Exploring Indian Creek

For Memorial Day weekend, it started out pretty typical - Saturday jobs for the kids, Jed mowed the lawn, I began laundry (I say "began" because it takes a good full day to get it all washed and then it usually doesn't get folded for a couple of days - I like the wrinkle effect that the clothes get.) After that, we went and planted the garden over at my mom and dad's house. I was a little nervous about the garden because my mom and dad are usually there to help us - they know how far to place the seeds away from each other, how thick the rows should be, how many corn seeds to put in each hole, how much dirt to put on top of the seeds, etc (there were no instructions on the seed bags) and to be honest, I don't have much of a green thumb. But since they weren't interested in planting very much in the garden this year, it was up to our little family to do it. So far we've planted corn, peas, and beans, and then next week we'll plant some other vegetables. I just hope we did everything right so that we actually get a nice harvest in the fall.

Anyhow, we decided that since Jed only had Saturday off of work, we needed to do something fun. Since Ronin has been begging us for months to "go see the mountains," we decided to head to Indian Creek just off of the Palisade Dam area. We get there and so much for the "quiet, peaceful woods" - people, four-wheelers, and motorcycles were everywhere, but we knew it would probably be like this. However, we were able to find an untouched spot and then we hiked deeper into the woods where we had complete privacy. Jed practiced with the kids in starting a fire with flint - the only way we ended up getting it to really stay going at first was grabbing the winter hair off of our dog, Kojiro, and using that. The kids went exploring with Jed and then they played hide-and-seek. Rigdon enjoyed tasting the dirt and wood chips that he found around him. On our way home, we spotted a moose and watched him drink and then swim across Big Elk Lake. That was pretty cool. We were really far away so I didn't worry about taking pictures, however we got a few of us below, enjoy!

Connor and Ronin checking our their surroundings. I wish our backyard had something like this, the kids would stay entertained for hours on end. I would probably never hear: "I'm bored!"

Aubrey is into photography, so she took a few photos of us as well.

Our fearsome, floppy-eared, protector with the kids.

Our sweet, little piromaniac!

Check it out mom, fire! Can you see Rigdon in the background? He's munching on wood chips.

Wood, anyone? There's plenty to go around.

Aubrey with Rigdon, who had just dropped his stick and this was his "uh-oh" face.

Happy Rigdon, clapping his hands.



Mmmmm, mom, this dirt is much better than what we've got at home!

Rigdon loving the outdoors, just like his dad.

We love the great outdoors!

Ronin wasted no time climbing on everything.