February Hikes

Moving to Colorado, I knew that a whole new world 

of out door adventure was going to be open up to me.

I am not the most athletic person in the world,

so you can only imagine the thoughts that race through my mind when people say:

"You are going to love learning to snowboard and ski!"

All I hear is:

"Blah blah blah blah broken leg blah blah"

But hiking, that's a little closer to my speed.

I am good a walking,

well most of the time.

Let's just say I am good at walking in 

Florida, on the beach, at sea level.

On our first adventure 

we went to Lookout Mountain.

Lucky for me…

It was flat-ish.

Yet we were in the snow up to our knees most of the time.

I was sold on hiking when one of the twins announced…

"Look at those deer over there!"

And sure and shit there were a group of deer just hanging out with us.

They were close, and didn't mind us passing by.

The boy was thrilled, waving and saying "hi deer!' as we passed.

I must note here that I had a different hike planned all together.

Having a plan and an agenda seemed like the most 

intelligent thing to do when setting out into the wilderness.

Well we got lost.

Like on the completely wrong mountain kinda lost.

I quickly learned a very important lesson…

While have a plan was good,

having an adventure was so much better.

This hike was an easy 1 mile loop,

which we learned is about the boys limit.

And the "lookout" part of Lookout Mountain…..

Yep, that's tiny little Denver down there! 

I wish that this picture did half the justice for this amazing view.

It really makes you feel so small when you look down on the earth like that.

Our second hike,

and one of my new all time favorite places,

was in Eldorado Canyon!

If you have never been to Eldorado and you are in the area, 

YOU MUST GO!

First of all, you drive into the Town of Eldorado Springs 

which is so stinking cute and small and you instantly wonder 

about the stories that the people who live here have to tell.

Also they have a natural hot springs swimming pool here….dying to go!

This was also the first place that I saw legit

mountain climbers on crazy runs! 

The person wedged up in the rocks up there,

that's not a legit climber…just our crazy friend Brad. 

Instead of pushing ourselves to see how 

high we could hike, we took a different route.

We zig zagged up and down the canyon following the river.

We found an awesome cave, some beautiful waterfalls,

and some amazing views.

This was one of the best adventures of my life.

So many times I was faced with a case of the 

"I can'ts!"

Not just from the boy but also from myself.

Together we faced our fears of heights.

We put our faith in each other and trust in the hubs to keep us safe

and catch us if we stumbled.

We did take one more hike in February that's not listed here,

because I forgot my camera,

but if you follow me on Instagram you 

saw some of the icey good times we had at Maxwell Falls.

I can't believe that it took me so many of my

less breakable years to find such a love and passion for 

the mountains.

It's all I can think about now.

The mountains are calling my name 

and I must answer.

Let's go Geocaching!

I just found this old post that I never posted. Man that was a great trip! 

Let's Go Geocaching!

Our family fun days seem to have a re-occuring theme...

We are Geocaching fools!

So much so that we bit the bullet and picked up the $10 app...ha.

There was another theme that I was trying to 

press on the boy.

I wanted him to spend time looking up!

While I know it's weird that I snapped this from a 

bathroom stall, the light pouring into the sky lights at high noon 

was too incredible to pass up.

So much of caching is spent staring at a compass on a digital screen,

and scouring the brush 

that we forget that so much of the wonder is happening over head.

We discovered these magical looking

mushrooms growing on a branch overhead.

I told him they reminded me of my favorite childhood movie,

FernGully....

He looked at me like I had eight heads.

note to self: rent ferngully.

If you are ever in John D. McArthur State Park,

I highly recommend the Silkleaf Trail.

It was a great little walk along the water line.

At times the trail felt a little like a jungle.

It was so lush and tropical, with that touch of 

Everglades charm.

All that rain we've had did the park well.

While I was packing up our mid hike picnic, the hubs whipped 

us up a letter "T" stamps for the cache logs.

He's used that same method I DIYed here.

It was such a wonderful, quick, 

and easy way to step up our log game! 

Can't wait for our next exploration!

30x30

Day 16 was dedicated to friendship.

My initial plans for an over due skype date with my best friend.

I really miss her more than I am able to cope with.

Then the age old adage:

"make new friends, but keep the old.

some are silver and the other gold."

came into play.

This has always been one of my favorites.

I was blessed as a child and teen.

I had more best friends than anyone could imagine.

I changed school many times throughout my adolescence, 

which really gave me the ability to meet so many wonderful women.

And thanks to the powers of social media 

I am able to keep in such close contact with many of them.

But back to the silver lining.

While I did not get to skype with Jess,

Our wonderful friends the Tidwell's decided to throw a last minute shindig.

It was decided that it would be a fun relaxing evening 

with children scampering and parents actually getting to talk to other adults.

Trey, with his absolutely charming Tennessee way, made us ladies some delish coffee.

And the kiddos....well they all got very sandy.

I am still finding sand in between the boys toes.

The evening wound down with a bonfire and roasted marshmallows.

The boy caught his on fire, but it was Ay O.K.! 

His new friend, Maxwell, came to the rescue.

It was great to see all the kids being so independent and awesome.

I just love all their littler personalities maturing.

It was a perfect perfect evening!

Thank you again Tids' for hosting all of us! 

30x30

Today we started the 30 day count down to my birthday.  Putt Putt was the first activity on my list.  It just so happened that Uncle Matt was here to help teach the boy the fundamentals of mini golf.

As it turns out the kids a natural.  He might even be better than me.

The hubs spent a lot of time in this position in between swings....

hunting down my rouge golf balls.

It was a wonderful day of golfing even though I lost miserably.

okeeheelee state park

10 things i couldn't live without this week

1. we took our first official long bike ride of the "bike riding" season. this time of the year until about may we will find any accuse to ride or bikes as far as possible. while it was an amazing and fun ride we didn't plan to well with the weather and got poured on during the 2.5 mile ride home from the park. oh well....it was worth every rain drop.
2. dance has been going really well, and i can't believe that i have not announced this yet, but i am going to be dancing in the holiday showcase for my dance studio.  when my teacher asked me if i wanted to participate i answered "yes" before really thinking about what i was doing. next thing you know i am in a 8 person contemporary number, learning the steps, feeling the music, amazing. then the terror set it.....i am going to be in a dance recital? me? dancing in front of people? yikes!
3. i have always preferred to support local businesses, but sometimes we have to think about the cost of products and the money that we spend. for instance, i would love to shop the local farmers markets for produce, but it's so flippin expensive.  and while the thought of spending $300 a week in groceries sounds like fun (not) it's just not in the budget to shop local/green/organic all the time. but i think that i have found the perfect solution in the meat department. a friend of mine introduced me to charlie's gourmet meat market. charlie's is an old fashioned butcher with amazing amazing amazing products. the store offers packages of meats custom fit for your family size that last about 2-3 weeks. (at a very affordable price) the quality of the meat is better than any grocer and the fact that it's all wrapped in butcher's paper just puts a big smile on my face. so if you are in the area, and looking for a good butcher.....check out charlie's!
4. the hubs had to travel to orlando for work this week, and while i always hate when he has to spend the night there, i always really enjoy the night to myself. i don't ever turn the tv on, usually get lot's of crafting/blogging done, and eat the least balanced meal possible for dinner.
5. we finally found out what was wrong with the boys tummy.  while we are still concerned about his belly it's nice to have that weight of not knowing of our shoulders.
6. so the hubs finally talked me into getting twitter. i have fought it for so long, but seeing how well the hubs has been doing with marketing his blog, i figured i should get my tweet on.
7. i got a box full of clothes from a good friend this week. all full of things she was done with that she thought i could refashion into something new and amazing. i am not going to lie....some of the stuff i love just the way it is, some needs altering, and some are going to get a whole new lease on life.
8. i am so excited that "movember" month is catching on! support those you know that are growing their 'stache for a good cause.....and i'll keep rocking my mustache shirts!
9. "satur-daddy-day" as become a huge hit!
10. the whole reason that this post is a day late is because sunday we spent the entire day doing nothing but fun family activities! we went exploring at okeeheelee nature center. stay tuned for fun pictures from our day!