Boys in Hammocks

The boys spent a lot of time in hammocks at the RockyGrass festival in Lyons.

RockyGrass Festival: Lyons, CO

We attended the RockyGrass Festival in Lyons over the weekend. We camped for three nights and listened to amazing music for three days. The festival is in Lyons, only 20 minutes from Boulder and the setting is beautiful. Though I am not a huge bluegrass fan, I thought that the music was fantastic and just one element in the total RockyGrass experience. The stage is adjacent to the St. Vrain river, where the boys floated with their tubes and mucked around all day. We brought food, but we didn't need to since a variety of vendors sell yummy food morning till night. It was much more kid friendly than I imagined. There were all sorts of activities for kids, including art and crafts, hula hoops, slacklines, etc. The boys spent most of their time in the river or in hammocks above the creek listening to music. We loved it, even the part where people play music until 5 am in your camp ground.

Eldorado Springs pool

Last Saturday, when the temperatures in Boulder were approaching 100, we packed up our towels, sunblock and swim suits and headed to Eldorado Springs pool, a spring fed pool in the tiny town of Eldorado Springs just 15 minutes from Boulder. The pool was built over a 100 years ago as the Eldorado Resort, where well-heeled summer crowds flocked during the early part of the last century. A fire in 1912 burned most of the hotel, but the main features of the resort still stand. The pool is open to the community and it is a popular watering hole for locals as well as tourists. How to describe it? It's a bit run down in an inviting sort of way; the pool is big and cool and clear; the towering metal slide (the last in existence?) is thrilling and a bit dangerous. We found a shady spot on one of the high pool decks, where the turf carpeting is peeling, but the views of the canyon are divine and the fast flowing creek below is very picturesque.

The many faces of Quinn

And the winner is...

Grant and the boys spent the afternoon in North Boulder Park for an annual bike race around the park. There were many different races throughout the day and they got a chance to enter a fun race at the end. Carson was very pleased with his first place finish and Cole was close behind. It would have been an entirely different outcome if the red jersey guy hadn't blown out his tire.

July 4th Weekend

There were no fireworks this 4th of July in Boulder. Now, that is not entirely true, but it was raining quite heavily so we opted-out of leaving the house with 6 expectant children and 4 adults for a fifty-fifty chance of seeing fireworks under a foggy and rainy sky. Instead, we opted to stay indoors, with great friends who were visiting from DC and enjoy laughter and company and good food. I reason that I've enjoyed enough great fireworks over the years to give up one year of fireworks without a big complaint. One year, Boulder, one year.

With the Miller clan in town for four days, we packed up two cars for an adventure, heading west to Brainard Lake, one of several lakes in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. While it is less than an hour from Boulder, it feels very far away. We left under sunny warm skies and by the time we reached the parking lot at 10,000 feet, the weather was very cool and windy. Fishing was a flop, but we discovered a stunning lake next to Brainard called Long Lake. Long Lake was postcard pretty and had an adjacent pond with water so warm that the 5 boys and Ruby stripped down to their underwear and jumped right in. This is a place to return to.