Colorado Extremes

We had a lovely weekend with Ethans Taekwondo belt test on Saturday morning. They hold it once a year at a big park and follow the testing with a instructor demo and picnic. The weather was perfect and I am proud to say that Ethan passed and is now a green belt.

In the afternoon, Ethan had a party at IFLY which is a Indoor Skydiving centre, I had an inkling that he might be nervous but it wasn't until he saw the wind tunnel that he had a mini freak out. To say he was scared is an understatement, he was utterly terrified. He was bawling his eyes out and just didn't want to do it. I chatted him through a few things and then he went into the briefing with his buddies. When they came out he went straight over and started getting suited up! He was hugely scared the whole time he watched his buddies go in, but eventually, with some support from the instructor he went in! He did so well and got over his fear, going in twice and doing his absolute best. What a dude.

Sunday I went to watch a dressage clinic with Lientje Schueler at a gorgeous venue near Sedalia. Ethan got to go to the main house to play with some other kids and I got to watch some pretty mega horses and their riders in the clinic. It's completely out of my league but wonderful to watch nonetheless.

Throughout the winter and Spring here in Colorado we have had extreme weather, feet of snow, winter storms and hail.

The summer weather is just starting and we have had the most stunning weekend of sunshine, properly hot, Bikini hot! But, I forgot the ferocity of thunderstorms. Last night around midnight a thunderstorm came through, the strength and noise that it made was deafening and we had probably ten minutes of thunder, lightening, , high winds, torrential rain and hail. I usually sleep through most things now, but not a chance with these storms. Today, is back to normal with sunny skies and a bit of a breeze. Crazy Colorado huh!

Next weekend should be fun as its Memorial Day weekend, a long weekend off with a braai planned and maybe Off Roading or Hiking, we shall see.

School Holidays

We are on the countdown now to Ethans school summer break. He has two weeks left and then the summer is ours!

To be honest I don't love how the school breaks are structured here.

In England he had decent breaks throughout the year. Usually about 7 weeks for the summer, two weeks in October, Three Weeks Christmas, Two weeks for Easter and a few other weeks here and there.

The holidays are much more lumped here. He gets 3 days off in October for Thanksgiving, Two weeks for Christmas and two weeks for Easter then a whopping eleven and a half weeks over the summer!

Maybe I am just fussy but I preferred having his holiday time spilt over the year instead of this one, big thumping holiday.

Having said that we are so looking forward to it. Firstly we are helping out at a kids pony camp through the summer when we can which will be lots of fun I think. We have our UK holiday booked and simply cannot WAIT to see some of you and mostly of course my lovely family. Finally we have our dear friends Katie and Tom booked to come here for their holiday, we have lots of fun things planned for when they are here too!

Roll On Summer- yippee!

Spring has (finally) Sprung!

This morning after dropping Ethan at school I took Boo and Hoax off for a long hike. The sun was shining already and I was so ready for some peace and quiet with my woofs.

I headed over to Daniels Park which is part of the Rocky Mountain Parks system, after driving through and finding what seemed to be a parking lot, we backpacked up and tried following some footpaths, which all ended up dead ending at picnic tables. Slightly frustrated we jumped back into the car and instead pulled up at a lot which I had passed a few miles prior to Daniels Park.

On the edge of Highlands Ranch development is the 'Backcountry' areas. A few miles of trail loops which were well mapped and marked. We set off again and the first half a mile or so was pretty boring. A Standard track with a lot of foot traffic which didn't inspire me to hike for long. However the first trail off the main track appeared and we set off down it. The various trails had these great, quirky American names; I took Buck Snort trail to Tenderfoot, then right on Giddy Up to finally finish along Longhorn Ledge! Once I left the main path, I didn't see a single other person for the whole hike until we hit back onto the main path. The trail was pretty easy to hike and the wildlife was out enjoying the Spring Weather too. I took my Bear Spray this time but didn't need it of course.

It was an amazing hike. We walked for over five miles, stopping for water breaks for the dogs and I often as it was pretty hot (first shorts day)! Boo and Hoax did really well and loved getting out with just me. Most of the paths were good footing but there was the odd muddy patch from the weekends snow, we spotted tons of animal footprints in the recently dried mud, it was incredible as the path was literally covered with them but I didn't see a single Elk.

On a day like today, I am not sure theres any other place that I would rather be.

Overlook on Longhorn Ledge

Watch out!

Spring!

Me and My Guys x 

This Way!

Elk Footprint

Cactus

Rocky Mountain Backdrop

Amazing Blue Skies today

Say What?

One of the things that takes some getting used to is the different words for food items here. Obviously there are the basic ones like Fries (UK Chips), Cookie (Biscuit) and Candy (Sweets).

Then you start confusing things a little more...

A biscuit here not the round crunch item we know, it is more like a scone type item.

Chips are called fries and Crisps are called Chips.

A Flapjack isn't made of golden syrup and oats- its more like a pancake.

Basil is pronouced BayZil

Cider is generally NOT alcoholic

You won't find Coriander anywhere.... they call it Cilantro

A Doner Kebab is called a Gyro

Lemonade is NOT fizzy

They also have Scallions, zucchini, Jell-O, Popsicles, Oatmeal and so on.

More than enough to confuse any died in the wool Brit on their first few trips round the Supermarket. Oh and you can't buy 'proper' alcohol in them and you have to slap tax on top of all the prices you see on the shelves!

Finally I am starting to get used to it all and even caught myself calling some sweets 'Candy' a few days ago- Waaaaaaaa!