Colorado!

We made it to Colorado! We stayed with my sister in Colorado Springs (Thanks, Emily!) and had good times letting the cousins visit. (Emily’s post).

The first day we went to Garden of the Gods. It was deceptively hot and we were warm as we walked around the pretty rocks.

I thought this one looked like a gargoyle:

The next day we went up to Denver to visit the US Mint. We didn’t take a tour because you have to have a reservation to go, but we saw the austere exterior and went in the gift shop.

We also stopped at the Capitol in Denver. We walked up the 99 steps into the tower and took a picture on the mile-high step. Apparently there has been some second guessing about which step is actually the mile-high one.

On the way home we stopped at the Denver temple. It was closed for renovations, but the outside was very pretty.

The next day we went to Florissant Fossil beds, west of Colorado Springs. They have lots of fossilized insect specimens, so this was a must see for Dana. Their other famous thing is their petrified redwood tree stumps: not exactly visually amazing, but kind of cool. (Emily’s post).

Here we all are at Big Stump:

Outside of the park we found a lady who lets people hunt for fossils on her land (for a small fee). Dana and Emily had a good time opening the rock layers looking for fossils and Matthew and Anna had fun bringing them rocks, at least for a little while. We found lots of neat things in the rock. (Emily’s post). The rock wall is where the fossils are.

The last stop was at the May Insect Museum. There were lots of pretty (and weird) bugs, all very well preserved. Included in the ticket price was the Space Museum. It was less cool than the insects. (Emily’s post).

Here is the entrance to the Space Museum:

Fossil Butte

Our first real stop on our trip was at Fossil Butte National Monument near Kremmerer, Wyoming (home of the 1st JCPenny). Dana’s sister had stopped here on one of her field trips and told us how cool it was. We watched the video in the visitors center about the layer where all the fossils are found. There are lots of plant and fish fossils. They also had metal casts of some of the fossils so people could make rubbings of them.

Near the entrance of the park they start showing the geologic timeline. 9 inches = 1 million years. Here is Magnus at the end of the timeline that reads, “recorded history.” The picture on the right is when the Earth was formed (you can just see the visitor center in the back, where the end is).

Dana went on a short hike up to one of the buttes. It was very pretty.

After we left the park and were driving through Wyoming we saw many many antelope: more than either of us had ever seen. There were even some at a rest stop we stopped at. The male is the one on the far right.

And here is the Wyoming state house in Cheyenne.

Up He Goes…

Magnus pulls himself up.

This is what Magnus decided to start doing yesterday evening. The first time we looked over and he was standing. So, we made him do it a few more times to get it on film.

Bugs. Berries. Battlestar Gallactica.

A week or so ago I went on a fun and exciting excursion. It had been a while since I had gone out in the woods to look for stuff, so Ruth was nice enough to let me go. So, I went out to an area I have come to like a lot near Trout Lake, WA.

The first stop I made was by Little Goose Creek Canyon, to see the waterfalls and the awesome cliff face with basalt columns. That’s Mt. Adams in the distance.

The larger of the falls was hard to see from the side of the canyon I was on, but I was able to get down to the upper falls. The river was very pretty and flowed over a solid sheet of old lava.

It was a very hot day (94°F) so being by the falls was very refreshing. I also saw this nice little red beetle on a fern.

I then went huckleberry hunting and found quite a few. If you have never had them, they are something worth trying. Many of the bushes were already turning red.

While picking berries I came across a small lava cave in a a clearing that was not on the map. It had a small marker naming it Cave 5. It was nice and cool inside, and I found some cave crickets. Here is Mt. Adams again, and the other peak to the left is Sleeping Beauty.

Next, I headed over to the Ice Caves. There are some very special insects in there that I like to find, and I like caves. The bugs are interesting because they have to live in cold temperatures, so we now have some pets that live in the fridge. There was still a good amount of ice and snow in the cave since it was only 32°F.

I also did a short hike near the Natural Lava Bridges. It was a very pretty day.

I just wish I could have picked more huckleberries…

Every Day Adventures

Here are a series of pictures we’ve taken over the course of the summer that didn’t make it into other blog posts.

Magnus at the coast. He charmed all the lady-hikers in that hat.

Dana got me this stuffed sheep and Magnus and the sheep are now good friends. Magnus enjoys it when she sheep rams him in the head and “baaaaa”s.

He is getting better at standing, but usually need assistance. He needed help trying out riding mowers, too.

At Farmor’s house he likes looking at the red flowers. He has tried to eat them, but has been unsuccessful as of yet.

These are the yummy berries that come out of Farmor’s garden. We put the currents and the raspberries into a traditional Danish jelly dessert served with cream. Super-yummy!

 

Dad makes a good pillow.

 

Magnus received his first set of Duplo blocks and Dana showed him how to play with them.

 

We got together with my brother and sister which was great. We had fun times!

 

At St. Helen’s we all enjoyed the pretty views.

Magnus really loves bath time, more so when Dana is there. He gets his own washcloth to eat in the bath and has a grand ol’ time.

 

Magnus likes eating other things too. Like my face… and the arm of the chair… or other people’s arms… it’s all very slimy.

So those are the good times we’ve been having lately. Stay tuned for further adventures.