Bishop Castle

On Saturday June 27th we decided to drive out to Bishop Castle.  This is one of those "mini" Colorado tourist stops that I have heard about for years but have never taken the time to do the drive.  Our drive out reminded me why we had not yet attempted this visit as it was fairly long, weaving through national forest.  (It didn't help that we arrived on the scene of relatively new car accident and were sitting without moving for at least 15 minutes as police, fire, and ambulances arrived.)  I was surprised by how many people were parked along the side of the state highway when we arrived at the castle and I was equally surprised that the castle had been built right alongside it, instead of deeper on the property.  This warning sign about risk was the first thing that greeted us and was propped up against the pillar for the drawbridge.  Honestly, the fact that this warning needs to exist tells you a lot of what we were about to discover.

Ominous warning about what we were about to embark on

The outside structure of the castle is impressive.  This was built entirely by one man (with occasional help from his family).  The story is that he really didn't have a blueprint, but he just started building.

This was a large room on the second floor and I loved these stained glass windows. To get to these windows we had to climb metal stairs that were in disrepair to the extent that were holes in the middle of the steps themselves.  I was telling our kids to watch every step before placing their feet.  Bree kept saying it was because we could lose our shoes, and I told her that losing our shoes would be a win if that was all that happened should we step in one of those holes. 

Beautiful flowers--this was the prettiest part of the castle

This was taken on the rickety balcony that lines the outside of the castle.  It was narrow and very loose and I couldn't back up far enough to get Bree in the shot, so Kai lifted her up.

Feet on safe solid ground

Finn loves to climb so it should be no surprise that Finn tried to make it all the way to to the top and cross the bridge on the right third of this picture.  The problem was that the stairway we were climbing was in the tower in the middle-left and there were no handrails, or glass in the windows, or any other form of safety measure.  As we were going up, we encountered people going down and Finn stepped to the side to let them pass and was within a foot or so of that window opening.  Even the people coming down started panic as they watched him.  It was in that moment that I announced we were done and turning around.  I was already feeling uncomfortable, and Bree I were climing up the stairs with our hands and feet (as the stairs were quiet tall and uneven) and seeing Finn so close to falling who knows how far was the end for me. 

This model was at the base of the castle.  The castle itself wasn't in much better condition.  There was trash everywhere and some people had tagged certain portions of it.  The structure was questionable, with the holes in the stairs being a large problem.  While I admire the creative vision, unfortunately, there were some large issues with the castle itself.

The story of this castle is that it is a monument to perserverance by one man.  But there is so much else underlying the current state of the castle.  In 2016 both the husband and wife, who are now older, were diagnosed with cancer.  Apparently a friend then took advantage of the situation and took control of the castle.  A legal battle ensued and I believe the man now owns his castle again.  Unfortunately, his wife passed away last year and there was also a fire destroying certain aspects of the castle and souvenir stand (yes, of course they sell souvenirs).  And that has led to the state of the castle today. 

The man who owns the castle has posted signs throughout the castle railing against government control and oversight.  Apparently neighbors and the building department have tried to stop the public access to the castle and all of the other activities.  My guess is that the warning sign has some how made it so that the man can continue to allow the public free access to his private property.  But it sure is an interesting discussion about government oversight and regulation at a time when the country seems to have gone crazy with the notion that taking any responsibility for the public health crisis is an infringement on their rights.  At a time when more and more studies are showing us that wearing a mask could slow down and curb the spread of the pandemic and allow us the ability to resume more activities, people are calling the health department officials "communists" and saying that wearing a mask should be their choice and not a mandate.  There are people who adamantly say they will not put a mask on a "healthy individual" because masks make us sick.  (So, then why would you put a mask on a sick person if it only makes them more sick??)  The ideas that a mask may cause carbon dioxide levels to increase or cause oxygen levels to decrease has gained so much momentum that I'm starting to wonder if everyone in this country is that unintelligent or if it's just the only excuse they can find for their selfishness.

A building code establishes things such as standards for stairs, guardrails, and other safety measures that this castle desperately needed--especially with the hundreds of people who climb through it each day.  Buildling codes and public health ordinances have significantly improved our standard and quality of life, not to mention our quantity of life.  This castle looks all of that in the face and says "Forget it all!".  After returning from our trip to the castle, the first thing I wanted to know was if anyone had ever died or been seriously injured due to the castle.  In my search I could record of one death related to the castle.  The man who built the castle himself, the one who refused to follow building codes and safety regulations, lost his son in the building process.  If that isn't sobering, and a warning to us all, I don't know what is.  

Friends, wear the mask.  Protect yourselves, your neighbors, and our communities.  Stop thinking about what's in it for you and start thinking about how you can be a part of the solution.  And if that doesn't work, remember that we if don't get this under control soon, we will be headed toward another shut down and that would be devastating for so many--maybe even including you.  Whatever reason you need to convince yourself to put on the mask and stop being selfish, please find it.  Because some man spent his lifetime building a castle in the forest that is now so run down and dangerous that the only thing it is good for is an exhibit of exactly what he spent his life protesting--why government controls are so valuable in our lives.   

Finding Things to Do

I feel like each day is a challenge to find something that we can do.  While we aren't fully locked down right now, we are still being extremely careful and so doing our normal summer activities just isn't happening.  One thing we decided to do was to participate in the Douglas County Scavenger Hunt.  Douglas County is just to the north of us (we are on the north edge of El Paso County) and so it's not too far.  There are 8 markers with numbers hidden throughout the County parks and public lands and when the 8 numbers are collected they open the locks on a treasure chest.  To find each marker, there is a booklet with a list of locations and general description of where to look.  Each marker then gives you the location of the next marker.  Last week we set out to get the second marker in our code (the first marker we found wasn't the actual "first" marker, so we are waiting to see where it falls in the code. So, technically, last week was our 3rd found marker.)

This marker was found on a trail that we had never heard of before (actually we haven't heard of any of these trails are they aren't super close) and we were thrilled to discover the trail utterly empty as we hiked out to the marker.  Even the trailhead parking lot was empty.  It was a pretty trail and one I'd like to go back to and see how far it goes.

This is the trail map at the trailhead.

The view at the marker.

The trailhead was in Larkspur and when we drove past the playground we noticed it was completely empty.  Playgrounds are open in Colorado now, so we couldn't pass up an empty playground.  If it had been crawling with kids, we would have not stopped, but the kids were so excited to get out and play for a bit.  It was horribly hot, which is probably why it was empty, but they had a good time.

See Bree way up there?

Even Kai "played" for a bit

This kid.  I truly think outside is his happy place.

The kids had never seen horseshoes before, so they wanted to give it a try.  They found out it's a lot harder than it sounds.

Checking the curve of cases in our count.  This was as of June 15.

That same day our governor announced our third and "final" phase of reopening.  The "Protect our Neighbors" phase will be moved into on a county level when they meet the criteria to advance to that phase and it will be the "new normal" until there is a vaccine or treatment for the virus.

One of the things I've realized this summer is that my kids need something to look forward to.  Since we aren't spending money on swim or music or gymnastics or dance or all of the other things they want to do, I decided we could spend some money on subscription boxes.  We have enrolled in several monthly boxes and we are really enjoying them.  This is our monthly "Conundrum Box", it's like an escape room in a box.  It took us several hours to get through these clues and as you can see there were lots of props and clues to go with it.  Kai, in particular, really enjoyed working on it with me.

Bree is receiving a monthly craft box that sends at least three crafts each month that are themed to the holiday or special event of the month.  Bree was so excited to make these Father's Day crafts for Reid and it really added to our celebration of the day.

Bree and Finn are also participating in the Raddish Kids box.  They love to be my helpers in the kitchen and so they love getting their own kitchen tool and recipe and making new things.

The kids have always wanted a garden.  I have a black thumb.  No kidding, but I kill everything.  I spent hours watching YouTube videos on gardening and I researched so much I was overwhelmed.  But we finally decided to bite the bullet and try.  It might be a really bad idea, but it's giving us something to do.  In this picture, Finn's helping to break down an old pallet that was sitting where we wanted to put the garden.  He's a fabulous helper and loves to work.

Then the boys helped assemble the garden bed.

Ready for dirt and plants

Bree and Finn went with me to Home Depot to pick out plants and dirt and compost and then they helped me poor it in and mix it together.

On the left (which is our back row) are two bell pepper plants, with a watermelon plant in the middle.  The middle row are two cucumber plants.  And the front row is zucchini.  Spoiler alert, the cucumbers have both died already.  The watermelon looks to be holding on by a thread.  The zucchini is also looking a little questionable.  And something is eating the bell peppers.  I am trying.  Really I am.  I don't know what to do to fix things!

Bree likes to take pictures with my phone and so I found these two.  I like the filter and I don't look horrible so I decided to share them to prove that I am here even if I'm not often in the pictures.

I don't know what I was doing here.

After being alone for so long, we finally caved and met a friend at the park for a play date (Bree's friend Daphne and her mom and little sister).  We went back to the deserted park from earlier only to find it crawling with kids.  We had masks, but we also brought Popsicles to share so the kids took their masks off to eat.  We played for about an hour and a half and the kids did well with their masks for a little over half of that.  None of the other kids at the park had masks on but I was so proud of hearing my kids shoo them away by telling them that they were trying to keep their distance.  Way to advocate kiddos!

Masks on the playground

And unfortunately cases continue to climb.  This was data as of June 24th.  

In all of this, our dog has really taken to having us home all of the time.  She seems much calmer and I can't tell if it's because she's bored or if she's content and happy we are here.  She follows me around most of the day.  And this is her new favorite spot for a nap--right next to the treat cabinet.  Normally she won't lay down on the hardwood floor (she's spoiled and prefers soft spots like blankets and her bed), but now she knows that treats are there and if she looks sad enough she can get some....she's totally figured out how to sucker us!

As of June 25th, Colorado joined the list of states with rising case numbers.  We were doing good for so long.  It's frustrating.

April

Remote learning began on Tuesday March 31.  It was definitely a learning curve for all of us.  Many teachers were making use of Google Classroom to post their assignments.  Finn had an "attendance" classroom, science, writing, social studies, and math.  And he was also asked to do a Reading Plus assignment each day. His assignments were due at the end of each week.  Kai had Google Classrooms and Canvas assignments (for math and robotics).  His teachers would record lectures and give out assignments each day.  Each week's newsletter would be provided so we would have a weekly plan.  And finally Bree had a first grade Google classroom.  Each day she would have a morning meeting, reading, math, writing, and either a science or social studies assignment.  Her last assignment of the day was always a "Flipgrid" assignment where they could record a video on the day's topic to share with their class.  Early one we had a lot of technical issues.  Some of the videos were only working on certain devices.  And then our laptop and desktop did not support zoom meetings.  For those meetings the kids were needing to borrow my phone or the iPad, which is what Bree was doing her school on.  Between helping the kids get their assignments done and then playing round robin with the devices during the day to make sure they could get to their meetings, school took several hours each day.  Our average was about 6 hours per day (including our lunch time).  It was certainly draining running a 1st and 4th grader through school work each day.  And at the same time trying to make sure that Kai was on task and getting his work done.  I found there wasn't much time or energy left for much else on our school days.  Luckily our district used Mondays as teacher workdays and school days became Tuesday through Friday.

Finn doing his work

Kai logging in for the day

Bree taking a movement break with a Go Noodle video

After studying animal adaptations Finn had to design his own animal with it's own adaptations and then write about it.

Rosie was an unexpected complication.  She loved that we were all home and definitely wanted to be in the middle of everything.

Here she has found a spot at Finn's feet while he worked.

As case numbers continued to rise, I was trying very hard to keep trips to the grocery store at once every 10-14 days.  Initially the food supply was a concern so I would search each aisle and grab anything that I thought I could do something with and then plan meals from what I found available.  During normal times I often end up at Walmart for groceries three times a week or more, so this pandemic shopping was very much an anomaly for me.  I'd never had a shopping cart this full.  But we always had food.  That's definitely worth another post.

My whiteboard calendar had never looked so empty.  Normally this calendar has something on it everyday--whether it's swim lessons, gymnastics, piano or church youth groups, there is normally something each day.  Having a calendar this empty is very unusual for us.

And of course, it was still April so that meant spring snow.  With the new school model, at least there were no snow days!  Haha!

For General Conference weekend Finn and Bree began working on these diamond art paintings.  We all quickly fell in love with them and needed some of our own.

I decided that after tackling bread making, I was ready to try cinnamon rolls.  These did not disappoint and the kids absolutely loved them.

There were as good as they looked.

Wearing my mask while waiting at Target for a prescription for Finn.

We began each morning with a walk and once we got masks the kids decided to take them with them.  They never went out of the house otherwise so they didn't have any other chances to practice wearing them, even though our walks rarely brought us even remotely close to other people. 

One of Bree's school assignments

After the success with the batch of cinnamon rolls, I decided to try the recipe that Disney released from their Main Street bakery.  These rolls were ginormous and delicious.  My kids loved these even more, if that is possible.

Dying Easter eggs

An email from the elementary school principal about remote learning

One of Finn's assignments for school was to take pictures of living things (plants and animals) outside.  He loved this picture of him and Rosie.

Finn continued to meet with the speech therapist and the school psychologist weekly.  This was either one of those meetings or a class meeting where he was showing off one of his stuffies.  He loves his Beanie Boos and stuffies.

After so much struggle with the technology at our house, we broke down and purchased two chrome books--one for each boy to use.  These worked so much better as each kid could do everything they needed from one device (no more round robin!).  Kai seemed to take up residence on our couch to do his work each day--despite me asking him to sit up in a chair at a table.

Bree continued to use the iPad for her school work.

Kai's diamond art choice

This flyover was scheduled for after the AFA graduations (it was moved up significantly due to the Pandemic).  We missed the initial flyover of the Academy at the end of the ceremony, and so I stood outside on my deck for a good hour waiting and watching for this flyover.  Eventually I learned that due to low clouds the Thunderbirds had skipped over Monument and headed out east to Black Forest instead.  I was incredibly disappointed to miss this, as by this point being inside was becoming overwhelming and incredibly difficult.  This was something I had been looking forward to, and unfortunately the weather did not hold up for it.

Dressed for church at home and goofing around with this crazy kid

In the midst of all of the uncertainty in the world, we finally were able to get our roof replaced.  We began the process in the fall after filing a claim for hail damage.  After a lot of back and forth with the contractor and the insurance company we were finaly ready for a new roof.  The workers stayed outside and we stayed in our home so that we weren't interacting with them.

The old roof

And then this happened.  And while it would seem that this was a sad thing, it really just felt like this was an announcement a long time coming.  There was only a month left of the school year anyway at this point and the transition of back and forth would have been too much.  And with the virus still raging, it didn't seem that going to school would be in the cards for Finn anyway.  So, this announcement didn't seem to have much impact at our house. 

The roof going on.

The new roof all done! While from a distance the color looks the same, as you get closer to the house there is a noticeable difference.  I like our new roof and am so glad we were able to claim it.  Replacing our roof lowered our home owner's insurance by $1,000 a year.  Definitely worth it.

Painting sight words on the sidewalk with water.  This dissolved quickly into playing outside with Finn.

A sweet friend anonymously left this box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts on our doorstep.

With the weather warming up it was getting harder to keep the kids inside focused on their school work. 

I'm not good at selfies but this girl has a strong selfie-game.

So excited for warm weather!

First watermelon of the season

Silly boy

After a disastrous week for one particular child in which no work was turned in despite telling me that all work had been completed, I whipped out the white board and made a daily checklist for the kids.  Some of the kids liked the list more than others.  But whether they liked it or not, it did it's job and let the kids know I was aware of what they needed to be doing.

A COVID-19 birthday!  We dropped cupcakes off at her friends' houses and some even left presents out for her. 

She was so excited!  Can't believe she's 7!

A new scooter from Grandma

A unicorn birthday cake for my girl

Zooming with her friends for her birthday.  This was mildly painful as the girls didn't know what to say and weren't super chatty.  If I had to do this again, I'd have some party games planned.

Facetiming with her friend Ella and showing off one of her birthday presents.

April was LONG!  The kids were good sports despite being inside our home for nearly the entirety of the month.  Remote learning was certainly a test of our patience with each other and our dedication.  But we persevered and were really happy to welcome May!