Riley Falls, Colorado

After a very crazy month, our family has taken leave of Pflugerville and gone to visit family in Colorado. Leaving on July 10th, we drove all night straight through. We saw phantom lights in West Texas that turned out to be wind turbines (thousands and thousands of red blinking lights). We stopped and had lunch near a pond after we entered the mountains. We stopped in Eagle, Co to stretch our legs. We visited a little museum there and the kids got to see a lot of what it was like to live in log cabins and ride in buggies and what not. They especially enjoyed being able to explore a train car from early train history.

They were very excited to see Grandma & Grandpa Watts when we finally arrived. On Sunday we joined them at church for Grandma to show off her grandkids and then we had dinner at Aunt Carol & Uncle Jerry's. Brianna had chicken enchiladas for the first time and actually really enjoyed them!


On Monday, we met Kim and James and traveled up to Rifle Falls. We started with a picnic lunch by the creek. Ethan had a blast climbing up on the trees... except when we set him on a large branch for a family picture. He was afraid he would fall! Of course, he did fall as he was running around playing with Jasmine & Taylor. He banged himself up pretty good but was a trooper as always! We then hiked up the falls. They were beautiful! Brianna hated the water spray and would hardly go near enough for a decent picture. But they both enjoyed playing in the caves around the falls. At least, after they realized there was nothing in them that would get them. It was pretty dark in them, but they were not very deep. One cave they actually had to climb up a little to get to, but by then, they were all into it. Another cave, they enjoyed playing with Jasmine like something was in the cave coming after them and would run screaming out. We even found a little snake by the trail and filled our canteen from the stream.

Though the kids were worn out, they were still up for a visit to the fish hatchery. They enjoyed watching the 1.5 million fish swim around in the little tunnels and watching them flop and jump as they poured food in for them. They also liked watching the workers clean the tunnels. They rode on a scraper that was pushed by the water flow and it scraped the tunnel clean. When they got to the end, they would open a little hatch and the fish would shoot out into the clean tunnel. I only wish we had gotten a picture of Ethan and Taylor imitating the birds that were walking around!

To finish off the fun dirty day, we stopped at Kim & James' hotel for a swim after a nap and dinner. Today, we will be off for the Monument and another busy day!