cabin trip 2015 (part 2)

Another great life lesson the kids encountered while at the cabin was this colt that was only a few hours old. The mother is one of Pat's horses and they brought her and the colt to the old coral near the cabin.  We got to watch it still trying to get it's legs underneath it. Mom sat down once, but as soon as baby got up so did she to be right by it. The next day they ventured into our yard to eat. Mom would let someone pat her, but not get too close to the colt. 

One great part of this year's trip was getting to be there with so much family. Chris' aunt Elaine, uncle Steve and aunt Gloria, and his sister Kathy and our nephew Weston were able to be there also. One afternoon we joined Steve on one of his wanderings to find a stream to fish. While he fished the kids found part of the stream to play in. Do you know how cold that water is?! It was snow shortly before they played in it! We couldn't keep Reese out of it, of course, and eventually had to take her jeans off. They all quickly kicked off their shoes and played and played!

Grandad arranged for a ride on the town's fire engine. It was a big hit with the kiddos! Elle even found those cool shades!

cabin trip 2015 (part 1)

We headed to the cabin last Friday morning knowing we'd need to take a couple days to get there with Reese. We timed it really well and got a long stretch in while she took a morning nap. We stopped in Shamrock, TX for lunch at DQ and to stretch our legs. Then we hit the road again and made it to Clayton, NM before having to stop. We found these dinosaurs to play on, and ate dinner at a local place called The Rabbit Ear Cafe. The kids were doing so well that we felt like we could go a little bit further and make it to Raton, NM for the night. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, and highly recommend it if you find yourself needing to stay in Raton. We gained an hour once we hit mountain time so we went for a swim in the hotel's indoor pool. The next day we had a much shorter drive so we got up early and hit the pool again after breakfast. We drove to Alamosa, CO and ate lunch at a park. I went grocery shopping while the kids played at another park with Chris and then we headed up the mountain.

This year we found a Jeep PowerWheels car to bring up for the kids to play with. They had a blast and it was a hoot watching them! It really showcased their personalities. Elle was a very cautious driver, and yelled at Todd, and later Weston, while he drove. Todd behind the wheel was Sunday driving! He once told Elle "don't worry, I'm a good driver!" It was so funny! And of course Reese couldn't resist trying to get a ride. Of course she was too little this year, but did enjoy just sitting in the car.

One of the other cabin owners brought up this tractor and this plow from 1910 to help grate the road around town. He was so nice to oblige the kids with a ride.

It had rained a lot in CO as well, so there were so many wildflowers. It was gorgeous!

Pat lives behind our cabin, and takes people on horseback up the mountain. Reese discovered the horses and thought they were giant dogs. She kept "woofing" when she saw them and was not afraid at all to go up and pet them, most of the time insisted on it!

Lots of learning about life happened this trip. These four baby robins were all in the nest when we got there. But over the next day or so we watched them all leave the next one at a time, with a lot of insistence from mom or dad (hard to tell who it was). 

The weather was wonderful, cool, but not too cold!

The kids got in some good digging!

The kids finally braved climbing the little mountain. Elle would only go up to the "kitchen" the first day (that part right underneath Chris I believe) where generations of Shrocks have played, and Todd loved climbing all the way to the top instantly!  Over the next few days though Elle finally got to the top and got over her fear.

our (very) little mermaid's 1st birthday

Reese loves the water! She has loved her bath since the very first time. She loves to splash and kick and get everything soaked. She also likes playing with Elle's Little People princesses and castle. With her birthday being in May, and her loves of water and princesses we came up with a (very) Little Mermaid swimming party. I found a cute picture on pinterest making a smash cake with the little people princess. Elle already had lots of Little Mermaid toys that we used as decorations, and she even had some ocean art projects from school that we used. With the crazy amounts of rain and sudden cold day we did have to go to plan B, which was a sprinkler, sand box, water table, and the trike wash from church in the front. The kids played a lot longer than I thought they would for it being so cold. Reese had a wonderful time, until it got too close to nap time. For lunch we had "seaweed" turkey wraps, sea salt veggie straws, watermelon, and shells and cheese. They also had been selling Little Debbie jelly fish cookies and coral brownies so we got some of those to add to our theme. We are so thankful to everyone who came from near and far to help us celebrate our precious water bug!