I had really wanted to go to Boulder since we had been in Denver. I had heard a lot about it, and as well as being a university town, it was meant to be very pretty. We are quickly running out of weekends, so a girlfriend and I, and Quinn headed over there midweek. When the floods hit Denver in September, Boulder was one of the places hardest hit. We were meant to have a day at Chautauqua park in Boulder, with CITEL - the group who organise the exchange, but it was all underwater, so we headed to this park to have a look.
There was a State parks office at the bottom of the trail, so we went in there, and Quinn had a play with all the animal bones, skins, and we saw some of the types of wildlife which can be found in the park. It is also home to the 'Flatirons', a rock formation which you can see in the middle picture above, where people do a lot of rock climbing. It was a bit of a cold day, and we went for a bit of a hike, but I forgot how the altitude affects Jen, so we came back down again. Quinn had a lovely time playing in the park, and Jen and I just relaxed and had a chat. We decided to go for a drive up into the mountains, and had some lunch in town. Jen took some pretty pictures of the town (the ones below).
Since Ryan's birthday fell on the Friday of Thanksgiving break, we decided to have his party on the weekend before. He wanted to have a soccer party, and go up to the park to play footy and soccer. Unfortunately, it snowed during the week, so I was scanning the internet for games to play indoors! They were a good group of boys, and with our 3, there were only 7 of them, so we survived, and I think they all had fun.
Castle Rock is named after a big rock, which you can see from most parts of town. It has a star up the top (along with the mandatory American flag!), and the star is lit up over Christmas. It was bright when we arrived, and there was a star 'lighting' ceremony downtown, in November. There were lots of stalls, carollers, food stand, and heaps of people! The roads were closed off, and the lighting of the star and fireworks were scheduled for 5.30pm. It is getting dark by around 4.30pm, and it was really cold, but we braved it!
The star did look pretty all lit up, and the fireworks were fun. It was a really good carnival atmosphere. There was a rock climbing wall set up, and the boys wanted to have a go. It was below zero, but that didn't deter them, and up they went with hats, gloves and the works!
After the fireworks we were heading back to the car, but spotted a fire going on, on the side of the road. It was a church group, and we decided to stop, and warm up. They had smores, so we got our little plastic bag with a graham cracker, marshmallow and piece of Hershey's chocolate, toasted the marshmallow and everyone was happy! They had a band playing rockin' Christmas carols too, so it was a bit of fun for a cold Saturday night.
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