Farewell SLC DuRoss

Well, in case you haven't heard, SLC DuRoss' left town.  They have lived in Utah as long as we have (joining us here a year or two after we set up shop...over a decade ago! And, no hiatus for them...that's a major chapter of one's life!).  The transition was slow and fast all at the same time- you know how some things go like that?  At any rate, we tried to fit in as many little events, trips, and visits that we could.  Soaking in our time while they were close.  They won't be too far away, just across the boarder in Evergreen, CO.  But, sometimes, the way life is these days, the grocery store is too far away to make the trip, so we will not see them as often as we have had the luxury of doing over the past years here.

I am just warning- for some reason this post is full of selfies.  My self love must really be up these days.  Hey, can't ever complain about that, eh?  Moving on, these of Jess and I are on a beautiful hike she and I did up to Naturalist Basin.  We were supposed to go on a girl's backpacking trip this weekend, and decided that one more camping trip with the DuRoss' trumped that plan.  At least we got a day hike in before we were joined by....

These cuties (just a few pictured above and below)

Camped at Mirror Lake Campground, which looks out at Bald Mt (above).  Burnout the boat made the trip and allowed us to get out on the water and do some fishing.

Kind of a big weekend.  On Monday, Chip and I also celebrated (or didn't celebrate really, both of us were on the same page about this, and THIS, we decided was the greatest gift of all) our 13th wedding anniversary.  Yahoo!

Climbed to the top of Bald Mt with all the kids and families.  It was our biggest hike in a long time.  I wish I could say that Ruby and Owen hiked more, but they aren't really into that yet, even with the best peer pressure I could imagine present.  Oh well.

The views were stunning.  I couldn't stop with the pictures.  Just check out those lakes in the distance.  There were well over a dozen in our 360 degree view.  And, you know, my hommie Ruby really thought they were fly too. So, we had that going for us. :) 

Ahh, yes, another selfie.  It was going to be such a cute one with the background pretty incredible too...until we got photo bombed by a random hiker.

The crew putting layers on up at the summit.

The descent. Storm clouds rollin in!

 

Painting with water color is something I like to play with.  And, it is really easy to bring and do when you are hiking, camping, or traveling.  Plus, there are a few gals in this crew who excel and I could learn something from, so that is always a nice bonus. I won't tell ya whose is whose. 

 

Mirror Lake- properly named.

Photo shoot with the kids at dusk.

Love this one. :)

 

And this one.  Cousins. Ruby will miss her Nola. :(

We made pie over the campfire.  Never done this before.  It was delish!

Chris brought the slackline. Everyone enjoyed the challenge. 

More painting down by the lake the next day.  The focus on everyone's part was really amazing.  This painting thing is very challenging for me, and SO therapeutic.  Wait till you see the variety of perspectives, style, and creative license that was used.

Every one- SO cool.

And then the party.  Chip risked life and limb to get the sign we made for them up. :)

Lots of sappy faces (that is sad and happy...cause that is 

what we all feel for them).

Good Luck in Colorado!  We will really miss yall.  Ruby and Owen have moved through some version of the stages of grief (not that those exist).  They have been in denial (that we aren't moving with them), angry (telling us they are mad at us for not moving, mad at them for moving, and complete frustration around the idea that Finn and Nola will not be at their birthday party...seriously, most things revolve around cake and birthday parties...not sure what that is all about), saddness of course, and then making some sort of sense of it as Owen came up to me out of the blue one day and says, "Mom, now I know why Finn, my super boy, is moving to Colorado."  "Why?" I ask.  "Because he has a rescue to do, mom."  I bet he does, Owen.  And, I can't wait to hear about it.  Finn promised to be Ruby's pen pal, so hopefully we will get all the details!