Return from the Void

It’s been about three months since my last post... every time I’ve slumped into this chair at the computer to write I’ve had absolutely nothing to say...nothing funny or eloquent or even remotely interesting... even when my finger stopped throbbing when it struck the keyboard. At least that’s how I felt. But my fingernail has finally come off and it seems a good time (completely absurd reason) to get back to the documentation.

This summer we camped at the Sand Dunes, visited friends in Durango, traveled to the East coast to visit Dan’s family, traveled to the West coast to visit Tootie and Fox, went swimming almost everyday in between, and on the second weekend in July we camped near Lake Granby... at one of the worst campsites ever. It was so bad, when we pulled up to our reserved site I just started to cry.

Let’s just say it was the the type of campground where you got nothing but extremely good views of your neighbors’ cars... where you constantly say to yourself...what the **** is the point of this?!... and then you see how fabulously happy your kids are playing in the rocks and dirt next to the fire, and roasting marshmallows, and then they’re unbelievably ecstatic to brush their teeth outside and get ready for bed because they can’t wait to be sleeping in a tent - in their own sleeping bag - with you!... and then you’re all, this isn’t so bad... tomorrow’s hike will be so good... ya, you’ll really feel like you’re in the mountains tomorrow...

Eight hours of constantly waking every 15 minutes go by and I get up and make coffee and it tastes soooo good and the kids wake up happy and everything goes pretty smoothly and I almost don’t even mind having to wake up in a parking lot because we had a magnificent day hike through Rocky Mountain National Park planned. Everyone was pretty excited when we all started hiking. Alex was in the backpack and Max was walking. Then, a quarter of a mile in... SCREECH!!! Max stops suddenly and declares, “I’m done with this. I’m tired.” It was a beautiful day, the scenery was amazing, and I just DESPERATELY wanted to HIKE. We were finally in the mountains!!! After all of the positive reinforcement, then deals, and eventually, pleas I could muster; I realized he really was - absolutely - done. So I gave Max a piggy-back ride... for the better part of about six miles. And it was well worth it. On our way out, we spotted this moose. It was one of the best moments ever.