Jay loved seeing all the animals. We saw deer, elk, moose, snakes, chipmunks, marmots, picas, and many kinds of birds. He enjoyed working in his junior ranger book and he was hoping to see every kind of animal in the park. We camped in one location in the park, which was nice. Some mornings we had a worship time. James and Jonathan played guitars and we sang and then read scripture. What a place to worship God with the mountains surrounding us. The weather was so perfect. We never even used our heater at night. The days were warm, but not super hot (I think they must have been in the upper 80’s). A lot of our hiking consisted of hiking to lakes and were up in the mountains. Sometimes we’d see waterfalls too. Jay was a good hiker. He didn’t enjoy carrying Jedaiah the last couple days, but after carrying Jesse part of the way down, he didn’t mind having Jedaiah on his back.
Joshua
Josh is not a fan of hiking. I’m thinking when he grows up his idea of a vacation will be to stay in hotels and spend lots of money on amusements. He doesn’t really see the point of hiking and would rather just climb rocks and play. Sometimes I think he’s so immature for his age, but that’s when I compare him to Jonathan. We had our little skirmishes with our strong-headed Josh, but overall he had a good week. When he’s my assistant of the day at home, he does fantastic. He is such a good help and seems to really enjoy it. Part of that is because he doesn’t have to do school, but he does excel in this area and helps to make my day quite enjoyable. For one I don’t have to push him all day to stay on his school and get it done. We have only been doing the equivalent of one day a week, spread out over the whole week since May. Tuesday we start doing one days work in a day. It is going to be quite an adjustment for us all.
Jonathan
On the drive out to Colorado Jonathan’s lost retainer. It dropped onto the ground at a rest area and no one noticed. Jonathan was looking for it in the van after we got back on the highway. I told James that we had better stop and look for it before we got too far down the road. We ended up going back to the rest area and we found it laying on the ground, just waiting to get run over. We were thanking God for answering our prayers on this one. I’m so glad Jonathan is so responsible with his retainer.
Jonathan turned 12 last Friday, the day we went backpacking. Earlier in the week I made brownies over the campfire for him and they came out oh so yummy (I frosted them too). We got him a digital camera for his birthday. We got it from Papa John who sell them refurbished. He love it! He took all the pictures his memory card could hold. There was lots to take pictures of. He has already made a slideshow with his pictures. (I haven't even gotten my on the computer yet.) Jonathan is really mature for his age when he wants to be and other times he enjoys stirring up trouble among his siblings. He carried a really big pack during our last hike. It wasn't as heavy as mine, but it was close. He is so helpful to have around.
I have been having an "assistant" of the day for the last several weeks and plan to keep it going during the school year. That person goes along with me and does whatever I want him/her to do. This was I get help and they get lots of good on the job training. Jonathan hasn't always enjoyed this, he'd rather do school (it is easier to him).
Jonathan is pretty good with a map and he guided us to find a Crackerbarrel in Denver. I wasn't totally confident in his abilities, but he got us there. He also enjoyed looking at the map of the Rockies. He knew alot of the mountains' names. If I was wondering about a mountain, I'd just ask him. He surely knew more than I did.
Josiah
Josiah did his first bigger hike in the middle of the week. He hiked ten miles up and down Flattop Moutain and Hallot Peak (he was the youngest that went). Overall he did pretty well. All the boys complained at times, but they made it and saw some cool animals like Pickas and Marrmots and also enjoyed spectacular views. Josiah especially loved climbing the rocks every opportunity he could get. He also enjoyed playing drums on rocks (or whatever made a good noise) with some sticks he found. One morning all of them were playing a Chris Tomlin song on the "drums". I got video of it and I'll have to post it to dropshots.
I love this picture, Josiah and Rachel are such good buds!Rachel did all the hiking this year on her own. She hike approximately 18 miles over the course of a week. (The boys and James did 30 miles). That's pretty good for a four year old. She whined and complained at times (but less than some of the boys), especially when she wanted something, like not to carry her little water pack or wanted to use Mommy's walking stick. By the end of the week she was all proud of herself to not whining along the hike. We really encouraged that! She seemed to really enjoy the week. One day James and the boys hiked up a mountain and I stayed back with the little ones. We went on a small hike to see a herd of Elk. She couldn't wait to tell the others when they got back. She was a big help, keeping Jedaiah entertained, she's such a little Momma. At the end of the week she got her Junior Ranger badge, along with the boys. We got home Sunday and Tuesday Rachel was throwing up. She was down all day. Then Jesse and Jedaiah started with it soon after. They must have caught something on our travels home. The rest of us have seemed to be immune from it. We'll see.
Jedaiah got sunburned on his nose early in the week. It ended up scabbing up and didn't look so great.Jedaiah did well on our trip. He did great in the van, driving for hours. We left the park about four hours later than we planned, so we drove straight home through the night. That worked well and we were home by 11:00 a.m. If we hadn't done that it would have been a very long day. Most of the time I carried Jedaiah on my back as we hiked. It was a challenge keeping him contained. He is on the verge of walking and wants to explore all his surroundings. He wasn't interested in staying in the tent. He kept trying to escape. He stood up on his own twice toward the end of the week. The last night of our trip we did a backcountry camping night at Fern Lake. We hiked about three and a half miles in and about the same out, but a different way. James, Jonathan and I all carried big packs. Josh carried Jesse and Jay carried Jedaiah. We had a great time, camping out in the woods. We had a group site and no one was around, not even the bears (which I appreciated). James even did the cooking, as he usually does for these kind of trips. The kids tried thier hand at spear fishing. They waded in the water, trying to spear Cut Throat trout. The next morning they made a make shift fishing pole and actually caught two fish with chex mix and beef jerky as bait. That was what delayed us leaving the park, but the memories were worth it! When we got down the mountain, we caught the shuttle back to our van. We were quite a sight and made for much conversation with the others on the bus. People were amazed and we had several comments throughout the week about how well behaved our kids were. That's always nice to hear, but we know the truth that lies in their little, sinful hearts. But it does bring joy to our hearts to hear, "Your kids are the best behaved kids in the world" from a complete stranger at Craker Barrel (our last dinner before driving home). Back to the shuttle ride, the shuttle rides were a favorite thing for the kids. We didn't always feel safe, riding in this big bus, with lots of windows, through the mountain roads (very high up) and so we limited our rides, much to the kids' disappointment.
Here we enjoyed our lunch beside a lake. The ducks weren't very shy. Jedaiah sure was interested in communicating with this duck.
JesseHe was pretty sick the Friday we were getting ready to leave. He had a high fever, was pretty lethargic and was throwing up occasionally. The kids slept in the livingroom and when we woke Jesse up at 3:00 a.m., he had thrown up some milk, but didn't get it on himself (which was nice). God answered our prayers when Jesse never threw up again on the trip and no one else got sick, YEAH! He started feeling better by the time we arrived to our campground in Colorado. We got there around dinner time.
Jesse was not himself for a day or two, being particularly whiny and demanding. He threw tantrums and fits when he didn't get his way. That's hard when you have to share the campground with others. We catered to him at first, but then realized we shouldn't do that. He's pretty independent at times and stubborn too. He's starting to catch on to the potty training. I think he's finally nearing the end of it. Another "YEAH"! He gets his cast off tomorrow, I'm sure that will be interesting. He's done well with it overall. On the trip he hiked some, but mostly was carried. James, Josh, Jay, and I all carried him at different times. He is starting to get heavy, so next time he'll have to walk and that will be easier without the cast (he got it off today, hooray!).
Here is Jesse hiking along.
