Home Sweet Colorado Pt. 5: Tiny Trains, Campouts & Other Delights

Just a few more random photos and thoughts from our Colorado trip this summer...

If something looks weird in the above picture, it's because these houses aren't exactly to scale. In the foothills to the west of Denver, close to the town of Conifer, is an odd place called Tiny Town. It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like...a tiny town, in which famous/landmark building from Colorado's history are recreated at a smaller scale.

It was a big drive up the mountain, but an interesting place to visit. Not only that, but Nathan's sister Kelli and her family live in Conifer, so it was a good opportunity to meet up with them...

...and take a spin on Tiny Town's pee-wee train, which makes a circuit of the whole park and even crosses a little creek! Needless to say, the cousins were all pretty excited...

 All the kids crammed themselves into the caboose of the train; it started to look a bit like a clown car:

After a quick trip on the train and another few minutes playing on the playground, it was off to Kelli & Taryn's house for pizza & playtime. It was great!

The two gorgeous vistas above are--no kidding--the view from Kelli's front yard. So. Jealous.

As I mentioned above, Kelli's house is in Conifer, which is up in the foothills--a good 45 minute drive from my parents' house, where we were staying. Earlier that same day, I'd taken an even longer drive--up to Ft. Collins, CO, where my high school pal Kim now lives & works (she's a pediatric nurse in a local hospital).

Here are the girls with Kim at McAlister's, a yummy deli not far from her home. It was great to see her, and I unfortunately didn't get a lot of pictures of Ft. Collins, which is too bad, because I LOVE Ft. Collins! With luck, I hope to live there someday myself. It's a biggish town, but not TOO big (and it's not too far from Denver, if I ever wanted some excitement). It's clean. It's beautiful. It's close to Colorado's majestic Rocky Mountains. Need I go on?

Back in Denver (although not necessarily all in the same day), I had a couple of trips down memory lane...a trip in which my kids joined me. My dad thought it would be fun if the girls had a "night out under the stars," so he pulled out our old family tent, which we took on many a trip to the mountains:

The girls were very excited (they'd never slept outside before!), but just to be on the safe side, Daddy slept outside with them as well in case they got scared:

Everything went great! It made me long for the day when we, as a family, can have our very own campout--of course, we'll have to buy a tent of our own & some supplies first, but there's time for that.

Last but not least (not to me, anyway), the day before we left Colorado, I did a quick drive-by of an old haunt: the home of my piano teacher! Hazel is a wonderful woman who's been teaching children in Denver piano lessons for decades. I owe much of my love of music (and pretty much all of my piano skills) to her excellent work. Because I was feeling nostalgic (or maybe because I was in a stalker mood, whatever), I snapped a few photos of her home for my own collection. For many years, I'd make the weekly trip through Hazel's back door to her piano studio, either for an individual lesson, a group lesson, or a recital (she held them at her home monthly!). In addition to being a good teacher, Hazel is also a good housekeeper, and has an immaculate yard. My favorite part? The paved walkway leading to her studio, which includes this neat design:

Cool! That would be neat if I could have something similar at my home someday. Yes, I'm a music nerd.

With that short trip, there wasn't much left to do but pack our things and get ready for the drive to Utah. I'll blog more about that later. I had a great time in CO; can't wait to go back next year & play around some more!