Denver October 2012

We had a three day lay-over in Denver on our trip back from Washington DC.  We visited with a lot of people and did a lot of fun things, but I only managed to take pictures Zach and Austin.  Bicycling with the grandsons was a highlight for Calvin.  Zach and Austin are really proficient on their bikes, and there are plenty of great places to ride around Butch's house.

Austin happily splashed through all the puddles in the gutter.

Peter and Roque met us every night for some new adventure, so we got a picture of all the Smith boys one night.

We got to spend more time with Austin while Zach was in Kindergarten.  It changes the dynamic at home.  Zach was thrilled when he got to ride his bike to school one day with Grandad and home with his mom.  Life doesn't get much better than that.

I'm not exactly sure what Calvin is saying here.

We went to the zoo on Saturday with Peter and Roque.  Peter took some of these pictures, which is why they are in focus.

Calvin loves the zoo.  He could have stayed all day.

Butch got a break from chasing boys while they rode the carousel.  We talked Roque into riding with boys, since she was the youngest adult.  She is a good sport.

I'm not a big zoo fan, but I like hanging out with the family.

It was a beautiful fall day.

Zach is looking forward to Halloween.  He has a great Knight in Shining Armour costume.  I'm glad we got to see it.  We're so lucky to have such great grandchildren, and lucky to get to see them so often.

Alexandria October 2012

We had a fun week last week visiting kids and grandkids.  We started in Washington DC where Calvin attended the annual Anesthesia Conference.  While Calvin was slaving away at the conference I got to visit with Sarah, Toby and Clare in Alexandria, although you might think from the pictures that I only visited Clare.

The weather was beautiful and Sarah took some time to do a little gardening.  Their yard really looks good.

I watched Sarah work and took pictures of Clare showing off her walking skills. (Hope this works.)

We took a walk to Kings Street one afternoon.  Clare and Sarah had matching shades.

We tried to walk past the playground without stopping, but Clare would have none of that, so we stopped for a swing break.

I apparently have the attention span of a two year old and stopped to take a picture of some cook bricks.

Clare is a "girly" girl.  She has a gold necklace in her toy box that she puts on first thing before she begins to play each day.

Somebody likes to play dress up.  Could be Clare, but possibly it is Grandma.

97 miles on the Green River

 We took a nine day canoe trip on the Green River.  We paddled about 97 miles and I took pictures at the rate of two per mile.  I won't post all of them.

Here we are at the Ruby Ranch put-in, ready for adventure

We had a heavily loaded canoe, but it still managed to float.

The second day out we paddled through a thunderstorm where the raindrops turned into hailstones that were floating along the river with us.

Calvin looks about the same in the back of the canoe as in the back of a kayak, my favorite shot.

We hiked to a narrow fin that separated a big meandering bend on the river called Bowknot bend.

The not so green river was swirling clouds of silt.  You couldn't see anything in the water.  The fish in the river are kind of ugly, so I didn't mind not seeing them.

We had a room with a view every night.

In the evenings we had a campfire

 and watched the sun set on the red rocks

and the moon rise.

We took time out to view several ruins along the way and explore a few side canyons.

We're all smiling on day 9-the jet boat is here and we're headed back to Moab.  Can you guess who didn't use sunscreen?

On the way home I'm hanging out with a few Archaic Barrier Canyon friends.  You never have enough pictures of rock art.