School starts tomorrow...

...and I am the only one with a pit in my stomach:(

1st grade = full day! I will post with pictures and stories soon.

Manitou Springs Mechanical Mania

 

Even more...

 

Couldn't Resist

 

Colorado...the Second Week

(Pikes Peak)

After all our adventures in Denver we headed down to "The Springs", in local terminology a.k.a. Colorado Springs. Our great friends the Smiths hosted us and took us on many more amazing adventures! Green Mountain Falls hike, Garden of the Gods, Manatou Springs, and a great park perfect for little boys to climb to the top of a small mountain and get the feel of "victory" up there. This place is just an one big outdoor playground! For those of you who know John Eldridge and his Wild at Heart book...he lives here!

The boys - Trey, Mason, and Taatjes at the bottom of Green Mountian Falls

Half way up

Lunch break


Mountian Lions

Tunnel adventures and crayfish hunting again:)

Garden of The Gods

Victory!

Pikes Peak view thru Garden of the Gods

Learning some rock climbing skills...plant and push!

The Dads at work! The rock climbing only worked because of them:)

The Smith's

Home from the Rockies!

It is going to take me a while to choose from the 400+ pictures we have. We had an absolute blast up in the Rocky Mountains. The Belg Boys are continuing on in their quest for a "Braveheart" life. One more notch in their belt for bravery and exploration. They all hiked a good 3 miles (Teague is only 2! He blew us away with his determination to hike with his brothers!)up and down multiple days during our stay. They caught a snake, many crayfish, and rock climbed their way to peaks of "smaller" mountains along the way. What a beautiful world up in there. We all sensed our wild side come alive in those mountains!

More to come...my mind is overwhelmed right now!

Colorado Rocky Mountians....The beginning...

Our first half of the trip was with the Wolgies; Denver part of the Rockies. Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park were the highlights. Cub Lake and Fern Falls were the 2 hikes we took and left us wanting more of this beautiful Mountian range. Snakes, fish, and water falls kept us parents on our toes to say the least with 4 children in toe ages 6, 4, 2, and 18 months! After all our hiking in the up ward direction for a couple days we decided to head over to Castlewood Canyon for a hike in the downward direction and a bit more river exploration (as in crayfish catching). A few pics coming your way...

We call them "The Wolgies"! Thanks for hosting the Belg Crew Rocky Mountian Exploration! We had such a great time with you!











Inside the Canyon.

Our swim stop!

Malia and the boys:)

*Warning* To the grandparents - some of these pictures look a lot scarier than they really were, thanks to some clever staging:) We did not at any time place your grandchildren in harms way!