Kate’s parents were kind enough to fly us to Kansas City last week for a little visit home. The week started with the boys and I having some quality Starcraft time on Sunday while Kate was doing Pilates with the girls.

I had to work all week while Kate was running around town, but we got to catch up with a lot of people in such a short amount of time.

Our trip coincided with Ava’s third birthday party, so Kate and I drove to Newton for a day of Tinkerbell fun.

We had a blast in Kansas besides the 100 degree heat and we’re looking forward to our move back. But in the meantime we’re cherishing our last two months in the mountains. (The entire Sawyer/Sweigart family are coming to visit us next week… we’re very much looking forward to that!)

Aunt Sarah had a master plan to landscape Grandma’s poor front yard, so Kate and I drove down to Colorado Springs for the weekend to pitch in. As you can see from the photo above, her grass was all but dead and the whole yard needed to be retrofitted for lower maintenance. For all of you ladies who used to live here and want to see the newly improved front yard, this is for you.

Aaron, who works for a excavation company, was able to bring in a skit loader to do all the hard stuff… such as removing the existing dead grass and reshaping the hill on the right side of the yard.

Here we are replacing the old timbers along the sidewalk with new ones.

Only the dirt remains.

Ben and Brady put in a decorative split rail fence which turned out well.

The girls installing the miles of edging. Here they’re framing out the pathway.

The sand has been laid along the pathway and the rest of the bunch is throwing in mulch while Aunt Sarah and I work on the stepping stones in the walkway. (we had to scavenge several stones from the property, hopefully Grandma won’t notice.)

The lovely ladies planting.

The finished pathway coming from side.

It was about to get dark, but this is the final look at the front yard. It looks even better in person.

The rest of our holiday weekend was spent camping with my uncle, aunt and some cousins. We met them in Westcliffe, CO then headed west into the Sangre De Cristo mountains. The trail to our camping spot was rugged an fun. So rugged in fact, that I ended up detaching my tail pipe from the muffler somewhere along the way.

Here, Brady and I are enjoying some chips and salsa.

The boys were fishing all day and needed a ride across the river.

The next day, the rest of the group wanted to try a little fishing, so Uncle Fred recommended we try Hermit Lake just up the range, one that he remembered visiting as a kid. Hermit Road, presented itself to be quite a rocky one… and about a mile in we found out that the lake was still a good 6 miles up the mountain. On the drive up, you could see the old Conquistador Ski Area, which prompted Brady and I to ponder purchasing our own plot of mountain and building a private ski area.

The road was getting rougher the higher we got, so we ended up stopping about half way and the boys fished the small stream.

Eventually though, Brady, Andrea, Kate and I started back up the road in search for the mysterious lake. At one point the bone jarring drive was too much, so we parked the car and hiked up about two miles until we found a small trail that led to Hermit Lake.

I ended up finding parts of a fishing pole lying around the area (Kate found half a rod, Brady found a hook and weight), so I was able to do a little angling of my own.

And finally on the trek down, I had to spot Brady on a couple tricky descents. (But judging by the picture, it doesn’t look so bad, but there were some rocks that could remove a transmission or two.)

We had a great Fourth of July weekend… one of the best in memory.

Our weekend started with a return to McCullough Gulch. A month and a half has made a huge difference. For one, we drove to the trail head, instead of hiking the 2+ miles in snowshoes.

Here’s Kate entering the gate, that in mid-May was nearly covered in snow.

And we got a chance to see the old cabin uncovered.

In May we were the only ones, but on this busy holiday weekend, we saw several fellow hikers on the trail. The trail leads to a great set of waterfalls, still partially covered in snow.

You can see one of the snow “bridges” at the top.

This is Kate’s favorite spot… she could lay on that rock ALL day long.

And just a bit further up the trail you can see where all this water is coming from… a small, pristine high alpine lake.

Kate by the lake. I ended up hiking to the peak just behind the lake.

Part of the lake is still lined with snow.

Now most people stop here and then head back down, but we were in the adventurous spirit and decided to head further into the gulch. The trail was very faint, mostly hidden under snow, and required a few river crossings along with a touch of bouldering. So even though we got “lost” a few times, we’d usually find a cairn and rejoin the trail.

Here’s a few from as far as I got… facing towards the Mosquito Ridge at the back of the gulch.

And here’s a view down the valley that we hiked up.

Over all it was a great hike… although we overheard a few hikers complaining that it wasn’t the “easy” hike that the trail book suggested it was. It was certainly easier than Quandary, but if you’re not used to the altitude, I can see it being a “moderate” hike… but the views at the top make it well worth it.

That night we went downtown, had some pizza and had a front row seat to the fireworks show. It was the first time I can remember the explosions happening right over our heads… the pictures don’t do it justice (I wasn’t really paying attention to picture taking, just staring up).

Hope your holiday weekend was fun!