Odds and Ends in Estes Park CO

Hanging around with family

Finley affectionately known as Finners at least by the hoffmans

Olive, Hazel and Jennifer

Yes, in a few years these same characters will be lounging on ugly yard chairs at their own family reunions

Ethan, Olive and Ava, but on a dance and then a gun show...it got quite wild.

Auntie Janice

The only picture I have of Lonie....sorry about that Lonie

Ella

Oh those dirty feet, so cute

Where there is dirt kids will have fun.

Julia and Lori

Julie loves to be held by anyone, so I think everyone at the dinner saw this exact pose at some time during the evening

The dangerous hike around Lily Lake, CO

The morning started off slow, just sitting around, playing games with papa

Karen started to brew some ideas of what to do today, lets see what these brochures say

Then Jeremy jumped in, not wanting to miss out on any of the planning, that is what he enjoys the most about anything, the planning....so does mom...our two planners....if we did not have them the day would have looked much like the top two photos all day long.

Auntie Jenn took over some of my rocking duties. Thanks Jenn

It was decided to venture out, even though there were some clouds approaching. Karen assesses the situation

Ok, we see the clouds, but man it is so pretty, lets just take a little walk around the lake. It is an easy walk, the sun is still out.

Oh how cute, there were even these little plague caring varmints to feed.

Someone fly fishing. I had to give Jeremy a bib for his drooling

The weather seems to be getting a little more serious on us, but we are half way around the lake. We check with our guide, uncle Danny, he does not say much and keeps walking a head.

The family picture

Ethan was in mid climb when the lightening started to crack and all of a sudden the hail started to fall. We all ran under a tree, the kids were screaming and I mean screaming. My kids don't hear thunder to much in NC and have never seen hail. Poor Hazel was getting pelted...you can see how things were starting to go. Luckily Jeremy had gear in his back pack and saved us from getting to wet. He is always thinking...the good part of marrying a planner.

Here is the storm as it passed over us, and when it was done left us in warm sunshine

Soon after that, we thought this tree looked nice, however this to proved to be dangerous, with Ethan falling off and getting badly scraped (it matched his other scrapes from falling out of a tree two days before, and one day before cracking his head open on a drawer)

The girls.

Uncle Danny taught the kids how to eat Timothy. It slowed us down some but made me able to get some pictures of the kids strolling.

Our guide, just happens to be chewing timothy and wearing a lady bug on his back.

Ava and Olive

The kids digging for snails. The water was very brisk

Uncle Danny was feeding the rodents his skittles.

Olive sharing her granola

Ethan teaching tricks.