Vacation/Staycation (part 2)

After lunch we headed up to Loveland where we had rented a house for the weekend. It was a beautiful 4 bedroom house, complete with a swingset and trampoline in the backyard.

Swinging with Amy

The kids were excited to find a play kitchen. The adults were excited to find a big comfy couch.

Stephen decided to get an early start on Saturday morning and woke up at 6:00 ready to go. We went and sat outside to enjoy the quiet of the outdoors. I was rewarded by getting to see an elk family (dad, mom, and baby) walk through the trees behind the house.

We went up to Ft. Collins for the morning. Our first stop was the CSU Annual Trial Gardens. Hundreds of varieties of flowers are grown here "to evaluate the performance of different annual plant cultivars under our unique Rocky Mountain environmental conditions." Steve and I made notes for future use. It was a beautiful spot. Jacob used my camera to take a wide variety of pictures. He actually did quite well for a 4-year-old. Here are some of his photographs.

The kids enjoyed seeing a Swallowtail butterfly land on some of the flowers.

Clare, Emily, and Jacob hold up the pillar.

We stopped for a snack and took advantage of the beautiful setting for some group photos.

Next, we headed to a local attraction that had sculptures made from metal. Most of them were a conglomeration of car parts and other metal "stuff."

Then we went to a park for a picnic lunch and fun on the playground.

Steve and Emily on the slide

How do you like to go up in a swing, up in the air so blue?

We headed home for naptime. Stephen got to cuddle with Grandma in a hammock swing on the front porch. (These were my favorite part of the house!)