camping
Postcards to Denver from a 10-Year-Old and His Mom
From western New York: “The farm has ten chickens and two bunny rabbits. My chicken’s name is Geraldine. The rabbits are Sam and Matilda. I miss our dog. She would have so much fun here, but we were worried she would eat the chickens.” “I forgot what it feels like to stay in bed long enough to listen to the birds, watch the sun move across the room and let my muscles stretch awake one at a time.” From Snowmass, Colorado: “Mom and Dad made us go on a hike. Why does anybody like hiking? You go up and up and up, and they keep saying it’s beautiful, which… who cares?! Then mom counts her mosquito bites. It would be more fun if we could bring the dog.” From Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado:
Come Hail or High Water: Our Family’s Shortest (and worst) Camping Trip
I have tried to instill a love of nature in my kids–just last week we went hiking four times, my daughter recently returned from YMCA of the Rockies’ traditional overnight Camp Chief Ouray and at the end of July they’re both enrolled in Avid4Adventure’s Survival Skills Camp. We are an outdoor-loving family! But my favorite childhood memories are of camping and that is one area in which we’ve fallen short with my own family. There is nothing like the sense of community at campgrounds, playing with new BFFs, eating tin foil dinners and s’mores, exploring and exploring some more, and telling stories around the campfire. Here’s a recap of our camping trips since having kids. Trip 1: Hadley had just turned 1 and was a horrible sleeper so she wailed all...
A bear, hail and other camping calamities
This summer, my family spent two weekends camping—in a TENT—in two separate forests, with two different groups of friends. Back in January we were asked to go, and our friends made the reservations for two consecutive weekends. We feel fortunate to have good friends, and spending a weekend away “unplugged” sounded like a great idea as I sat by my space heater warming my pretty feet. Our first weekend was up at Rocky Mountain National Park. The site was gorgeous and we arrived only after about a four-hour drive, that normally takes us one hour. There was an accident in Boulder and we were re-directed to Longmont. Then we had to stop and eat since it was dinnertime, and then we sort of got lost in what looked like Longmont, but we aren’t really sure. My husband Billy stopped about this point...
A camping essential
With summer winding down, we’re trying to take advantage of the wonderful camping Colorado has to offer. A couple of weekends ago, we went on an overnight camping trip. How did it go? Well, the short and sweet answer: Awesome! But… You’ll probably wonder what’s wrong with me after you read the long answer… It all started out innocently enough. We’d planned a weekend getaway with another family, and we couldn’t wait! We were in the midst of hosting out-of-state visitors, but they were scheduled to leave our house on Saturday morning, and we’d head out right after them. And then my hubby looked at the weather report. Doh! It did not look good, but it didn’t look as bad as it could. Typically, we snub our noses and laugh at anything lower than a 60% chance of rain…and...
