Late June brought special visitors from Texas! My mom & dad drove up with my niece, Kaylan, and nephew, Chandler. We had a blast showing them around...
We started with a nice hike full of good climbing rocks...

Kaylan picked this rock as her favorite.

Then I took them to the Alpine Slide for a fun race down the mountain!



Auntie Audrey in Scotland - this next photo is for you... Maddox wanted you to see that he was wearing his Scottish shirt and clipped to his pants was his new Scottish bear. So cute!

On another day, I took them on a road trip to Fairplay, where we visited Southpark City. This is an old restored city with dozens of buildings and old-time sites. Here the kids are in the wagon... although you can't tell from the photo, Chandler is actually sitting on the POT! Guess they didn't have much privacy back then... but for us women, this sure beats running out in our skivvies in the middle of the night!

The trains were a hit with Maddox.

They particularly enjoyed the caboose. Below, you can see them all in position for a long trip. Morgan is cooking, Kaylan is eating, Mason is relaxing, Chandler is snoozing, and Maddox... hmmm... where's Maddox?

Dad found himself the "beer shop"!

Chandler is looking a little too natural at this... and what's with that guilty look on his face? Mark, have you taken him to a poker game before? Notice, also, how Grammy is holding onto her purse.

After a nice lunch in Southpark City, we continued on up over Hoosier Pass and stopped at the Continental Divide.

Outside of Breckenridge, we toured the Country Boy Mine... a working mine until the late 1940s.

Notice that Grammy is NOT in the picture below... let's just say that long, dark tunnels hundreds of feet underground do not make her feel all warm & cozy. :)

After touring the mine, the kids all attempted to strike it rich by panning for gold.



I love this picture of Mom & Dad...

...and Mom & Dad with their youngest grandchild...

Kaylan was very excited at the prospect of going horseback riding in the mountains... so we obliged! We booked a 2 hour horseback ride. Here's Mom just after she got on her horse... she happens to be riding "Pudding" - the same horse that Maddox rode around on last year with Grandma Sara. He still talks about that horse! ...well, let's just say that Mom won't be forgetting that horse too soon, either! :)

Chandler looks right fine on his mount! But I'll tell you, that is ONE CLUMSY HORSE! I rode behind him, and that ain't no mountain climbin' horse! The trail guide told us he's new to their herd, and his previous owner used to race him. He also told us that although he never loses his step on the mountain, he looks like a pig on roller skates... and that's the TRUTH! We climbed some pretty treacherous terrain, but Chan did a fine job with him.

Beautiful views about 8 miles into our ride...

...and Mom ain't lookin' so perky on Pudding anymore!

Let's take a closer look... "We've only been riding HOW LONG?!!!"


Oh, I chuckle every time I look at that photo!!! She looks like that cartoon character... what's her name? Maxine??!! Poor Mom... she loves horses, but let's just say that she doesn't love TROTTING on them for 2 HOURS!
The kids, on the other hand, came out no worse for wear. They played with this sweet little kitty after the ride.

On another day... after Mom recovered... I took them on a drive up Lookout Mountain to see the grave of Buffalo Bill.

In the gift shop, Chan contemplated this new look:

Fortunately, he chose a belt buckle instead.
We also visited the famous Red Rocks Ampitheatre. Such a cool place...

But standing there posing wasn't enough for Chan... he had me take pictures of him doing handstands in all these cool places!

After a long day of sight-seeing, this is what the evenings looked like...

The boys entertained themselves by trying to create a battery out of lemons. Let's just say their new power source was truly a "lemon". Oh well, we can always make lemonade.

On the Fourth of July, we opted to avoid the crowds and create our own fireworks... which began with an impressive show of our potato cannon!

Of course, my dad was duly impressed, and I later caught this shot of him in the garage taking measurements. :) Mom, you better guard your taters!

For obvious reasons, they don't allow much in the way of fireworks up here in the woods, but I bought what I could... and of course, we had SPARKLERS! Maddox had never seen one before!

To my surprise (and total delight), the kids all said that they'd rather do fireworks right here in our driveway instead of going to watch the big shows. Done. Sold. :)

On their last night here, we let the kids sleep out in the tree-house! It was the "maiden" sleep-over, and although it almost got rained out, the kids did stay out there all night!

As the oldest, Chan got the penthouse suite (aka: loft).

What a wonderful week we had... full of excitement... some pain... but an overall wonderful visit. I hope you all had as much fun as I did!
Love to all,
Miki
Love the photos! Maddox looking good in the Scotland top!! Grammy - I think I would have looked a LOT worse than you if I had been horse riding :) Love to all. xx
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