Hiking, Flies, Fridge Decorations, and $5.00 Bargains.

We drove up to the ski resort of Beaver Creek this morning for a hike to a high mountain lake with sandy beaches. 6 miles round trip. Then we found out no dogs allowed (we had wrigley and rusty) and it was a six mile hike from the trail head, the parking lot was another 2 steep miles from the trail head, so we just decided to nix that idea. We then headed up to Sylvan Lake about 17 miles south of Eagle up in the mountains. After some good four wheel drive rode that had Natalie gripping the car door with all her strength for fear of slipping off the mountain, and me holding the steering wheel with both hands just to be safe
we ended up at Sneve Gulch Trail. We decided to give it a whirl. It was a steep ascent for about a mile. Then we had an issue.... The dogs were pooped and the FLIES were terrible. Since the dogs wanted to sit in the shade about every ten feet or so and the flies were so bad we just decided to turn around and call it a day. As you can see the scenery was beautiful, as was the company (Natalie) :) From the pics you can see the lake down below. That is where the trail started and how much we climbed in that hike of a mile. It was freakin steep I tell ya! It reminded me of climbing mt. rainier.... one foot in front of the other foooorrr eeevvveeerrrr......... well it wasn't really that bad.

When we got home it was time for some yard work. We bought this weed eater yesterday at the Thrifty Shoppe for 5 bucks. Natalie wanted to give it a whirl and chop down some weeds. She made a Valiant effort, but there were some ferocious weeds to be chopped down, so I ended up finishing the job for her. Although she had already done most of it. Doesn't she look good handling power tools???? She's a natural. Talk about a steal, that was a good deal. Not the best one ever, but it works and definitely does the job.

Yesterday we got a letter in the mail from Mom. My little cousin Hannah had drawn/colored us a picture of our new house... as described by mom most likely. It is a picture of a house on top of the mountain. It became the first decoration on our refrigerator. Also with the letter came pictures of Hannah, Dylan, and Tyler. All cousins of mine. You may recognize them from the wedding. Dylan was the ring bearer. Cute pics! Thanks guys! Go Twins! and Cardinals!!!! ....................................................... ok, ok, i guess it is ok if the cubbies do ok as well.. ..........................................................................................wait what am I saying, BOO CUBBIES!