Jumpin' Janes

The Midwest has been going thru a heatwave lately so I've been trying to come up with things to do so that we aren't outside melting.  Today, the boys and I along with my mom drove to Dubuque to go to Jumpin' Janes.  We've been meaning to go there for quite some time.  Jumpin' Janes is a large building that is filled with huge inflatable toys to jump on, climb on, and slide down.  It was awesome!  We had so much fun and it was VERY inexpensive.

 Tristan really enjoyed the carousel

 Grandma even got in on the fun!

 That's Jackson waaaay up there!  He had no fear!

Vacation: Day 10

We woke up our usual early time and started to get ready to head out.  We grabbed some breakfast at the hotel and packed up the car once again.  We left from the hotel around 8:30am.  We stopped at a few rest stops along the way home, a quick lunch at Story City, and arrived in Farmersburg around 4:00pm.  It was good to be home, but boy was it HOT!!  We got our things unloaded into the house at least and did put a few things away.  The boys got right to work playing with all their toys.  It was kind of funny, I didn't realize how much they would miss their toys.  I would say our first big vacation was a true success!  We had such a good time and will hopefully go back again in the future.

Vacation: Day 9

Our vacation is almost over!  Very sad to leave but it will be nice to get back home.  Dad, Mom and Mike left earlier than the rest of us, they were planning on driving the entire way home, roughly 14 hours.  Joy and Barb were planning on driving all the way to Ankeny which is not quite as far.  Joy was planning on staying at Barb's that night and heading home to Dubuque on Sunday hopefully after seeing Jim, Mandy and Charlotte.  We had made a hotel reservation in Lincoln Nebraska, roughly halfway home.  After talking it about it weeks before our vacation we had decided that it would be in our best interest to NOT drive the entire way home in one day.  It was a good choice. 

We took off from Estes Park around 7:20am.  Jackson had had his usual chocolate milk that morning.  Between the chocolate milk and the winding road thru Big Thompson Canyon I think it made his tummy upset.  A few miles before Loveland he threw up.  And then he threw up again.  Karsten tried his best to use Jackson's blanket and a towel we had to clean it up before we could stop.  We finally found a gas station outside of Loveland and stopped to change his clothes.  Karsten cleaned up his car seat the best he could with some antibacterial wipes we had.  We then took off again.  A short while down the road Jackson complained that his tummy hurt again.  I thought maybe he had to poop, he often says his tummy hurts before he poops.  We found another gas station to stop at and he and Karsten went inside to go to the bathroom.  When they came back out Jackson didn't have a shirt on....while waiting in line he had vomited again.  Luckily, Karsten managed to contain it in Jackson's shirt.  Jackson got another clean shirt and we were on our way once again.  We were very hesitant to give him anything to eat or drink while we were in the car.  He finally fell asleep for an hour or so and when he woke up he said he felt better.  We stopped at a Wendy's for lunch and intentionally took a table as close to the bathroom as possible since we were still not sure about Jackson's stomach.  He ate lunch fine and had no more troubles.  Thank goodness!  I was imagining a car ride home with a 3 year old with stomach flu.  No thank you!

We did stop in Kearney Nebraska again on our way to our hotel in Lincoln.  There is an Archway Monument there that we thought might be fun.  It was pretty interesting.  There was also a maze that we went thru.  It was a good stop during our car ride to get some exercise.

  The Archway Monument actually goes over the interstate.

An old wagon outside of the monument.

You get timed as you go thru the maze, then get a "prize".  Jackson picked out a foam airplane.

After our stop the the Archway Monument we only had a couple hours left until we got to our hotel in Lincoln.  We arrived at our hotel around 6:30pm, but we did lose an hour in western Nebraska due to the time change from mountain to central.  We got settled a bit, stretched our legs and then found some supper.  The boys tore around the hotel room, we got baths done, pajamas on, watched a little TV, then lights off at 9:00pm.

Vacation: Day 8

Today is our last full day in Colorado!  We have had such an amazing week, I just love Colorado.  The weather has been great the entire week, temps in the 70's with very little humidity.  We've had short rain showers almost every afternoon but it hasn't seemed to slow us down at all.  This morning while we were getting ready and discussing plans the boys decided to go upstairs to Mike's room to play a bit.  Tristan usually does very well with stairs, he even has to go up and down them upright like his brother.  Jackson came downstairs and I asked him where his brother was.  He replied that Tristan was still upstairs but was coming down.  Well, coming down was right!  Tristan fell down almost the entire set of stairs, which have very thin carpeting on them and hard linoleum floor at the bottom.  I immediately picked him up and of course he was screaming.  After checking him over a bit I decided he was fine just scared.  I'm pretty sure I was just as scared as him!  After we all settled down from the excitement we finished getting ready for the day.

 Jackson is wearing the present that Grandma found for him shopping yesterday.  He loved it!  A helmet with a light on the front.  Unfortunately, we couldn't find a screwdriver small enough to open it to put the batteries in it.  We assured him that this will be done once we are home.  The helmet even says Rocky Mountain National Park.

Playing with Grandma on the swing before we left for the morning.

Dad, Mike and Karsten decided to do a hike to Bierstadt Lake while the ladies and the boys decided to take it easy and go to Lily Lake.  Lily Lake is actually technically not even in the park but it's just as pretty as all the other lakes.

 Lily Lake

 Jackson pointing to the ducks that were by the shore.  He wanted me to take lots of pictures of the ducks.

 We tried to get a picture of Mommy and the boys.

  Grandma and Jackson on a bridge towards the end of the trail.  Couldn't resist that background for the picture.

 Barb and Joy waving to the camera.

Tristan waving to the camera.  He was so tired.

See!  He fell asleep in the stroller by the time we were done with our walk.

After our walk at Lily Lake we headed back to the cabin for some lunch.  The men would probably be a bit yet as their hike was much longer than ours.

Tristan enjoying his lunch.

After the men got back and had their lunch we decided to head out for some more mini golf only at a different place.  Jackson was excited, he loves mini golf.

 A shot of the men's group.  Jackson trying for par.

On the last hole everyone had a chance to get a free game.  I think Jackson tried about 10 different times as the lady kept giving him more balls to hit.  She finally just gave him a free game, he thought it was pretty cool.  He was so proud!

We then went back to the cabin and started cleaning and packing up.  There is no cleaning service at this cabin, everyone is expected to clean before they leave in preparation for the next group to come.  I think the group in front of us had forgotten this, the place was not super clean when we got there.  Hopefully we made up for this as we tried to do an extra good job.  Very little napping was done today from the boys but we decided to try to go out to eat with the rest of the group.  We went to Sweet Basilica which is a casual Italian restaurant highly recommended.  We got our salads, Tristan ate too much ranch followed by a piece of lettuce, and then vomited all over Karsten.  It was time to leave.  We got back to the cabin, took baths, got pajamas on, and found some supper for the boys.  The rest of the group brought our food with them home so we ate later.  The boys seemed to be fine after we got back.  It had been a long week of off routine and it was starting to show.  The rest of the evening was spent cleaning and packing up, and a little wrestling with Uncle Mike...

Followed by the usual "steamroller"....

We have a long day of driving tomorrow!

Vacation: Day 7

Yesterday Karsten had made arrangements to get some fly fishing lessons and Dad decided to go with him.  Karsten has had an interest in fly fishing for a while so it worked out great that he could get lessons in Colorado.  While those two had their plans, the rest of us decided to go on a hike.  The Old Fall River Road is a one way gravel road that leads up to the Alpine Center, unfortunately this year it was closed to traffic due to all the snow up there.  So we decided to hike it up to Chasm Falls which is about a mile and a half up.  Joy decided to stay back at the cabin since her knees weren't going to let her hike much.  We made plans to get her before going to another visitor center/gift shop.

I decided to take on the carrier for T-man.  Jackson assured me he would walk the whole way and not ask to be carried.  Yeah, right.  The above picture is from a stream on the way up.

 Uphill all the way!

Jackson talked Barb into giving him a ride.  No one was surprised by this.

It was a pretty tough hike for us novices but it felt really good.  We took a few rest breaks on the way up.  We also saw a couple RUNNING up the road!  It didn't even look like they were working hard.

 We made it to Chasm Falls!!  Again, the water was really rushing and felt nice and cool.

 Mom and Jackson walking down to get a better look.

 Barb and Jackson getting a really good look!

Me and the T-man!  He thoroughly enjoyed the backpack carrier and why wouldn't he, he didn't have to do any of the work!

After resting at Chasm Falls for a bit we hiked back down to the cars.  We, of course, didn't need as many rest stops on the way down.  Tristan was ready to get out of the carrier by the time we reached the cars and I was ready to get the carrier off!  Barb took off to go get Joy and we met at another visitor's center/gift shop at a different entrance/exit to the park.  Mom had made a deal with Jackson to get him a present if he walked down the Fall River Road without being carried.  He barely made it.  They didn't really find anything great at this gift shop so decided to keep looking.  We went back to the cabin after that, grabbed a quick lunch and the boys took a nap.  Karsten and Dad got back in the afternoon, they had a great time.  They had a really neat guide for their lessons and both managed to catch fish.  Dad then also took a nap.  Karsten stayed at the cabin since the boys were still sleeping while the rest of us (minus Dad) took off for downtown for some shopping.  Estes Park has lots of neat little shops to walk thru.  Eventually, Dad, Karsten and the boys joined us downtown.  We (Foels' family) decided to stay downtown and walk around a bit while everybody else went home.  So we did a little more shopping, walked by the river, which was really high, and grabbed a quick supper to go from McDonalds.  The boys were getting pretty tired and grumpy so we ate our food at the cabin and then headed them to bed.  Everybody else had gone for supper at the Other Side restaurant and said it was really good food.  We stayed up a little later and played the traditional golf card game then off to bed.

Vacation: Day 6

We had a big day planned for today.  We started by stopping at Sprague Lake.  We were told that the area isn't nearly as busy in the morning or late afternoon, which makes sense because it is a fabulous picnic area.

 Anybody else see anything wrong with this picture?

Beautiful!

We took our time walking around the lake, taking pictures all the way.  There was quite a few fly fisherpeople in the lake as well.  Sprague Lake is not very deep so it's an excellent place for fishing.

Barb skipping rocks with a gorgeous reflection shot in the background.

Jackson loved climbing on the rocks!

Family pic at Sprague Lake

Mike with his favorite nephews!

I wanted a picture of Grandma with Jackson but this is all he would agree to.

Next was Bear Lake.  Bear Lake is deeper but the views are just as beautiful.  There are quite a few hiking trails that start or end at Bear Lake.  We decided to take an easier one to Alberta Falls.  Joy decided to stay back but everyone else was up for it.

 These little guys are everywhere and you can tell they get fed, even though they aren't supposed to be.  He was enjoying a cracker that one of the boys had dropped.

 More rocks to climb at Bear Lake

 Mike at Bear Lake, awesome background!

 Papa and Jackson

 Tristan wanted in on some of the climbing too!

 Barb and Mom on one of the many snow piles at Bear Lake, we may have had a little snowball fight along the trail...

 Thanks Mom for lifting this heavy rock out of the way....hee hee

 We had found a carrier backpack in the garage at the cabin so we decided to try it out for Tristan so he wouldn't feel left out.  He loved it!

Papa gave Jackson a ride on the trail to Alberta Falls

Alberta Falls.  The water was really rushing fast causing a light mist/spray of water when you were close.  It's amazing how cool the air gets when you are close to the water.

After our hike we had a middle of the afternoon lunch at Ed's Cantina downtown.  Awesome Mexican food!  We took it easy following lunch just loafing around the cabin and playing outside.  Ended our day with lasagna for supper at the cabin.  Another great day in the mountains!

Vacation: Day 5

Today is the day to climb up the Trail Ridge Road.  This is the long and windy road that goes up, up, up to the Alpine Visitors Center which is at around 12,000 feet. 

A pull over area on Trail Ridge Road.  Getting pretty high up, I wasn't too excited about looking over that railing.

 There was plenty of snow up here!

 Normally, there is a path you can take to go up even higher.  The sign said closed but workers in the store told us we could still go up, so we did....we got about 1/3rd of the way up that's when park rangers (who were already at the top) yelled at us to go back down as the trail was closed.  Oops!

Family picture at Alpine.  As you can see there was lots of snow and the temperature did drop a bit.

While we were at Alpine we discovered just how severe Mike's fear of heights is.  He was not comfortable AT ALL with the ride up the mountain, especially once we were above tree line.  He was a trooper though, not wanting to spoil everyone else's fun. 

On the way back down Trail Ridge Road a herd of elk decided to cross.  Traffic was stopped both ways to let them pass.

By now we were hungry, so we drove around trying to find a nice spot for our picnic.  Sprague Lake and Bear Lake were both full so instead, we found a nice little cleared off spot by a creek complete with a picnic table.  We enjoyed our picnic of sandwiches, chips, fruit and drinks.

There was also a great rock for pictures.  We took full advantage, snapping lots of group pics.

 Who's that kid in the background?

 Barb and Joy

 Dad and Mom

 Grandma and Papa with the boys

The Sass/Foels clan

After our picnic we went back to the cabin. Some napped while others just hung out.  On our way to the cabin the first day we drove by Fun City.  It had a very large colorful slide that Jackson had been bugging us about since we got here.  After everyone was awake we decided to go downtown to check it out.  It was a good idea.

 Jackson and Barb at the top

 Jackson took off without Barb!

I believe his first words after finishing the slide were "let's do that again"....so he did....about 4 or 5 times.

 Tristan wanted a turn!  Daddy went too.

 He was laughing at first....

But at the bottom he wasn't so sure....

Next was mini golf

It was a lot of fun!  We did get rained on halfway thru.  We had to find some quick shelter for just a few minutes while it poured, once it was done raining we finished our games.

 Messing around on some rides while everyone finished golfing.  Gotta love that Tristan smile!

For supper that night we went to Mary's Lake Inn.  Really good food and atmosphere.  Dad didn't get his shepherd's pie but did enjoy some bison meatloaf instead.  We left before the rest of the bunch so we could get the boys to sleep before everyone got home.  Another great day in the mountains!