Colorado - Day 3, hanging around the cabin

We decided to hang around close to the cabin for our first full day.  We wanted to explore our surroundings, get our bearings, and just soak up the mountains.

Every morning we would get up and start making wonderful breakfasts.  Huge pots of coffee, bacon and eggs.  We don't eat like that at home, so it tasted so good every morning.  The kids all played on their electronic devices on the trip, but they would usually pair up or play tournaments with games they all had.  We were getting enough outside time all day that we didn't stress over it.

There were some great woods and rocky areas in the hills behind our cabins.  We decided to hike them, and ended up doing it almost every day we were there.  The views were beautiful in every direction.  Cade is missing from this pic.  He had pulled his hamstring playing baseball, and it was too sore for him to hike (or even walk much), the first few days we were there.  But he soon got better.

This is the hill we would always start with on our hikes.  It takes a day to be able to fully breathe in all of that clean, oxygenated air.  The kind we are not used to having because of all the smog and pollution we breath in living in a metropolitan area.  

I jokingly called myself "Julie, the Cruise Director" because I liked coming up with things for the kids to do that were not electronic related.  This particular pic was after I brought out coloring books and crayons for G and J, and the big kids surprised me by wanting to join in!  I love all of these kiddos so very much.

More hiking pics.  This is our cabin from one of our favorite rock perches. Nothing wakes up your muscles like hiking on a steep hill, and climbing from rock to rock.  It felt so good to move like that.  I think my muscles had memories from doing it as a kid all those years ago.

We brought a ton of board games and dominoes.  We never got to the dominoes.  The kids started Monopoly games but always ended up bickering so we stuck to checkers.  And the best way to spend the afternoons between hiking?  NAPS!!!

My mom and I.  For dinner this evening we grilled steaks and burgers, roasted potatoes in the oven, and had a big salad.  We had worked up all kinds of huge appetites with all of that hiking all day!  It was so yummy.  We had hoped to play games after dinner in the evenings, but we would always be so tired by the time everything was cleaned up that we didn't have the energy.  Mom and dad (very smartly) had their own cabin so they could be on their schedule and get away from the chaos.  

Windows open, sound of the river filling the house.  Time for bed.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.