Catching up on Fall 2014

This fall was very busy for me and Josh with our new jobs and our new pup, Huey. My blog writing time was easily replaced so now that's it's Christmas break, I'm catching up on adventures from the rest of fall since Mount Rushmore. 

We tried to go hiking or to an outdoor space with Huey every weekend in October and I'm pretty sure we accomplished that. This picture was in an off leash dog park in Westminster. It was gorgeous and a great area other than Josh almost getting bitten by a rattlesnake....

Huey absolutely loves being off his leash and running around!

We had some friends over from Josh's school to carve pumpkins the weekend before Halloween. The votes from friends and family showed that Josh's Jaws pumpkin beat my Frozen monster. I have definitely improved over the years though and am darn proud of mine!!!

Huey loves to spend his days watching golfers outside of our apartment....

My sister Hanna and her friend Corbin came to visit us at the end of October just in time for Hanna's 23rd birthday!!!

Huey was a stegosaurus for Halloween this year.... 

We took Hanna and Corbin to the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Refuge and saw some bison up close and personal!!

The scenery at the refuge is always breathtaking. I love that this place is only a short drive from our house!

We then took them to see Red Rocks and I ran Huey up and down the stairs. He could have kept going but I was done after one time.

Huey loved meeting his Aunt Hanna.

We then went hiking at the best place we've found to take visitors- Mount Falcon park in Jefferson County. It was a little chilly but we warmed up after hiking around a little.

It was another beautiful day!!!

I like this picture of Corbin checking out the snow covered mountains in the distance.

Hanna loved the mountains!

It was amazing to see for miles and miles over the Rockies.

Hanna stopped for a yoga break.

On their last day in Denver, we went to check out the Denver zoo.

After they left, we got quite a few cold days. I had to get used to bundling up before going outside but the frost on the ground made for some great pictures of the golf course!

The next weekend was warm again but the forecast predicted more cold coming so we took advantage of a warm Sunday for one more hike with Huey.

I love hiking with my boys!

And then the snow came, Huey didn't know what to think at first!

I survived driving in the snow and loved the ski mask that Josh bought me as a joke a few years back!

I found out that my car is capable of displaying negative temperatures....

The golf course made a great backdrop for beautiful snow pictures!!!

Huey got tired of the snow pretty quickly. The great thing about Denver is that the snow did leave within a few days though and the weather has been in the 30s and 40s for most of December. Now I just have to make it to April!!

We are visiting family in Georgia and Maine for the holiday break and I will post about these fun times soon!! 

Mount Rushmore!!!

I never thought I would live somewhere close enough to drive to Mount Rushmore! When Josh and I found out that it was only six hours away, we decided to go the first free weekend we had which was the middle of October.

The drive up to South Dakota was gorgeous. I've never seen scenery like this before.

The rocks were so interesting!! 

We also drove through areas of all of these dead trees...it was a little creepy

We saw this random window painting for LSU when we were driving through Wyoming...

Black Hills National Forest was had amazing views!!

This was the view as we were driving up the mountain to see Mount Rushmore!!

It was absolutely breathtaking!!!

Josh and I both agreed that it lived up to the hype and was so amazing to actually see in person. We also learned a lot by walking around the museum and exhibits they had.

 

We took a walk around the Presidential Trail and were able to get even closer to the sculpture!

I loved seeing the sculpture with the fall colors around it!

This was the compressor that they used when electrical power wasn't enough to power their drills. It reminded me of Daddy's compressor even though this one was a little bigger :)

The views were amazing from every angle. This one is from the Sculptor's studio where Gutzon Borglum built a 1/12 size model to make sure everything was perfect before he started the actual sculpture.

The studio was closed for the season but here's the George Washington side of the model. I love this picture because you can see the reflection of the actual sculpture as well. Photo credits to my husband, Josh Saunders.

When walking up to the observation deck, all of the states and their flags are on display so Josh and I had to take pictures by our home states of course!

Here's the artist who created Mount Rushmore. It's the same guy who sculpted Stone Mountain in Georgia as well! 

Since we drove all the way up to South Dakota, we looked around for other things to do as well. One of Trip Advisor's most popular attractions in the area was Bear Country USA. We thought it was more of a wildlife refuge at first but quickly realized it's more like an open drive-through  zoo instead. It was cool to see some of these animals up close and personal!

It was feeding time for the bears.

The baby bears were in a separate area that you could walk around. They were simply adorable. We watched them playing for at least 15 minutes.

We took a different route home and got to drive through Nebraska to see corn fields and wind mills!

I love my road trip buddy! He's great.

I'm catching up on my blog posts with these days out of school so I'll write about Hanna and Corbin's visit to Denver soon!!