In the Wild

It has been a busy week. We went swimming at the Apex Center in Arvada on Tuesday (for "2 buck Tuesday"), which was so much fun! They have a great facility with slides and fountains and a little water playground area that even Jacob could run around in. Everyone loved it. We spent three hours there, even when it was just me and the four kids. Usually we don't last as long at places like this when I'm parenting solo.  Joseph came with us a second time and took the big kids on the big slides and they had a blast.

 Friday was the Denver Zoo's free day so I packed the kids up and we went to check it out. All in all, I was very impressed! They have a great zoo there! I am always a little bit sad to see some of these big animals in pretty small cages. I know that a lot of them are there to be protected and to raise awareness for their species' plight or whatever, but I always wish they could be living on some great big nature preserve. Sort of like the one Aang makes in Avatar. Maybe "The One and Only Ivan" spoke to me a little more strongly than I thought it had. Anyway, enough book/movie references. Here are a few pictures.

The zebras were the first things we saw at the zoo. It was our first trip to any zoo ever, so I thought the kids would be super excited to see all these exotic animals. Turns out, TV has desensitized them to the wonders of nature. They just wanted to look at their maps and assert their authority by charting out a course for us to follow. Case in point: Observe Elinor above.

A tiger! A real tiger! It's over there in the shadows, but it's there! I was much more impressed by this than the kids were.

It was very, very crowded at the zoo since it was a free day, especially around the more popular exhibits like the elephants and the gorillas. I will admit that I lost Elinor once in the monkey house and Jacob once in Bird World. And then I got very lost on the drive back to Boulder. We made it home though, with all four children, happy and intact.

Um, kay, is this crazy or what? We turned a corner following a sign saying "Indoor Flamingo Quarters" and bam! 40 flamingos packed into one easy-to-view room.

They got to play a little too. This was some monkey thing... brachiate like a gibbon?

And, yes, we were at the Denver Zoo. And it was fabulous.

I had a few more pictures to post, but if I am getting tired of writing about them, then you are getting tired of reading about them, right Grandma?

So let's move onto our always exciting Saturday Adventure!

Today we went for a hike. A serious hike. The kids have been asking to go to the Flatirons, so to the Flatirons we went!

We started at Chautauqua Park, which we are looking down on in this picture. If you click on it, you will see just how many people also decided to go on a hike starting at Chautauqua Park. It really weirded us out the first time we came, but this is the starting point for a lot of hikes, and a lot of people in Boulder like to hike. So you'll see people dotting the trails throughout the park and up the mountain. Both times we've been there has been a wedding there too. And this one time we were at another park and we saw a wedding procession on bikes! But that is another story. Aah, Boulder.

The climbing got pretty intense, but these two were troopers! They hiked probably close to three miles today, gaining about 1400 feet in elevation and it was steep and rocky. But they were awesome. Unfortunately, this hike happened right at Elinor's sleepy time, so she hiked for half of it and was carried the rest of the way.

Climbing the steep, unguarded, very dangerous stairs right at the end.

The three older kids nestled right up against Flatiron #1. I was not about to let Jacob out of the Ergo at this point. I was a little nervous about the steep, rocky dropoffs.

Boulder has definitely been a change for our family, and I really think it has made us more active and adventurous! Now we just have to come up with something for next Saturday...