Work camping and life.....

The pancake breakfast went off well....after we almost burnt down the pavilion with a grease fire. But then after that it went smoothly. We served pancakes, bacon, eggs and sausage. It was kind of a juggling act keeping them all going at the same time but it worked out.  The whole Memorial Day weekend went well and the park was packed. They had several activities including a DJ in the pavilion on Saturday night. Kids and adults were dancing and it was fun to watch. We spent a lot of time cleaning up when it was all over.

On our next days off, we went on another hike, this time on the other side of our first hike as we had never reached both lakes. This hike was longer but quite a bit easier as the elevation gain was much slower and not as great as we drove farther up to the trailhead.  We saw a few people this time since the snow has melted and the passage was much easier.

    Spooky knot in an aspen tree

    Great reflection in the lake

    A little snow snack

During this time off we also went on a 20 mile bike ride into town and looked around at a festival that was going on. And of course grocery shopping and laundry takes up more time.

We spent the four days after our days off working in the park. To be honest, it is not thrilling stuff....I clean bathrooms and cabins along with the other women work campers and Sean works with the guys doing basic maintenance stuff.  I also spent about six hours staining the cabins one day.  But, the days go quickly.  On our next day off our employers paid for us all to go river rafting down Browns Canyon. We had rafted down Browns about 18 or so years ago with our best friends Brad and Lisa and we have great memories of the trip so we were thrilled to be going again and this time for free!  However, Colorado experienced huge snowfall this winter and the river is at record breaking speed and height. So even though I was thrilled to go I had to admit I was a bit anxious.  And even though it is June, the water is freezing! Luckily Kathy, our boss, also rented full wetsuits to make the trip warmer.  When we broke into our two rafts, Sean and I were in a raft with a single lady we work with named Sharon. She is the most petite woman I have ever seen! Literally she is under 5 feet tall and easily under 100 pounds! But she is a great worker! She is retired school teacher and we have allot of fun chatting when we work together. The other lady is named Lora and she is married but her husband doesnt work with us and didn't want to go on the raft trip because he has a fear of water.  Both ladies are quite a bit older then us and I think they were glad to be in a raft with Sean. He is certainly the youngest and by far the strongest of our fellow employees. To be honest, I was darn glad to be in his raft too! He and I took the front rowing positions as that was the roughest spot.  I was nervous but knew I would rather be slightly in control of the situation then not, so off we went! Our guide Matt was all of 21 but had been guiding for four years. He was funny but did make quite the point of telling us all how dangerous the water was and how important it was to listen to his commands.  I certainly had every intention of obeying his every command....even if he is only 21!

The river and canyon were incredibly beautiful. We had some very thrilling moments and nobody fell out of the raft though the guide did grab our two employee ladies a few times and pull them back into the raft. I didn't even realize this until we looked at the photos! Poor Sharon...>100 pounds is tough to keep in a raft when going over rapids! For the first time in my life, I was glad to be a bit heavier then that....just a few pounds! Lol! And during the roughest and hair raising part of the trip Sean is laughing and grinning like I have never seen! He loves the adrenaline rush! I was just too busy praying for my life and frantically paddling to do much laughing. Sean also had our go pro video camera (his retirement gift from Brad and Lisa) attached to his helmet.  The video was really fun to watch afterwards and I especially loved hearing my husband laugh at the scariest moments....luckily you couldn't hear me gasping for air as we paddled frantically through the rapids. I think the best part of these type of adventures is when you can pat yourself on the back for doing something out of the ordinary and physically challenging and then go get a margarita!

       Notice the huge grin!

    Our two rafts. We are the second one.

 After our raft trip, we stopped at a local cantina and had a terrible taco lunch though the margarita was good but we sat outside and saw this pup. He is a Newfoundland and will weigh over 150 pounds.  He is only 12 weeks old in this photo but a HUGE giant fur baby!

The next day we did another 20 mile bike ride. We rode an old railroad path that went along the Arkansas river and through three old tunnels.  It was a good ride but I was still exhausted from the day before and I was glad to get home!

    

Today we went to Colorado Springs and went to Costco and a few other errands. Colorado Springs is two hours away so it was a long day. Both Sean and I decided that it might be a better idea to work camp closer to a bigger city then we are now. That way big grocery shopping and other errands would be easier plus it would be nice to go to a movie or something too. We will keep this in mind in the future.

As a side note we applied to Amazon again. We cancelled out last Christmas season because we just felt like the long drive to Nevada after Meghan's volleyball season wouldn't be worth it. So this time we applied to the Kansas facility.  This is only a days drive from Forth Worth so we could make the trip much faster. We probably won't be able to make it to San Diego for Christmas but we can be there a day or so after. We are feeling the need to restock our savings and working at Amazon will be the fastest way to do it.

We return to work tomorrow and Meghan will be coming out to visit soon so I will have more to write after her visit.