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Our first day there we went for a hike at Adams Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park.
On day 2 we went tubing at the Frasier Tubing Hill.
On day 3 we went for another hike, this time along the Colorado River Trail in RMNP.
On day 4 we rented cross country skis and the shop recommended we drive to where Trail Ridge Road is closed in RMNP and ski on the road. It was awesome. The weather was grat. The views were good. The girls picked it up without a problem. It was awesome to be on the road that is so busy in the summer, but we literally only saw one other person who was out snowshoeing.
Our drive home did not go so well. There was a blizzard in Eastern Nebraska and I-80 was closed across the entire state. In this picture we are in a gas station in Western Nebraska trying to figure out what to do with our lives. We were going to drive the whole way home on Wednesday, but we ended up spending the night in North Platte on Wednesday and finishing the drive on Thursday.
With the cold weather we have been able to get out ice skating on the oxbows and creek.
We were at a friend’s farm this evening for their annual Independence Day party. It was a weird weather evening, but the shape of the storms made for a beautiful sunset.
We received word late tonight that the Northern Lights were visible in Des Moines. The whole family quickly hit the road and drove to a golf course outside of town. We’ve done this before and failed. Tonight was a major success. The pictures are way more amazing than the live experience, but the live experience was still very cool.
There was an eclipse. We couldn’t travel because of some obligations in town, but we made the most of it. Cracker Barrel came through with some last-minute glasses and we pulled the girls out of school. It was fun.
One of Andrew’s goals while he was home for winter break was to snowboard on Mt. Clive. Mt. Clive is a big pile of dirt the city uses for projects and is located at the back of a prairie near our house. The city recently took a huge chunk off the front, creating a drop that Andrew couldn’t resist. Andrew was out there for a while in temperatures that were so cold it was hurting our hands when we took the video. He was determined, but Mt. Clive came out on top today. Andrew thinks he could have done it if he had his regular snowboard that he uses in Colorado. His final attempt is below.
It snowed another 8 inches or so and we now have a lot of snow on the ground! The temperature also dropped to super cold, but that didn’t stop the girls from building a cool tunnel/fort in the snow bank on the side of our driveway.
We had our first big snow of the year through yesterday and today. I think it was 8-10 inches of snow.