Birthday Cakes and Rattlesnakes

Yeah, that's right.

Happy Birthday Meadow!

So, Sunday was Meadow's birthday and we decided to check out Castlewoods Canyon State Park in Castle Rock, 1/2 hour south of our place.  It's a very cool park with lots of canyons, hiking trails and a creek running through it.  We picked a hiking trail and started our trek.  The terrain was very rocky and sandy with lots of large boulders strewn around.  As we were getting close to the end of our loop, we took what we thought was the trail down to the water. As Meadow was walking over one of the boulders, she slipped, and the noise startled a rattlesnake that was hiding in a small cave just off the trail. The snake sounded its rattle which scared us both.

 Meadow went running and I backed up out of the way. After we realized what was going on, I approached the cave and focused the sun's reflection off my camera lens into the cave to shed some light on the culprit.  Although it looked like more than one snake, it turned out to be just one.  I could clearly see its rattle and its head with tongue flicking.  I snapped off some pictures and since it wasn't too happy to see us, we moved on to finish our hike. Needless to say it was an eventful hike.  We've never seen a rattlesnake in the wild or heard their rattle so close.

Stay tuned for tales of our next adventure...The Changing of the Aspens.

Colorado Anniversary

Can you believe it...September 17th was our 1 year Colorado anniversary and last Wednesday I celebrated being at Saunders for 1 year.  My boss gathered everyone in the office to share in some ice cream cake for the occasion.

We've been in our house for 4 months now and Meadow's been at her job for 6 months.  How things change in a year's time...

Rocky Mountain National Park

Last weekend we decided to head up to Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park before the snow flies and they close it down. Last year we tried it on about October 6th and it was already closed. Here are the highlights...

The mountains heading out of Estes Park into RMNP.

Some "Thirteeners" on Trail Ridge Road (mountains above 13,000').

Postcard perfect view along the Trail.

A yellow-bellied marmot basking in the sun.

This was taken at the top of a 200' vertical climb up to 12,005'. You can't tell from the photo but it was extremely windy and cold as it's the tallest point around and way above treeline.

Not much lives up here but these red plants don't seem to have any problem and add a nice color to the bleak surroundings.

Where we're planning to build our next home...

Meadow overlooking the meadow.

This is where we stopped for lunch.

Looks like something out of a movie.

I might have to frame this one!

Cool clouds and deep blue skies...

Yeah, that's right. That's a MOOSE!

And this is her baby!

What's the plural of moose...mooses, moosen, meese???

Cats and Bats

Ah, the joys of homeownership. Instead of using our long weekend to trek through the mountains, fight whitewater in a raft or camp under the stars in the middle of nowhere...we decided to stay home and do some house work.

We had so much luck with our tomatoes, we decided to plant some other items in our garden.

This is one tomato plant that was only a few inches tall when we got it this spring. Now it's taller than I am.

Here you can see a few almost ready to eat! We usually get at least 6 cherry tomatoes each day. Last Friday we got 20!

Here are the new ones we planted yesterday. From left to right we have grapes, raspberry and blackberry.

Here is Meadow's blueberry plant.

Also this weekend we had a surprise guest in our patio umbrella...

And what would Labor Day be without a nice nap on the couch...

Happy Labor Day!