bathing, colorado style

crystal took some photos for me on our second trip to colorado. thanks for sharing, crystal!

we were actually able to spend three days at the cabin this time. although i was super excited, i was also rather nervous about the lack of showering facilities. any of you who know me well, know that i like water. now, don't get me wrong, the ivins' cabin does have running water, but it wasn't until i had used the water to rinse toothpaste out of my mouth that i realized (from the strange smell and taste) that the water came straight out of the pond. stephanie claimed that she had told me that, but apparently i wanted giardia more than i wanted to listen to steph.

anyway, after the first day of rest and relaxation i really needed a bath, so i was pleased to hear that we were going swimming. there is nothing better than bathing in fish poop. everyone told me that there was a slide where we were going. i was picturing a little area of slickrock with a 4 foot slide, not this ginormous concrete beast.

here i am, checking out the jump area:



here i am taking the plunge:



in the drink:



once again, my wimpiness reared its ugly head, i chose not to make the trip down the slide. those who did it were driven to the top of the hill on a four-wheeler, they sat on the lid to a rubbermaid tote, and then they rode down. crystal managed a 360 on her tote lid and i took a turn as photographer:



you can tell from this photo that our "bath time" was a lot of fun. either that or they are all being attacked by angry water creatures:



but the best photo of the whole trip was of stephanie's nephew, dayton, riding napoleon. now, that's a REAL cowboy. he seriously rode this horse during part of the cattle drive:



i had to stand in the back of a truck and count the mommy and daddy cows, because i was too much of a distracting idiot to do anything else. it was still fun, though. on the third day, crystal provided an awesome craft for all the kids to enjoy. we made lentil-filled balloon balls. they were fun to throw, but painful to be hit with.

thanks again for your hospitality steph and justin. i really did learn a lot and have fun. and justin, remember that just because i say something outloud it doesn't mean i'm complaining, i'm just verbalizing my description of the circumstances, i can't help it if the water stinks, the flies are noisy, and germs are everywhere...but i can deal with it.