Colorado

We recently took the boys to visit their Auntie and Uncle in Colorado. This is the view from their back porch. My oh my.
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What's interesting about all of this is that my sister and I grew up in suburban Orlando. If I had to choose an adjective for that place, the word "flat" comes to mind. In fact, I think most of Florida is below sea level. Well, my sis and her husband now live 8,000 miles above that marker.
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Colorado is a strange place. It has two faces. The eastern and western. Anything east of Denver is pretty much like Orlando (refer to the aforementioned adjective above), but anything west is what most folks think of when they think of Colorado.
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It's a stunning place. The western part that is.

Look at this. It's a frickin' elk. I don't think I've ever seen one of these before. Now, essentially elk aren't that big of a deal as I came to find out. They're everywhere in the mountains. The "frickin'" part comes into play because this was taken right outside my sister's house.

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This is their "back yard". It's more like a "back cliff", but whatever, I certainly don't see this stuff when I gaze out my own back window in the morning. Closest thing I get to elk is my dog pooping on my lawn.

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Right. So, my brother-in-law is a firefighter. We took the boys down to his station to check out the trucks and stuff. Well, he really made the effort. Instead of just walking about and such, we put the boys into these little get-ups, let them sit in the driver's seats, and he actually let us all take a turn SPRAYING WATER OUT OF A FIREHOSE.

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So, I can check that off my "Essential Man-things To Do Before I Die" list, which is nice.

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It was super cool that my brother-in-law (henceforth known as BIL because I can't stand typing that anymore) really took the time to basically give my children the thrill of their lives.

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Kids and firetrucks? Yeah, that's a win-win.

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Er....yeah, so me and BIL did some skating as well. I have no delusions as a 38 year old man that I'm out there to "shred", but I still enjoy poncing about on a skateboard. We went to Denver's biggest skatepark and it was phenomenal.

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Having the boys watch me skate around was kind of a big deal for me. Being little boys means they already are pretty fascinated with skating, and to see their old man doing it really gave me a thrill. Thankfully, I didn't bust my ass too badly in front of them though. Nothing bursts a child's reverment for a parent's activity like, I dunno, a frickin' bone poking out of my arm or something.

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One night my wife and my sis went out for a Girls Night. That left BIL and I alone with the boys. We fed the kids, we bathed them, and then put them to bed.

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After that we also put two giant steaks to bed as well. Beer, meat, and corn. Yeah, Colorado was very manly indeed. I got to spray water out of a firehose AND consume stupid amounts of beef on one trip. We also smoked cigars. I can sense Hemingway nodding in approval already. Not to mention, I've had much worse views than the one above while eating dinner.

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Red Rocks. Everyone's heard of the place. As they should, it's stunning.

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Walking around these stones as they jut defiantly out of the earth was fantastic. There were lots of rattlesnake warning signs around though. Not so fantastic.

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All good things must come to an end.