Our first family "hike"

We must confess that after living in Colorado for over 2 years, we have done very little in the way of exploring.  We've often talked about it, but have found that the 8-month winters and small kids just don't mix well and really limit our time to get out and about.  Even though Finn is still quite little, he is a much more even-tempered baby than our previous one was.  He's pretty much always happy, even when he's tired, or he's easily distracted and made happy.  So this year we resolved to get out and see a bit more and do some exploring.

Memorial Day this year was a perfect opportunity.  We still haven't replaced our grill (we found it was inoperable when we arrived in CO) and so we needed to go out for burgers anyway.  We stopped at Smashburger for lunch before heading out to Ute Valley Park to explore.  It was our first time at both places.  Unfortunately, we have a hung jury on Smashburger, but Ute Valley Park got thumbs up from everyone!  We covered ourselves in sunscreen while in the parking lot, I strapped Finn into the Baby Bjorn with a hat and blanket to cover him up some more, and we took off on our "choose your own adventure" afternoon.  There were so many trails in the park that we didn't see all that many people.  We would cross paths occasionally and so we knew they were there, it just didn't feel crowded.  At one point I saw a path that looked like it offered more shade and so we decided to go that direction.  We ended up at a little creek with grass and animals and rocks.  It was a perfect place for Kai to look around while I gave Finn a bottle.  Kai thoroughly enjoyed exploring until a fly started buzzing by and then he decided it was time to leave.

Both on the way into the park and on the way out, Kai picked up as many rocks as he could.  At one point early on in the hike, he actual slipped and landed flat on his tail still holding onto his rocks in each hand.  It was pretty funny!  And he had a great patch of dirt on his bum.  Too cute!  He even made up a song about rocks on his way back to the car.  It was a fun family outing!  Here's to another one soon!

The slip onto the bum while holding both rocks.

Dirty bum.

 Very tired Finn.

The end of our path.  The rock was the shady spot where 

I stopped and fed Finn.

Kai's lizard friend.

 Kai's ladybug friend.

 The view of Pike's Peak.  Can you believe this park

is right in the middle of the city??