July 4, 2012

Monday, Day 1 (July 2)

Less than 24 hours after completing my big bike ride, Josh and I left for camping. Let's just say I could have used one more day of recovery, but I was a good sport and crawled out of bed at 5 a.m. Monday morning so we could get to Glenwood Springs by 9 a.m. Once in Glenwood, we spent a few hours with my aunt and uncle and some other relatives. We get to see this side of the family once a year, so we had a good time catching up on the past year. After spending some time there, Josh and I left to go find our camping spot. We also got groceries and water to last us the week.

We were lucky and got our favorite camp site at the top of McClure Pass, about 30 miles near Carbondale. Josh and I spent the afternoon setting up our campsite. We made dinner, got attacked my flies, flies, and more flies, and then we drove to mom and dad's camper and hung out with them for a couple of hours. It was approaching dark by this time, so we headed back to our tent and called Day 1 a success!

Tuesday, Day 2 (July 3)

We met mom and dad bright and early for a morning of 4-wheeling. We took a four hour loop beautiful countryside.

 We stopped halfway through the ride for a picnic lunch. Josh and I had PB&J, but mom and dad were fancy with......yes, wine.

 Boxed wine. Josh and I had soda.

 We all survived with no accidents.

 Josh and I headed back to our campsite to play with Josh's new toy.

He is pretty excited to go hunting this year to see how his new gun works.

After eating dinner, we went back to mom and dad campsite to find Shannon, Jeff, Case and Siahna had arrived for the week. Since it was hot, we played in the river.

 Man, this water was COLD, but it felt so good after such a  hot day.

 Jeff and Josh started their search for gold. A few slivers were found but not enough to make us rich.

Wednesday, Day 3 (July 4)

The entire crew headed to Aspen for the 4th of July Parade. This has become a tradition, and the kids gather up A LOT of candy (enough to share with the adults).

 Waiting for the parade to start.

 After the parade, we all headed to the Grottos, a picnic area halfway up Independence Pass. The entire family (including the crew from Glenwood) picnic here every year. Here, Jeff and Case are starting their decent into the ice cave.

 Josh and I sitting on top of the ice cave.

 Looking down into the cave at Jeff and Case.

 Family and friends enjoying a cool afternoon at the Grottos.

 Ironically, during the driest summer CO has seen in a long time, it started to rain on us. And rain. And rain. It poured for a couple of hours. Everyone was soaked and cold, so we eventually packed up to head back to Glenwood.

Josh and I hit the hot tub to warm up, and then we spent a couple of hours at my aunt and uncle's house hanging with the family. We drove back to our campsite late that night.

Thursday, Day 4 (July 5)

I don't have any pictures from day 4, but Josh spent the morning fishing while dad and I did some bike riding. We rode from dad's campsite up to the town of Marble. It's only 5.5 miles, but it's all uphill. Dad wanted to prove he can still do it, and I said I'd do it with him. Dad did great!

Mom met up in Marble, and we sat by Josh while he fished. We had a picnic lunch and then spent some time playing in the river looking for more gold.

Later that afternoon, mom and dad, Josh and I drove to Redstone for some ice cream. Yumm. It started to rain and rain and rain, so we sat in the camper and played cards for a couple of hours. Josh and I eventually headed back to our campsite. 

It rained all evening and night. Since we couldn't start a campfire, it was pretty miserable. Josh made this rain cover out of misc. stuff he had in his truck, so we did stay pretty dry underneath his canopy. But it wasn't a very fun night with all the rain.

Friday, Day 5 (July 6)

Josh and I had had enough of the rain. We packed up our campsite and headed back to Denver.

Mom and dad, Shannon and Jeff all stayed for two more days. It rained and rained and rained on them. They even had mudslides where they were, and part of the road closed for a while. Josh and I were glad we still weren't camping in all that rain.

It continued to rain that entire weekend, even down in Denver. We are so thankful for the moisture, but we wish it would have come on a different week when we weren't camping.

I survived four days of camping!

And I'm about to go again next week for four days.