Small Town U.S.A.

I feel like I can finally get caught up with the last few days. On Friday, we drove to Walden. Saturday morning everyone helped load my grandparents belongings. Then my parents, grandparents, uncle and my oldest son Conner left for the long drive to North Dakota. My cousins and aunt left to go back to Denver shortly after. That left me, Scott and our other 4 kids to run the motel.

The weekend went well. The motel was full Saturday night so we had a ton of laundry to do Sunday. My mom does have one lady who comes in to help clean rooms. They usually do them together. So Scott and I worked with her to get all but 3 done. We left those to finish Monday since that's usually a much slower day. Chase and Brenna were great helpers, making beds and taking turns watching Aiden and Zane.

We found a special visitor hiding on the top floor behind a gutter. Can you tell what it is?

It's a little bat. If you look closely, you might be able to see his little ears sticking up in this next picture:

On Monday after all the work was done, we took a walk "downtown".

There is only one main street in Walden. No traffic lights, no speed bumps. It's really like a little, old-fashioned town set down in a valley surrounded by mountains. It's one hour from the several large cities, and 3 hours from Denver. Tourists come in the winter to snowmobile or ice-fish, during the fall for hunting season and in the summer to fish or visit the sand dunes just outside of town.

Walden is also considered the "Moose-viewing capital of Colorado". These are a couple we saw on the drive up last year.

Here are a few shots of buildings along Main Street:

This is their motel.

We stopped for ice cream at the shop my mom's friend runs:





My parents and Conner made it back on Monday at 4pm. It was a LONG drive for them and a very quick turnaround time. But Scott needed to be at work Tuesday, so we had to leave. Poor Conner had maybe a half hour after their return, and then had to climb into our vehicle for another 3 hour drive.

This time, Chase gets to stay alone with his grandparents. Each child stays up there for about 2 weeks each summer. That gives them time alone with granny and grandpa.

We will miss you, Chase, but I know you'll have a great time!