Doin' the Dunes and The Best Birthday Ever

Labor Day Weekend found the Conlin gang camping with our great neighbors and friends, the Simonds, at a campsite near Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado. The Dunes are incredibly cool; the pictures don't do them justice because they just don't look nearly as crazily big, hideously steep or as perilously vast in the pictures as they really are. And they are so odd, piled up in massive mountains at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountain chain, overlooking a vast farming valley. The kids thought they were so amaing and so fun. Valerie and Dave hung back in the lower dunes with Ruby, Luke, Ryan and Krista, while Adam and I went on up with Zach, Ben, Josiah and Micah. I was so proud of Ben and Zach who hauled up the dunes without complaint or care. I had to run sometimes to keep up with them, then we'd stop and wait for Adam and the other boys to catch up. As for me, while we climbed, I had a few moments of panic. If you know me well, you know I don't like desert-like places/things, eg. Arizona or Kokopelli. I love water and trees and green, and the Dunes were the exact opposite. I kept thinking, "What if I have a heart attack out here? I will die in this brown expanse of freakish sand." But then I would get to the top of another dune, see my amazing kids kicking sand butt and the incredible views before me, and relax again. In the end, the two-steps-forward, one-slide-back climb up the sand was well worth the view from the top, the triumph of making it up, and the crazy fun of going back down!

While there, we celebrated Ben's 6th birthday. And as he said, "It was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!" The day stared with birthday breakfast s'mores, followed closely by the opening of gifts. Next we headed to Zapata Falls, an amazing waterfall that cuts through the hard granite of the mountains spilling into a cave that is only reachable by hiking through the river below the falls. After our hike, we hit the hot springs swimming pool that was back next to our campsite (we actually went to the pool 5 times in 2-and-a-half days). Cool water is pumped in to create a perfect 98 degrees of pure swimming bliss. The boys had no fear jumping off either the high or low diving boards. After our afternoon swim, Adam and David took the kids to the Colorado Gator farm, the home of 400 gators, and many other reptiles. They returned to yummy beef stew, birthday icecream cookie sandwiches (Ben isn't a cake fan-weird, I know, I mean it's cake for goodness sake-go figure), and one more night swim before calling it a day. Or calling it "the best birthday ever," I should say.

We had a great time and enjoyed spending time with our neighbors, Valerie and Dave, and four of their seven kids, Kristalyn (10), Josiah (7-two days older than Zach), Ryan (nearly six) and Micah (5), the other three are in their late teens. We appreciate them and their friendship! And we loved having another AMAZING Colorado adventure! What a great state! Come and visit...we'll show you around!