Our Backyard Garden

ALLERGIC TO STRAWBERRIES??!

Our friends discovered that their 2-year-old kiddo was allergic to strawberries this past weekend :( Their bad news turned into the kick-off of our planting season (Thanks John, sorry 'lil Jack!).

After planting the strawberries we continued with jalapenos, cukes, basil, lavender, bell peppers and tomatoes, until we had a full garden. I was so tired this afternoon from our big Memorial Day weekend that I probably would have waited until next weekend to plant had John not passed along some berry plants that needed to be transplanted right away. Sometimes you just need that extra push (i.e. plant these berries now or they will die...)

Once we got done planting we decided that our flower box, that Mark built during his last trip out to CO, was STILL the color of regular 'ol plywood...we busted out the paint.

Our "after" shot (above), the paint dried a little darker than it's shown here in the pic. It looks soooo much better painted. Thanks for the flower box, Mark...hopefully it will keep Britta Bear out of the food garden!!

If anyone has any gardening tips, they are ALWAYS appreciated!

Eaglesmere

Well, we read through "The Best Loop Hikes of Colorado" book and decided to try outEaglesmere, a 9.3 mile loop about 20 miles North of Breck.

Reading through our backpacking and hiking books got Corey and I all pumped up for the summer hiking season. We love the idea of "loop" hikes vs. out-and-backs. One of my goals for the summer is to try to avoid the out-and-back whenever possible. I also picked up a "13'ers" book while in Ouray earlier this year on the advice from the local book store lady(also and avid hiker). Bagging 14'ers is a hobby for many around CO in the summers, this means camping sites fill up quickly, trails are packed on the way up, etc. The basic premise of the 13'ers, says the hiker from Ouray, is that there are more options as far as mountains go, the campsites don't fill up nearly as fast as the 14'er campsites and the trails aren't as packed on the way up...woo hoo! So, hiking some 13'ers is also on the docket for summer fun!

We set up camp, let Britta chase some squirrels, made dinner, told stories, ahhhh, I love backpacking. Choosing a good tent is key, we used a 3-man tent made by Walrus (tent info below).

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eaglesmere

Corey, Mariel, Britta and I left D-town for Eaglesmere Loop early Sunday morning for a nice little hike and overnight backpacking trip, the first one of the year. (17 miles North of Breck, L on Heeney rd., L on Cataract rd to TH). WHAT A GREAT TRAIL!! This hike literally has it all and we didn't even get half way through it. Aspen groves, lush pine tree forest, beautiful views, boulder fields, wildflowers, lakes and waterfalls. The hike was strenuous but not unbearable. A majority of the difficulty of the trail was posed by long portions of snowy terrain. We tried to step lightly, but we often fell through; this was bearable for Mariel and I, but tough on Chaco-wearing Corey. We hiked in about 4 miles (thanks gps watch) and came to a foot-wide log over some pretty aggressive rapids; Corey had a grand plan to harness Britta to his chest and butt scoot over the "bridge"...that idea was vetoed by yours truly :) We hiked back across some little streams, scurried up some boulder fields and found a nice little camp spot about .25 miles back. Rapids avoided!

Britta retired to the tent before dusk, chasing vermin makes for a hard day ;)

Guess what we did when we did when we first arrived back at the car this morning?! Talked about our NEXT backpacking trip.

Summer commences!

Over/Under

Bret (Elyse's baby daddy) and Corey (my sig oth.) just bet on how long I would be able to continue my blog; Bret has me at two weeks, Corey has me at four. I intend to beat both them both by maintaining my blog for quite some time.

I was not dared into starting a blog, as the title might suggest. I have been wanting to start a blog for a while now, as we all know, starting is the hardest part! Double Dog Dare will be about my family, the arts, design, photography, travel, style, thrifting, food, fun, inspiration, music, being active and dares.

I do, however, love dares. I don't always "do" the dares I am dared, but just the idea of "daring" someone to do something is amusing.

I dared Mariel to bring her sig oth. on our backpacking trip tomorrow. She did not take the dare. Dupdate (Dusty update), he wants to climb a 14'er on Friday...then he lit a cigarette.

In order to prepare for our Memorial Day backpacking trip we had all the kids over for some BBQ fun, we grilled out, made some corn on the cob and Elyse made some killer baked beans. Now, we're off to read through some of our Colorado camping books to determine where our travels will take us...