what state, what capital, what language, what money about that number. This is going to be a great learning tool for where everything in the world is. Even Grace can play because she will at least answer what continent. I plan on playing every day!

Later for dinner James grilled burgers and we watched a Psych with the kids. We got to see the very end of the glow at the balloon fest. We drove by about 8:45 pm and watched a few balloons light up, that was neat.

Man, it was bad here last night. There was hail, rain, thunder and lightning. The thunder was so loud I was sure the kids would wake up crying, but I guess they sleep like the dead because the only people awake were James and I. Thankfully it cleared up, as you can see, so we could go to the park.

Today we had a Chinese jump rope co-op. Now this I could do!

It’s a stretchy band that two people put around their legs and then a third person jumps on one side, the other, back, in the middle, out, in and on the band. You can also do diamond, bunny hops, and a triangle. If you don’t miss the band goes up a few notches, and then some more. It was really fun.

After we jumped a bit the kids ran in the spray ground. That water was really cold, but I guess you get used to it. Tonight Bethany has a backwards day at church where she will eat backwards, wear clothes inside out and play games backwards.





Tomorrow we’re going to the balloon festival, hopefully the weather will hold and the balloons will get to go up a bit.

This really was more for Tues. because it’s been rather cloudy the past few days. But, today is sunny again.

Summer is red, ripe, rolling
Watermelon
With it’s sweet, sticky, sloppy juice
Dribbling down my chin.

Summer is children playing
In the brilliant, blue, icy cold water
Splashing, swimming, laughing
Their face in a grin.

Summer is grainy, hot sand
Between my toes

And salty sea air
Stinging my nose.

Summer is the sound
Of a thousand cicadas in a tree

Humming their melancholy music
Just to satisfy me.

Summer is quickly fading and soon
Crisp, fall air will come

Already I hear it composing
It’s chilly, blustery tune.