Durango

7/17/09 (I made this blog entry on a text editor in the airport 3 days ago.)

We're in the Durango airport waiting for our plane right now. I'm sorry I didn't make any blog entry s earlier, there was just so much to do. We were visiting my mom's parents who live in Durango, Colorado. For some reason I call them "Nana" and "Papa". They live in a big house about 13 miles from town. They have two barns, a greenhouse, and a tree house with a bed, a bathroom, and a shower. Ruth and I usually sleep in the tree house when we go to their house. Oh, and by the way, it's my birthday. We always do lots of things when we go to Durango. We went horseback riding, we visited my great-aunt (Nana's sister) and swam in her little lake, we went camping, we hiked, and we went canoeing. Ruth and I have been taking horseback riding lessons in the previous years that we came to Durango, and this year we just rode with Papa. I rode a horse named Hershey, Ruth rode Maple, and Papa rode a very slow horse that I forgot the name of. My great-aunt lives by a little lake that we like to play in. When we visit her we like to ride in the rowboat and swim around on inner tubes. This year we also made s'mores. We went on a camping trip near Purgatory Ski run and had a great time. We sang campfire songs, played in the river, and went on a hike. We also went canoeing at Lemon lake, which is a bazillion times bigger than my great aunt's lake. I never went inside the canoe, though; I was towed on an inner tube. That was very fun. Oh, and one more thing. Papa taught Ruth and me how to shoot a gun. We got to shoot his .22 at a log in the backyard. Yep, going to Nana and Papa's house was really fun.

Our Sabbatical in Colorado

This picture is very old, older than the oldest post on my blog, but I thought you might like to see it. It's a picture of one of the science projects we did in home school in Colorado when we went to visit my grandparents for our sabbatical. (It was really my parents sabbatical, that's why Ruth and I were home schooled. We noticed that there were little bubbles in the water from my grandparents' well, so we decided to put some water in a balloon and trap all the bubbles in the top of it. You can guess the rest of it from the picture, right?

Here's Ruth and I doing the slingshot project.

Measuring the distance.

Lemon Lake

Today we rode the canoe over lemon lake. The lake is flooded in the summer, so we like to paddle across it and imagine what it was like in the winter. there are some parts of the lake the lake that have trees growing in them and I can't see the bottom of. There are also parts of the lake that are so shallow that I can reach out over the side and touch the grass, yet we were able to paddle in that section. When we got out and hiked around Dad pushed over a few burnt trees and made a big cloud of dust. We also saw a fawn, but no mother deer.

Aunty's Lake and DEEER

Today we went to my great-aunt's lake. I rode on the inner tube and rode the boat around with my 5-year-old second cousin following me around playing a game where he's batman and I'm a pirate. I convinced Dad, Aunty, and Johnny to try riding on the inflatable whale that tips over all the time. It was very funny to watch. Back at Nana and Papa's house we saw a mommy deer nursing a fawn. It was REAL neat. The fawn was drinking milk and the mommy deer was licking the fawn's bottom. When the mommy ran away the fawn couldn't keep up and got lost. It actually walked up to us! Honestly, Ruth said that it was 12 feet away from us. She is saying "IIIIIIIIII VOOOOW THAAAAAT..." right now. And when the fawn went away it bounced up and down instead of running away it bounced up and down with it's legs perfectly strait.

Inner Tubing at the Jefferson's River

Today we inner tubed at Nana and Papa's friend's river. It is really fun. You hike up a little ways with an inner tube and then you ride down. It's a little tricky going the right way on both forks, and getting off without washing away, but it's real fun. I got some sort of a rash on the back of my leg, or maybe a sunburn.

Riding the Tandem and Hiking past the Florida

Today dad and I rode the tandem up to my grandparent's friend's house on the tandem and we saw three deer, a garder snake(which ar very common here, by the way), a sign that said Jan Measels, and lots of horses. Also in the morning Nana and I hiked to the bridge that goes over the florida river (The Florida comes out of lemon lake so at this time of year the river is flooded so you can't wade across) and over two streams.

Horses and Marshmallows

Today we had our second horseback riding lesson of the trip. I rode Hershey and Ruth rode Ozzy. Now Ruth and I can canter, or lope. In case you don't know, cantering is one step faster than trotting. it is really fun because It is fast and the horse's front legs move together and their back legs move together so it's not as bumpy as trotting. Last time I rode Chester and he ate to much so now I'm riding Hershey. Ozzy ate a lot and ran into trees today so next time Ruth's going to ride Dillon. After dinner Ruth an I roasted some s'mores at Barney's house. I like to roast a marshmallow with the section of chocolate stuck inside of it so the chocolate gets really melted and drippy, but the marshmallow usually droops off. this time I stuck a section of chocolate inside two marshmallows and roasted them at the same time. The marshmallows melted together and closed up on the ends so that it looked like one big marshmallow. When I took the marshmallow-roasting thingy out of the marshmallow the chocolate came out and dripped all over the place. It was a very messy s'more.

Alpine Slide

Today we went to Purgatory Ski Run and, of course, in the summer it's a bike run, but there's also lots of other things to do; like the alpine slide, the bungee jump, the climbing wall, the put-put golf course, and the marmots. The marmots aren't technically an activity; they're little cute animals that look like this:

The alpine slide was my favorite activity. You ride the chair lift up half a mile, you get a sled, and you ride down. The design of the sled is interesting. It has a brake lever that when you push forward lowers the wheels and makes the sled go faster and vice versa. I got a rope burn on my second or third time down because I didn't have both hands on the lever. That was the only time Ruth got to the bottom before me. We think that was because I am heavier. The bungee jump was my second favorite,and almost my favorite. You wear a harness attached to two cords that are hooked on to two poles. You can get really high if you ask. The put-put golf course was kinda fun, especially the levels with tunnels. All in all, a trip to Purgatory in the summer is almost as fun as it is in the winter.

Second Day at Nana and Papas' House

Today is our second day at my grandparents' house. Ruth and I played "That Game", Dad and I rode up past lemon lake on the tandem, and we roasted marshmallows at Barney the bear's house (which is only a deck with a wooden statue of a bear on it).