Horseback Ride with Dad

On Sunday my Dad and I did a 3 hour ride inside the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a perfect overcast day and it was just us on the ride with a knowledgeable guide. He has a degree in forestry from Ohio State so we learned a lot about trees. (Emil, you two would have had a lot to talk about =)

At the end of the ride (50 feet from the barn) we had quite a scare when Dad's horse bucked him off. He fell at least 8 feet and thank God, not onto the partially exposed rocks that were in front of and behind him on the trail. He has recovered almost fully since Sunday from some severe internal bruising, but did not break or crack any ribs or other bones. We are so thankful nothing worse happened and that the horse did not hurt him worse after the fall or otherwise. It shook us a bit.

Although we didn't see any wildlife on our ride, we saw amazing wildlife on the drive down the mountain, which is at the end of the post. Happy 70th, Dad!

Did you know that the Aspen Tree is the largest organism in the world after the coral reef? All the roots of the trees (within close proximity like below) are from one singular root system underground. At one point on the trail we saw 1 and 2 foot aspen trees sprouting, clearly the shoots of its neighboring adult trees.

We saw a lot of beetle killed trees. The rangers come up and cut them down, then stack them into these huge piles. When it snows, they come up and burn the piles. In some areas we saw 8-10 of these piles scattered.

After a drink at the Stanley Hotel (where "The Shining" was written), we decided at the last minute to take the back way down the mountain just to see different things. What a good choice! This enormous male elk was grazing near the road as we drove down.

Holy antlers!

And here is a beautiful Ram grazing near the road just a few miles from the elk.

This is the mascot for Colorado State University

Raptor Center Open House

I'm late getting this post up, but I did take Paul to the Open House last Saturday. It was very worthwhile.  I talked with the Bird Man (Kevin) and asked him, "So when Paul is 12 and is able to volunteer here, what exactly will he do?" He said the first thing they do is ... clean the cages of the birds. The second thing often prevents volunteers from moving up the ranks. The next thing Paul would have to do is learn to cut up the meat for the birds. The uncooked, raw rabbits, mice, and other meats that come to the center for the birds to eat. Yikes. But wow would he love to interact with these animals and teach people all about birds! 6 more years to go.

One of the first things we saw was the world's smallest kestrel, which is a type of falcon. See the black feathers coming down from his eyes? That "sunglasses strategy" is where football players got the idea to use the black stripes under their eyes during games. Fighter jets are also designed after the beaks of these fast flying birds.

This great-horned owl was an amazing sight to behold. I have always wanted to see an owl in the wild so this was the highlight for me without doubt. This is the look he gave me as I walked up the hill where he was being held. His eyes are mesmerizing. They are a very bright glowing yellow, it is like looking at the parking lights of a car.

He gave us a view of his wingspan as the volunteers changed hands.

He is "panting" here because of the heat; his beak is open and the white feathers near his neck would move in and out to help reduce his body heat. He is an educational bird and was not able to go back to the wild because he has poor eyesight. He failed "the mouse test" - this is where, in a huge two story building used to re-train the recovered birds how to hunt (or see if they still can), they let prey loose for the birds. This guy couldn't find the mouse so he is now used to educate the public and volunteers.

This beautiful and small (about 8 inches tall) barn owl sat inside a small box at the entrance. So different from the great horned, with a facial disk easy to identify.

Time with Shihoh and Letisia

Yesterday we had an enjoyable outing with 2 exchange students. They are staying with a Rotarian friend of Aaron's. Shihoh is from Japan (Osaka) and Letisia is from Brazil (Sao Paulo, near the coast).  Shihoh had a "bucket list" from which we worked. Leaving on 9/6 to go home, she had 3 items remaining: Eating a buffalo burger, birdwatching, and going go-karting. We thought Paul would love to introduce her to some wild birds that are native to our area at the bird sanctuary. A good choice indeed.

When we arrived we were lucky to have the most knowledgeable bird-man in town there. He was feeding the male golden eagle some raw meat out of its cage. The girls were quite impressed.

The bald eagle gave us a show squawking a LOT and flapping his wings as the trainer came in to rinse the floor of his cage.

This volunteer was born at a military base in Japan - a fun connection to Shihoh.

Then we watched this one-eyed wonder pick apart a whole trout.

Later the bird-man brought out the female golden eagle (this is where Paul piped up that females are larger than males, just to impress bird-man). At this point the golden began to flap (she's attached by a leash at the foot) and flounder. she was eventually upside down for a bit before bird-man could get herback upright.

This bird is approx 30 yrs old. They usually live 20 or so in the wild.

They explained why they do not give the birds names - they want to remember that these are wild birds and not pets, so they refrain from naming even those who are with the Center for life. Kids are allowed to volunteer here at age 12 with an adult. Wouldn't Paul love that?

After our time here we went out for pizza and brought the girls back to their host family. Today the Rapture Center has 1 of its 3 annual open houses at its Rehab Center in Old Town. They receive about 300 birds every year and released about 80% of them back to the wild, within a 10 mile radius of where they where found.  I think I will take Paul this afternoon so we can see some owls. So this post may be part 1 of 2.

St. Joe's Parish Picnic

The kids always enjoy the parish picnic at the end of the summer. This year we did the buddy system so I wouldn't lose anyone.

And look who we met as we walked up to the nametag table - Kate's pre-K teacher, Mrs. Randazzo! Good timing.

I laughed out loud after Paul made his nametag say "Mr. P" -- complete with 6 hearts (which I like to think represent the 6 of us)

 Oh boy...

Kate's slushy (with a watchful buddy)

They always love the face painting station.

Red Feather Lakes

Sometimes at mass we hear about the sister church at Red Feather Lakes opening or closing for the season etc. They have 5pm on Saturdays during the summer season. So out of curiosity, we decided to drive 90 min up the Poudre River Canyon to check it out (Sara this is the same river we rafted years ago).

We arrived at the one-room church (sans plumbing) at 4:10 so decided to drive into the "downtown" of Red Feather Lakes. Well if you blink, you'll miss it. I don't have a picture because well, we didn't even stop to walk around "Main" Street. Think Little House on the Prairie. There were 4 stores. A general store. A post office the size of a small bathroom. A real estate office. And ... an antique store...er closet is more like it. We were amused.

After mass the kids gave Fr. Don a piece of the homemade chocolate chip zucchini bread I had brought up. He was delighted to receive it and visit with the kids.

Peeking inside

 We spied three gorgeous deer as we drove to our picnic area for dinner. The pictures aren't great but the deer sure were! One buck with sizable antlers, a younger buck and one female. They stayed and ate for a while. It was a treat.

Then we drove to Dowdy Lake to have a picnic dinner. The campground was full so there were many families out and about. The kids caught a crawfish and built with the sand. It was a beautiful night to enjoy the mountain scenery.

looking for crawfish

balancing on a floating log

Kate kept getting her skirt wet so we hiked it up. This picture is for Grandma.

crawfish: Captured!

RCS Dessert Picnic

Tuesday night was the annual RCS Dessert Picnic where the kids find out who their teachers will be. As usual, it was utter chaos and we left before most people with our fill of desserts. School starts in T-12 days. Everyone in the house is looking forward to that day!

Walking up to see if her name is there...

Nope, not on this list...

We are 3 for 3 on First Grade teacher Mrs. Jhones 

Kate's first day of Pre-K

It was a big day for Kate today! Her first day of school at St. Joe's. The whole family drove up together and got her settled. But first we started out with breakfast on the special plate.

Ready to walk over to the school.

Going up the front walkway. Dad has the 20 lb bag of school supplies in hand...

Big sister helps hook the new owl backpack into a cubby.

And after 7 long and fun-filled hours, this kiddo zonked out on the way home. I could hear her snoring from the driver's seat.

I was all prepared with leaving the house today with supplies, lunch, backpack, water bottle, blanket, emergency form filled out... I thought I had everything covered. Apparently they changed school policy and now pre-schoolers also needs school uniforms. I was able to borrow a couple uniforms from a friend until ours arrive. So here she is, our uniformed pre-school Kate a roo!

Golf Academy

Here are some pictures of the kids from Golf Academy last week. Elizabeth was in the intermediate group and the others in Beginner. I thought I got some of ERS but my camera battery must have died before I got any. On her day on the course she played 8 holes. She had some great shots on the range with her iron and made it to the finals on a couple of the challenges. They had a lot of fun!

Bro and Sis

Help from Coach Matt

Nice form Mr P