Back at Home from Estes Park, CO and Black Hills, SD and Beyond

We’ve been back home for a couple of weekdays and I am having trouble adjusting. It has been boys, boys, boys for 24/7. This vacation started out with boys only for 6 days until I was able to join the road trip by flying from GA to CO. After a few days we drove through WY to SD for a few days’ stay. Then three days on the road to Iowa, to St. Louis and back to GA.

(here we have 3 boys taking a bio break at the end of a long hike and hubs is doing same but I left him out of this shot.. Me, I had to wait another hour or so)

For 9.5 days I have had boys at my side in the SUV,

in the hotel bathrooms, at museums and “monuments”, on hikes, watching TV in bed at night, on hikes in the snow, eating picnics in the cold, eating dinner out, seeing buffalo, elk, prairie dogs and marmots, sharing my camera, seeing rude people, seeing nice people, reading magazines and brochures or sleeping in SUV or looking at license plates because the portable dvd player broke on day one,

making (affectionate) fun of “Dad” not even knowing name of town we'd just slept in, listening to alternative music station on XM radio, listening to my new obsession with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, eating candy bars, helping to look for Dad’s lost wedding band (found it),

with everyone listening to my obsession with the Mount Rushmore sculptor (who honed his granite mountain carving skills at Stone Mountain, GA first, before he got mad and left the job), riding together to the top of the tallest human-made monument in the US, and

during the long drives in between states with Oldest Son asking loudly, “what’s that smell?” over the noise of his Ipod….. Middle Son quoting lines from National Lampoon’s Vacation….Youngest Son either talking non-stop or sleeping.

(Here they are on a four hour hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park the day I flew out to join them. They never saw Lawn Lake as it was getting rainy and Hubs didn't want to see headlines of Dad Loses Boys).

On the boys’ 6th day of vacay I joined them in Estes Park and no one knew where my camera was. So we used tons of film on Hubs’ digital, and the old fashioned 35 mm camera and two “throwaway”cameras (haven't yet seen all those photos). Then we found my camera and used it on this hike the next day to Cub Lake. Not bad for a 4-year old digital. I thought I wanted a new camera for my b-day which is in a few days, but no need. For now.

(This 2.3 mile hike to Cub Lake had it all--sun, major wind, sleet at times, elk, marmots, friendly ducks, and hundreds of lily pads).

I have to get all these photos in order – and am back at work so no time with the boys during the day. I miss being with them 24/7.

(Clark Griswold from the movie, Vacation): Hey, hey, easy kids. Everybody in the car. Boat leaves in two minutes... or perhaps you don't want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth, which is only four short hours away?