The Little Barn Dweller

There is simply no escaping it, Lily is madly in love with all things horsey/outside/barn related.  I really think that given a choice, she would choose Bamma and Pappas house over a day home at the apartment.  Can't say that I blame her.  It is so refreshing and cool up at the Flying E and there is just so much to do.  From the moment we walk in the door, Lily is talking non stop horses.  All we hear is "Bon Bon, horsey, boot, side (outside), RJ, Citco (Cisco), ban (barn), boot!" She cannot get out there fast enough and we are all sorely lagging in incentive to move faster.  I love it.  

She just seems to fit right in with her overalls, boots and piggy tails.  I just love watching the anticipation on her face as she makes the trek with Bamma in hand out to the barn.  Once she gets to the tack shed she instantly targets two pieces of grooming equipment, the brush and the hoo...pic (hoof pick)  Her favorite is really the hoof pick.  She is fascinated with the "poop" and convinced that her number one job is to de-poop the horsey hooves.  She helps us get around all 4 of the hooves and then wants to start over, this time with a new and fresh hoo....pic (I put the dots because there is a little hesitation when she says it.  She can't quite get it to flow together).

Here she is all by herself up on Hocky (Foxy).  She wears her honol (helmet) like a pro and holds the horn of the saddle like she was a born rider.  Bamma and Pappa took her for a ride and the little dear thought it was simply heaven.

While they ride I sit in the woods and take pictures.  I simply love this camera and I have been learning through trial and error how to get awesome pictures.  Of course I have also learned how to adjust and change the pictures post-processing too which has been a blast!

Once the little horsewoman makes it back to the barn we help Bamma put the horses away and then we help Pappa and Bamma scoop the poop and do all manner of things barn related.  You can tell by that smile that in the barn is where she is currently the happiest.  Can you believe how utterly adorable Lily Grace is?  She is so full of joy and the littlest things make her so happy.

I just can't get enough of her.  She literally stays out at the barn for hours and would stay there all night if we didn't coax her in.  Once inside though, Bamma has a host of games and things to keep the little one busy.  One of Lily's most favorite games is rolling the ball back and forth from Bamma on the floor.  I rarely can catch such great giggly smiles on film, but the ball game gave me many moments to catch on film what a happy little girl she is!

I just don't think she can get any cuter!

Our first almost fourteener.

There is no doubt about it, we are a mountain family and simply loving having the Rockies right our our back door.  I finally went out and purchased a couple of hiking books so that come Saturday morning we weren't scratching our heads with where to go.  Having a little munchkin makes the hiking a bit more tricky because we can't do anything too long and we always have to make sure that the hike is traversable with her on one of our backs (who am I kidding, Bob's back).  O it is such a delight to go up to the mountains.  When I picture heaven this picture has got to be a part of it for sure!

Grandma Jill came in for a visit over the weekend and we just had to take her back up into the mountains.   Most fourteeners in Colorado are 10 miles plus, which is very un toddler friendly, but Mt. Evans is a 5 miles round trip summit which made it a possibility.  I say possibility because really only the toddler will tell.  The drive up to Summit Lake was breathtaking.  Our hike consisted of 3 individual summits.  The picture up top has Mt. Spalding to your right and Mt. Evans to your left.  Yep, that is a small glacier up at the top.  We got out of our car in our shorts and tank tops only to be hit with the harsh reality of weather at 10,000 feet.  It was so cold.  We put every possible layer we could on including socks for gloves and loaded the little one up.  You can tell that the cold didn't affect her one bit.  She loves it!

Before starting on the climbing part of the hike we stopped at this amazing spot for a picture.  To call it a scenic overlook seems drastically underrated if you ask me.  Yes, this is where I live. 

I kept saying that the mountains speak to me in ways nothing else does and Jill asked me to explain a bit.  The Mountains remind me how Big God is and how infinitesimally small I am.  It humbles me to know that the God who is ultimately greater and more majestic than these mountains calls me His child and cares about me. God didn't make these mountains in His image, He made ME in His image.  If that doesn't speak to you, I just don't know what does!

The hike was pretty challenging if you ask me.  This picture doesn't really do the trail justice, but gives you a taste for what we climbed.  People really gave us some looks with Vibrams on our feet and a baby on the back.  

As a runner I am always amazed at how long miles become when you are hiking or climbing mountains.  What takes us 30 minutes on the flat ground to run takes us nearly 3 hours up there. It almost seems surreal.

 Time gets away from you very quickly up in the mountains and as you can see, nap time comes whether you want it or not.  How precious is she??

We made it up to the summit of Mount Spalding which sits at about 12,628 feet or so.  It was quite a challenge to make it up to the top but we prevailed and it was so worth it.  I was really feeling confident that we could actually summit Mt. Evans at 14,264 feet.

We stopped and woke the baby, got her out of her confinement, fed her some much needed nourishment and let her get her fill of Grandma love in the hopes that we could make it to the top.  Once back in the "pacak" (Lily's word for backpack) we kept heading towards the top.  Lily was a bit vocal and I thought that once we started moving she would perk up and we could finish our journey. Oh boy did I misjudge......

She quit hard!  See that face?  I will translate: "I don't want to be in this pakak anymore and should you try to go up further I will turn on all my toddler tears and make you feel like the worst parents ever."   So, considering the fact that we still had to go down the mountain we got her out again, changed the diaper and took the opportunity to snap some more pictures.  

On the way down we ran into these 4 legged mountaineers.  The Colorado mountain goats are simply an amazing animal.  They traverse cliffs and mountains like nothing.  It is incredible.  Lily kept calling them "Buddy" which I think is her new word for any creature we encounter while hiking in the mountains.  She was mesmerized with them which created a great tear distraction and kind of restarted the toddler for the trip down.

We all made it down in one piece with just a few tired muscles and 4 very hungry bellies.  What a morning it was.