Sunday, June 14, 2009

Papa's Visit

My Dad was here visiting this weekend and we had a great visit with him. The girls thoroughly enjoyed playing with their Papa. We went for a hike on Saturday with him up Green Mountain, a mountain just outside of Boulder and visible from our house. We were able to drive up quite a ways to a trailhead fairly close to the top of the mountain and then our hike was about 3 miles round trip to get up to the top and back. Here's some great pictures we took along the way.


Anna enjoying some of the wildflowers along the way:

Anna and Mommy hiking along:
Self portrait of me with Ruthie on my back:Here's the trooper! She's one amazing three year old! Anna hiked the whole way up and almost the entire way down. Josie rode on Daddy's back most of the way and got her nap in on the way up:At a view point along the way:This is one of my favorites, Anna hiking with her Papa:Anna may have been quite the hiker, but what she really wanted to do the whole way up and back was find big rocks she could go bouldering on and scramble up to the top of. Here she is bouldering with Mama spotting:At the top! We made it! We had an amazing view of the mountains to the west and Boulder and the plains extending out to the east of us. This picture is actually facing south so you can't tell. We didn't spend too much time on top because a thunderstorm was moving in and the top of a mountain is not the place you want to be in a thunderstorm. But we did get in one triumphant picture of all of us before heading back down:Anna found some purple pine cones on this fir tree on the way back down and was quite excited to show all of us and you: Just in case you were wondering, purple is her favorite color. Dark purple. Here are the fir cones up a little closer so you can see what she got so excited about: By the end Anna was ready for her nap and Josie was antsy to get out of the pack so Josie had her own turn hiking. Here she is hiking along:Josie getting carried by Mom some more. This is what I look like most of the time when we go hiking on Thursdays with our friends. I end up carrying two kiddos most of the way. This was a much easier hike for me with Mitch and my Dad around to carry kids and hold hands and carry water, food and jackets :) Ruthie thought it was great to have her sister right there to laugh at:And another one of my favorites, Papa carrying Josie:We're almost back to the van and Josie's hiking again:

4 comments:

Nana said...

Great pictures - especially the group one & the one of your dad & Anna holding hands. Precious memories! Linda

akamilby said...

What a great series of pictures! Caroline will love to see the purple pine cones too. I'm glad you got to get out as a family, and to spend some time with dad. I'm totally impressed with your hiking ability. Good job Anna!

Katrina said...

Hi Katie! It's like Christmas today with your mom leaving me the links to your blogs! Your girls are darling and it's great to see you all doing so well. Does my heart good. I'm looking forward to keeping up with you & your beautiful family thanks to blogger! :)

Chad Clement said...

Fantastic pictures, Katie! Maybe you should start a photograhpy business on the side. Wish my arms were as strong as yours are. Anna is quite the mountain girl. She's going to be giving tours to groups one day. I can just see it.