Harding Family Vacation

Hello all!  We had a great week heading out to Steam Boat for my family vacation!  We drove out Wednesday night after work, and I believe made it about the same time as everyone else!  The first night was basically just dinner, card games, some chatting and bed.

Thursday morning we went for a hike to Fish Creek Falls.  We headed up there to take family pictures.  Monica and I got one of our family while we were there as well.  I haven't seen the full family picture yet, but if I remember I'll put one up next week!

Quick back track story.  So on Friday night last week there was a thunder storm, and some lightning really close to our house.  The thunder was really loud, and definitely sounded like it hit something.  Well, when I was out on my run on Monday morning I found at least one thing that was hit.  This tree!  The two halves of the trunk are bigger around than I am!  It smelled burnt around the tree, but fortunately a real fire didn't start!

Also, to continue the quick aside, Brooke has started doing yoga!  Or at least this one pose.

And the cat sometimes tries to sneak Brooke's food.  So far we've always realized it was the cat in the chair and not Brooke!

I forgot I had those pictures in here (and Facebook posts the first picture, so I have to select carefully), but now back to hiking to the falls.  We grabbed a picture while we were on our way up!  So many of Brooke's older cousins wanted to help her get around.  She definitely didn't have a shortage of help if she wanted to do anything!  It was nice to have so many helpful hands, especially since Brooke was willing!

Here is the view from the overlook.  You can see the falls in there if you look hard enough.  You might have to cross your eyes like one of those 3-D pictures... at least that helps me.

On Friday morning we went go walk around the botanical gardens.  You had to walk through a small park to get to the gardens, and we stopped to take a few pictures here as well.  We got a few family shots, and one was all of the kids running toward the camera.... well, all but the youngest, Brooke included.  A little late for the picture I got Brooke to run to me!

The gardens were great!  They even had a children's section which included this tepee made of hops!

There were lots of nice little nature trails throughout to stop and take pictures on.

And Brooke even found a frog to ride!  She's training hard to become a world class Gub!

There was even a little rock bridge to cross!  She almost fell in on the last step, but I snatched her just in time!

That night we had smores around the campfire.  I made Brooke a perfect, golden brown marshmallow!

She loved it!

For our family vacation/reunion we also all got a backpack with the theme, "Return and Receive."  The backpacks were great, and I didn't really think about all the hiking we would be doing so it was awesome to have something to put our water and snacks in!  Brooke loves to wear hers around, and sometimes we even put blankie in it most of the way so she can carry it, but still have it hang down in front of her to hold.

On Saturday morning before we left some of the kids built a huge cup pyramid!  Just look at that thing!

And while we were there Brooke worked really hard to become a world class pianist.  A few more vacations and her first symphony will be complete!

When we got back on Saturday we ended up needing to go to the store, and while there we saw a kite on sale for really cheap.  Well, I took Brooke to the part today to fly it, and it turned out the weather was perfect!  It was a great amount of wind, and we got the kite all the way to the end of the string.  Brooke held the kite once, but the wind pulled it out of her hands, and she wouldn't take it any more after that... but I still had fun!  Also, the kite is Moana, because we got Brooke the Moana sound track and now it's her favorite thing ever!  We might have to get her the Frozen sound track in the near future too!

I think that's about everything from this week.  I hope everyone is doing well!