Cedaredge Fourth of July

For the Fourth this year, we invited our friends Tim, Amy, Kurt and Taryn to Cameron's grandparents' vacant property in Cedaredge, Colorado for a few days. We "camped" in an empty house on 3 beautiful acres of green-green grass, surrounded by ripened cherry tree orchards, the soothing sounds of a rushing river, and lots of room to play...

Cherry tree picking was fun and meditative.... and delish..... eating them straight from the tree :)

While the boys played basketball.....

....the girls golfed a little....

.....and cartwheeled a lot!

What else do you do in a big open field?

It was so fun acting like 10-year-olds again. I stretched a lot of unused muscles doing those cartwheels.... hadn't done one in so long.

A little Bocce Ball

.... and then a break from the sun, driving to Tony's for lunch and icecream.

4th generation Mocha Whip taster....

yup...... he's a Loucks.

Sucked it all the way down, barely taking in a breath. And apparently immune to brain freezes.

Then we played some more in the awesome sun!

Volleyball!

Cooper loves Guinness..... Kurt's new puppy :)

He was soooo gentle and well-mannered with Cooper, too.

kiss kiss

On the way to pick up some local pizza, we girls stopped to take pictures of the neighbor's beautiful white horse in the beautiful field and with the beautiful lighting from the setting sun.

After dinner, the girls showered, I hung out down by the river and took more pictures, and the boys played with guns.

Safety first Tim. Safety first.

And then, more games.

The next day was hike day. After sleeping in a bit, we got ready to hike Crag's Crest. I was excited but also hesitant because we started smack in the middle of Cooper's nap time. AND he'd never been in a hiking-back-pack-carryier-thingy.

We was AWESOME! Barely fussed at all.

at the top...

Cooper was so tired:(

and still so good :)

The whole group!

After the hike and after an icecream stop at Tony's (of course), we drove to Delta for the local fireworks show. It's a small little town with few restaurants for dinner.... so we decided on a Wendy's picnic.

While waiting for the sun to set, Cam and I goofed around doing headstands....

.... and Cooper was fascinated with this boy's fireworks.

and finally..... cause for celebration FIREWORKS!

... and then more games back at the pad :)

The trip was so fun. The company great. and the fresh air much needed.

My favorite part was resting under a cherry tree at dusk, listening to my ipod and thinking.

The river.

The cherries.

The beauty.

The end.

oh yeah..... the drive home....... blah!

I dropped Cameron off in parachute for work and drove the rest of the way home alone with two dogs and the baby. 5 hours was 8 hours of mostly 5 mile an hour traffic.

BUT... I conquer all :)