Wanted: Big Boat Song

Anyone know any songs about a big boat? My silly son keeps requesting a song about a big boat during his lengthy bedtime ritual, and I have no clue what he is talking about. He assures me it's not "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

Each night after the teeth brushing battle is over, I read Colter a few books, let him turn out the light with his foot (no idea how that started), sing him a few songs while we snuggle in the chair, pray, hug and kiss my sweetie, and put him in his crib. The songs always used to be normal lullabies like "Hush Little Baby" or "You Are My Sunshine" but awhile back, somehow, "On Top of Spaghetti" became the nightly song. I don't know how that happened, but every night, our boy wanted the meatball song. I have to insert Colter's name anywhere "I" is used in the song, or I have to start over. If John put Colter to bed, I would have to come in and sing the meatball song before Colter would lie down. My son isn't particular or anything.

Recently, the meatball song has been replaced by "American Pie" by Don McLean. Really. A little over a week ago, Colter had a night when he didn't want to stay in his crib (probably because he slept with his mommy for a week and a half while we were on vacation!), so I rocked him and sang for a half hour or so. Apparently one of the songs I sang was "American Pie" which is funny because I don't even know all the words. I know the "Bye bye Miss American Pie" part pretty good, but I know I mix up the verses and have to go "da da dum de da" in several spots. I figured out soon though, that Colter likes that song! The next evening when I was rocking and singing to him, every time I'd start a song, he'd say "no," and I'd have to try again until I sang the right song. Finally, after who knows how many songs, I hit the winner with "American Pie." I just went with it, but had no idea why he picked that one, until last night. He asked for the "truck" song. "Truck song?" I thought. Hmm..... OH!!!!! There's a "pink carnation and a pick-up truck" mentioned and he "drove my Chevy to the levy" (although I doubt Colter knows what a Chevy is, but he knows what drove means). That's why I have to sing "American Pie!" It's the truck song! I also am required to sing the train song, "I've Been Working On the Railroad." Can you tell that lately Colter has become obsessed with modes of transportation?

So, I know what Colter means when he asked for the "twain" song and the truck song, but he keeps asking for a big boat song. What boat song could I possible have sung my son? I can't even think of any boat songs, but he has asked for "big boat" four or five nights in a row. What is he talking about? I may have to write one...

Wordless Wednesday--Oops.

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Meese Park

I learned something new about Colorado this summer. In the north central part of Colorado, they have moose! I knew there were a few moose here and there, but in the State Forest State Park, there is actually a healthy moose population. Real moose--not just stuffed moose like this one...According to a handy dandy brochure we picked up about the park, there are approximately 600 moose in the 71,000 acre park. That doesn't seem like a lot, but the park is really an excellent place to view moose (WHY is the plural of goose, geese, but the plural of moose is just moose? Why not meese? I can't tell you how many students have asked me that question). Being that it seemed to be constantly raining at State Forest State Park while we were there, and we were camped in an isolated campground with no water hydrant and icky pit toilets, we didn't plan on staying there for long, so I didn't really think we would see any moose. I thought the following picture would be my only proof that there are actually moose in Colorado.

But then I was able to photograph this little moose in the visitor's center. Isn't my boy a cute moose? He got to try on moose ears, feel moose fur, see moose tracks, and learn lots of things about the wildlife in the forest.Then a giant moose walked right up to the visitor's center.

Colter gave him some kisses and discovered that the moose was an impostor. It was made of wire. Neat!

Later that day though, we saw three real moose! We had seen sign that said to watch out for moose at night, so at dusk we drove around looking for moose. We had actually given up and were headed to my mom's camp for smores when we saw one. Then, on the way to our campground which was about 5 miles away from mom's, we saw two more moose! I wasn't able to get a very good picture from a moving car in the dark of a moving moose, but look closely! It's there! :)

Meese are so cool! I mean moose. :)

A Few Camping Pictures

While we were in Colorado, we slept here....and this was the view at our first campsite. We did a little hiking....and a LOT of rock throwing!Colter liked the BIG splashes best. We also enjoyed some campfire time. Fun!

I'm ready to go back now. I'd better go pack. ;)

Go forth and RAFT.

Do you have a list of things to do before you die? If you do, put white water rafting on it. Unless of course, you have already been white water rafting, because if you have, more than likely your list already says “go white water rafting every chance I get” like mine does.

As is apparent, I LOVED my rafting experience along the Arkansas River in Colorado. My family and I had SO much fun! Except for the 15 minutes or so during the speech about all the possible ways one could die while rafting and reading the disclaimer that had two pages of super fine print about all the possible ways one could die or be injured while rafting (including poisonous reptiles---in a cold mountain river? Huh?), I had a blast! I’ve wanted to go rafting for years, and was excited before we even got started (although I must admit the guide’s pre-rafting speech did make me a little apprehensive and encouraged me to wear a helmet). My excitement was not for naught :). After my mom, brother, sister, aunt, two cousins, niece, the guide, and I lugged our raft (which was heavier than one would think a raft filled with air would be) down a narrow path to the river where we were ridiculously close to a steep fall into the river, we all jumped in, and the fun started right away. I thought we would cast off in a calm place to practice the commands the guide had briefly instructed us on, but we were in some mild rapids immediately, so any fear was quickly washed away by 42 degree water. Yes. 42 DEGREES. Cold. So cold. But it was so worth it! There were only a few minutes where I thought hypothermia was setting in, but we stopped for lunch around then and I got to bask in the sun for awhile. It only took a half hour for the shivering to stop. Hee hee.

I can’t describe how fun going down the rapids was, and we were only on class three (of six) rapids (pushing four in a few spots). Class three rapids are “difficult, large, irregular waves up to four feet, numerous rapids” according to this site. I guess the closest thing would be to think about the excitement from an amusement park rafting ride and imagine having that feeling for around 5 hours! It was awesome. We got to take in the beautiful canyon scenery while going down the river as well. That just added to the experience.

It was pretty much a perfect day (even though one of the rapids was called The Seven Steps of DOOM—no doom—only fun) except for my two favorite boys weren’t there! Colter is, of course, too young to go rafting, and John who isn’t in love with water activities didn’t mind staying at camp with him. Even though my hubby doesn’t like the water, I think he would have loved rafting anyway. I am going to convince him to try it someday.

There were some rapids that were crazier than this, but I guess this was the best picture spot. :)

So wet! So fun! GO RAFTING!

Denver Days

The first stop of our great Colorado adventure was Denver. We enjoyed a few days with electricity and running water at a Holiday Inn before we start camping today. Colter a.k.a. Fishboy loves the pool! He likes for John and I to throw him back and forth in his float to make BIG splashes.



Yesterday we visited the Denver Zoo. It's an awesome zoo! The animals have lots of room in their enclosures and the way this zoo is set up, visitors can see the animals in their outdoor and indoor homes, so there aren't as many no shows as there are in other zoos. There are a ton of animals as well (multiple tons actually--those elephants are pretty big). Colter's favorite exhibit was probably the seals, but he didn't understand why he couldn't jump in with them. He really wanted to go "imming."

John and Colter were able to make friends with this elephant. It was quite friendly.

After we rested up from our three hours in the zoo, we went to the the Cherry Creek Shopping Center which was the biggest mall I've ever seen. Being a small town girl, I saw all kinds of stores that I'd only heard about on TV. If I didn't have a two-year-old in tow, I could imagine a huge shopping spree. After Colter's fifth trip up and down an escalator, we went back to the hotel for more swimming!

We're Not in Kansas Anymore...

But we were! Did I mention that we headed west on Thursday? We went to Colorado to spend some time in the nice, cool mountains and escape the summer heat at home. On our way through Kansas, we were able to visit my dad. Dad is a custom harvester, and he travels around the Midwest cutting wheat all summer. He was working pretty much right on our way, so it worked out perfectly for us to see him. Colter was exposed to combines for the first time, and he thought they were a bit scary! It was actually the first time my city-boy husband was up close to a combine as well, but if the combines scared him, he didn't admit it. John got to go for his first combine ride, but since Colter wasn't brave enough to get in the combine, he and I battled the giant mosquitoes and played in the field while Dad and John cut a load.When the big, scary combines got close, Colter wanted up!We were so late getting to the wheat field, that I didn't get a chance to take many pictures before dark or ride in the combine with Dad, but it was good to see him for a little while. We had run into several problems on our trip and were wondering if we should turn around and go home. The day before we left, John had taken the doorknob off the pop-up camper and taken it to a locksmith to get a new key. He didn't realize it until it was too late that day to fix the problem, but the locksmith kept part of the doorknob, so we couldn't leave until we got the part back. That and just the fact that we're slow, kept us from leaving as early as we had planned. Then, when we were only two hours away from home, one of the tires on the pop-up started splitting open, so we had to stop and get a new tire. We thought we were getting a new one at Wal-Mart, but it took them 45 minutes to decide that they actually didn't have the right tire, so we had to go find another tire place. We finally got that squared away, and as we were traveling in the close to 100 degree heat, the air conditioner started giving us problems! It kicks off whenever we are going up a hill; we think pulling the camper is affecting how much power goes to the air conditioner, but we don't really know. Hopefully, it keeps working. We just moved slowly all day, but the next day things went better, so we kept at it. :)

Colter had been a super traveler so far, and our new portable DVD player has proven to be a smart investment. More vacation details later!