The Rockies & The Rockies

Hasn't this summer been busy?  (group nod). 

Especially August.  I mean, this is my SEVENTH post in August, and I still haven't blogged about Tanner's first week of Pre-K, the summation of swim lessons, or other things that have made their way into my cranium this past month.  We'll see if I ever get to those things...

But I digress.

So much of this summer has been about saying good-bye (I'm still bitter, California), but last weekend we got the chance to say "HELLO!" when Auntie Katie & Uncle Derek came for a visit!  Auntie Katie is John's little sister (in case you can't tell from the pictures - or don't remember when you met her here). 

This isn't the best "we look like brother & sister pic," but I assure you they do.  Their twin brothers, Brad & Phil, used to call Katie & John the "delayed twins."
Derek (in the middle) just looks like a Manning.  :)

Although it was rough traveling to get out west (Katie and Derek spent the "night" at Dulles airport in DC - and I say "night" because really, it was only sleeping a few hours after their flight from Columbia, SC, landed at Dulles before they took off again for Denver), we crammed a lot into the less-than-48-hours they were here.  Namely, The Rockies & The Rockies.

By the time they made it to our house, Katie & Derek probably had a combined sleep time of less than 6 hours in the past 24, but they didn't want to rest.  Instead, they jumped right into being part of the Denver Hurlifam and enjoying our munchkins (honestly, playing with my kids would've been the LAST thing I wanted to do if I were them, but they were troopers! :)

Auntie Katie has the patience of her mother, helping a 4-year-old paint a magic wand on only minutes of sleep.  God Bless the Hurliman's patience gene (and let's hope my kids inherit it! :)

Such fun!

While Katie, myself, and the girls spent the morning getting pedicures, running some errands, chatting, and enjoying a lunch at McAllisters (and painting a wand, of course), the boys jumped right into this:

I'm guessing Derek could hit it straight.
I'm not so sure about Hurliman, especially after the above - hooking and slicing might have been his specialty :)

Boys will be boys.

After their "busy" morning, we all met back at home to prepare for our first Colorado "adventure" -  The Rockies! 

I'm not really sure, to be honest.

Much more refined, and better looking.  :)

We had a great time watching the Rockies LOSE to the Dodgers (boo, hiss, it was a terrible game, but at least we spent it with good people!  On side note, the Rockies won the next night's game in extra innings, with a walk-off single from my boy Dexter Fowler.  Love him.)  but ANYWAYS....

The next day was more sight-seeing - this time, The Rockies! 

OK, so that's Red Rocks, a prelude to the Rockies.

We started the day by hiking up Red Rocks.  Who cares if you're from 314 above sea level - we're gonna make you hike stairs at roughly 6200 feet.  You're young, Nattier's - you can handle it!

If Tanner can hike it, so can you! :)

Tanner gives Auntie Katie some high-altitude advice on climbing.

A mid-stair-climb break to admire all the folks doing REAL exercise at Red Rocks amphitheatre.

The view from the top.

T & E aren't high enough - gotta climb summore!

And what goes up, must come down:

Instead of the stairs, we decided to be more adventurous on the way down.  It was steeper than anticipated, however, and Derek was my lead-man since I was less-balanced with the babe on my back.

Tanner wasn't a fan of the steep rocks so Daddy carried her down.  I was glad I had Ellery at that point!

Luckily, we made it down without circumstance - but that didn't quash our spirit.  Next we decided to summit a fourteener!

Atop Mt. Evans

The thing about Mt. Evans is, as www.mountevans.com so nicely puts:

The Summit Trail is a short 1/4-mile trail from the Summit Parking Area to the Summit of Mount Evans (14,264 feet). This last 130 vertical feet climb to the top is highly recommended for the view or if for no other reason so you can tell all your friends: "I climbed a 14,000-foot mountain in Colorado on my vacation!"

So now Katie & Derek can say that they've summitted a fourteener!  (I think both would agree that it took their breath away, literally :)

As previously, the girls were still on a mission to climb.

Ellery wants to summit her own mountain, by gawd.

...not to be outdone by her baby sister...

Takin' a break from all their hard work.

A few pics from our tremendously difficult hike up and down Mt. Evans:

Tanner liked to take "shortcuts" and jump to Uncle Derek.

Ellery enjoyed her hike in the backpack, mostly (she wanted to be down with Big Sass, so her and I had to hike ahead of everyone else...)

Derek, dude, this is a good pic of you.  It should TOTALLY be your profile picture.

Derek & Kate Plus....two.

Takin' a break from all their hard work.
(wait - do I recognize a theme here? :)

 And no trip to the Rockies can be complete without a little wildlife:

This is what I think of you and your camera, buddy.

Ya, I'm talkin' to YOU.

Did I stutter?

This guy had a kindof scary-sounding squeal-chirp.  Let's just say we all knew he wasn't very happy with our proximity.

We had intended on going up to Rocky Mountain National Park, but by the time we made it down from Mt. Evans, the afternoon had gotten away from us.  Instead, we headed back down to Idaho Springs for lunch/dinner at Beau Jo's and introduced Katie & Derek to mountain pies.  Yum!

Even though I was a disappointing Euchre partner for Derek later that night, I think that overall Katie and Derek had a fun time in Colorado - I hope so, because we want them to come back and visit again!  Maybe next time we'll do something completely different, like see The Rockies?