A Cozy Colorado Cabin

At the end of September, we drove to Leadville, Colorado for Cora's first trip to Carol and Larry's cabin. The cabin was amazing. The last time I had been there, the bedroom addition was just being started. Everything was finished this trip and it turned out absolutely beautiful. The cabin is a true cabin. Small, cozy, and full of happy people. The cabin is located on private land with a bunch of trout ponds. As you can imagine, Lee is one happy guy out there. We ate lots of great food (surprise?), paddled around in the canoe, sat by the warm fire, enjoyed the sun, and just had a lovely time.

Cora was Aunt Carol's right hand gal. She loved helping tend the fire.

George is great with Cora. She loves Georgie. It is amazing how much these two dogs put up with.

Cora and Grandma Jo reading. Cora was pretty much glued to Grandma this trip. Cora is starting to recognize family members, making trips like these that much better.

Grandma also came bearing gifts! Cora loves this animal magnet board.

Piggy back time!

Carol and Mary Jo out in the canoe. The lake the cabin on is called Home Lake. Isn't the area beautiful! There really isn't an ugly spot in Colorado.

The front of the cabin.

Lee caught some trout to eat for appetizers one night. Even after the fish were dead, Cora still thought they were great playmates.

What's a trip to the cabin without some bumps and bruises? What looked like a piddly fall turned out to cut her forehead in three places. OUCH! As you can see in the pictures, she was proud of her cuts.

Grandma brought bat wings for Cora. She loves her wing collection!

Dinner time!! Cora loves spaghetti (another trait she inherited from Aunt Anne). Notice she is digging in already. :)

Gearing up for a canoe ride.

Family photo op.

Reggie came too. Despite getting smelly in his old age, he is still our sidekick. He loves sleeping in boats.

Cora helped Daddy paddle. This made my job easy!

We had a picnic with the aspens on afternoon. Isn't it beautiful?!?

Georgie. 

Cora's new apron from Aunt Carol and Uncle Larry. She loves it! Can you tell?

Somehow, Cora roped the ENTIRE family into watching Pinocchio with her. 

To be totally honest, I don't love looking at these pictures because I want to go back soooo bad. We had a hard time saying goodbye. It was an incredibly quick trip, but one of the best decision we have made in a long time. Soon enough though, we'll be back.

I think I'll end this blog entry with a couple of videos. The first one is of Cora loving on dead fish. The second one is of Lee catching a trout.

School Photos!

We received Cora's school photo proofs earlier this week. As usual, they are adorable.

It was really hard to choose (again). We ended going up with picture UTD-6651. She isn't washed out in the real picture. This is the Cora we see every day. Dimple and all.

I've also added to my tickers on the side column. Check it out! ;)

Catching UP with Camping!

Or at least trying to catch up. August was a fun month for our little trio. We took Cora on a 7 night/8 day camping trip in southern Alberta with her favorite little friends, Claire and Sophie. We had a really great time. Especially because the weather was AWESOME for the whole trip. We had a rotten summer weather-wise up until mid August. I am really thankful Mother Nature decided to play nice with us.

The first morning started out with a LOT of excitement. What started out as a really happy morning (see above picture) ended not so great. Two camps down had some big mean dogs that decided that morning was a good morning to try and kill Reggie. Not only did they attack Reggie while I had him on a leash, but Cora was probably 15 feet behind me throwing rocks. I panicked and started screaming at octaves I didn't know I could reach. The dogs' owner came running as did Lee. The dog owner got the dogs off Reggie who was visibly shaken but otherwise unhurt. Somewhere in the 5 seconds (boy, did those 5 seconds feel like an eternity) of the attack, I decided to sacrifice Reggie to grab Cora. The owner kept apologizing, and I truly believed him that this was out of character of his dogs. Talk about being naive. Fast forward a couple of hours and the arrival of our friends. Low and behold, their dog was also attacked. Those mean dog people ended up leaving, but we carried bear spray and sling shots for the rest of the trip. In all my years of working with animals in both captivity and the wild, I have never been as scared as I was that morning.

The rest of the trip was fantastic. The girls spent LOTS of time swinging in the hammock, digging in the dirt, painting rocks, and dancing to Raffi. Lee was able to spend one whole day fishing with Corey while we gals headed to Waterton for some sightseeing. While Lee was catching fish, we were watching a mother black bear and her cub eating raspberries!! We were able to watch from the car which made it even more fun (and safe). We took the girls on a couple day hikes. Surprisingly, their little legs trucked right along. They really did well.

Cora loves sleeping in our tent. She snuggles up right between Lee and I. The first few nights we kept the rain fly off so we could see the stars. While that was a lot of fun, it was really cold. After a couple nights, I demanded the rain fly. :) It's amazing how warm the rain fly keeps the tent. Even though we love our tent, I am thinking we are going to have to upgrade soon. It is starting to get a little bit tight in there with Cora growing like a weed. Maybe Lee will get a new one for Christmas. :)

Enjoy the assortment of photos below. I think you can see how much fun we had.

Three monkeys in a hammock!

Cora is always in an amazing mood first thing in the morning. Claire and Sophie hadn't even rolled out of bed yet.

Cora also loves food. We had already eaten breakfast and this is Cora mooching more food from Claire.

Cora cheering because Lee caught a fish. 

The girls sporting their bandanas they made.

Finding Sophie in this photo is a little bit like finding Waldo.

Lee likes his siestas.

Raffi dance session. Shiloh does not want to be involved.

Family photo.

Annual group photo!