Four 14'ers in 1 day

There are 4 fourteeners within walking distance of each other (Democract, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross), only problem it is close to Fairplay, CO, which requires a two hour drive each way and for some strange reason a 3:30am start today...

Looking at the profile, this should be pretty easy but I found it tough going today, perhaps because the first mile is quite hard, and the last one.

Here are some pictures from the top of each 14'er..

We started from the trailhead at 6:20am, and made it to the top of Mt Democrat at 7:40am

After stopping for a few minutes we descended the saddle, and then climbed back up to Mt Cameron at 8:53am. The winds were pretty strong making it cold today

A quick hike along the side of the mountain took us to Mt Lincoln at 9:18am
Then a long hike to the next mountain Mt Bross at 10:03am
Then a long hike down the mountain to finish at 11:18am, 2 minutes under 5 hours !!

I really enjoyed my victory coke today

Holy Cow Stampede

Each year Westminster rec center (Where we play Badminton) holds a 5k race called the Holy Cow Stampede which a few of us run in.. Last year we persuaded quite a few people to compete but they had a lot of rain which stranded a golf cart on the course so the race was abandoned. This year the weather threatened to rain, but as the race start drew near the sun started shining..

Sabrina, Damith, Steffen and myself had signed up for the 5k, and we all finished ahead of the 'Cow'

I knocked another 30 seconds of my 5k time (I am trying to use the Forerunner 50 to determine my pace) still have a few more chances to improve my time before the end of the year..

Maroon Bells

Last year we visited the Maroon Bells and hiked with Tyler. With the Grandparents visiting we thought it would be nice to revisit the area and see if Tyler's hiking skills had improved.

We did this at a leisurely pace, drove up on Monday via Glenwood Springs and then on Tuesday we went to Maroon Lake

Then hiked to Crater lake



Did the East Portal on Wednesday

Tyler managed to hike quite a distance on the two hikes, as well as ride with Daddy..



and we did find time to do a geocache..

Then drove back via independence pass on Thursday

Denver Zoo

We thought it would be a good idea to visit the zoo as Tyler is working on his animal sounds and we volunteered to take Mateo to the Denver zoo as well.

We picked up Mateo and took them to the zoo in the back of Alan's car
Tyler had been once before and seemed to enjoy it, Mateo had been a few times and seemed to recognize where he was.

First stop was the lions, they had moved enclosures and now you could get very close...

They also liked the monkeys

Next stop was the bears

We stopped for lunch, near the little train and Tyler insisted that he rode it


We did see a few more animals in the afternoon, but Tyler and Mateo thought that napping was a good way to pass the time..

Swimming with Mateo

Tyler was invited to spend the morning at the swimming pool by Mateo. The adults came along to supervise and to enjoy the water as well.

Tyler gets braver each time we go to the pool, but we really need to work on getting him swimming, Mateo has a flotation suit and bobs along quite happily...

National night out

What other country has a national night out where you can sit in a helicopter, sit in police car, sit on a tractor, watch a police dog eat someone and watch the fire dept remove the roof of a car?

Tyler managed to see and do all these things when Broomfield took part in the national night out..





And last but not least eat free foood !!

Denver Botanic Gardens

Denver has supposedly one of the best botanic gardens in the USA. As luck would have it they were also doing a dinosaur theme thing as well, so we took Tyler to visit the gardens. It looks kind of overgrown with the exception of the Japanese garden and they are doing a lot of reconstruction. Tyler likes the dinosaurs, liked the water and was so-so about the plants. Everyone else had fun and enjoyed seeing the extensive gardens.

Tyler and Grandparents at the Japanese garden

Under the arch

Ready to go home