A week with Steph and Ian

My sister Stephanie and her son Ian came to visit. Just sitting around is never an option when you visit the Tutens..we had to show them around Colorado. Hunter spent 4 days at a summer adventure camp, so unfortunately not too many pictures with him. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed all the adventures!

Steph and I atop the Continental Divide in Loveland Pass. It was a beautiful 72 degrees and a bit windy..what a perfect day for mid-June!

Headed to Keystone Resort for a little tubing..snow tubing in the summer is a blast! Steph and Ashley worked together to fly down the lane with some super speed and spinning too!

No walking back up with the tube...they took the magic carpet

Girls just want to have FUN!

 This is a favorite spot for winter pictures..lake Dillon in the background..can't believe all the snow that's still around..no hiking for us today.

Ashley can say she's sat on a buffalo now...she loves having her picture taken with statues

A little fun in the River Run Village

After tubing in Keystone, we headed to a working gold mine tour. It was very interesting to hear about the mining process and see the mine..this is copper in the vein that's oxidized over the years.. 

Ashley, Ian and Stephanie posing in front of the mine entrance and mining cart..they said about $6000 on average is produced from one of these rock-filled buckets!

 We panned for gold in the stream after the tour..we found a few flakes but definitely aren't cut out to be miners

 I spotted a bear cub sitting up on the hill, under a tree..I kept an eye out for the mama and wondered what that area is like after dark??

 Ashley feeding the chipmunk

An unexpected treat at the mine was the crazy chipmunk population..the hills were crawling with chipmunks! They would come right up to you for a treat..we had peanuts and they would take them right from our hands..so fun!

 We headed to Mueller State Park to see the views and have a picnic..the visitor center is a neat place..couldn't resist a picture with the elk statue

After our meadow picnic, we went to the wolf rescue in Divide. They had several foxes, coyotes, an assortment of wolf species and even some horses to see. It was an educational experience, as well as a taste of nature.

At the end of the tour, we got to "speak" to the animals. We howled and they howled back..it was a little eerie. I have never heard a wolf howl in person and it was a bit creepy to hear all of them howling, especially the low tone artic wolves..the coyotes start it and the rest chimed in. Wonder what it's like during a full moon?

For an additional fee, you could go into the wolf pen and pet the wolves..we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to touch one of these animals. The wolf that was most active was only a year old and not fully grown. He was huge and a bit intimidating with his size and those yellow eyes. He didn't seem to care about being touched, but definitley worked for those hot dogs we kept feeding him..it was an amazing experience!

I managed to get a kiss from him...I think my whole head would have fit right into his mouth..don't want to ever meet this guy in the wild

 We managed to get a second wolf to be friendly with us..they really liked Ashley!

 

 The smell of hot dog in my hand brought the big wolf over to me..he climbed on and over Stephanie like she was just a rock. She went away with a wolf paw print on her pants as a souvenier

 No trip to the Springs would be complete without a visit to the top of Pike's Peak via cog railway. It had just snowed and we were socked in. Couldn't believe the 19 degree temp in the middle of June!

  

 We headed to Garden of the Gods to do some hiking, have a picnic and check out the amazing rock formations..a fun day for all!

 Peeking through the hole in the Siamese Twins

 The kids were holding up Balance Rock

Trees!!

Ashley and Hunter are enjoying the new horseshoe pit..they have a year to get some skills before the master returns and whoops their butts!

So...drip lines aren't supposed to be burried under the ground..oops! I had to dig up and make new line connections for all the flower beds...another setback and challenge for the landscaping..was able to finish in one day though, now for planting some greenery.

 

The day for tree delivery finally came...on the only day this year that we have had severe thunderstorm warning and hail for the majority of the day. They accidentally hit the sprinkler line, got the machine stuck between the neighbor's fence and the rock wall and had to deal with mud and slippery rocks all day..the

1 1/2 hour job turned into 5 very quickly..love the new trees though!

We found out where the drainage problems are...wow!! we got a lot of rain this day, but I now I some drainage to install

Our new autumn blaze maple tree

our new toba hawthorne tree- doesn't get very big and has deep roots

the green shrubby bushes in the back area are lilacs that will grow 12'-15' tall...these will be so great to have~ beautiful fragrance and a little privacy..we can cut them to be more of a small tree than a bush

we added matching hot wing tatarian maple trees..they have a beautiful color in the fall

Videos of the kids

A few short videos of Hunter snowboarding this season..the first one, I was apparently in the way and made him crash..I never claimed to be a professional snowboarding videographer.

Ashley and Hunter both took a turn in the bobcat, unfortunately I only have video of Ashley driving..she was so cute and did a lot of squealing when she first started it..wish I'd had the camera on hand at that time too!

Horseshoe anyone??

Our kids are too old for playground equipment or sandboxes, but I wanted them to have a place for fun activities..not in the beautiful new sod...so we decided on horseshoes. What do you do when you don't have  a grassy area for your pits to rest in??? You spend three days laying down weed block, digging pits, hauling almost 4 tons of crushed granite rock to prevent weeds from growing and not walking in mud and another 1.5 tons of sand to your new area by wheelbarrow...way more work than I had expected. I told the kids they better play horseshoes every day!  

 Hunter took it upon himself to surprise me with the construction of a sign for our new area..he did a nice job! We tried to hide the ugly green electrical box in the corner. I stained and painted "The Rootin Tootin Corral" on it..need to lighten up the lettering because it's hard to see from a distance.

 View from the side yard. We went with the ladies/junior distance of 30 ft between posts and 6' x 6' area for the pits

view from the deck