Living large in CO: Summer 2014 July

July was a particularly fun month for the Louie Family! On top of the regular 4th of July and Birthday fun we have, we also had fun new experiences with friends and family that we don't get to see very often.

Just like Riley, Jayce got to do some painting at Picasso and Wine too! He did the fireworks one on July 3rd. Mommy thought it would be the most fun because he could throw paint again like last year.

4th of July was a great weekend for us this year. Daddy had the day off, so we went swimming at Chimney Park Pool. Riley is tall enough this year to ride the slide all by himself, so he could go whenever he wanted! Jayce and Amara still went with Mommy and Daddy though so they didn't miss out on the fun!

Then we went to Windsor Lake for the fireworks. we met up with our good friends the Gangestads for the night who had some friends visiting too. It was a beautiful show!

The next night we did some fireworks of our own. It was so fun! Amara liked some more than others, and cried frequently at the loud ones. Which doesn't surprise me since she's afraid of thunder!

Cameron even let Riley and Jayce (over all my protests) light some of the fireworks. Wasn't my favorite part, but I'm sure it was theirs!

I also had a little bit too much fun with the long exposure (bulb) feature on my camera. It lets you hold the shutter down for as long as you want. Great for having fun with sparklers! And boy did we have fun!! (fyi, most of these are Cam, because he thought it was as cool as me and the kids did!!) ;)

I was then able to surprise Cam for his birthday with a special trip. I found a deal on Living Social that I knew was the perfect gift for him! So the Friday after his birthday we shipped the kids off to Cathy's house (God love her for watching my children all the time!) and headed down to Colorado Springs for a Zipline Tour!!!! It was so fun! There were 5 lines that we did across a small canyon outside of Manitou Springs. It was great, Cam was hanging upside down as soon as they would let him! It took me a little more courage to do that, but I did on the last one and it was awesome! That is something I definitely want to do again! Happy Birthday Cam!

later on that month we took a trip to Rocky for Cam to do a training run at altitude. I wanted to do some hiking with the kids, so after some collaboration we decided I would drop him at Bear Lake, do some hiking with the little ones, and meet him in about 4 hours at the west side of the park. Yes, Cam was going to run nearly the entire width of the park from east to west. He had plenty of water and food to keep him going and he set off and so did we! We hiked Bear Lake first since we were already there, taking our time and taking lots of photos along the way. Amara did great hiking a lot of it on her own!

After that we headed up Trail Ridge Road to see our "cousin" Justine who is working at the Alpine Visitor Center this year!! Yay Justine! It was nice to catch up with her! But the kids were hungry, so we ate a quick lunch and headed to Holzwarth Historic Site on the west side of RMNP. It was such a cool place! the short hike there would have been fine to take a stroller on. But the historic cabins from the old dude ranch were preserved nicely, and so fun to see! they had fun historical things for the kids to do like laundry, lassoing, and dressing up in old clothes. We didn't get to see all of it because we had to get to the trail head to pick up daddy, but I know it will be one that we go see again!

By this time it's nearly 3:00 and Cam told us that he would be at the trailhead between 2-3. So we go, and wait, no Daddy. 3:30, I'm taking pictures, entertaining the kids. No Daddy. Looking at bugs, drawing in the dirt, no daddy. So I tell Riley we are gonna go look for him at 4:00. (2 hours after his intended return time). All the time I'm seeing Park rangers and ambulances going by code 3 and thinking the worst, because that's where the mind of a wife and mother goes! But as soon as I got everyone buckled up I looked at my phone and at I had a text from Cam - "almost there". at 4:02. Thank goodness for that text!!! He was in the trailhead a few minutes later (and I would have been gone). but he was wiped out. He had completely run out of water, having to rationing about halfway through, and ask people on the trail for some. He was green when he finally collapsed in the parking lot in the back of the van. we had only limited water and food, so we hurried to gather everyone up and get up to the Alpine store before it closed for some electrolytes. We later found that it was his Thyroid that was causing him all the problems, but it was a scary few hours for me that day. And I am blessed to have him returned to me!

Next we took a trip North, to Cheyenne. To Frontier Days to be specific! It was a lot of fun, but not like I remember it being. We did find a lot of free stuff for the kiddos to do. Old West Town was pretty neat, with a petting zoo, and some rubber duck races, and more. but our favorite (Cam and I's, not necessarily the little ones) was the Indian Village. We arrived just in time to watch one of their ceremonial dance programs, and that was really neat! Next year if we make the drive we will most likely buy some rodeo tickets too. Just to make it more worthwhile. But we still had fun!

We did a lot of other fun things in July too, just like in June. So I think I will leave you with another round of random pictures, and save Grandma & Grandpa's visit for another post! ;)