The Sarouhans' Travels

Veggies

2008-10-02T17:52:00.004-06:00

In an effort to become more adventurous eaters, eat healthier, eat locally, and buy organic food at reasonable prices we joined a CSA, community supported agriculture. We basically bought into a farm. So far I've been really happy with it. We don't always love the vegetables we get, but we've tried them all. We've gotten some more unusual things like kale, chard, kohlrabi, and beets. WE've also got yummy peaches, pear, squash, and broccoli.

We have had a lot of beets this summer. I've mostly roasted them on salt, peeled, cut and tossed with balsamic vinegar on salad.

We also have gotten grilling onions, lots of herbs (cilantro above) and peas. William loved the peas. I am not sure if he liked shelling the peas or eating them. He sat and shelled a huge bowl full and insisted that I put it in that night's dinner! So I guess my quest to get us eating a bigger variety of foods has worked. As long as I don't try to give the kids kale we are usually okay.

I've loved having fresh fruits and veggies and look forward to the fall harvest, too!

Father's Day at Steamboat

2008-09-09T13:01:00.006-06:00

Back around the first of the year Brian found out about the Rocky Mountain Mustang Roundup that was being held in Steamboat over Father's Day weekend. And that's what he wanted to do for Father's Day. He invited his parents to come out and go with us and they ended up driving out here to do that.

We drove up there and the view coming down from Rabbit Ears pass into Steamboat was magnificient! The views were so awesome the photos do not do it justice.

The whole reason we were up here was to enter the Mustang show and so Brian could check out all the Mustangs. And boy were there a lot of them.

There were Mustangs as far as the eye could see. Luckily for Olga, Brittany and I the car show was on the main street in Steamboat so we had something look at besides cars.

While we were shopping we went into the western ware shop and William found the perfect hat. Its not a cowboy hat. Its an Indiana Jones hat! He loves it!!!

On the way out of town we found a great spot to stop and take some family photos on the side of the road.

It was a great weekend away!

Mueller State Park

2008-07-19T20:49:00.014-06:00

We went camping in early June. It was the weekend after my mom and sister left and before Brian's parents arrived. I wasn't looking forward to it so much, but Brian reminded me how much fun the kids (him included) would have and the memories we were making as a family. I went and had a good time. The campground was really pretty. There were lots of trees and our campsite was very secluded. Brian picked it specifically so we wouldn't be around motorhomes and generators. That was good. The only problem was we had to walk all of our stuff from the car to the campsite. We don't pack light. We use all the available space in the car. If we had a roof rack we'd still use all that space. Anyway, we carted our belongings to our spot and set up camp.

Part of setting up camp included moving all of our food, utensils, stove, and ice chest into the bear box. We were camping in BEAR COUNTRY!!! Well as I stated above, we tend to over pack. So we (by we I mostly mean Brian) had to walk back and forth to the car with the ice chest, food, utensils, etc.

Anyway, after we got settled in for the evening we fixed dinner and took Baxter for a walk. We got to the outdoor ampitheatre just as they were starting a slideshow on the animals we might see around the campground, so we settled in for a few minutes. And it got cold!

So we went back to our home sweet home and started up the fire. Well, we tried to set up the campfire. Apparently our wood was too wet and we had a heck of a time. We spent more time trying to get the fire going than we did warming up by it. I finally said forget it and climbed into my sleeping bag where I was hoping to warm up.

The next day we wanted to go for a hike, but dogs weren't allowed on the trails and we had Baxter with us. I wasn't comfortable leaving him at the campiste alone so we took some short walks around the campground throughout the day, but mostly hung out aroudn the campsite. We played a lot of Yahtzee, read, and I listened to music. We also started the campfire early in the day so that it would be toasty warm before it got dark.

We also enjoyed just hanging out relaxing. The kids especially loved having soda. A special treat.

Saturday night was slightly warmer. At least the wood had dried out enough to make a fire. Luckily this campground had full bathrooms so Brittany and I scrounged up 4.00 in quarters and treated ourselves to a hot shower. The only problem was that it started to rain overnight. We woke up and everything was damp, wet and once again cold. We ate a quick breakfast, packed up and headed home. A couple weeks later I bought myself a camp heater so at least when we go camping next week I can warm up a little in my tent!! :)

THE TWINS WERE HERE!!!

2008-07-15T14:29:00.012-06:00

And I was so excited about their visit. My mom and Cassie flew out with the girls to visit us for just over a week. We all had a good time, but I think Cassie was exhausted. Here she is with her 2 sweet little shoe eaters.

The girls are both the cutest little things! We didn't go too many places while they were here, but we did take them for their first swim. I think they both enjoyed it and it tuckered them both out. We took them to the pool with the Froggy slide the first day. The girls weren't sure what to think of the water at first, but I think they both had a good time. Then, a couple days later we went to the lazy river pool and I think they really enjoyed that one. We had floats for them to ride in some of the time and they would chase William and get going pretty quick. I think Brittany and William had fun playing with them, too. Here is Brittany playing with a float and William (with frog eyes) behind her. Gracie and William played in the splash pool. That water was C O L D though. In the bottom picture Talia was just splashed. Neither of the girls minded it when we put them under the water. What little swimmers!!!

After swimming The girls got dried off and warmed up. They are so cuddly!!! Gracie was cold when she got out so she got to wear her hat. Talia gave Grammy loves! She is a cuddle monster. Then it was Brittany's turn to cuddle Talie.

The girls also got to take baths together. At home its too hard to watch 2 babies in the tub together, but since I still had William's bath seat it worked out okay.

We also spent a lot of time hanging out and taking care of the babies. Everyone volunteered to hold them.

For the most part the girls were happy. Their smiles are enough to melt your heart. And their cries are enough to break your ear drums. :) But how can you not love those smiles. Gracie is definitely the more demanding one. When she is mad she lets everyone know. When she's happy she is adorable and Miss Charming. Talia is quieter and just a happy go lucky girl.

William was happy that they were willing to share their food with him. He enjoyed eating baby food again. I guess I know what I can pack in his lunch for 1st grade next year! :)

Talie had fun swinging on William's "park". Gracie tried it, too but she didn't think it was as much fun as Talia. Talia also enjoyed sitting in the grass. I think Gracie wasn't loving it as much.

That is Baxter in the background. The girls both loved him and he'd walk right up to them and lick their faces, ears, hair, whatever. He loved them, too!!!

Then it was a sad day. The day we had to take everyone to the airport. Poor Cassie was sick. She was actually sick for a couple weeks after she was here. And the twins got it. And my mom got it. And my dad got it and ended up sick for his whole cruise, came home and a couple days later was put in the hospital with pneumonia. Not fun!!! Anyway, back to the day we left. We decided we'd better get some pictures of the 4 cousins together. Talia wasn't interested in that at all, but we did get a couple good ones.

Pikes Peak

2008-07-11T12:48:00.008-06:00

On May 18 we took the Cog Train up to Pikes Peak with Chris. There are over 50 mountains in Colorado that are over 14,000 feet and Pikes is one of the most famous ones. One very important fact that we didn't think about before heading out on that beautiful, warm, sunny day. At that high of elevation its COLD!!! It was so cold Brian bought Brittany a pair of sweats to wear instead of her skirt, and Chris wore William's Star Wars ski cap!

We got on the train and it was a slow ride. Up we went. William and Brian decided to make funny faces to entertain us.

The ride itself took just over an hour. The scenery was gorgeous, and as we got up higher it changed a lot.

In the above picture you can see the train tracks zig zagging up the mountain.

Once up on the peak it was really cold. As soon as I stood up I was light-headed. The kids and I went into the gift shop/ snack shop while Brian and Chris walked around and took in the view. I am glad they did because Chris took a lot of really good pictures.

The view from up here is absolutely stunning. Its like being on top of the world. You can see forever in every direction!

After about 40 minutes up there we made the trip back down. The trip down was a little boring. But luckily we had William to keep us entertained! About 20 minutes from the bottom William needed to use the bathroom. This Cog Train had the bare minimum. It had plastic bucket type seats (3 to a row) and windows that went up and down. That's it. So we are chugging along and bam. The soda William had been drinking hits him! He had to go so badly he was doing "The Potty Dance" for the last 10 minutes of the trip. Chris was certain William wouldn't be able to hold it. I was hoping he would. As soon as we made it into the station Brittany grabbed William's hand and made a bee line for the exit and bathrooms. Luckily because they were kids most people let them ahead. William made it!!

So Far Behind

2008-07-10T16:47:00.003-06:00

I am so far behind in my blogging. We've spent the summer hosting family and friends (with more to come!) and showing them all the fun Colorado has to offer! Since my last entry we've done the following:

Taken the Cog Train to Pike's Peak (elev. 14,410 feet!), and Garden of the Gods with Chris
Had my nieces mom and sister visit
Went Camping at Mueller State Park (BEAUTIFUL!)
Went to Steamboat Springs with Brian's parents
Visited with Sharon, Seth, Ryan, and Dylan and took them all over
Toured a Gold Mine and went panning for gold!
Visited a pioneer town (Clear Creek History Park)
Visited Cheyenne Moutain Zoo, Will Rogers Shrine, Olympic Training Center, and Garden of the Gods
Drove down to Canon City to visit the Royal Gorge

And of course I have thousands of pictures. I just need to upload them and and write about all of our adventures. Maybe listing them will give me the oomph I need to actually do it!

Maxwell Falls

2008-05-22T10:55:00.008-06:00

Winter came and the traveling slowed down. But with 8 different sets of company coming we are sure to go explore lots of new places around Colorado.

Last weekend Chris came out to visit and we went hiking at Maxwell Falls outside of Evergreen. It was really pretty up there and lots of snow stil on the ground. I think the hike started around 8500 feet elevation and went up to about 9500- a couple of times.

William, my little tree hugger, loved the hike. He wanted to be the leader the whole time. And any rocks we saw were his to conquer!

Actually I think they all enjoyed scampering around on the rocks.

And yes, I was there, although I was mostly the ones taking the pictures.

I love this picture of Brian and Brittany. Do you think she'll stay Daddy's little girl forever?

Brian, Chris, and William made it to the top of the mountain. Apparently Brittany and I stopped 5 minutes too early! Oh well, we had a nice view where we waited.

More pictures to come. The next day we took the Cog train up to Pikes Peak.

Ali

Brittany's Wild Ride

2007-12-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

Brittany was the last one to start the inner tubing and the first one to finish. She had a blast, and was able to stay in her tube unlike her parents. Read and see more pictures below, but here's Brittany's video.

Extreme Inner Tubing

2007-12-14T21:43:00.000-07:00

Part of out adventure day included horse back riding followed by inner tubing. I had no desire to do the horseback riding, but the kids were looking forward to it so Brian went. We debated whether or not William should do the inner tubing and I convinced Brian it wouldn't be a good idea. On the way to the horseback riding we were told William was too small to go on the inner tube portion anyway. My dad rode to the drop off spot with me and picked William up. They hung out while we went on the ride of our lives.

The van riders arrived slightly before the horseback riders. We got outfitted in our vests and helmets and waited for the rest of the group. Then we were given instructions like if you fall out don't try to stand up and whatever happens don't let go of the strap on your tube.

Once we were suited up we had to carry our tubes down a very steep and winding side of the mountain. Then we climbed into our tubes, were pushed off and headed straight for the first rapid. To tell you how quick moving and rocky this rapid was there were about 8 guides strategically placed to help us. We would need all the help we could get.

Its a good thing Brian was a couple people ahead of me. I didn't see what happened to him not 10 seconds after being pushed off. Luckily the camera man did.

I don't even think I saw him as I passed him by. I was too busy simultaneously holding on, trying not to fall out, swallowing water, and realizing my contact just fell out.

Somehow, after regrouping my contact found its way and I could see again. But my troubles were just beginning. Soon enough I was stuck. My tube got stuck between 2 rocks and I was terrified I was going down the wrong rapid. I saw everyone pass me by. Pretty soon, I see Brittany pass me by. She was going down with a guide and was the last one in.

The guides came by and told me to rock me out so I did. This was the first of many times I would get stuck. The guides were amazing, gliding down these crazy rapids on their stomachs. They'd grab a hold of a stuck inner tube and start swimming. Once I got going one of them pushed me ahead to catch up with everyone. Luckily Brian was waiting for me.

I did fall out of my tube once. That was refreshing. It was a fun and wild ride, ending with a huge, close to 5 foot drop. Luckily a guide grabbed my tube and guided me down it. Inner tubing was a blast. It lasted a little over an hour and we all had a great time.

Here is a video of a bunch of us going down the big rapid.

Brian and the Gorge

2007-12-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

Scary!

2007-12-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

My brave boys ziplined all through the forest in Costa Rica. Brittany and my dad did the first 4 ziplines then took a break. William absolutely LOVED this. I asked if he was afraid and he looked at me like I had 3 heads. No fear from him. He had a guide take him on the zip line part (you had to use your hands to stop and start and I don't think he could have done that). He did go down the 60 foot gorge alone... and then across the river and climbed the rocks back up before continuing on.

William going down the Gorge

Here are some pictures, too.

I'll add the video of Brian going down upside down next!

Costa Rica

2007-12-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

We are back from Costa Rica and already had a snow delay this morning. Going from hot, hot, hot and humid, to dry, cold and snowy! I was ready for the snow. Here are just a few pictures of our trip. I'll have to post more highlights later since not all of the pictures are from my camera. I am waiting on my dad's pictures (of Zip Lines, Jumping off a bridge 60 feet up, and a few others) and some videos and pictures of zip lines and inner tubing from Brian's computer. Soon I hope.

Here is the view from our room.

On our first full day we set off on a hike to find monkeys. We didn't see any, but we did have to walk through a river. Brittany enjoyed walking with Adriana, our guide.

While William and Brian took the shallow trail.
William loved building Sand Castles and both of the kids loved playing in the pool and getting Pina Coladas from the bar which opened at 10 am.

The second night we ate dinner at the reservation only restaurant. The food was fair at best, but it was fun ordering the "fire dessert", Baked Alaska.

And here is Mr. William dancing in front of everyone. He LOVED it!

So thats my quick over view of the trip.

Fall Break

2007-10-31T14:12:00.000-06:00

For Fall Break, the kids and I went to Santa Rosa, CA to visit the "twins babies". They were 3 months old when we were there and the cutest little girls!!! When William held Talia for the first time he asked if she goes to the bathroom in her pants. When I told him "of course, she's a baby" his reply was, "EWW, Gross, I don't want to hold her!" He got over that and by the last night there was helping to change Gracie's diaper.

Brittany was so excited to be the little mom. She was dying to help feed the girls. She did lots of diaper changes, although I think she somehow got out of changing stinky ones. She loved holding them and spent lots of good cousin time with both the girls.

We loved catching some smiles. The girls are both really happy and content babies

and they love bath time.

While we were there Adam came up so we got to spend Sunday afternoon catching up with him. That was fun.

My parents arrived on Wed. We threw a quick (belated) surprise party for my dad. Cassie got a small cake from Michelle Marie's Patisserie (where Oprah goes when she's in the Sonoma Valley). Then we tried taking everyone to the pumpkin patch. Unfortunately it was closed so we headed to Armstrong Woods. More about that later.

Picnic

2007-09-19T21:12:00.001-06:00

We stopped for our picnic lunch at the perfect spot. There was a dirt road you could drive down to get to a campground. There were quite a few cars parked in the dirt lot so we decided this was a good place for our picnic.

The area was so pretty the first thing I had to do was take some pictures. Then, while Brittany and Brian played Frisbee, William and I set up "camp". We got all the food out and started to eat. Luckily it was much warmer here than it had been at Independence Pass so lunch was very enjoyable. We had cheese, crackers, grapes, this really yummy southwest Gouda spread from Whole Foods, and chocolate covered sugar cookies. After lunch the kids ran across the bridge to the other side of the stream. When I finished I went over there with them and then Brian joined us and we headed up the trail. It was thickly wooded with a dirt path. The kids had a great time running ahead of us. After a while we headed back since we needed to clean up our picnic and head on to Aspen. Here are our pictures of our stop.

More Pictures, Just Because

2007-09-17T21:21:00.000-06:00

Independence Pass

2007-09-17T19:54:00.000-06:00

We started out about 8am on Sat. morning for a drive. After being without his baby since April, Brian was anxious to take the Mustang for a drive. And drive we did. About 15 minutes into the ride we saw a Ferrari in front of us. Brian caught up to him and it turns out there were about 20-30 Ferraris! We followed them for quite a while and they all turned off around Dillon. So much fo our radar detectors!

We turned off at Copper Mountain and headed towards Leadsville. The scenery was amazing and we were having a great time! The kids were even doing great and being nice to each other. BONUS! Sitting in the car for 7 hours with no TV or friends is a great form of torture!

We hit a little bit of rain right before we reached Twin Lakes. Luckily it was just a little bit. We stopped long enough to snap a couple pictures at Twin Lakes. It was beautiful. We also noticed the leaves starting to change.

We continued on to Independence Pass. At one point I remember saying to Brian- Is that a road we are going to have to drive on? It was literally on top of the mountain. Little did I know we'd soon be up there. After many twists and turns (this was the easy part!), up way too high with no shoulder we made it! We got our jackets on- it was FREEZING! and headed to see what we could without the wind blowing us off the mountain.

Its a good thing we brought our jackets. It was in the 80's at home, but it must have been around 30 up here!!! After that we got back in the car and headed for Aspen. Of course what goes up, must come down and that was true of us. The drive up to Independence was pretty intense, but it didn't even compare to the drive down. There were two or three areas were it went down to one lane, on a curve, with no shoulder to move onto. I was terrified. But the drive was worth it because we pulled over here

and had a great picnic lunch by the water and a quick hike. I'll continue this part of our journey tomorrow.

And this picture is just for you Brian! :)