4th Annual Taylor Park Ride

 
Time for the 4th Annual Taylor Park Ride RZR Rally!!!!  Definitely a highlight of our summer!!! 
We were prepared for terrible weather as it was predicted to be in the low 60s and 60% chance of rain.  Now, low 60s and sun=great, 70s and rain= great.  But the combo together is pretty miserable!  I am pleased to announce that we completely lucked out!!!  The only time it really downpoured on us was on the way to and during the big dinner!  Funniest part about that is as we a re getting drenched and freezing on our evening ride to the dinner (we camped about 12 miles from the main gathering place) we realized, duh, we could have taken the Jeep!!!!  Oops!
 


 Just getting down from the pass to our campsite, we got coated in mud.  Take a look at our BLACK trailer and our BLUE RZR!








Besides the spectacular scenery, trails and pure beauty, one of the greatest things about the rally is the friendships that we have made over the last three years.  We look forward to catching up with people who have a passion just like us.  Jim (J to the B) is one of the guys who arranges the whole event and is truly a great guy.  He welcomed us again and even let us rearrange our ride schedule so we could go on one with him that was already full (more on that later).  We spent some time with Jeff and Kim who we convinced to go to Moab with us earlier in the summer.  And then a whole bunch of other people who are just so wonderful.  Its amazing how many people remembered us and commented on how big Jadeyn is getting!


Our first ride was run by DesertVet to Napolean Pass.  This trail has so many fun spots in it.  Rocks, boulders, slick tree roots and awesome views!




 

Our second ride was with Jim and Mike as the tail man to American Flag Mountain.  There was a little something extra going on for this trail.  It was the wedding party trail!  A couple got married at the summit.  Complete with Bride and Groom t-shirts and even wild bird seed to throw at them after the ceremony!  Way cool!  This is a trail that we will definitely do again.  It was our first time and it was awesome!




The group did do an evening ride in honor of one of the members who passed away this summer.  It was a good reminder that even though this sport is safer than a 4-wheeler, it still can be dangerous depending on how you drive it.  He was killed with a buddy doing a night ride and they hit a tree.  His wife came to say hello to everyone.  She is a pretty strong woman and very impressive to accept everyone's condolences.

Raffle.  We usually have so-so luck when it comes to raffles and this year we really wanted to win some tires!  Ours, with over 3200 miles on them, have some pretty pathetic tread!  We crossed our fingers and hoped, and ended up winning the next biggest ticket item of the raffle: a complete sound system for the RZR!  Sweet!! Its one of those things that would be a lot of fun to have, but we would never have spent the money to buy one!  Pretty lucky!  Then we also won two LED lights to mount on the front.  Nice!

Getting from our campsite to the main dry camp area is always a blast. There is a small section of road that is paved so the OHVs have to take a little side trail around it.  You can tell that this community is full of thrill seekers, because just this little side jaunt is whoop-de-whoos over and over again!  We catch air on every one!!! Cool!


Even with all the activities and rides, we still had some time to hang around our camp and have some fun!   I'm not to coordinated handling a cell phone camera and squirting canned cheese in my boy's mouth!!

 We got sooooo dirty!!















Oh, last but not least: the new Polaris XP 1000 came out a few weeks ago so Polaris sponsored our dinner and were nice enough to bring quite a few new 1000s for us to drool over!

 We don't have the final count yet on the number of people or the number of RZRs, but what a great time!

 ....And I had a bit of fun messing with some black and white photos...

Grandma and Papa are Visiting!!!!

Happy Day!!!! My parents came for a visit!  We were so excited to see them and to show them the new house.  We somehow found a small window of time between their trips and our camping trips when it worked out to get together...so with about three weeks notice, they booked their tickets!!!
Just having them here with us and with Jadeyn was such a wonderful thing.  Jadeyn loves his grandparents so much and it never ceases to amaze me how there isn't any adjustment period or shyness.  He just attached himself to them the instant he sees them!!

Jadeyn somehow convinced Grandma to play he newest favorite game with him: TankI.  So funny to hear the chatter in the computer room: Grandma, don't you see that tank right behind you!?  Who's shooting me?  Get him Grandma!  Wait, look at my screen, come and help me!   They had a fun time (I think) and Grandma went up a few notches in Jadeyn's admiration scale!

Grandpa always comes bearing really cool gifts!

Papa's pill popping show was a hit again and it was good practice for Jadeyn to work on his counting and numbers!!  One...Two...Three!!!

It just so happened that they were here for Jadeyn's first day of Kindergarten!!  He's such a big boy  now and was so proud to be able to show them jsut how big he is getting, grabbing his backpack and heading out the door.  It was so fun to walk him to school and pick him up with them and let them hear his excited stories.

We were able to squeeze in a trip to the mountains as well.  We hit Pole Hill trail that overlooks Estes Park and had a nice and bumpy time of it.  The weather was beautiful and there were even still a few wildflowers around to enjoy.  Mom joked that she doesn't need to go to the chiropractor because bouncing in the back of the RZR was an adjustment enough!!

While Kevin was at work, my parents and I were able to hit a few stores including Savers (our favorite) and an antique consignment shop.  I love shopping with my parents and Jadeyn survived it just fine.  He only passed out in the shopping cart once!  He was a good sport shopping and running errands with us as well as supervising Grandma's eye exam at daddy's office!

Showing them the new house was a ton of fun.  Pictures are one thing, but to actually be here with us was such a delight.  Yeah, they were surprised at how big it is, and it was sure nice to have plenty of space for them to spread out and relax.  Grandma joined me and Jadeyn in the hot tub a few times for some soaking...wait, I mean splashing!!

We had such a wonderful time with them and are so happy that they were able to come and visit!! Love you Mom and Dad!

South Dakota - Custer State Park

Custer State Park South Dakota!

10+ years ago we ventured out to South Dakota to enjoy its many wonders.  I've been itching to return and let Jadeyn explore and be amazed at the beauty and variety that it has to offer.  We had a long weekend so we thought, let's give it a shot!!!  It didn't disappoint.

We stayed at one of the Custer State Park campgrounds and ventured out from there.  The wildlife loop came with so many beautiful young bucks in velvet and several baby deer still with spots.  The Pronghorns and are a given at Custer as well as the prairie dogs, but seeing so many deer was a real treat.

Wild Burros.  Last time we were here, we came upon the wild burros without much warning so we didn't know if it was safe to get out of the can.  As a result, they came on in!!  The stuck their huge heads right inside our car windows!!! This time we got out and even got to pet them.  So friendly and Jadeyn loved being so close to them.





We went on several hikes that were pretty spectacular.  One went right through the Cathedral Spires, giant rocks shooting straight up in the air completely surrounding us.  Amazing and pretty humbling!  We went on several hikes that were pretty spectacular.  One went right through the Cathedral Spires, giant rocks shooting straight up in the air completely surrounding us.  Amazing and pretty humbling!  

As we clambered over boulders and rocks, Jadeyn made a pretty cool discovery.  Just off the path there was a huge pile of pine needles. Well, move just the top layer of the needles and we found out it was a massive pile of hail stones underneath!!!  Two days before while we were in Custer it had hailed and rained pretty heavily.  We saw the hail on the side of the road when we returned.  But to have hail that big still after two days was incredible!!  The pile was about a foot deep and had formed as the rain had washed all the hailstones down through the rock cracks.  Jadeyn wanted to play tricks on any hikers behind us and scooped up handful after handful of hail and piled it on the pathway to make the next hikers really wonder!

What to do while camping in a rainstorm!?  Well, we are firm believers in not just sitting around in the tent waiting for the rain to stop...so we donned our rain gear and went hiking!  We had a beautiful lake trail all to ourselves! (The next day in good weather there were tons of people and motorcycles there!)  This trail had a bit of everything; rocks to climb over, granite stairs carved in the the ground, streams to hop over, huge rock steps laying just under the surface of the water to walk on, waterfalls, and ducks!  I love my little boy who is so happy in the rain!

Mt Rushmore.  One of the coolest sights is found on the drive toward Mt Rushmore.  There are several long tunnels carved into the mountain where only one car can pass at a time. Then at the end of the tunnel, perfectly framed is Mt Rushmore in the distance!  Quite the sight!  We decided not to go clear into the park since we could get such beautiful views from the road.  It still is a marvel to me that such perfect faces could be carved into solid rock!  Wow!








Okay, So this one is kinda gross...but here it is.  We are used to Jadeyn telling stories, making stuff up.  He has an amazing imagination.  We had just gotten back from the Reptile Gardens and were hanging out around camp when he went off exploring.  He came down to announce that he discovered a dead snake!!!  He saw a coyote take it and leave the bones.  We went with the story until we realized he was being more adamant than usual.  Up the hill we went, and by golly, there was the dead snake, mostly bones!  Wow!






Wind Cave National Park
Jadeyn's first "real" cave and he loved it!  Wind cave has a pretty cool history and is special in the caving world since it contains 95% of the world's "Boxwork" formations.  That's a pretty astounding number when you consider how many caves there are in the world.  I may have my facts a little off, but Boxwork was formed when cracks formed in the solid limestone rock.  When the limestone cracked or fractured, calcite filled in the gaps. Rainwater mixed to create carbonic acid and dissolved away the limestone leaving the much harder calcite.   Kind of like making a brick wall and then dissolving away the bricks leaving just the mortar behind.  It was beautiful and kind of had a spiderweb effect in places.

Wind cave got its name from the way the cave breathes.  When the atmospheric pressure changes outside, the cave tried to regulate itself to match the outside so it will breathe or force wind in or out of its small natural opening.

One of our favorite parts is when they tour guide has everyone put away their cameras and phones and asks us all the hold onto a railing.  Then they turn out the lights.  There are few places where you can truly find complete and utter darkness.  Its amazing.  Jadeyn was shocked to find out that there wasn't any difference if his eyes were open closed; either way, he couldn't see anything!

Jewel Cave Natural Preserve
We couldn't just do one cave when we were so close so we tour Jewel Cave as well.  This cave was created entirely differently from its sister cave so close by.  The caves are so close that they predict that someday they will find a link between the two and it will create the absolute longest cave system in the world.  80% of Jewel cave is covered with crystals.  They aren't the translucent sparkly ones you may expect, but they are about 1/2 inch thick, 6 sided crystals about 1-2 inches long covering everything!  There are placed where the crystal layer is so thick (about 8 inches) that the whole section has fallen away from the underlying rock and you can see a beautiful cross section of the rock.

Since Jewel cave is a "wet" cave, be received several "cave kisses" or drips from the ceiling.  Tons of stalagtites and stalagmites, columns and even soda straws! And...drumroll please.... Cave Bacon!!!!  The longest example of cave bacon in the world, over 25 feet!  Its a strip of rock formed by the dripping water that has a ribbon like quality and really looks like bacon!!!

Reptile Gardens
Wow!  Can you say beautiful?!  Some of the rarest poisonous snakes and sweetest collection of reptiles in the country are housed in the this place.  The plants and landscaping were breathtaking as well.

Of course we loved the crocodile show.  The guy presenting it had a funny sense of humor and we all watched a little nervously as more and more crocs and gators started climbing up onto land and surrounding him!  Feeding time was cool and watching him wrestle on down was exciting as well.  Jadeyn got to pet a baby alligator as well!!

I loved the bird show of course, but the highlight was when our little boy was picked as a volunteer to hold out a dollar bill to be snatched away by one of their fiercest birds.  Silly little chicken just ran right past the dollar!

The snake show gave us a little more respect for some of these amazing creatures.  Jadeyn was mesmerized and knelt down right against the glass with the other kids in the audience.

In the dome, there were hundreds of exotic flowers and plants, birds flying free, turtle meandering, and lizards darting under foot!

And of course, I couldn't go through Reptile Gardens without putting in a few pictures of the prairie dogs!!

The giant land tortoises were our favorite.  10 years ago when Kevin and I visited this place, we love Methuselah, an massive ancient tortoise donated to the gardens by Wild Bill!  Sadly, we found out that he died 2 years ago at the age of 130!