a weekend in summit county, colorado

 the view from our balcony, friday evening

whilst jeremy was on his annual pilgrimage to indianapolis motor speedway for the big indycar race, the boys and i traveled up the hill to our condo for the long weekend. i took and texted a bunch of photos so jer could see what we did while he was away.

we took a walk along the blue river trail first thing saturday morning.

 selfie

the water was high. according to a sign posted on the path, the blue river offers excellent catch and release trout fishing. i don't doubt it as we always - even in the dead of winter - see fishermen with their lines cast in the water.

coats and gloves were a good idea that morning, the temperature was in the low 40's.

 

but the sun was shining and by 10am we didn't need them anymore.

 

just after this section of rock the path was flooded and we had to turn back. my guess is the flooding was due to spring melting coupled with abundant rainfall. i'm very much looking forward to continuing on the trail and was told there have already been a number of moose sightings along the blue river this spring.

this is one of our favorite play spots in silverthorne. it's the park on rainbow drive, next door to the recreation center.

we decided to check out lake dillon for the first time and i guarantee we will go back again and again. the views were stunning and there was so much for little boys to do. there are two restaurants - a bbq and an italian - within walking distance of the lake that looked like they would be so good. ya know how you can just tell a restaurant is gonna be good? can't wait to try them!

 the weather was turning cold and cloudy but we ventured down the path toward the water anyway.

 i guess this is one of the places you can dock your boat? they call it a marina, not sure that term completely fits.

 the peak on the left (in the center of the photo) is buffalo mountain, which is where we live. our condo is approximately halfway up (maybe?), fairly close to the tree line. further up the mountain from us is mostly trails and national forest land.

harrison wrote his name in the sand. then graham wrote his name in the sand. then harrison erased graham's name from the sand. then graham erased harrison's name from the sand. then i said put your sticks down because it's time to leave. 

 as we were walking back to the car graham just sat right down on the path and told me he couldn't go any further. i'm pretty sure the only reason he got up was because it started to rain. he knew he was being a ham...see that grin... :-)

 graham and his punching bag, sunday afternoon

we got out for another awesome walk through arapaho national forest on sunday morning. it is an area across the street from our condo with well worn trails. the trees had been cut down due to beetle-kill and the area had been burned, although i wasn't able to tell how long ago that occurred. it was a great space for boys to create - tons of logs and discs of wood to stack up into tikis, as the boys called them. the views were amazing. i kept hoping to see a moose...but didn't.

 we were stuck indoors sunday afternoon so i made a "punching bag" for graham to bob around. when i was dreaming up what i wanted the loft space to be i knew we had to add a pulley system so the boys could raise and lower things down to the living room. they love it. on sunday i simply hooked a bag full of coats to the end of the carbiner and let him whack at it. we also played games, put together puzzles, and ate a lot of junk food,

 

and then it started snowing. 

so we curled up for family movie night (minus daddy). we watched rio and the boys loved it. harrison is still sensitive about movies so we are careful about what we watch and how we watch it. he did great with this one!

 selfie

monday's forecast was crazy. full sun, snow, partly sunny, then thunderstorms. it wasn't looking good for us to get outdoors and explore. 

then harrison suddenly developed a nasty stomach bug and that was the end of our fun. he slept on the floor while graham watched a video. i tidied up the condo, hauled our stuff to the car and made a plan for getting us back down the hill. the drive was smooth, harrison slept most of the way and only vomited once on the trip - thank you jesus. 

we got home, got settled and waited for jeremy to get home from the airport.

it was a lovely weekend in the mountains. i've always thought of silverthorne as a place to stop on your way to someplace else but that clearly isn't the case. it has so much to offer in terms of relaxing outdoor activities (more adventurous endeavors too). our weekend made me so very excited to spend lots of time up there this summer - cannot wait to explore!

and hopefully find a moose!