Jon's "MANS" Post! By: Dr. Cardon, DMD, himself

Here we are the first night at a little place called "Goldbug"--a hot springs ofcourse! No trip with Maddog is complete unless it involves a hot springs. And this hot springs is one of the Gem State's true gems. It's secluded and not that easy to get to so that there weren't too many flat-landers to spoil it. Also, the view was fantastic. See below.

These are some scary old men. Wouldn't want to see these guys in the wilderness. Especially with their shirts off. Yikes!

Here's the motley crew ready to take down the Big Horn Crags in the Wilderness of No Return. Some of us almost didn't, in fact. 

Taking in the beauty of the crags.

This place was called The End of the World. It kind of felt that way considering how long it took to hike down to it. It was pretty sketchy with all of the slick rock that we had to slide down. We took it pretty slow so we wouldn't go careening off the cliff that was just behind me. The view was well worth the risk!

Here are some more pictures of the crags. Fantastic!

This lake was our fist camping spot. It was called Wilson Lake. It was here that Maddog showed us how true mountain lakes are swam in (wink, wink). He was the first to jump in. After that, the fish really stopped biting.

More views of Wilson Lake and I forget the name of the one behind it.

Here's Ken and I with a shot of Airplane lake behind us. Ken took a pretty hard tumble on the way out the next day. Fortunately, he's pretty spritely for an old fellow so it didn't slow him down too much.

Another view of airplane lake.

Airplane lake up close. Got a few mosquito bites here.

Here's D-Mo photobombing my selfie.

The view behind me is the slick rock we came down on the way to the End of the World. You can see how steep it was. Wouldn't want to walk down it wet.

More End of the World shots. There was a nice waterfall here.

More crags.

At long last the trip was over. It was successful by all accounts since we all returned with minimal injuries. A few in the party got lost (cough, cough Devin) and one poor guy almost needed resuscitation from exhaustion. Luckily, he made it out on his own steam the next day. We had a delicious burger at this hole-in-the-wall restaurant just before heading back home. It capped off an awesome backpacking trip which hopefully won't be the last!

Something for September!

It's beginning to look a lot like fall around here! And we couldn't be happier. My kids are excited for cooler weather (they're begging for SNOW even), and all things pumpkin and Halloween, and are even starting to talk about Christmas lists. Yikes! I guess December really is just around the corner. Here's what we've been up to lately... 

Lucy and Zach had a teacher workday a few weeks back, and Leah was over the moon that they got to stay home! We headed to the gym that morning, and then as a little treat we tried Nomelie's Cupcake Shop located right on Mainstreet near our house.

Zach and Lucy won the prize for picking the best cupcake-- it was a Mexican Hot Chocolate one and so yummy!

Leah got plain vanilla and it was good too, but the chocolate totally won.

Well, at almost 20 weeks (this Thursday), the belly is popping and the "bump" is definitely showing! I have my ultrasound next Tuesday and I cannot wait to find out what we're having!

I ran some errands at Target the other day and Leah was so excited to see Chewbacca, because she knows Zach and Daddy especially love Star Wars. She told me to take a picture of him for them. Ha ha! See that big bag of popcorn nestled right next to Leah so she'll sit still and be good? She is spoiled.

Legend High School (the kids' high school if we stay here) recently had their Homecoming parade. The did an assembly that morning at Lucy and Zach's school to get the elementary kids all excited about coming to the parade that evening and promising "thousands of pieces of candy." Well, I knew I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't take them, so although Jon was working that night, we found it just down the road from their elementary school and it was pretty fun. The kids loved it.

I have inherited an incredible garden from the previous owners, and we've had a serious rhubarb harvest! Holy moly! This is probably only a 1/3 of what I've cut and frozen so far. We've also gotten lots of raspberries, but those aren't nearly as hard to get rid of as the rhubarb. So far we've made pies and rhubarb cobbler, and no one is complaining!

We finally bought Leah a new car seat! Hooray! She was using Lucy and Zach's old car seat, which was dirty, stinky, OLD, and really just pretty gross. I don't think you're supposed to re-use car seats longer than a couple of years anyway, so it was high time to get a new one. It's MASSIVE, but she fits so much better in it and seems much more comfortable. Unfortunately when I sent Jon to the store I didn't clarify to get a unisex one so we could use it for the next baby too, so if it's a "he," "he" may just have to deal with the pink!

Last but not least, we got a letter from our HOA stating we had to remove these dead trees from our property within 7 DAYS, or else.... I'm sure they would have fined us. It seems a bit ironic considering we just got here, and those trees have been dead for years! We can't seem to figure out how the old owners managed to dump it on us, but c'est la vie. We talked the HOA into giving us a little more time, and we had a guy come cut them down last week. What a process! They had to remove part of the fence, and there is sawdust and mulch everywhere, but they are officially gone. I guess we really do live in Colorado now!