Busy Times

Pappa and DeeDee at Alberta Falls

Hey, Dougie. Its been almost 3 weeks since I've made an entry on our blog. I have been thinking about you, but was not able to get to the computer to update until now.

Pappa and DeeDee have been on vacation. We went out to Colorado to see your Aunt Katie and Uncle Michael and then spent a couple of days in Rocky Mountain National Park. We stayed at the YMCA of the Rockies, which is ajacent to the park. We can hike into the park from our lodge, which we love to do. Of course, the park is so big and there are so many things to see that we always drive in at least once a day, as well.

We saw lots of wildlife this year. The Elk rut occurs in September, so we always see lots of Elk. This year we also saw ducks, wild turkeys, deer, lots of different kinds of birds and 3 bears!! We saw the bears the first time when we were walking along one of the YMCA trails, getting ready to cross over into the park. We saw them again after we entered the park. They were traveling parallel to the trail foraging for food in the stream and meadows. We didn't get too close to them because they can be very dangerous. The Elk, however, were not at all shy about getting close to the people...as you can see by this photo...that is the mirror or our car in the picture!!

When we first got to the park, it was quite warm. However, on our last day there, a front came in and the temperature dropped very quickly. We hiked up above Alberta Falls and got back to the parking lot just in time for a little rain. By the time we had a snack and had hiked around Bear Lake, the temperature had fallen about 20 degrees and rain was falling very hard.

Snow for our ride back to Denver!!

By the next morning, we had snow!! Colorada did not disappoint us...we always get a bit of snow on our early fall trips to Colorado.

We were so glad to see you when we got back home. You and your mommy stayed with us this weekend and you and Pappa really enjoyed hanging out together. You do all of the "boy" things...you especially like playing ball with Pappa. You could push that ball back and forth for hours without getting tired of the game. You have also enjoyed watching DeeDee's washer...your mommy took a video of you. The video is over a minute and a half long and you did not even move...you were so interested in watching the clothes spin around.

We are so glad to see you again, Dougie!! We missed you so much.