The Fox Expedition

Once again The Foxes hit the trail for our weekly

EXPEDITION.
(isn't that an exciting word??)
We headed up to El Dorado Park which is just
above (or west) of Boulder, Colorado.
We had several new experiences.......
and a new friend, Anne, who just moved
here from Conneticut!
(two Ann's in the same state??) oh, my!
We were met with a busload of 5th graders
on a hiking field trip!

Nancy helped us identify over 100 different
wildflowers!
(This is blue flax)
The hills were painted with patches of blue and yellow.
We saw our first wild "beasts" today...
a small water (non-poisonous) snake,
and the deer, above, sitting in the field.

This rock out-cropping is called,
"The Devil's Thumb".

Another unusual rock out-cropping.

Our walk today was the longest (about 6 miles,
and about 4 hours long), and the steepest.
It featured wide paths that were pretty steep,
changing to small, narrow paths with many steps.
It had soft meadows as well as the above
tree-covered walk ways.


When we reached the peak, we discovered magnificent views
looking east towards Denver. We could see
Loveland (to the north), and the Denver airport
on the east horizon, to downtown Denver.

And for all my Georgia friends.....
we discovered wild Dogwood trees in bloom!!!!
Fiddle-lee-dee!

El Dorado Park featured a 100 year old stone
house still standing.
(wish we could see inside!)

The park ranger we passed said that both a bear
and a mountain lion had been spotted
today in the general area.
(not really near where we were - but exciting to hear!)

We finished around 2:00 and headed to Boulder
to have lunch at "The Sink" and hit
a couple of shops before heading home!

Mountain Views

On my way home from work I saw the most unusual
cloud formations....laying just below the
mountain tops.
Enjoy~

My Card from Tiffany

"I made you somthing special, Mom."


(open the card)


"No, wait,
you made ME something special.
Thanks, Mom."

Mother's Day

I hope this post finds you happy and rested after a wonderful Mother's Day!
I wanted to share some trivia I learned at our Mother's Day Tea
yesterday at our Denver church.....enjoy~

Are we different from men?
A woman uses 20,000 words per day while a man uses about 7,000.


A Russian sociologist by the name of Dr. Karpov claims that
women have approximately
17 meaningful relationships in a lifetime whereas men average 2-3.

A woman spends 4 times as long as a man getting ready to leave the house.

A woman spends 3 times as long as a man worrying.

A woman cries 5 times more frequently than a man
(although it has been said that she will not cry alone
unless she knows her husband can hear her!)

Statistics say a woman will make three right hand turns to
avoid making a left hand turn.

Women will be mortified at a party if they are seen wearing the same dress, but a man would never say, "Oh no! there are at least 20 other men here in a black tux!"

Women take off their shirts differently.
When is the last time you grabbed at the back of your shirt
and pulled it over your head??

88% of laundry is done by women, totaling 330 loads of laundry
and 5,300 articles of clothing a year.

They say the only reason women haven't been to the moon is that
it hasn't been determined to be dirty enough yet!


Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for many restaurants.

Retailers report that Mother's Day is the second highest gift-giving holiday
in the US-----second only to Christmas.

Mothers average 7,300 diaper changes by the baby's 2nd. birthday!

It takes her only 2 minutes, 5 seconds to change a diaper...
which adds up to 3 forty-hour work weeks each year!

Most kids:

Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev of Russia gave birth to 69 children
between 1725 and 1765.
She had 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quads!
Our of her 69 children, 67 survived infancy.

Mrs. Mary Jonas (who died in 1899) had 15 sets of twins...
all were boy/girl!

Oldest Mom:
Rosanna Dalla gave birth to a baby boy when she was
63 years old in Italy in 1994.

Middle income families will spend on average of $242,070 to
raise a child to the age of 18.
This does NOT include college and $7000 will be spent
before the child even arrives!

The U.S. Government considers stay-at-home mothers "unemployeed," and therefore
ineligible to accumulate Social Security credits.
Yet stay-at-home mothers work an average 14 hours a day, and they're on call
all night---far longer than most government employees work.
Plus, they are responsible for most management, human resources,
labor relations, transportation, purchasing, logistics, health care and waste
disposal functions for the facilities they run!

The average pre-schooler requires his or her mother's attention every four minutes!
About 210 times a day----and about 50 times as often as they'll call Mom
in a year after they've grown up and moved away!!!

But the scripture says that the woman who loves the Lord....
"Her children will rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:
'Many daughters have done nobly,
But you excel them all.'"

And here are all the reasons I like Mother's Day:


Hannah Grace

"The Boys: Ethan, Presley, Tarin, Kellen"
Josiah = the dad!

Josiah & Tiffany

Nathan & Courtney


Again....Happy Mother's Day!

Note....

Just below you will find my latest journal of this week's hike...but I would also encourage you to look once again below that to our hike of last week. Some of the photos did not publish....even though I republished them several times. I think I have finally gotten it to work and you will see all our photos! Enjoy~

Mount Falcon Park

So, today's hike was thru just a portion of
Mount Falcon Park.
Again, we walked 3 hours
---which was 6000 steps!
(we have a counter!)

Parmalee Trail is just ONE of the paths in
Mt. Falcon Park.

If you want to feel wimpish....you should know that
we were joined by Phyllis today.
She has been hiking these trails for over 25 years...
and she is over 70 years old....fit and trim...
energetic and very knowledgable about the forest.

Pretty soon and I'll be an ol' Pro!!!

Nancy

Pamela (who wasn't with us this week)
calls this a "water feature"!!!

Sometimes it's good to consult a map of the area!
Not that we are lost...it just tells us where we
are and how much farther we have to go!

On this mountain ---even though we felt completely away
from civilization---
we found houses all throughout the woods!

Here is a view of the highway we took to get here.
(it's Hwy. 285 ---just like the one in Atlanta!)

Phyllis, Me, Suzanne

This house was right on the very top of a mountain!

Near the end, our trail turned into a "meadow".

Again, we always seem to find majestic views of
Mt. Evans!!
One day we will be hiking near there
...but not until it opens!
(it's closed for the snow season!)

I don't know how much of this you can read, but it
tells about a forest fire that took place
in 1989.
Now look at what it looks like years later....

The forest still has not recovered in the burned area.

Photogenic Phyllis!!

We found this "perch" at the top of the mountain.

It has a nice rock walkway~

~and a picnic shelter!

Hike is over.....hunger is raging......lunch at
The Country Road Cafe in Kittridge, Colorado!!
yummmmm!!!
(can you find it on a map?)

The Fearless Four!!
OH....I forgot to tell you what our group name is:
FOX = Friends Out Exploring!

I will leave you with one of the last 'sights' we saw today.
It was when I ventured off the path about 20 feet to look just
over a ridge.
Hmmm....what do YOU think this is??