Day 3- Black Canyon of the Gunnison Nat'l Park

Day 3 was another long drive and another National Park. We got detoured off a US highway and ended up in the middle of cowboys on horses herding cows. I could have reached out my window and touched a cow... I settled for taking their pictures.





Mid-afternoon we arrived at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in southwestern Colorado, enjoyed the beautiful view, drove on 8 and 10% grades* (Slum Gullion Pass) and the kids became Junior Forest Rangers.

Late Sunday night we arrived up Cedar Mountain, saw a million deer, and met my parents in Duck Creek Village where we then followed them down dirt roads and through three locked gates to reach the new cabin. There will, of course, be more pictures and more posts... I just have to clean up some of my messy house first.

*The steepest grades B and I have ever seen, we had to stop and let our brakes cool off at one point.

Day 2- Great Sand Dunes Nat'l Park

We drove much further on day 2, but left our hotel in Hays early and stopped at Great Sand Dunes National Park near Alamosa, CO at the end of the day and still got to the hotel early enough for the kids to swim (and get all of the sand off of them).


Day 2 brought the introduction of Baby X to the lollipop. Yea for Dum Dums! This helped immensely on the trip, except when I looked back to wipe up some colorful drowl and the lollipop was no where to be found. He quickly became a no handed expert.


Here are some pretty pictures of flat flat Kansas taken out the car window as we drove through hours and hours of flat flat fields. Don't you love Kansas clouds?


And then we spotted mountains (the Wet Mountains by Walsenburg, CO). About a year and a half after we moved to Kansas we flew to California to visit family. Buddy was almost three and spent the whole trip amazed at the "mountains." We didn't get quite the same reaction from any of the kids this time, but Baby X did notice them and point a lot. But he currently notices and points at everything. His favorites: buses, motorhomes, semi trucks, bridges, airplanes, birds, clouds, etc.





Great Sand Dunes Nat'l Park was awesome. Buddy especially loved it. B and I were surprised by how prepared all the other visitors were in their bathing suits for a tiny stream we had no reason to expect, but all these visitors were treating like a beach. Also, several people came with snow sleds (which didn't slide very well on the sand), snow boards, or cardboard sheets to slide down the dunes on. Buddy preferred to scoot down on his bum. We were surprised by how into this Buddy was. Walking out to the dunes he was way in front of us and frustrated with our slow coachness. Then we got to this super super steep dune (B estimates it was a 60 degree angle) and he just started scooting down it. I was terrified for him... then realized that he wasn't going to slide since sand isn't like snow. Even Baby X joined in on the scooting. B tried rolling and just got dizzy and queasy. I was in charge of holding all of our stuff so it wouldn't get covered in sand while B rolled down the dune. *



Sliding down the dunes and leaving.

*Sorry, there a so many pictures and they are so little in this collage. Click the collage to enlarge.

Iowa Clouds

Cloud out the car window in Iowa. The camera doesn't do it justice.

Again with the clouds

We were waiting for B to get done with school and saw these beautiful clouds by KU's Campanile bell tower (it's hiding behind the large pine tree in the last picture).

Clouds

I'm a bit obsessed with how massive and fluffy and beautiful the storm clouds here are. This is taken off of I-70, while B drove us to St. Louis last weekend.

Clouds

I became obsessed with Kansas clouds a few weeks ago when I saw the fluffiest cumulus clouds filling the entire sky. Boy told me they looked like ice cream. I didn't have my camera with me then and regretted it. So since they I've carried my camera with me trying to capture how truly amazing the clouds here look. And everything is flat so they take up the entire expanse of sky. It's beautiful.