Our First Days of Summer

The boys last day of school was Wednesday which meant the official start of summer in the Deters home.  Usually we kick off the summer by sleeping on the trampoline but this year we decided to camp at our favorite National Park, the Great Sand Dunes located just outside of Alamosa, CO.  We packed the car as full as possible and headed southwest late Wednesday afternoon.  We arrived to camp with our good friends the Roberts to stay for two nights.  After a late bedtime we all had a blissful night of rest (this never happens) while staying in our two tents in our beautiful campsite overlooking the dunes.  Thursday morning started out great with some yogurt and homemade muffins (tasty!) then we were off to the dunes.  This time of year Medano creek runs in front of the dunes so you start the day crossing the creek then heading up into the sand.  As a child I visited the dunes numerous times and I just fell in love.  The boys love that they can play in the sand and water all day.  We spent the morning playing on sandboards and sand sleds.  It was fun but tiring!

Tiig was super excited about the sandboards

Finn giving it a try as well.

As the sand heats up in the late morning it's the perfect time to head over to Medano Creek to play in the water.  We brought numerous toys to play with and this is where we spent the rest of the day.

I love my boys!

We had to leave earlier than planned because of a nasty thunderstorm rolling in.  We quickly packed up our goods and made it back to the car just before it started pouring rain.  

We were back at camp as the storm rolled through.  In the distance are some awesome 14ers.

After the storm moved through we spent the evening around the fire roasting gummy bears, marshmallows, and making S'Mores.

Somehow one of Luuk's shoes got soaking wet so he was down to one shoe for the evening.

Handsome lad. 

Tiig enjoying his roasted gummy bear. 

Who's this dreamy fellow?

We sent the boys on a little errand to the camp store to buy Hanni and I Cokes.  After a long day at the sand dunes they were delicious!

We were treated to a most amazing sunset from our campsite. 

Thursday night unfortunately was not as blissful of a night of sleep.  There were two different boys crying most of the night.  This is more what it's like when we camp so it felt normal.  The next day we packed up camp and headed south to a really cool short hike at Zapata Falls.  It's a .5 mile hike right off the road which heads away from the Great Sand Dunes.  To actually get a view of the falls you have to hike through the water into a cavern.  This time of year the water is frigid cold and flowing pretty strong so I packed the two older boys in on my back.  It was worth the hike.

Finn and Tiig were brave to hike through the chilly mist. 

You can't really tell in the photo but they were holding on to me for dear life. They were a little scared by the force of the waterfall. 

The drive back to Pueblo really isn't that far, just under 2 hours.  As we were driving back, we realized that we would have time to surf on the Arkansas before my friends came into town to hike.  We quickly found a babysitter, unpacked the camping stuff, then packed up our surfing gear for a day date at the Pueblo Whitewater Park.

Hanni has really picked it up well this summer.  She has much better balance than me. And she looks good doing it!

 Here's our friend Matt Chapman testing out my Badfish Cobra. 

And our other friend Brittany Abbott on her Badfish IRS (Inflatable River Surfer).

It was a great afternoon of surfing.  We are really grateful to have friends who are willing to be a little crazy and river surf with us on a moments notice.

So that was the start of our summer.  I mentioned above that my friends were coming in town to hike.  Checkout the next post of my trip report of our summit attempt of Mt. Elbert, the tallest mountain in Colorado at 14,433ft.  Hanni and I absolutely love camping.  We have spent time in the out doors since our first summer together when I was a river guide.  Though it is a lot more work when you are taking five kids along for the trip we know that these memories will last them a lifetime.  We figure we can sleep sometime later in life.  Right?