Fall Break

Daniel's Park

Garden of the Gods

 

We had our first visitors from Washington!  During fall break and we were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa Granger, and cousin Charlie Allen come down and spend 5 days with us.  We loved every minute of it!

                                                                                             Joel was way excited because Charlie was here...finally! While they were together:  bike to the park, swim at the Rec. Center, play wii, biked around the neighborhood, play crazy boy games at the park until dark, hiked through huge rocks, climbed up steep sides of mountains, built Bionicles.  They were sufficiently busy to get even Charlie to go to bed by 10pm and sleep in until 8am!  That is saying something...     Charlie made a great comment...It is so lucky that the weather is good during your fall break AND we are here too!  Well Charlie, the sun is out nearly every day, but we did have a great week of weather...64 degrees feels more like 74 degrees in the fall.

Rock Canyon State Park, not far from Castle Rock, was a small, beautiful little valley with some great hikes.  We had an early dinner and let the kids loose.  Sean, G & G Granger and I went to see if we could actually get to some caves we saw in the cliff.  Here is documentation that they did do the hike and they made it about 3/4 of the way up.   

                                                     




On the way up to Pikes Peak



Garden of the Gods

Garden of the Gods and the top of Pikes Peak were some highlights of the trip.





 G Granger was a little white knuckled on that drive, and the winds were 25 mph and VERY cold up there.  But a stunning view, of course.

Thank you for coming!! We love you!

Wild-things...

 Prairie Dogs...they are all over in the open spaces around here.  They are cute in their own little critter type way...but for some reason my boys think they'd like to pick them off...one by one...with some type of fire stick

 Wild Turkeys...I never thought they were really wild in the west.  It was rather a shock to see them for the first time...pecking/grazing on the open range.

Bull Snake...there you have it...go get those mice and other varmit (gibb farm-term for vermin).

There is the occasional rabbit and squirrels.





Every now and again we will see one of these...or a cousin. They are too quick to sneak up on.
There has been a black bear sighted in our area and some elk over across the way.  OH...I did see some antelope roaming the range on the way to the airport the other day.  The song is right. Just haven't located those buffalo...yet.


 

Autumn

Autumn...one of my favorite times of the year.  The changing of the leaves and crispness in the air is refreshing. 

Since we are not surrounded by trees here in Colorado, you can see the beautiful mountain range almost everywhere you drive.  In the mountains the Aspen are beautiful  in the summer, with their white bark and quaking green leaves.  They are stunning, though, when their backdrop is the dark evergreen and their leaves turn a vibrant yellow.

The trees that are showing their colors now are the oak and scrub oak.  The scrub oak are the small bushy-shrub-like trees that dot the open areas. 

The pictures here are on the way to Kaleb's middle school.  The homes here have been here a little while longer than in my neighborhood, so these big beautiful trees make it a very nice drive.

I haven't made it to see the colors in the mountains...it is on my to do list...

 

Yellow to Blue

 I have this unused area in my kitchen, by the sliding door, that is usually for a kitchen table.  However, I have that country style kitchen table in my art room to not-worry-about-if-it-gets-spilled-on. So I hung my 'Old Thorpe Mill' painting I did in High School on that empty wall and put our bench there. 

It needs something more, and since I can't figure out what to put in between the painting and the bench, I thought the yellow of the bench should change.  So I pulled a pretty color from the painting and painted that bench today. I think I like it...a lot! 

Ever been to Hobby Lobby?  I found this great piece of fabric that I was going to make into pillows for the downstairs...but now I am not sure...maybe it will end up on this bench?! 

Goal:  make/find something to bring the bench and the painting together and use the fabric...somewhere.

I Spy...

Find 7 things you may not find in a park around the Seattle area.

Castle Rock has some pretty cool parks! There has been  a lot of growth here, so new schools have been added and it seems that with a new elementary school, comes a great new park right next to it.  The park in the first 5 photos is called Bison Park.  Can you tell why? 

 There are two amazing rock climbing structures that are shaped like...you got it...Bison!

 This huge play structure is great! There are hanging 'seats' in the middle of it for kids to 'hang' out in and climb through, etc.

 This structure took a couple of minutes to figure out--for me. But with the help of another child, she showed me that you stand on the seats, sitting on the middle of the arc and hold on to a handle, right above it.  Then you work it like a skate board, moving left and right with your feet and body and holding on with your hands.


This play-town is fun for the younger kids, a climbing/wall scaling thing connects the two slide areas.

Wrangler park is two blocks from our home. The whole park has the western theme, with a 'cantina' and everything. 


Have you ever wanted to fit inside a wheel and roll down a hill?  The green and red circle structure in the middle of the photo gives you that sensation.  You sit in there with your knees bent, hang on to the wheels lip and your friend turns you over and over and over...  The red thing on the right spins you quite nicely, too, just around and around.  A modified version of the merri-go-rounds I went on a kid. 

 This slide is so fun!  Yes, I have been down it several times and I laugh every time!  Sean goes down it feet first, on his belly.  The black stuff under the slide is squishy-- old tires made into a mat.
The green stuff in the back ground is grass AND turf.  Yes, with all the water shortage around here, they water their grass in the summer...I have yet to see an occupied home without green grass outside!!!  And the turf is a genius idea.  No need to water, no standing puddles, no mowing, and it is fun to run on! 


This a Bull Snake.  This big guy has been seen in the shrubbery on several occasions at the park.  He is probably a good 3 feet long and although he looks similar to a rattler, which are found more out in the open spaces here, he is not a huge threat.  Give him distance and he goes on his slithery way.


So...have you found the 6 I spy things not found in parks around Seattle?  Some are obvious, some not.

Answers:  Bull Snake, turf, green watered lawns/grass, climbing rocks, wheel 'simulator', skating dude toy and last but not least...blue skies.
My kids think the MV parks are way to cautious when it comes to play structures!  These rock!

Every Child is an Artist...Picasso

Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.  Pablo Picasso

I love art.  I love to look at it, soak in the colors, follow the brush strokes and ponder the feelings or thoughts that come to me. Not just on the canvas, but in nature, too. Nature is quite talented and many a day do pass by without giving credit where credit is due. 

Before we moved, I had been an Art Docent at our Elementary school in Washington State for about 5 years and had really found something I love to do.  Two things actually...teach kids about art and help them find their own voice through color, lines, shapes and texture...to name a few. 

I miss it--A LOT!  I have wanted to continue to create lesson plans for anyone in need of new ideas, but I haven't had a lot of drive because I don't have a class to prepare for.  My daughter, age 6, and I have done some things together.  And I have started a few of my own ideas that I have been formulating for the past year or so.  But I am not where I want to be, yet.

Here are a few that have been done recently... 

 

 

Here is the start of one of my own...It looks interesting...But I am finding that Picasso's statement that "the problem is staying an artist"-- is true.  

I'll let you know when that happens...well...we see...

Do you have a favorite picture or scene that inspires you? 

 

 

About to Explode

No, don't be alarmed...this is not about our boys' after school hobbies. It is what you can find in your grocery bag... 

Many containers have a lid and then the top is actually sealed.  Hot Chocolate, Pringles, Nutella, are some that we have in our home frequently.  At Sea Level, these are just sealed containers.  But at 6200 feet elevation they are containers that look like they are ready to explode!

Before

 

I am amazed every time I take a lid off and see it! Can you see it in this photo? It is not flat from edge to edge...it is very tight and very round!


After
 

I bought some canning jars to make peach syrup..yum...and they even gave me the "fresh" sound when I opened them. 

Each time we have driven to the top of a 14er, we have had an empty water or Gatorade bottle.  So we closed it up at the top of the mountain and checked it at the bottom.  This is what happens: 


We want to save these and take them back to Washington with us on a visit. Will they crush more or stay the same.  Crazy!