Flash Floods, Forests & Field Trips

I have been a bit slack the last few weeks with the blog.  Time gets away just in the everyday.  We haven't done anything major, but keeping up our usual hectic pace!  The boys are enjoying school, and have started dodge ball.  This is a club that is run by the school each Tuesday morning from 8.15-9am, and the boys are really having fun playing it.  They hardly do any physical exercise at school, so this is really good for them.  They have one hour of gym each week, and that is it.  They can't arrive at school til 9am, as there is no supervision, and they go into class at 9.10am, so can't play in the morning.  They do get to go outside for 2 recesses, but then only get about 15 minutes of play time after they have eaten their lunch in the cafeteria, so they still have a lot of energy to burn!
Ryan had a class assignment, called Community Contributor.  They had parents and volunteers come into the classroom and tell them of their volunteer experiences, and he was quite taken.  One of the parents had volunteered at Haiti after the earthquake, and was telling his class how they took over water purifiers and other things for the people who had survived.  Ryan had to think of a way he could be a community contributor, and then present what he had done to the class.  The marks were really for how he presented his work to the class, but he had a great time performing his community work.  Phil had heard about a group called Ridgeline Wranglers, who look after a trail which is near where we live.  When we looked into it, we found out about a group called the Dirt Crew, who do work on the bike park at Rhyolite Park.  Ryan had been up here riding his bike on the trails and the jumps, and was very interested in doing this.  So I found out all about it, filled in all the forms to sign away any indemnity (as we are in the land of litigation), and sent Phil and Ryan off on Wednesday afternoon to help out at the bike track.  They were preparing the track by removing any weeds and clumps of dirt, so that the next day some council employees could come along and lay some matting and grass seed, so that the jumps might be a bit stable over the winter.  Ryan was so pleased with himself when they had finished, and Phil enjoyed the work as well.  They went and had an ice-cream afterwards!
We had tickets to another Colorado Rapids soccer match, and everyone really enjoys the games (well, Quinn enjoys the cotton candy!)  Unfortunately, it was on the weekend that Colorado had received about a week's worth of rain, and parts of it, particularly around Boulder were damaged from the storms.  We were watching the news, as it had rained all afternoon, and they were advising to stay off the roads if you could - but we checked, and could find  a way to get to the game which avoided Aurora, which had been affected by flash flooding.  We headed off, and luckily the game had been delayed as of lightening, and we got there just for the start.  It was a good game, no rain - although you can see by the empty seats, lots of people stayed away.  Luke & Ryan saw one of their team mates, Max, from soccer, so they were really pleased, and the Rapids won!  In the end, it was a good night.
The next week, I was looking around for something for Quinn and I to do, and came across "Critter Tales", which is on out at Castlewood Canyon, a State park, about 20 minutes from here.  Each month, they have a volunteer who takes children on a walk around the park, and discuss a different subject.  It is aimed at 3-6 year olds, and this month it was Autumn.  Quinn wasn't that keen, but we went along, and I learnt heaps!  We saw the Aspens, which are starting to change colour, and acorns which had fallen off the trees, as well as a heap of other flowers and plants that she pointed out to us.  Quinn was happiest climbing on the rocks, or the trees, and she was pretty good about telling the kids where they could and couldn't climb, as in most parks, they try to teach them to stay on the trails.

Phil had been trying to organise a day of bike riding for a while.  He and Ryan Batta had organised to go up to the mountains the Sunday that we had all the rain - so that didn't happen.  Fortunately, the following weekend they managed to get up to Winter Park on Sunday.  Winter Park is a ski resort in the winter time, and like most resorts, they offer summer activities also.  Most of them allow bike riders to go up on the chairlifts, and then ride their bikes down the ski trails.  Some have guided tours, and you can choose the green, blue, black or double diamond trails to ride on.  They headed off early on Sunday, with heaps of layers, as the weather can change really quickly up there.  The picture above is of Phil, Ryan in the full face helmet, and another random guy who was sharing the chair lift.  They had a great day, and luckily Phil made it home in one piece, as Jen, Ryan's wife told me later that anyone Ryan had been up the mountains with, usually came back injured!  The scenery is beautiful, and they had lots of fun.  Phil said it got really cold up there, they got covered in mud, and it was sleeting at times.  That night, the mountains got the first dusting of snow!
Quinn is still going to preschool - not that he is particularly happy about it.  At least he has stopped telling me he doesn't like it, but there are still mornings where he won't let go of my leg.  The teachers assure me that he likes it once he gets there, and is fine with free play, but he just doesn't like being told what to do!  They pulled me aside the other day, and asked me if he likes stickers, as they have put him on a reward system - he gets a sticker for each of the activities that he does without a fuss.  I had to ask, and there is another little boy on the same system.  He is doing really well though, and has got all of his stickers each day - so it is working, but makes me wonder what we are in for with Quinn at school, if we are dealing with this at preschool! 
They had their first field trip on Wednesday, to the Fire Station.  They asked for parents to volunteer, and I went along with them.  It is in downtown Castle Rock, and is not far from the preschool, so they all walked down there, and they all had to hold onto a rope.  It was very cute, and they had fun.  They learnt about fire safety, how to get out of the house if there is a fire, to get down low if there is smoke, and they were emphasising the fact that the firemen are not scary, and showed them with all of their equipment on.  They reckon that if there is a fire, a lot of kids hide, as they are scared of the fire fighters with all their gear on.  So they did all that, and got to sit in the fire truck.  Now our family has to sit down and do our fire plan, in case there is a fire!