"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions."

Truer words were never spoken.  You cannot live in the mountains, travel to a foreign country, navigate a new job, have a new baby, etc. without feeling like your life has been changed and your mind has expanded and will never be the same.

 

Our adventure taught us so many things about life, probably more than you want me to drone on and on about, and if you are one of my very close friends, then maybe one day we will sit down and I will tell you.  However, for most of you, I appreciate that you took the time to read our blog.  In the beginning I wanted to share these pictures and stories because there were so many family and friends who requested pictures and emails and I felt it would be impossible to keep up.  However, this blog morphed into my desire to preserve these memories in our own minds and to also give hope for the audience reading the blog about their own dreams.  

Life so far has been an amazing adventure and I hope it continues to be as long as we stop asking, "Why?" and replace it with, "Why, not?" 

Cheers!

Mountains of Hugs,

The Miles Fam

Well sadly the "Heisters South" were not able to make a trip out to Fort Collins.  I have to admit, I was amazed that they would even try with 4 month old, but they are rockstars!  We miss them and EVERYONE like crazy.  The kids have about hit their limit and are ready to pack it up and say goodbye to our home out west. We have about 4 days left, its so bittersweet!

Last weekend somehow, someway, the boys convinced me that it would be a good idea to camp AGAIN!  So this time at least we were prepared with food, marshmellows, firewood, blankets, and plenty of beverages (too many..haha..ouch!)

We headed up the Poudre Canyon again and this time the boys had an even more "rustic" idea.  "How about instead of camping on a designated 'pull off' (where we camped last time), we just pull over and hike up the hill in the woods and make our own spot?!" Great idea, right?! RIIIIIGHTTT, are they out of their minds?!  The girls stayed in the car while the boys checked out a few spots.  Finally they hiked up one hill that they deemed "rustic", but "mom-approved."  Still though, no trail, no pull-off, NOTHING but trees and dirt and mountain sky!  

 Our tent spot for the night.

Our S'more construction.

Grady wanted to try his hand at creating his own mini-campfire.  He was successful!

We had a great time!  We did see a good amount of Elk droppings and as the sun went down we could hear the Elk. They definitely were not far away! We put the kids to bed in the tent and then Randy and I had a variety case of New Belgium Brewery beers to "sample."  All I will say is that the lack of coffee in the morning was almost unbearable and we "laid low" most of the day on Sunday! HAHA!

On Wednesday I planned on taking the kids to a free program called "Nature Nuggets" at one of the local resorvoirs.  We set out and either the address on the website was wrong or Google maps failed me, but I couldn't find the resorvoir to save my life!  However, when I was pulling over in a another nature preserve to turn around, I happened to see some "ranger-type" people.  I asked them if they knew where the particular resorvoir was and they told me I was about 15 minutes away.  By that time the program was halfway over!  But in typical Fort Collins fashion they said that we were welcome to follow them for a "nature lesson."  In turns out that these were volunteers for the "Rocky Mountain Raptor Program."  They help rehabilitate birds of prey.  They were going to the bird cages to feed, weigh, and examine the birds.  We followed them and it was so cool!  We got to see them feed a red-tailed hawk and a bald eagle right in front of us!

  On Thursday I took the kids to the Fort Collins Children's Museum and they LOVED it!  On Thursday night we took the MAX (city bus) up to Old Town for the free concert on the square.

My next post will be my last, our adventure is coming to an end and we have Cincinnati in our sights! It's bittersweet!

We had a great week with Grandma Karen!  She flew in on Thursday morning.  The kids and I picked her up from the airport.  Randy was out of town for part of the week, he was due to fly back from San Francisco that afternoon.  We had a small early birthday celebration setup for him.  The kids were very into it! 

  That night we ate dinner in Old Town Ft. Collins.  There is a free concert on the square every Thursday night, so we treated the kids to ice cream and listened to the band play.  On Friday Karen and I took the kids to City Park Pool.  The kids have been DYING to go!

  However, Friday started the pattern of rain, rain, and more rain.  It rained pretty consistently from Friday early afternoon until Saturday night.  So, we were able to get a "rain check" for another day at the pool.  That night we decided to head up to Estes Park and have dinner and eat the cake we had baked for Randy's birthday.  We cautiously sat outside...it was dry for the first half of dinner and then it started raining AGAIN!  

However, our reward was this amazing rainbow, you could see both ends!

So, we walked around Estes Park and Grandma Karen took great delight in spoiling the kids! 

On Saturday we set out to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Our thought was to hike the Bear Lake trail.  It has some beautiful scenery and wasn't too treacherous.  We pulled in to park at the trailhead and before we could get out it started pouring down rain....then the temperature dropped from 72 to 49 in a matter of 10 minutes.  Then came the hail!  The insurance agent in me wanted to cover myself in rubber and jump on the hood of our brand new car!!!  Randy restrained me from getting out, and fortunately it was only pea-sized hail and didn't do any damage.  

So, we hunkered down in the car and had a "car lunch picnic!"  The kids were happy and it was pretty cool to see all the hail piling up on our hood.  Crazy Mountain weather!!  We stayed in the car for about 20 minutes and then the storm was over and the sun started shining!  

Here we are at Bear Lake.  We didn't get to go all the way around the lake because another storm was brewing, but it was such a pretty sight!

After Bear Lake we started up Trail Ridge Road which goes up as high as you can drive to about 12,400 feet at its highest.  We saw a number of Elk grazing and a few deer.  On our way back down the mountain we stopped to have a snowball fight and make a mini-snowman!

On Saturday night Grandma Karen was gracious enough to let Randy and I have a date night!  We took the MAX (city bus) up to Old Town and had dinner and drinks with another couple that we have befriended.  We came back and took a 6 pack up to the top of the hill of Fossil Creek park and looked at the stars.  Its so clear, I never realized how many stars there are out there!

On Sunday we took the kids to the park and had lunch in Old Town.  We took Grandma Karen to the airport to catch her evening flight.  We had such a great time with her, in spite of the rain!  We were so thankful to have her out and miss her already!

 This week we are waiting on word if the Heisters of LEX/Heisters South/The M&M Show will be joining us for the weekend.  We would LOVE to see them, especially our nephew and niece, who we miss dearly!!  Stay tuned.... 

Mountains of Hugs,

The Miles Fam

Hello there!  Its been over a week since I posted.  It was a big week for us.  

We were in Glenwood Springs, CO and Aspen/Snow Mass, CO.  Glenwood Springs is a straight shot west on 70 about 4 hours from Ft. Collins.  We left on Tuesday.  Glenwood Springs is known for its natural hot springs.  There is a pool that is supplied water solely from the hot springs underground.  It was SO COOL!!  They have a "therapy pool" which is the real deal.  The water is a constant 104 degrees, a large family pool which they keep at about 98 degrees and a baby pool that is about 98 degrees as well.  The kids were in heaven!  The kids and I checked out the pool during the day while Randy had meetings and then he joined up with us later for a night swim.  Since CO weather is drier and slightly cooler, the hot springs were perfect for the kids.  They are usually cold swimming in a normal pool after about 10 minutes, but in this pool they swam ALL day.

Glenwood Springs has a nice little town where we had dinner and ice cream.

On Thursday we moved on to Aspen/Snowmass, CO.  The kids and I checked out downtown Aspen while Randy was in meetings. I hope I don't offend anyone when I say, Aspen was, "Not my style!"  It was to say the very least, "stuffy."  I was trying to find a place to have lunch with the kids, but no kids menus to be found and no kids for that matter! HA!

  So, I was glad when Randy said that we would be staying in nearby Snowmass, CO (literally 5 miles away, up the mountain.)  Snowmass was more our style.  When we checked into our lodge they let us know to park our car and leave it because the city was going to fill up with cars very soon.  Every Thursday there is a free concert on the slopes (about a 2 block walk away from our lodge.)  There was a bluegrass band playing named, "Hot Buttered Rum."  Leni was in her element!

Side Bar- For a portion of the concert our little 6 year old was a bit "too cool for school" and wasn't into it, so I made the comment, "Look at how cool this is!  You are the ONLY kid from your school who is here right now and has the opportunity to experience this!  That's awesome!"

Low and behold if a girl from St. James didn't recognize Grady and come up to us with her mom!  Literally 5 minutes later a mom came up to me and said, "Is your son's name Grady?"  I said, "Yeah!"  She introduced her daughter (a 7th grader), she and Grady were science partners at St. James this past year....Holy Small World!!!!!!

We took the gondola down the slope to have a beer at a local bar after the concert.  They had swings outside for the kids!

On Friday the locals convinced us to check out the "Maroon Bells."  These are a pair of mountains that they call the "bells", they often reflect off of the lake.  According to our tour guide, this is one of the most photographed landscapes in the world.  You have to take a bus up the the trailhead due to conservation efforts.  

I thought we were doing a leisurely hike around the lake.  However, Randy had another idea  (anyone seeing a pattern here?!)  He wanted to take the Crater Lake hike.  This is where most of the photographs that you see of Maroon Bells come from.  We had the backpack for Leni in case she got tired.  The Crater Lake hike was only a 4 mile hike out and back, no big deal.....right....

Rocks, rocks, and more rocks.  People, people, more people....

I started noticing while we were hiking the amount of "seasoned" Coloradans who were commenting on how "brave" we were to be taking the kids on this hike.  I started asking Randy, how far is this and how treacherous does it get?  Randy's response, "Its not too bad. Look! I think we're almost there!  I see a clearing!"  I think he said that maybe 5 times throughout our hike.  We were SOOOO close to the lake when the skies opened up and the lightning and thunder were upon us.  We had to book it to the trees for cover!  We ran back through the trail as fast as Grady could keep up!  It poured on us and due to the recent lightning strike deaths very close to here, we weren't taking any chances.  So, we didn't get to Crater Lake, but we sure had an adventure!!!

 This is me, looking like a drowned rat after coming back down the mountain....Gross!

We headed home after changing and wolfing down some well-deserved burgers.  On our way home we took the scenic route at sunset.  Here are some gorgeous pictures that we were able to capture:

Hope you enjoyed the blog this week.  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our beloved Grandma Karen!  Actually, I have to get to bed because I'm due to pick her up in about 6 hours!!  We are soooo excited to show her Colorado!  

Also, on a less happy note, my parents were scheduled to come out next weekend, but my dad ended up having shoulder surgery on Tuesday!  He's going to be on the mend for a while, but needless to say Clark and the Squirrel were heartbroken that they couldn't make it out.  Keep them in your prayers!

Mountains of Hugs,

The Miles Fam

Here are our adventures for the week!

On Tuesday, we decided to check out downtown Fort Collins again.  We headed up (about 12 minute drive) to "Old Town",as the locals call it, to check out the City Park and have dinner.  The kids played on the huge playground in the park and then we took a pedal boat out on the pond. There is a pool with a few water slides and splash playground, but we didn't have a chance to check that out yet (its too cool to swim after about 5pm...booo!) We had dinner in old town and the kids enjoyed some cotton candy ice cream.

Pianos are randomly placed in Old Town.

Most of the week was low key until Saturday.....Yeah Saturday.........

Randy Miles has a way of passively coersing you to do things you never thought you would do...Hence, moving my family to Colorado for the summer.

We left in the early afternoon on Saturday to do some hiking and check out a cool little bar/grill called, Mishewaka, that is set on the Poudre River.  Sounds fun, right?!  Right before we all got in the car to leave the condo to drive up to the mountains I see Randy "casually" throw the tent (3 person tent...very small persons) and a sleeping bag in the back of the car.  I looked at him and just laughed, "Yeah right, are you afraid we're going to get stranded?! No way I'm sleeping in that thing!"....Famous. Last. Words.

We went on a nice family hike in Poudre Canyon, see below.

 Grady showing us the "correct" way to cross the stream, after his shoes were soaking wet...

We then made our way to Mishewaka for some lunch and a brew.  The place was delicious! I also hear Randy "casually" say, "You better eat up, this might be your last meal until tomorrow."  Now I'm starting to get nervous....

So, we leave Mishewaka and I am assuming that we are going on another hike down the road.  We were driving for quite a while and we turned up a remote "Level 5" dirt road (apparently in Colorado they have levels for roads to tell you how well maintained they are and if they plow them in the winter.) Level 5 means "You're on your own Pal!"  The views driving up were beautiful, but there were very few people around.  I asked Randy if this is where we are hiking and he says, "No, this is where we are sleeping."  What the what?????!!!!!!  I really thought he was just kidding this whole time. I thought the tent thing was him just being an overprotective daddy. Nope.  We were camping. Then he proceeds to pull out a camping shovel, compass, 1 giant knife, a few "multi-tools", and two flashlights.  Then I find out Grady was in on it the whole time!  Good thing I love those two boys!  So, I did what any good Westside (had to plug it!) mommy would do, I laughed and said, "Fine, but my butt isn't camping without a fire, marshmellows, and a few cold beers!"  So, we put up the tent, secured our spot and headed back down the mountain to the nearest (20 miles) general store for said items.

This is my, "I give up!" face! 

The kids were very serious about getting prepared to camp.

Reality setting in....

Sunset

 The kids gathering s'more roasting sticks

No cooler?  No problem!  Iced down our Coors Light IN the Rocky Mountains!

So, we hunkered down for the night and I have to admit, it was FUN!  Randy sure has a way of bringing out the best in everyone, especially me.  I've done things so far in this life I never thought I would do. Camping out under the stars in the middle of the Rocky Mountains was never on my "bucket list", but it sure should have been!

Hope you enjoyed our adventure for the week!  This upcoming week we will be heading over to Glenwood Springs and Aspen for 4 days, can't wait to share it with all of you!

Mountains of Hugs, 

The Miles Fam