Ashtons of Colorado: May, June, July 2012

May, June and July were pretty awesome. We did TONS of things and had a wonderful time but I won't drone on too badly. It's my life-to quote pop music. My life is interesting to me, and maybe some of it is interesting to friends and family-so enjoy if you care to. Here's a few highlights.
May 2012

Last May, as per usual, it was very busy. There are always final concerts, final reports, final ceremonies to award kids for doing what they should be doing anyway, you know the drill. Brynna was a Junior Escort at the high school's graduation for example. Which simply meant she had to dress up in different colored robes, sit through the hot graduation ceremony and make things look official. It is an honor that only the really high ranking kids can get but it really only meant I went to a graduation that wasn't my kid's. :) Not that I minded. I know many kids from the HS. This was Brynna's third time, and Joel's 1st because both had to play in the orchestra.

Joel decided he was going to make me a garden box in May last year as well (I'm hoping to have him make a 2nd one this year). He was amazing, and did a fabulous job. And Josh helped-hopefully he'll help more this year.

I love this picture-Joel is digging, he'd built up the box-stained it and was finishing it and there's Josh-sitting in the box. They make me laugh! Josh actually did help quite a bit on this project and it worked. Kept the bunnies out-which surprised me.

We finally got to head up to the high country in the end of May. It is such a blessing in our lives to have our cabin and be able to enjoy the beauty of God's creations! One of my favorite things is to go walking up there. Just walking around is hiking up there at 10,600+ feet, but also incredibly beautiful.

This is a good example of how you can just walk along a county road and see incredible beauty. Well-excepting us humans. The sky is always so blue, the air so clear-the scenery amazing.

The drawbacks of owning a 2nd home is that you have to maintain it. And because you aren't there all the time-weird stuff that never happens at your regular house happens. Like pipes freezing-and in the case of last year, toilets breaking because of frozen water cracking the porcelain! We replaced 2 toilets last May! I think we were lax at some point with the anti-freeze. I hope they poured enough in this year! We bought out the local hardware store of their two toilets!

Of course, one good part of owning a 2nd home and that goes along with the woes-you can teach your kids how to fix crud! I'm thinking far into the future, someone is a very lucky lady to have a husband who knows how to fix toilets!

June 2012

We zipped through the summer, enjoying the warm weather at the cabin, Josh did scout hikes and camps. We even hiked up to meet him one time in June because he had soccer tryouts the same weekend as a scout hike-and Curtis got a tick! I completely panicked and yanked that sucker off-forgetting everything they tell you, but luckily it hadn't actually really got under the skin yet. Ugh!

And Curtis got older. And somehow-still no candles that represent the actual age of the person! 2012, the year of no candles! Curtis was turning 44. Yikes!

And other drama occurred-one morning in late June we woke up and the tree behind our house was missing. All I can say is we're grateful to the Lord for somehow managing to make an unstable tree fall just the right way-missing people houses, fences and plopping right along the greenbelt! Plus-it wasn't even really stormy or anything. Just woke up, it was down!

The tree-I think they watered it too much because of the grass. The roots were rotted out. But this tree was really tall, like about 70 feet. It would have hit our house had it fallen West, could have hit the condos if it fell East. Weird.

July 2012
In July we did even more hiking and playing. My sister and her family have been coming up to Colorado to see us every year for quite some time. We love having them up, and I'm sure they love the break from the relentless Arizona heat! We went on hikes, the kids do fireworks, we eat! It's a great time! This year we were at the cabin and did a little hike up there. It was stunningly beautiful! I love finding places, hikes and scenes I've not seen before. This one is a keeper-going to do it again I hope!

Hiking up near Boreas Pass area. The hike is part of the Gold Dust Trail (I think that's the name).

After my sister's family visited, my parents came up as well. Also to escape the heat. Not sure why no one else in my family takes advantage of this natural air conditioning but they're welcome to! I took my parents and the kiddos up to the top of Mt. Evans.

This is a 14,000+ foot mountain, that much like Pike's Peak, you can drive to the top. But it's closer to Denver. Mt. Evans has this amazing bowl that faces Denver and actually it's the peak I look at most often at home as it is the tall peak that appears to be at the end of many of our Western facing roads in Littleton. It's a gorgeous drive, amazing views and a lot of fun. Plus there's a crazy gift shop/restaurant on the way down that has yummy pie.