Cailey version of our vacation....

I have a little toy otter and Mia has one too (Mia's is bigger). It has a star fish on it. Minnesota is fun. I love my breakfast when I eat at the hotel. The hotel has a TV in it. We are watching Disney channel....maybe more later as she is sidetracked by the the Wizards of Waverly.

Our vacation as told by Luke....

I'm having fun on vacation. I went to the zoo and I saw camels. I saw bears, wolf and rode the train (monorail). That was fun. I got a dolphin. I played on the playground at the zoo. I went swimming. I saw another bear and had fun playing at the playground and I saw the thing that was swimming (I think he's talking about a diver feeding the fish and talking to the crowd). And I ate a slush and a pretzel and pizza. I love the zoo. And I love to go there.

Mia's Vacation Memories (so far....)

(I've neglected this blog for awhile. I'm not on vacation with three of my grandchildren. I'm going to let them tell about what we've been doing.)

We went to the zoo. I got a toy otter. I am going to buy Mommy something at Mall of America tomorrow. We saw the otters. I like the swimming pool. I really like the water slide and jumping in the water. I can't wait to go to the Mall of America tomorrow. I'm thinking I want to see all the gift shops.

[NOTE: I'll try and post some pictures later.]

More Vacation Photos

Here are some more pictures from our recent Colorado vacation:
Roger and I at the Continental Divide in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Who needs a tripod when you have Photoshop. Can you tell which one of us was Photoshopped into the picture?

After visiting the Alpine visitors center at RMNP, we stopped to play in the snow. Notice my shoes--the snow was a little cold when it hit my bare feet.



View from our hike around Bear Lake in RMNP.

A photographer taking in the beauty at Bear Lake in RMNP.
Ferns we saw while hiking around Bear Lake.

We also hiked to Alberta Falls in RMNP to capture the beauty.


The water tumbling over rocks while hiking to Alberta Falls.

A Rio Grande train at the train museum in Golden, Colorado.

You know when you're blog reading is out of control...

When you only have 407 more to read. Of course I've been on vacation for a week and have only kept caught up on a few blogs. I'm not telling whose I've read. This isn't taking into account the number of emails I deleted without even reading. Of course I didn't delete any you might have sent.

Recapping my rafting experience

We're home now and we were Googling news stories to see if we could find out how the gentleman is doing that was pulled from the river on the 14th and taken to a waiting ambulance by the Royal Gorge train is doing. Had I seen the stories from last week, I doubt very much if Roger would have been able to get me on one of those rafts. It seems that on July 7 (one week before our raft trip) two gentlemen from Colorado drowned in the Arkansas River while rafting. Then on July 9th, a Texas man volunteering at a Boy Scout camp in Colorado died in a rafting accident when his raft capsized in the Arkansas River in a class 3 rapid.

Here's a little video of rafting in the Royal Gorge and a view of the railroad:

Roger's gold mine

Those of you who know Roger (family) probably knows how he loves to watch the ground for interesting things. It isn't uncommon for him, while I'm driving, to see a box or bag besides the highway or street and say I bet it has something valuable inside it. I, being the driver, just keeps on going.

Yesterday as he was pulling into the hotel parking lot, he is looking at the ground and says, "there's two dollars back there." He parks the car and walks back to pick up the two dollars. I see him bend over six times picking something up. He comes back with three $5s and three $1s. That bought us dinner at Pizza Hut. WTG Roger.

What a day!!!!

Climbing into the engine on a 7 foot vertical ladder, 34 inches from the ground.


Today I had booked us in the cab of the Royal Gorge Railroad. Chad was the engineer and I think we had the best seats on the train. The railroad track follows along the Arkansas River, which has many rafting companies operating white water rafting. Right before we reached the Royal Gorge Bridge I saw several boats pulled over to the side, but didn't think too much about it until all of a sudden a guy runs up the bank and pops onto the railroad track waving an oar. Chad stopped the train. From my vantage point I could see what was going on. There was a gentleman laying on his back in the boat gasping and holding his chest. He was being held by a girl. The boats appeared to be loaded with all young people, so don't know if he was a teacher or something. Chad and the train's conductor helped the float leaders to help get him up the steep bank and into the train. Chad then dialed 911 and made arrangements for an ambulance to meet us up at a quarry that had access to the train. Chad said he had fallen out of the boat and taken on a lot of water and came very close to drawning. The gentleman's condition wasn't the best and they had problems getting him stabilized. I hope he will be okay. While waiting for him to be loaded onto the train, other float trips came by and were stopped. Here is some people in a raft.


We had reservations for our own rafting trip right after the train ride. Before this happened we needed to get right in the car and drive 45 minutes to the Arkansas River Tours, which was going to be a close call. I called them as soon as we reached the car and explained what had taken place. They asked if we were traumatized by the event or if we still wanted to go and I said we still wanted to go. They said they would wait for us and told us to drive safely.

I had been nervous before the morning incident and I think it just made me a little more scared. I think I clenched my teeth most of the way and now have jaw pain. I knew we were in good hands though, because our guide's name was Mia--and I knew she had to be a fantastic person. These pictures were taken by Arkansas River Tours. It was a really a good float and I would highly recommend Arkansas River Tours to anyone coming to Colorado and want to try it.

That is my oar near the back of the boat.

Roger is sitting right across from me. I was knocked into the boat in this photo.


Mia our float guide.

The whole crew.

4th of July

I'm a little late posting pics from the our 4th of July. We were invited to Gloria and Ricks for a Bar-b-que. The night was a little rainy, so we moved most of the fun into the garage. Doug and Beth were there with Evan and Jared and their grandson Brody, along with Carrie's and Jeremy's family. The two youngest Jorgenson boy's spent some time bonding over the saucer. Brody is 9 months old and Jaren is one year.

Pikes Peak's Cog Railroad

This morning we caught the 8 a.m. Cog train to the top of pikes peak. Breathing was a little difficult--Roger didn't even attempt a cigarette. I think we both suffered a little altitude sickness from this trip.

Afterward we ate lunch in Manitou Springs and then went to the Garden of the Gods.

Rain moved in while we were there and the thunder and lighting was very cool.

Views from the car

The view from my side view mirror yesterday. Notice the beautiful blue sky behind us and the dark sky iin front.

I see the mountains.

Jaren turned 1

On the 28th of June, Jaren turned one. He celebrated it with a wading pool party with friends and family present. He wasn't too impressed with the cake / frosting.

Supplies used were Metan Turnidge's Party Boy kit and Meryl Bartho's Pocket Dates.