camping, one last time

Summer ended way to fast here.  The kids went back to school in the middle of August, which to me, seems just wrong.  So with a little bit of bitterness about that, we took off after school two weeks ago on Friday and drove to the western slope with a few goals in mind.  One: to go camping one last time, Two:  to pick organic apples from Paonia, and Three: pick hops for Ryan to finally make a home brew he has been planning for two years.  It was time in many ways.  The apples were ripe, the hops was being harvested, and the weather is still just warm enough not to freeze.  Somehow we did not take any pictures at the orchard or hops farm, but have to say both were great.  The orchard was a family farm where the kids who lived there greeted us and gave us grapes off their vines, and ran out to see the frog that Ephraim found.  The hops farm was even more amazing, the farmer loved our kids and was set on letting them explore and check out everything.  They loved it.  It was harvest time and they got to watch as this giant machine separated out the parts of the hops plant.  Ephraim was fascinated.

We drove through lots of little mountain towns, Carbondale, and Aspen and stopped a couple times, just to soak up the town.  I don't know what it is but little mountain towns are so amazing to us.  Probably most people would agree with that, but, man, I would not mind spending time there.

It was pretty could at the top of the summit, and I couldn't get to my coat so a sleeping bag worked perfectly:)

The main entertainment for camping was a bush right next to our tent filled with fuzzy, wuzzy caterpillars.  The kids loved it and brought a couple home as pets.  They even got to visit Ephraim's class.

this picture fills me with love for this guy, just does.

really not a great picture, but I really like it for some reason.

On the way home we stopped in Buena Vista, they had a great climbing park and restaurant we visited. It was kind of like a last hurrah before we headed home to real life.