when grandparents head this way the kids will play..........

The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity. Well i guess they always are around here but add two grandparents (visiting from tennessee) and its more like a tornado. We have had a blast exploring Colorado and sharing it with our family! They were supposed to be on vacation but the r&r was nowhere to be found....

The first day was more like a normal grandparent/grandkid kinda visit. We headed over to princess story hour just mom, grammie and 5 kids (dad was at work and papatk arrived later). Princess story hour goes down at Barnes and Noble and is free with crafts and snacks and it sounds really exciting. Pike was hanging out on my back and I couldn't drag the kids away from the train table so the only one really participating was Pearce (2). He made a crown and had cookies and played pin the crown on the princess.

Next we went to one of those overpriced kid haircut places. it wasnt so great, the ladies were rude, but they did sell some fabulous hairbows there so we scored a pair and moved on. We had lunch at Panera bread, my absolute favorite since moving to Colorado springs!! then home to meet the pest control guy. We had an exciting dinner and then it was off to grab Papatk from the airport. nothing too exciting.

Now that we had Papatk we decided we would spend the weekend really exploring Colorado. before we headed out on our excursion we did have to tackle swimming lessons with the little boys. The older kids played at the splash park and the grandparents had a blast checking out all of piper and Paxton's hard work from the past 2 weeks.

afterwards it was go time. I should have been worried when I saw Beau packing up. He handed Papatk a backpack with a full camelback bladder and filled up his REI babypack with a bladder, a ton of snacks and kept asking me if i was sure two diapers would be enough. In my head i was thinking "we are just going to Garden of the Gods" "It is paved, there are water fountains, this is hardly a trek" and out loud I said "sure 2 is plenty". Grammie put on a cute outfit and her nice sandals, I packed up my eis linen didymos, and we headed out the door. When we arrived in the park Beau drove into the main parking lot where the most predominate rock formations are located, he spent about five seconds looking around at the full spaces and proceeded on. I was a little worried at that point, but there were a few smaller parking lots down the way where some of the other most famous rocks are so I didnt think too much about it. When he passed those i got worried. When he parked at the gift shop i got really worried. I mean, I love the gift shop there, love love love it, but it is miles away from the paved walking paths of the well known formations. I was confused, i finally let grammie know i was confused but as always, Grammie and I go with the flow. We got out and I wrapped the baby on my back. He promptly communicated that he wanted to snuggle on the front so we did a switcheroo and into the front cross carry he went. Front carries are fine, no worries there, since we are just going to the gift shop.......to grab a free map that is. Apparently Beau had other plans....he points to some rock formations that appear to be pretty far from the gift shop. Beau assures me there are trails and they arent that far, but i should have been worried when the map lacked a scale. well a trail we didn't find, but we did find an almost dry creek bed. you know, the kind that is just waiting for a little rain to run down the mountain and become a flood. We decided to stick to the creek bed and we hiked along that for about an hour. We followed the deer tracks which was fun. Beau just finished tracking school when we left az so he got to put some skills to the test. We found lots of deer poo and eventually came upon a snake. Beaus mom is not so friendly with the slithery sort so we decided to abandon our creek bed and head up the mountain. The terrain was really rocky and not so easy to do with a baby on your front but ultimately after about another hour of hiking we found some amazing rock formations (toadstools) which were well worth all the work. All the kids and grandparents did amazing. We had a blast, there was no complaining, and even some unexpected adventurers came out of the family woodwork. Once we got there, played around a bit, met some lizards, it was time to come down. Back to our old friend the creek bed, and another half hour we were back to our vehicles. I personally thought we were spent and it was time to head home, Beau and his dad, our fearless off road adventurers thought it was time for taking a leisurely 2 mile stroll through the more well known parts of the park and so we did. It was the perfect end to our adventure with a photo op at the love rock for the two who started it all :) Grammie and I headed home with all the kiddos, but our leaders had a desperate desire to extend the evening with an impromptu trip to Lowes for some father son bonding lol.

The next day I assumed the old folks would need to rest. After all, they had already done more than we all had intended to do, so that morning when I asked Papa TK what he wanted to do that day, i assumed he had some projects in mind, or would respond with something that included Mexican food and beer (his faves) but instead he responded "lets get out and do something, what about that waterfall you mentioned". With that , we were off. Our previous adventure included one regret. While Beau had prepared, nobody else really had and we hiked all those rocks and woods in flip flops and sandals. This adventure would start off right. Vibram style i have been successful in converting the whole family to the fivefingered lifestyle and no trek to seven falls would be complete without them. In reality, i thought we would not end up having another adventure. I assumed seven falls had an elevator and we would all prob take that up maybe walk the steps down, no biggie. Boy was I mistaken, again, beau and his dad had other plans. Immediately upon arrival Beau suggested we start with the baby climb. 185 stairs, straight up to the "eagles nest" for spectacular views. "Sure i can go for that, we will be taking an elevator up the falls I'm sure, right" so we went for it. Wowza, I thought i was in pretty good shape but halfway up I was done. I attribute this to the altitude, somewhere around 6000ft. as soon as we got to the top, it was time to come down. We checked out some fish that pool at the bottom of the falls, and quickly learned there was no elevator to the top. Hmm...ok, i am a trooper, the kids are troopers, even the grandparents are troopers...we are here, we will do it...224 steps and we will be there. Grammie is pretty afraid of heights, so i was worried about her. and well, the kids are little, beau had a thirty lb toddler on his back, i had a 20lb infant on mine (gotta love the babyhawk!) and I thought we might have worn papatk out before we started. the staircase is narrow, once you start, there really is no turning back. even when it starts to sway in the wind. But finally we made it!! all of us! Piper got a little scared and tired but she pressed on, the older boys practically ran, the grandparents had no probs at all and pike fell asleep halfway up! I was thoroughly impressed with the entire family. I was also thoroughly prepared to begin our journey down...but those two fearless leaders caught wind of a trail at the top of the falls. Despite the sound of thunder in the distance, the burn of pain in my thighs, the breath i ran out of around my 300ths stair.... we began the trek. A few yards into the woods Paxton, as usual was hungry, all the nuts were gone, but eventually we found him some wild raspberries that satisfied his hunger. This was the one and only complaint all weekend! and it was easily solved :) We got as far as we could go on the trail and decided to cool off in the  mountain stream. There was a small waterfall and the kids and grammie and I had a blast splashin around.We hung out at the falls a bit too long and it started to rain so we gathered up the kids and headed back down to the huge staircase lol. We were a little hot so we didn't mind. Beau showed his one and only ounce of worry all weekend at this point. He insists he loves his framepack, and though its not my style of babywearing, i have to admit i love that he carries diapers and a bladder full of water for us. But the thing is huge and he was worried about balancing on the steep staircase all the way down. Again we were worried about grammie and her fear of heights, but again, as became the norm for The Kempe Krew this weekend, nobody did less than impress. We all made it safe and sound. I have to give credit where it was due. There is no way we could have done any of this with a stroller, and no way i could have climbed rocks and waterfalls with a baby on my back and maintained balance and confidence without my vibrams. The rocks were wet and slippery and I would never had risked it with my dear sleeping son on my back unless i felt fullly comfortable. so thanks to babywearing and the vibram fivefingers for making this excursion possible We all wore our vibrams in the water and it was like getting a fab foot massage and by the time we made our way for burgers and ritas at the lifestyle center they were dry and miraculously converted themselves from functional water hiking shoes, to fashionable attention getters :) I was one tired mama at this point but we couldn't leave the lifestyle center (thanks Briargate) without a little shopping. And you know a mama cannot try on a cute new top while bwing (the one flaw:) so I got a little help from my beloved Parker Blake Parker was able to wear his twenty lb little brother for an hour in complete comfort! and i paid him in chocolate :) they both loved it!

many memories were created and of course lots of love shared. We learned alot about ourselves and our great city of Colorado Springs and most importantly you are never too young, too old, or too worn out to have fun in Gods great outdoors!