Nick and Kelli at Cheyenne Canyon

At the suggestion of my roommate, Jane, I drove Nick and Kelli through Cheyenne Canyon. It is a good drive for me, not too bad for mountain driving. It is absolutely beautiful! We noticed a creek and at one point saw people playing in it, so we pulled over for a sceneic view---and to check the creek out, of course.

Kelli had on her adorable green and white sundress, not exactly creek wading clothes, but not much will stop this girly-girl from being a tomboy!!! We climbed down the embankment and waded in the cold mountain water. I think they were both a bit startled at the temperature of the water! We waded down the creek a few feet and I pointed out the flecks of gold shimmering in the sand...Well, they were pretty darn excited and thought they could collect a bunch of gold flecked sand and somehow get a lot of money out of it!!!

After we waded for a while and they amused me with their schemes to collect all the golden sand, it suddenly occurred to them that they could pick up and keep the rocks. They thought the rocks were real gold. They started picking up rocks, Nick was a little more choosey, Kelli just picked up whatever rock she could find...She was bound and determined to bring rocks full of gold back to everyone in Iowa.

Ok, here is the end result of Kelli filling her dress rocks. The dress came clean...Nick and Kelli were devastasted when they realized that I had washed the dress. They are realized this when were packing up to leave, and they both searched the bag of dirty clothes looking for the dress...Apparently, they both thoguth the dress was full of gold and therefore quite valuable. Nick kept telling me that Kelli's dress was rich and questioned why I would wash it. Children are so funny! I love it when these two geniuse children show their innonces and age.

I also took Mikey, Catherine (Michael's kids), Nick and Kelli up to Cheyenne Canyon while Michael stayed hom and played on the computer, tinkered around the house and watched television. Mikey and Catherine had a good time, Nick stuck with Mikey and when she wasn't exploring and checking out all the little creepy crawlies she found, Catherine helped Kelli . And Kelli could not resist the attention, or the urge to fall or sit down in the cold creek water.

Do not miskake that expression, as "Help, I've fallen and can't get up!" It is an expression, of "AHHHH! (Gasp for air) it's COLD!!!"

We walked around the grounds and climbed the rocks at Helen Hunt Falls.

Overall, our trips up to Cheyenne Canyon were fun, wet and best of all, FREE!

I enjoy being Aunt Katie...and I have really enjoyed it the last two summers because Austin, Nick and Kelli are old enough to come out here and stay with me, but best of all, they are able to remember it. Hopefully they will have formed wonderful memories that will last them a lifetime...And when school starts and the teacher asks what they did over the summer, they will have great adventures to share!!! And maybe, just maybe, when they are all grown up---or off to college--they will decide to come out here and live!!!

They missed their mom and Grandma and Grandpa and Karina and Austin and their dad and Aunt Kari and Karina and the swimming pool and going fishing with Grandpa and playing Star Wars with Austin and Karina and working at the can demption-re center and Mom and Casey's donunts and Uncle Chuck and Grandpa's Garage and listening to Grandpa play the guitar and Karina and the small town andriding their bikes and their stuffed animals and their mom and the cheeky baby Karina...but they had fun in Colorado with Aunt Katie and Michael!!!

Michael's favorite Kelli story is a comment she made about what she wishes she was...We were at his place lounging around and watching t.v. Kelli stretched out on the love seat couch. Out of the blue, she turned and looked at us and said, "I wish I was a cat so I could sleep all day." A few days before that she told me that there are a lot of things that she is glad God gave her, "but my favorite thing that God gave me is sleep. I just love sleeping." Kind of reminds me of her mommy!!!

I am having trouble with videos, so stay tuned for hilarious videos of Kelli collecting rocks at Cheyenne Canyon!