Man it’s sure nice up here. The air is clean and crisp, the people are nice, there’s little to no traffic and you seem to sleep a whole lot better.
We woke up around 7 yesterday and let the boys sleep until sometime after 8. After a great breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs, apples and banana nut muffins, we loaded up and headed out to Steamboat Lake. You have to drive through town and then take a right heading north. After about 15 minutes you come to the little town of Clark and it’s general store. They had everything including the misses favorite yogurt, her preferred chocolate bars and gluten free everything. I smelled ribs cooking with my keen sense of smell for bbq meat and asked when they’d be ready. It was going to be a few hours so I arranged to have a half rack set aside that I’d pick up on our way down the road.
10 mintes and 12 miles later we were at the lake. You have Hahn’s Peak on one side and Sleeping Giant (mountain) on the other, all surrounded by tons of aspen trees and this big beautiful lake. We had planned on renting some paddle boats but the current and swells looked a bit challenging plus I couldn’t see the misses working out her legs and body that hard since she should still be taking it easy. The oldest and I went in to check it out and after a bit of negotiating we had the keys to a new pontoon or party barge complete with a 40 horse motor and bbq secured to the back. We had two hours to cruise the lake so after so instructions and fitting the boys with life jackets, we were off. As soon as I captained us out of the marina, I let the boys take over. You should have seen each of them at the helm driving the boat, what a blast. We kept cruising around the lake looking for spots where the sun was shinning through the clouds and then would stop to enjoy the rays. Two hours went quickly and I took over as we arrived near the marina so I could ease our ship into the dock. This might have been the most fun the boys had all summer as they couldn’t stop talking about it.
We jumped in the car and headed back to town. On the way we of course stopped for the ribs and the boys got an ice cream cone from Sophie. Of course we were already on a first name basis with the girls that worked at the store. Interesting enough, the general store is also where the school bus picks up each day to take the kids to Steamboat unless you decide to go to the new charter school up there.
We made it back around 4 and the boys headed for the pool and hot tub. Soon after that they went to use up some tickets leftover from last weekend on the trampoline thing that sends you 2o feet in the air. You’re in a harness attached to cables like a gymnast in training. The oldest did backflip after backflip, we think 25 in a row! The youngest did one and said it kind of hurt his tummy.
Back to our place for a quick hot dog for them and then to roast some marsh mellows  over our own fire pit. Soon it was time for bed as we were all wiped out. It’s 8 am and check out is at 10 so time to run. We love the mountains, everything about it seems so much better than the big city. We were lucky we had the chance to be here two weekends in a row! This is truly God’s country.
Take care and God Bless,