(That’s festivals for the rest of us.)

We went to the Highlands Ranch days this morning. I wish Shea homes would just make it a museum, move in some furniture and open it year-round. As it is, you can only see the mansion during Highlands Ranch days, pity.

Anyway the mansion sits on top of a hill overlooking a valley on one side and the foothills to the other. It was built in 1891 when John Springer came here to homestead. He started to build a castle style mansion. After his wife died he wooed a lady named Isabelle who was 20 years his junior. He re-named the castle ‘Castle Isabelle’ and they married. I guess he should have stayed home more or not bought his wife a room at the Brown palace hotel (she liked to party.) She got involved with other men and eventually 2 men fought for her outside the Brown palace, one of them killing not only the other lover, but some innocent bystanders too. John divorced his wife and sold the ranch to his former father-in-law Colonel Hughes (from Texas.) He re-named the ranch Sunland ranch and after his death it passed to his granddaughter Annie Springer-Hughes. Annie and her husband sold the ranch in 1920 to Waite Phillips (one of the brothers who founded Phillip’s petroleum corp.) Then the ranch passed to Frank Kistler who called it Diamond K ranch. He sold it to Lawrence Phipps Jr. (a name we’ll see later at Lowry.) This is where the name we have now comes in. Phipps Highland Ranch, later shortened to just Highlands Ranch and with a ‘s’ thrown in for good measure.

His father was a Carnegie steel man and a senator from Colorado. When he died in 1976 the ranch was sold to Marvin Davis of Davis oil corp. Then he sold it to Mission Viejo Company from CA. They wanted to make a master planned community and in 1981 broke ground for Highlands Ranch as we now know it. Mission Viejo also did a community in Aurora a little earlier than HR.

Now once a year we have HR days. We get to see fur trappers, miners, civil war re-enactors (know how many civil war battles there were in CO?….0, so it’s kind of funny that they’re here.) We get to ride the carriage around the property, tour the mansion, play games and see Indian dances. Before we even got inside the grounds we sat in the Wells Fargo carriage.

Next year they’ll have the horses attached to it, they didn’t think it would fit through the gate so they left the horses at home.

I could see riding in this carriage out west; it had padded seats and windows (probably not too authentic.) Next to the entrance was the petting zoo. Grace found a huge bunny.

Hannah started hugging all of the goats and feeding them carrots.

We saw a really big desert tortoise and a baby pig (oh, he was so cute, can we have miniature pot-belly pigs in HR? Probably not.)

Here is part of the original house, the castle that Springer built.

Finally we made our way inside the house for a tour. In the main room there is a 2 ton grandfather clock on the wall.

It was made in Italy and I guess the reason it’s still here is that it’s heavy! The mantles were all replaced by Kistler and he carved the original house style and the additions to it, also an aerial view of the house.

So if you get lost (it’s not that big!) you can find a mantle and locate where you are in the house. This room was a billiard room once upon a time. There are holes in the walls with a secret passageway to climb through that will let you go upstairs or down. It’s really small and I guess was made for the kids (Joel would be hard pressed to fit in there.)

There are no nails in this room (which freaked Bethany out) just butterfly shapes to hold the walls together and pegs in the floor. In the kitchen I saw this oven, I like it!

I really want that for my kitchen, I don’t know where I’d put it though. Back outside we saw the Tudor addition and watched an Indian dance.

Then we wandered around to the cook’s wagon.

He told us how the cook would ride ahead of the cattle drive and start cooking an evening meal for the cowboys.

His rig was really 100 years old, looks in pretty good shape. We took a hay ride with the horses around the property. Here’s the old carriage house, right next to the machine shop.

One last pet for the horses and it was time to go.

We’ll be back next year.

Next stop Lowry AFB for the Glory days festival. This festival celebrates the ‘glory days’ of Lowry, back in the 40’s-50’s. Back then Officer Row quarters and hangars no.1 and 2 provided the base for air operations in CO. The chapel was visited by Dwight Eisenhower when he visited the base. Lawrence Phipps Jr. built a sanatorium here for lung patients and in 1937 the Army air corps started to transform the old sanatorium into an AFB. They put up hangars 1-4, a runway and classes began. In June 1941 the Army air corps became the Army air force (it wouldn’t be until Sep 1947 that the Air force would become its own branch of the military.) Lowry turned out officers and flight crew for the war. After the war ended Lowry field became Lowry AFB (1948.) The cold war in the 50’s pushed Lowry and the Air force into Jet systems. Now Lowry was teaching about Jet-powered aircraft, guided missiles, nuclear ordnance, and electronic and computerized equipment. The Korean war was responded to by Lowry adding more classes and turning out more pilot’s that were equipped to fight different war. In 1952 President Eisenhower signed a bill authorize an Air force academy. Lowry was where all cadets went for training while the academy was being built in Co. Springs. The base continued to train and operate as an AFB, but in 1994 was closed down. Then it became a neighborhood like no other.

The officers row was revamped, the hangar became a museum, businesses and buildings opened up and now we have the neighborhood of Lowry. It’s really neat how they took the old quarters and houses and kept them intact. The first time we moved up here they had just finished the apartments that were enlisted men’s quarters, I thought it would be really cool to live there. Plus if we had lived there we’d be right next to the Wings museum, oh well, I like my house in HR.

We wandered around the festival and got tons of free stuff: shirts, sun lotions, pens, dog bowls, candy, candy, cotton candy, starbucks coffee, magnets, hats, wallets, oh the list goes on. We saw the Buckley honor guard do the flag folding ceremony.

I wish they had done it with the explanation of the folds like last year, they didn’t, but here are the folds and what they mean (attributed to a chaplain from the Air force academy.)

1. The first fold of our flag is a symbol of life.
2. The second fold is a symbol of our belief in the eternal life.
3. The third fold is made in honor and remembrance of the veteran departing our ranks who gave a portion of life for the defense of our country to attain a peace throughout the world.
4. The fourth fold represents our weaker nature, for as American citizens trusting in God, it is to Him we turn in times of peace as well as in times of war for His divine guidance.
5. The fifth fold is a tribute to our country, for in the words of Stephen Decatur, “Our country, in dealing with other countries, may she always be right; but it is still our country, right or wrong.”
6. The sixth fold is for where our hearts lie. It is with our heart that we pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
7. The seventh fold is a tribute to our Armed Forces, for it is through the Armed Forces that we protect our country and our flag against all her enemies, whether they be found within or without the boundaries of our republic.
8. The eighth fold is a tribute to the one who entered in to the valley of the shadow of death, that we might see the light of day, and to honor mother, for whom it flies on Mother’s Day.
9. The ninth fold is a tribute to womanhood; for it has been through their faith, love, loyalty and devotion that the character of the men and women who have made this country great have been molded.
10. The tenth fold is a tribute to father, for he, too, has given his sons and daughters for the defense of our country since they were first born.
11. The eleventh fold, in the eyes of a Hebrew citizen, represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon, and glorifies, in their eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
12. The twelfth fold, in the eyes of a Christian citizen, represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies, in their eyes, God the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost.
13. The thirteenth fold, when the flag is completely folded, the stars are uppermost, reminding us of our national motto, “In God we Trust.”

After the flag is completely folded and tucked in, it takes on the appearance of a cocked hat, ever reminding us of the soldiers who served under General George Washington and the sailors and marines who served under Captain John Paul Jones who were followed by their comrades and shipmates in the Armed Forces of the United States, preserving for us the rights, privileges, and freedoms we enjoy today.

I think that’s cool. Anyway we went around and saw the chapel built in 1941 inside and out.

Then we found more free stuff, ate our candy and saw the officers row town homes (only 225K) on the way out.

We always have an affection for Lowry Glory days because it was one of the first ‘vegetables’ we attended when we moved up here in 2003. We got a free goldfish at the festival that we put in a glass jar in our hotel room to keep us company. Ahh, the memories. Next we stopped over at Wing’s over the Rockies because they were having a book sale. Of course they had mostly aircraft books and Joel got a haul. He bought 3 big cardboard boxes of books for $3 plus a few other books that were lying around for another $3 and some free magazines. Titles range from Aircraft radio training to Algebra to The mans guide to war. Of course most of the stuff is out of date, but they’re books and Joel wanted them!. We showed James the airlock that we heard the lecture on and the girls got to ride the pedal planes and then it was time to go.

2 festivals in one day, not quite 7 museums in one day, but still good.

First off, we picked up Joel from the balloon fest and he was whipped. Not suspiring since his friend was in the same tent and they probably got to bed at 3am (and then were woken up at 5am.) Their duties included: first aid, directing traffic, finding lost kids and helping with the putting up and taking down of the balloons.

He got some sleep at home and then we went over to our friends Maura’s house for her son’s 16th birthday party.

It’s a square dance hoedown!

Complete with hay bales (it helps that they have a mini-farm and donkeys, so they already had the hay.) The weather threatened to pour, so we danced first.

We did a kind of square dance, a hand dance, a line dance and a real do-si-so with you partner square dance.

It was pretty easy. Then we did a tunnel dance (where you run down and then run back under everyone’s arched hands) that seemed to go on forever, it involved a lot of clapping too. It might sound weird, but that was the best party we’ve been to! Then it was time to eat, open presents and bolt (we are usually the last ones to leave, but we had to get Joel back to the festival.)

Thanks for a fun time (and helping me remember those dance moves I learned in 3rd grade!) and Happy 16th M!

We got to the fest just in the nick of time to report in. They headed off to help with the balloons for the glow. First, we went around looking at all the vendors and at the parks dept. tent. The girls got pencils, stickers and a coloring book that will keep Hannah busy this week. They got to spin a wheel to answer a question, Hannah got hers right and got a sticker (well, we helped her with it.) After touching all of the skins and skulls we sat down to watch the balloons go up.

Here’s the Re-max balloon going up.

Energizer was giving away bunny ears next to their balloon.

We bumped into Joel helping put up this balloon.

They almost had it up when a gust of wind blew the fabric right into the torch and burned the balloon, so they had to take it down.

Only 3 balloons made it up because of the wind.

Since they aren’t taking off in the evening (just glowing the balloons), the wind is a big factor.

You have to have people with ropes holding the balloon down and steady and every time a gust of wind would come up you’d see grown men bouncing along on the ropes trying to get a foothold.

But, the main event was the taking down of the balloons.

They pulled the ropes as they let out the air, then the kids got to lie down on the balloons to squish the air out, then fold, squish, repeat.

Then they tied velcro strips every few feet and then picked up the balloon and snaked it into the basket. It was like funneling wet spaghetti into a bowl. Then the kids got to jump on the bag to get the rest of the air out, they had so much fun. They got their pic taken and names taken down too by a reporter, so maybe there will be a surprise tomorrow. Everyone who helped got a card with a pic of the balloon on it, some facts and the pilot’s name. Joel got a balloon pin too from his pilot. We saw Joel again as we left, directing traffic, we told him to get some sleep tonight (I doubt he will.)

This is going on 7/26-7/27, Denver, CO.

Race start.

Even.

Winning!

We went to the dragon boat fest today. The kids colored dragon masks and fans.

We found free chopsticks and tons of giveaways. There was a dancing dragon to see up close.

Here’s the baby dragon.

There was a magician, who was very good at cups and balls!

We got characters on our hands and faces, mine is ‘dragon’, Grace has ‘princess’, Hannah has ‘happy’ and Bethany has ‘flower’.

Teams race against each other, the race is over very quickly (for us anyway.)

After the races they had a small parade out of the tent and the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ was sung beautifully.

We wandered around some more and bought an umbrella, hat and puppet.

Then it was back to the bus to ride to the parking area

Joel had his 2nd powered flight today. He flew in a Cessna Skylane plane from Rocky Mt. airport to Sterling, airport.

His co-pilot (for when he was flying) was Capt. Smiley. The pre-flight check had already been done (and that’s not what they were focusing on anyway.)

Joel’s mission was: to learn more about the radio and be able to listen and identify messages for their plane, to listen for DIA traffic, to make sure they used proper responses, to do manuevers and do some VFR flying. So if the tower said ‘clear for runway 2 left’ the response would be ‘this is plane (blah, blah) ready for take-off on runway 2 left’. There are 6 runways at Jeffco and you don’t want to go right if you were told to go left. It was a beautiful day for flying so the terminal was pretty busy.

Cessna’s and private jets were coming and going as Joel and the Capt. went through the engine checks. I like Centennial airport, but Jeffco does have a nice view of the flatirons.

The flight plan was to fly north a bit to skirt around DIA air traffic and then head east to Sterling (near the Nebraska border.) Capt. Smiley said they would do maneuvers (like 360 turns and steep banks) near Sterling since there would be less traffic there. We watched until Joel taxied down the runway and took off and then left to eat.

After we ate we found a toy store to shop in. Grace got a baby sperm whale, Hannah got a little otter that’s holding a star-fish and Bethany got a nameplate for her bike. I tried to find something for Joel, but he already had all the magic tricks there. We drove around for a bit and then went back to the airport. I had books and the girls had toys to play with, so we just sat and waited for Joel to come back.

The pilot said they’d try to call when they got to Sterling, but if they weren’t able to, not to freak out. I said it’s fine, I was really only freaking out the first time he went up, now it’s old hat. Sure enough they weren’t able to get a signal in Sterling (Can you hear me now? No? Oh!) and they spent longer debriefing and closing the flight plan than anticipated (which is normal.) What still makes me nervous is the glider (he’s doing that tomorrow.) After all, the thing has no engine, but I bet it’s really cool up there riding silently on gusts of wind.

The captain drilled into Joel that you always want to close your flight plan. We already knew this because you can buy key chains at the pilot shop with tags on them that say ‘Did you close your flight plan?’ as a reminder. To close it you just report that you landed and sign off a piece of paper. But, if you forget (no matter if you are a CAP pilot or just a private pilot) guess who comes out searching for you? CAP planes and cadets. So, it is very important to close the flight plan. Captain Smiley was gushing about Joel, how much he already knew, how good his hand/eye coordination skills were, his flight responses, his yoke handling. He was surprised at how much Joel knew about the instruments (especially the ASI since he just wrote a paper on it!) He told Joel not to get complacent about the flying and that even when he is not in the air there is much to learn. Joel told him that he juggles and the captain said that’s why he has such good hand/eye skills (see, juggling came in handy for something!) They did more VFR flying than IFR because the weather was so good (that’s relying more on visual things like mountains/ rivers, than instruments.) Every pilot must be able to fly IFR though, what if the weather turns bad or you get lost following a river; then you must be able to read your instruments to find your way back.

James has been using Chatfield Lake as a visual reference when he flies. There are so many things to remember when flying, you really have to know they lay of the land too. The count is Joel ahead by ½ flying hour (until tomorrow when James has another lesson!)

After Joel was done we went to the Rocky Mt. PBS kid’s fest. I don’t remember it being this hot a few years ago. We sampled some food, saw the why guy and dressed up in the Colorado Ballet’s clothes.

We went outside and played some games, got wet, and pet some animals (Al has them beat by far!)

The girls got a book, Joel got a speed racer pin and we all got yogurt bars (which I’m betting they won’t like.) I think a giant tent that covers the whole place would have made it better (and maybe something really cool like ice block racing down the street.) Now we’re just home hanging out. I was going to go to the antique store, but I think I’ll just stay here and read a book instead.

Tomorrow we have to: pick up James at the airport, take Joel to Boulder to do his glider flights, get Maisy’s shots, take James to the airport for his flying lesson……….

Maisy says she is not going to wear a blue bandanna today.

Before the parade.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

At the parade.

The VFW color guard.

We saw Clint Hurdle at the parade (Rockies manager.) We love you Rockies even if you’re losing!

The Highlands Ranch backcountry horses.

Every parade needs motorcycles.

The KC’s looked like they were hot.

God bless America.

The Highlands Ranch Scottish club (and Nessie.)

Prize for the most commercial non-patriotic entry goes to: Great Clips.

A second runner up in that category is: KFC, please why don’t you just sponsor a float and try to appear patriotic.

Quilts.

Prize for best hand made float: the Boston Tea Party float.

Oldest car in parade (1923.)

Chinese school float.

Best musical float: the Fiddler on the Roof one.

Worst use of animals: Llamas for Obama.

Entry that had someone we know: Rep. Ted Harvey, we met him at the capitol.

(By prizes I mean I picked them for that category!)

America the Beautiful
Words by Katharine Lee Bates

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!

America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self the country loved
And mercy more than life!

America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man’s avail
Men lavished precious life!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

Declaration of Independence for kids

4th of July crafts

Declaration if Independence

4th of July recipes

We went by the Cherry blossom festival today.

Hannah was so excited when she heared we were going to a “vegetable.” “They have egg toss there?” she queried. No, that was just at the Mike fest, because Mike was a chicken. Eggs have nothing to do with cherries. (I think she really liked that egg toss!)

They girls made dragon lanterns and we watched the dancers from the temple dance school. (It was really red under that red tent!)

We wandered around and looked at shirts and origami, bonsai trees and kimonos. Here is Grace being Hello kitty.

I think Hannah is supposed to be the middle of a sushi roll.

We went into the market and walked past fresh fish, rice rolls, gifts and noodles galore. Back outside Joel bought a snow cone to share (they’re huge.)

We looked over the carved seal stamps and calligraphy and then headed out.

We missed the musicians, but we saw a lady playing some of the instruments that they had there at the library one time. It was cloudy at first and nice and cool, but the sun peeked out and it started to heat up. I think I may have to go back to the market, they had an umbrella for Hannah and a whale noodle bowl for Grace (plus origami paper for Joel and notepads for Bethany.)

It’s going on tomorrow too, if you’re in town and have nothing to do!

Ahhh, Saturday morning and we are already here. We got breakfast downstairs and then went for a swim. That pool had a lot of chlorine in it; Grace had to have eye drops afterwards. They had a hot tub too, so that was nice.

Here’s the deal with Mike. Every May (3rd weekend) the town of Fruita (which is right next to the Colorado/Utah border) has a festival to honor Mike the headless chicken. Mike was 5 mos. old in 1945 when his owner took him out back to make a chicken dinner out of him. He chopped off his head, but Mike was found the next morning waddling around the yard. He still tried to peck and groom and even crow.

Mike toured the U.S. for 18 mos. Until that fateful night when they left one town and forgot his syringe. Mike choked to death the next day. (His airway had to be cleared every so often from the mucus.) Some think Mike was a freak of nature and you wonder where that old saying ‘running around like a chicken with his head cut off’ comes from, but to others Mike is a head strong chicken. He was a chicken who wanted to live! You can learn more about Mike here.

We got to the festival early so we could walk around and have a chance to play before the contests started. If you’re wondering about Mike for Prez see here.

We started off at the car show. Joel liked this one.

The girls liked this one.

We got our headless chicken cookies and Mike for Prez buttons (Hannah lost hers at some point.)

We also bought some tie dye bandannas and scrunchies.

Hannah and Grace rode the train. Grace looks like she’s taking the job of guiding the train very seriously.

Hannah’s just along for the ride.

No one wants to ride in the funeral home car.

Isn’t that a strange sponsor for a kiddie ride? Then it was off to the ponies. Hannah thought hers was the bomb.

Grace felt better about not getting to ride Blaze the day before.

The first contest in the chick Olympics was the wing (well, they were actually legs) eating contest. Joel was on board, but he didn’t catch the gist of the rules.

It was how much you had eaten off the plate, not how much you actually swallowed by the end of 30 seconds. So he didn’t win, although he did get a ribbon and a snack! I think Hannah is more interested in the fact that he has food than trying to cheer him on.

Next was the peep eating contest. Of course Bethany entered this one, I was sure she’d win too (but she didn’t want peeps coming out of her mouth.)

Note each pic and how concentrated Hannah is trying to just get the peep out of the box (she finally got 1.)

Then it was hands up!

They got to keep the box, so Hannah had 17 peeps left over. She thought she won though when they gave her a ribbon!

Joel was the only one who entered the obstacle course. They had to run around the cones, then around the bucket 3 times, put the Frisbee on their head and run back.

Joel was upset because a girl cheated and won, but she was probably from Fruita anyway (gotta keep the prizes in the small town family.)

Then the last game, egg toss. I thought we had partners and would toss the egg back and forth, but they just wanted you to throw it in the bucket. If you got the first bucket, you moved to the 2nd one and then the 3rd. It was harder than it looked (or most people suck at throwing eggs in buckets!) Hannah had a try and didn’t get anywhere near the bucket, Joel made it to the 3rd one and so did I (but we didn’t make it in that one.)

Hannah tried again and they let her move closer, so she made all 3 buckets, here she is with her booty (a bag of stuff.)

She was really excited that she got this (Mike the headless chicken lip balm, no chicken included.)

Meanwhile bunny and Grace were chillin’ at the food tent.

I guess because of the mesas on both sides of the town they get this weird cloud pattern. They have clouds on the left and clouds on the right, but no clouds directly over the festival.

So we packed up before the chicken dance contest (which an old lady from Fruita wins anyway) and drove to the Dinosaur Journey museum.

Grace said that this heart still isn’t as big as a blue whales, yikes!

We saw dinosaur bones, an earthquake machine and a spitting dino that missed us as we ran past. In the dino dig area Grace uncovered a bunny older than dirt!

Outside the museum was this almost 100 year old rail car, I think sometimes it’s open (but not today.)

We were so close to the Colorado National Monument that we decided to drive up. Fortunately you can get to Grand Junction by going over this mesa; it just takes a little longer. Here is some video from the Fruita side. Here is some video from later on.

Doesn’t it look like roadrunner and coyote territory?

We went through a tunnel and the views were awesome.

Bunny and Mr. Otter thought so too.

We stopped at the visitor center and went down to the rim, it looks just like the Grand Canyon (now we don’t have to go there.)

We kept seeing these little lizards everywhere (they were on the gift shop bag too.)

I don’t know if this pic will show up right, I finally used the panorama shot on my camera, way cool!

This canyon used to have a bike at the bottom.

Apparently some biker was hopping on the top with his bike when……oops. Here is the table top he was supposedly hopping from.

We finally got to the other side and it was time to eat dinner.

After this full day the kids wanted to swim too, but we overrode their decision and stayed in with popcorn and a movie (Jumper, a neat flick.)

Here are a few pics of the farm chores.

We went out and saw the goats and then got to work. Bethany scooped poop, here she is telling me not to use this pic.

Hannah had fun raking the stalls (and not eating goat poo.)

Grace raked too and Joel tried his best not to rake. Man, horses poop a lot! The kids fed the animals scoops of pellets and handfuls of hay in their stalls. We tried to ride Blaze, but after a few people he got upset. So we went to have our lunch while he had his.

After lunch we roamed around in the gully, picked some grass and fed the horses across the way. I don’t think they’ll be hungry soon. We trekked down to the hiding place in the weeds and Grace found a deer leg bone. After the kids walked around some more we went back up to the house to see if Blaze would let a few more riders on, no dice. But the kids had fun petting Emma the dog, feeding the goats and horse and hiking around. That was fun!

We ran over to GS after that and braided hair. We started with pipe cleaners and then the girls went around the room braiding hair as people would let them. I braided my girls’ hair and then Bethany braided mine. She did a pretty good job too. We left there early so we could go home and pack the rental car and check on the animals. Then we picked up James and headed out to Fruita.

Last year we left on Sat. (the day of the festival) and it took us like 6 hours to get there. Now true, we did stop for breakfast, a few rest stops and to see the river in Glenwood canyon, but still! It took us 3 ½ hours this time, one stop for snacks and that was it. Here is what the kids were doing.

We were determined to make it to the hotel early so we could relax. I’m still amazed that we got there at 7:30. We unloaded, watched some TV and then went out to eat. Here are some shots of Glenwood canyon headed west (at 80mph.)

Here we are going through the tunnel.

Look at the change from the mountains, how the rocks get compacted and then you get green sloping hills after the divide.

Here is a dam in the canyon.

Then it turns to rocky mesas.

Here is our hotel in Grand Junction (about 13 miles from Fruita.)

Why pay so much for a hotel when the kids are happy to be in the closet?

No, you don’t eat them. My kids have always called festivals – vegetables. It’s pretty close. Anyway we think it’s cute so now we always say we’re going to a vegetable, they know what we mean.

Arvada had their 6th annual kite festival today and it was a gorgeous day for it. You never know what you’re going to get in April, it might snow, rain, or be very windy. Today it was sunny and windy, perfect. We got there and set up our kites. It was too windy for the Dora kite, it broke. So, Hannah had the rainbow kite and the girls shared the sponge bob kite.

Look at them go! Bethany had such a wind one time she was able to lie down and play the kite from there.

There were big kites, small kites, box kites, dragon kites…..all kinds, even a 7 ft parasailing kind of kite.

After flying our kites for awhile we headed over to the food and ate hot dogs while watching the competitors fight it out for a prize.

There were lots of dogs at the park, but someone actually brought their pet lizard.

Yeah, I took a pic, because otherwise who would believe me?

We wandered back around and said goodbye to the kites, Hannah was sad to go, but she fell asleep in the car. Now that we’ve been to this festival it means it’s almost vegetable time again: headless chicken, cherry blossom, rutabaga, pinecone, strawberry, dragon boat, the list goes on. Know of a wacky vegetable we can go to? Send it to me (must be in CO though) we love ‘em!

While the dog is away the cat will………….

sleep!