Follow the Child

"Follow the Child" is a Montessori mantra. It basically means that
in educating children, rather than pushing information to them, we
should offer little seeds of inspiration, see where their interests
take them, and be there to guide them toward the information they
seek out. I have been trying to teach Mary Grace about money for a
year or so, without success. She just hasn't been interested. Then,
today, she comes to me with a little purse and ALL her money from her
piggy bank stuffed inside. She says, "I want to go shopping." She
is also all dressed up in an adorable outfit with barrets in her
hair, jewelry, and fancy shoes. So, quick, I change my plans for the
afternoon so that we can go to the mall. She had no idea what she
wanted to buy, just wanted to shop. Love it. We had some great
discussions about why we pay sales tax, about saving vs. giving vs.
spending, we did lots of math problems, and had a little talk about
why some teenagers choose to pierce themselves in unusual places.
All in all it was a great little outing. My favorite part was when
Mary Grace spent $1 (about 1/5 of what she spent the whole afternoon)
on a merry go round ride for Evelyn and Willa. It more than makes up
for all the times she kicked the backs of their seats on the ride home.

Final Thoughts

It's been an amazing trip, and we are so glad we went. Here are some
things we won't soon forget...Mary Grace's love of building fires,
Evelyn washing her baby in the dishwater after cleaning up dinner,
Willa dancing in the neck-deep water at the pool, the chipmunk who
kept visiting ou campsite which the girls named "Camper," bribing all
the girls with lollipops for the whole trip, and waking up all
together in the tent and snuggling together for just a few more
minutes.

The Last Leg

Instead of the mosquito hike on Thurday, we neded up doing a great
hike to a waterfall from the nearby town of Ouray. Mary Grace got to
climb all over it and get nice and wet. We went back to the hot
springs pool one more time and then went fishing one more time (no
luck). It rained that evening so I taught Mary Grace to play UNO in
the tent while Jason made dinner. It dried out enough for Jason to
take Mary Grace on an evening hike where they made up their own
interpretive trail (we have great video of this). Friday morning we
packed up, which sounds quick but actually takes about 3 hours, and
headed to Albuquerque. We found an affordable hotel, had showers and
a nice dinner. We thought about going on to Carlsbad Caverns on
Saturday, but when everyone woke up we were tired and decided to quit
while we're ahead, so we're headed back to Georgetown today.

Thursday

We wanted to start the day with a short hike when the girls were
fresh. We had a nice leisurely morning and Jason got to enjoy his camp
coffee before setting out for the Dallas Creek trail. We seem to do
this on all our camping trips. We find a hike that is clearly marked
and described on the park map, but that no park employee has ever been
on. So we got some vague information about where the trailhead might
be along with a warning about mosquitos. We have battled bugs all
week (Evelyn's face looks like she has chicken pox) so we had plenty
of insect repellant, and felt like we were prepared. We were not.
Have you ever seen those killer bee movies? We were swarmed about 50
feet onto the trail. I have never seen mosquitos like this. They
were all over us despite being coated inbug spray. The trail was
flooded with thick gray muck so we had to turn and run back to the
trailhead to escape. We then went back to the ranger to update her on
the status of her trail.

Grand Mesa

We drove out to Grand Mesa since it was raining back in Ridgway. It
was a beautiful drive through wine and orchard country. We stopped at
a roadside market and bought some fresh homemade salsa (which Jason is
eating now while we're driving back) and some ice cold cider which
we're all looking forward to having with dinner. Grand Mesa is drop
dead beautiful. Mountain lakes everywhere nestled in huge pine and
white aspen forests. We took a short hike around the visitor center
and had a blast learning about the different kinds of trees and making
up funny stories about the lonely forest rangers who keep the place.
We took a scenic drive back on a gravel road that had a stunning view
of the valley below. The girls tolerated the drive well, although I
did have to tell them a couple of times to stop asking when we're
going back to the campsite. When ordered to do so, they dutifully
looked out the window and said "wow."

Wednesday!

We all got up early to go fishing in the ponds behind our campground.
The trout were biting, but I think they might have been some kind og
genetically engineered genius trout because they managed to eat all of
our worms without us catching a single one. Mary Grace was happy,
though, because she got to torture her sisters by dangling wiggly
worms in their faces while they screamed. We went back to the hot
springs pool, and got rained out after about an hour. Bonus though-
we got a free pass to come back the next day. So now we're driving
out to Grand Mesa for some more scenery and maybe some fresh produce
as we drive through Orchard City!

Day 2

Willa has the same love of rocks and sticks as her beloved big sister.
They spend all evening finding pine cones, sticks and leaves and
throwing them into the fire. Mary Grace now says she wants to build
fires when she grows up. Hmmm. We took a short hike Tuesday...short
because we only have one baby backpack. The girls took turns with one
riding in the pack while the other cried about wanting to be in the
pack. The trail was called "Scenic Overlook" but it wasn't that
scenic, and it looked across at a towering cliff wall so it was more
of an "underlook." The Day was saved when we found a hot springs pool
in a nearby Town and swam ther for 3 hours. Everyone went to sleep
easier the second night after roasting hot dogs on another of Daddy's
perfect fires.

Cell Service for a bit

We're driving through a town with cell service on our way to the
largest flat topped mountain in the U.S. So here's an update. We set
up camp on Monday morning. OUr sit is about 20 yards from a raging
river, the name of which I won't even attempt to spell. It's great
listening to the water although I'm a little nervous whenever the
girls wander that direction. Evelyn keeps repeating my mantra "The
river is DANGEROUS!" We swam in the lake the first day, which was icy
cold, but fun. We ended the day with burgers on the fire and Evelyn
screaming herself to sleep as apparently she didn't realize we were
going to sleep in the tent we spent so much time setting up.