I bought some YakTraks to strap onto our shoes since they are supposed to help with traction on ice. I couldn’t even feel them on my feet and never worried about slipping at all, which is a big deal considering I am a klutz.

Bob let Coda off leash for most of the hike uphill and Coda enjoyed every moment of freedom frolicking in the wilderness. He even howled to the tune of “The Hills Are Alive”. Honest, he did.

While Coda enjoyed running around I was getting pretty tired when we came to quite the incline. I made a rule that Bob had stop every 20 yards so I could rest. I wasn’t kidding. At one point I found a rock to sit on and busted out my stash of Girl Scout cookies that I snuck into my pocket before we left the house. I know you’re all wondering what kind they were. I had Do Si Dos! Peanut butter sandwich cookies. Peanut butter has protein so it was the perfect healthy snack for a hike. Yeah… just go with it.

After about 2 1/2 hours of walking uphill we decided to head down. Ahhh this was much better. I didn’t have to stop at all on the way down. I love gravity. You didn’t expect Bob and I to go on a hike just for the fitness aspect did you? No no no, we went out for Mexican food for dinner to re-gain the calories we lost and then some.

It was still freezing cold (around 26 degrees) so we grabbed some hot chocolate and hot cider and fed the goats before heading home. The goats loved Bob. Must be all of his facial hair that matched the goats.

Today we went to Rock Creek farms that had the same problem with pumpkins freezing and rotting. Acres upon acres of the pumpkin patch were a bust to walk through. All of the remaining pumpkins had already turned to mush. We headed to the pre-picked bins to get pumpkins that hadn’t turned into orange blobs yet.

Since it is getting chilly here, the kids have started to snuggle. Don’t look at the next picture if you can’t handle cuteness. Don’t let them fool you though! They are still trouble! Just ask Coda where my loaf of beer bread and pound of vanilla fudge went.

Oh, and Bob wanted to show off his pumpkin again:

We continued on our scenic drive along the Colorado River for about an hour. Purdy yellow Aspen trees and fishermen dotted the riverbanks. It was a lovely, uneventful drive until our gas light came on and we didn’t see a gas station for what felt like hours. I may have over-reacted about the gas light because we survived. (Editor’s [Bob's] Note: We still had almost 3 gallons of gas when we got to the gas station. I wasn’t even breaking a sweat.)

As soon as we got our tent set up we saw storm clouds rolling in so we got in the car and headed to Wal-Mart to get a hatchett and then stopped at Wendy’s for dinner since having a campfire was out of the question that night. When we got back to the tent it had partially collapsed from swift winds, and despite having an extra rain tarp on top, had soaked our mattress foam that we brought to sleep on. It was a damp, chilly slumber.

We woke up to clear blue skies and headed out to the regatta. While waiting for the race to start we watched as Coda enjoyed splashing and swimming in the water. Then we saw a water taxi that gives rides from one marina to another on opposite sides of the lake. We had no reason to go to the other marina, but were itching to be out on a boat so we paid to go for a 1-hour roundtrip water taxi ride.

The views were spectacular and our captain told us that the lake is about 30 miles all around the shoreline and gets to 300 feet deep near the dam, where the water temps hold steady at about 38 degrees. Burrr. I would not want to go overboard there! There was also a slight gap between the floor boards and Coda was fascinated, curious, and angry that water kept splashing up. Watch his reaction:

Coda attacking water splashes from Bob Spryn on Vimeo.

After our boat ride we went to a nearby park that overlooked the regatta and Chef Bob cooked some burgers while I read a celebrity gossip magazine and occasionally glanced up at the sailboats. I blame Aunt Jodi for my celebrity gossip obsession since she gave me all of her old People magazines.

After the boat race, we headed back to our camp where I was going to read up on breckenridge and see what we might do later.

That evening we had a camp fire and ate modified s’mores. Bob doesn’t like chocolate, so I got Reese’s Pieces candies to put on the graham cracker instead of Hershey’s chocolate. It seemed like a good idea in theory, but the small candies fell off and I ended up cramming them into the sides of the marshmallows. Despite the logistical disaster, they tasted pretty good!

On day three without showers, we packed up and headed to Mt. Evans on the way home. This mountain is slightly over 14,000 feet high. The roads were barely wide enough for 2 cars and there were no guardrails. I was sure we were going to die, but was pleased with the lovely views we would see if we fell to our deaths.

We made it to the top and saw mountain goats that were no more than 10 feet away from us! The park ranger said the goats put up with humans because they needed to be near the rocks at the top to lick the minerals out. They were cute creatures.

We headed back down the mountain and passed a Dodge Colt Vista along the way. My parents used to have this vehicle and I was amazed that one was still running, let alone climbing a 14,000 foot mountain!

We rolled out of bed early on Saturday morning to be at the construction site by 8 am. Anyone that knows Bob would realize that having him wake up before 10 am on a weekend is almost as rare as seeing Halley’s comet. We learned that is was drywall day! Bob and I grabbed a pair of safety goggles that strongly resembled the size of our prescription glasses from elementary school. We were given about 10 minutes worth of instruction from a supervisor and then we were assigned to drywall the bathroom for the day.

The bathroom may seem like a small place to spend a whole 8 hours on, but it was very difficult! We had to measure and cut drywall around all of the water pipes, outlets, shower spout, tiny linen closet and so on. It didn’t help that the framing crew didn’t exactly line the studs up evenly. Some were off by as much as 1/4 inch, which meant we had to do a lot of patching up with cardboard and scrap plywood so the walls wouldn’t look warped.

One of the biggest feats was trying to get around the shower and a thin side strip. It was during this time that Bob learned the meaning of the phrase “measure twice and cut once”. We got to practice cutting that giant piece twice! At the end of the day, we didn’t get to finish the bathroom, but still felt pretty accomplished.

The place is a 1 bedroom, 1 bath unit in a 4-plex. It is going to a single lady. Her mortgage on the finished unit will be about $500 a month (for a total of around $140,000). The condos across the street that are non-habitat units are selling for nearly $700,000! Habitat certainly helps people in need to afford their own home. Habitat homes are much less expensive because they only need to cover the cost of land and materials. The labor is free through volunteers.

The kitchen cabinets are built by local prisoners that are in a wood-working class while in jail. Habitat covers the cost of the wood and the prisoners make them for free. It is a good way for the prisoners to learn a trade (and get away from their cell-mates “Butch” and “Rebel”). After they learn this trade, many are allowed out of prison and some have opened their own wood-working studio. It is really win-win for Habitat and the prisoners.

During our first full day there we went to Universal Studios. As soon as I entered through the gates my manager called my cell phone. She informed me that 20% of our employees were laid off, including her, but I was safe. I thought it was a shame to hear that news, but managed to suck it up in half a second to ride on the Incredible Hulk roller coaster.

Universal had a lot of rides geared towards grown-ups, so we got to go on a lot of fun thrill rides there. We went on a Superman ride which happened to be semi-motion-simulated, which means I was very nauseous and did not enjoy it at all. I took about 20 minutes to recover in the air conditioned store area after that ride!

Partway through the day Bob got a call from someone offering him a nice new job. Although he loves his current job, the offer was too good to turn down, and counter-acted my dreary phone call from my manager.

We spent a full day at Universal Studios, slathered in SPF 85 sunscreen. At the end of the day, I enjoyed a margarita directly from Margaritaville. And it was strong.

On day 2 we met up with our friends Anthony and Katie at Magic Kingdom, Disney. Bob and I got special pins to wear, indicating that we were on our honeymoon. The employees kept congradulating us. We went all over the park and I even managed to drag Bob on the Dumbo ride and It’s a Small World. The lines weren’t bad at all since we never had to wait more than 40 minutes.

Katie was determined to meet Pooh bear and that was actually the longest wait, but worth it to meet him and Tigger. It was hot in that line and we were thankful that the little girl behind us was using a spray bottle, so we were able to catch a cool mist from her once in a while. Bob dared her by saying “I bet you can’t spray me!”. Bob lost that bet, but in the end… did he really lose?

Our last day started at Animal Kingdom where we only went on a few rides, then made our way to Hollywood studios. We spent a lot of time there to go on the Tower of Terror and the Rockin’ Rollercoaster (my two favourite rides).

Then we took a ferry over to Epcot and got dinner in Mexico. At that point we were all exhausted and didn’t want to walk around much more, so we sat around and watched “Cheesy bird”. He was running around with naco cheese on his feathers and looked silly.

We caught a 2nd wind and went back to Hollywood studios for more thrill rides and we went with Anthony’s parents this time. His mom is a hoot and was screaming her head off. We convinced her that the Rockin’ Rollercoaster was a smooth ride with only 1 loop. Maybe we should have told her it goes 0-60 in 2 seconds flat and there were actually 3 loops.

Overall, we had a nice trip to Disney with our friends. I’m ready to plan my next vacation…just not in the middle of a humid summer season. Katie and Antz are already planning to come visit us in Colorado. Say… Octoberish?

Although it may seem small, these can do some car tossing if they hit the ground, even at this size.

Also someone grabbed some video of the very same funnel cloud:

Tornado forming above my house from Dan Pacheco on Vimeo.

The forecast was calling for rain and thunderstorms and for once the weatherman was correct. It would rain for a couple hours, then clear up long enough so we could start a fire to cook a meal. We made sure we got our fix of s’mores before the rain came back and smothered our fire. We also put peanut butter on our s’mores and it was a delicious twist.

We went to the dunes Saturday morning. The dunes are the tallest in North America and were more like a mountain range than plain ol’ dunes. In order to get to the dunes we had to cross a freezing cold stream. We took off our sneakers and socks and waded across to the dunes.

Climbing was incredibly difficult. We put in a lot of effort and received minimum progress because the sand absorbed most of our steps. Bob and I didn’t quite make it to the top (I blame Coda), but the views were still fantastic!

That evening was very cold. The temperatue dipped down to around 40 degrees and when you combine that with the rain, it was downright bone chilling. After a few rounds of cards with our friends, I was ready for bed. I put on as many layers as there are in seven layer bean dip. Then I hibernated in my sleeping bag with Bob and Coda. Yes, Coda snuggled into the sleeping bag with Bob and I.

We packed up a day early since there was a lot more rain to come. Luckily, the rain held off long enough that morning to let us pack our tent up. We stopped at Bishop castle on the way back home. This castle was built by a crazy guy that decided he wanted to build a castle with his own 2 hands. He spent 40 years collecting rocks from his property and building this castle. The steps were steep, the iron rails shook and I’m not entirely sure how stable it really was.

The castle’s owner is very anti-government. In fact, no “drunk taxpayers” were allowed on his property. He also decided that people don’t have to be 16 years old to drive. He thinks anybody of any age can drive because the constitution doesn’t say otherwise. At least his insanity comes out in the form of a creative castle!

We found a couple of guys with bulging calf muscles in the parking lot and figured they would be perfect to ask which trails to go on. Bob made sure to tell them I had never been mountain biking before. They gave us some guidance, wished us luck and said “Maybe we’ll see you out on the trail in a bit!”. HA! The only way we’d see them on the trail is if they passed us on their way back to the parking lot, while Bob and I were still chugging along… just leaving the parking lot.

We saw some deer and got pretty close to them. One in particular didn’t seem too scared and I thought he was getting ready to attack me so I told Bob to get pedaling, and fast. After escaping with my life, we passed a few horses along the way and several near-pro bikers that whizzed by.

Yet another scary moment was the first big down-hill part of the trail. It was steep and had lots of rocks. Bob greeted the challenge with a smile and enjoyed it. I slammed on my grown-up brakes and walked down the hill. I’m the world’s biggest klutz, so a hill + rocks= trip to the emergency room. I wasn’t going to take my chances. The bottom of the hill took us to a lake. And by lake, I mean a really big pond (nothing compares to a lake after growing up near the great lakes).

At this point I realized Bob left the trail map in the car and was just guessing where to go. We ended up at a dead-end because the trail ran into a swift-moving stream. I wasn’t up for swimming across it with my hand-me-down bike, so we backtracked a bit and Bob finally got us back to the Skunk Lot. Bob enjoyed the trails and I think I may have accidentally agreed to go again with him.

Saturday had warmed up but still called for contant rain all day. We decided to go on a tour of Hammond’s Candy factory. They make lots of hard candy and candy canes. Anyone in my family would appreciate a candy factory tour. We put on fancy-pants hats and watched the workers roll out candy canes while indulging in free samples. Good thing we had a few freebies because their chocolates were over $22 per pound!

We drove around downtown Denver in the rain so mom could see Investco Stadium where the Broncos play and Coors Field where the Rockies play. Then we mosied up to Boulder for the late evening. The rain let up and we had a chilly walk down Pearl Street where mom purchased some more candy (beacause free samples aren’t enough!). We took a little drive to Nederland so she could see a small mountain town, but we couldn’t see much of the town since it was covered in 3 feet of snow.

Sunday suddenly became sunny so we headed to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. I believe mom said “It is just so beautiful” about a trillion times, give or take one or two. She also took the same picture a trillion times because she just couldn’t get enough of the views. Her highlight was seeing the elk that we had told her about. Oh, and the prarie dogs. She loved those, too.

Monday afternoon we took her to Red Rocks amphitheater to see a cool, natural phenomenom. She was quite impressed with the views, but less impressed with the many steps she had to walk up to use the restroom there. I think that was the first time she realized the altitude can do a number on ya!

From there we went to Roxborough state park where Bob pelted me with snowballs. Mom decided we should ban together and shove Bob in the snow, and I stupidly agreed. When Bob was near me, I shoved him, and somehow I ended up getting more snow in my face. Mom tried to clobber Bob with some snowballs, but Bob grabbed me and used me as a human shield. Mom, your brilliant plan backfired and I had to pay the price. Thanks.