Colorado vacation part 2

We learned some interesting things while on our vacation. My son has NO idea what disposable diapers are let alone what they are used for. He hasn't worn one since he was about 3 weeks old. My sister left 2 'sposies on the deck and when Tate discovered them he must have thought they were for cleaning. He picked them up and started washing the windows and chairs with them. I had a good laugh at that one!

Tate discovered a love of marshmallows. We caught him double fisting them one day!

Tate got his first wheelbarrow ride. Every morning, Michael would fill it up with wood to restock the wood box in the cabin and bring it right in the front door. The weather was nice and actually got pretty cold at night.

The sound of the stream is one of my favorite things to listen to while in Colorado. The other is thunder from an afternoon thunderstorm rumbling through the canyon. You know my son LOVES water and his cousins were playing in it, so he thought he should give it a try too. It was freezing, as usual. He wasn't really sure what to think. He wasn't too happy with the cold, but he wasn't happy when we took him out. Even the tire swing didn't help take his mind off of it. Swinging is not a substitute for swimming- no matter how cold the water or air temperature.

Michael is grooming Tate well, so far, to love the outdoors and hopefully hunting. Tate, also the electronic lover, was trying to use the GPS.

In the evenings, when just our little family was left, we would drive down the canyon to see if we could spot any elk or deer and just to enjoy the scenery. We didn't have much luck in the spotting of wildlife. One night we parked and let Tate have a look through the binoculars. I really wanted to hear an elk bugle; unfortunately, all I heard were coyotes howling.

Washing the cloth diapers proved to be much more eventful than I planned. We probably would have been okay not to wash them, but I am glad I did. All the diapers, minus the one Tate was wearing to bed were clean Thursday night. Once again, I forgot to take a picture of the stash in the suitcase. We were leaving on Wednesday to come home. The thought of travelling with stinky diapers didn't really appeal to me, even if they were in the back of the truck. Plus, there were 4 1/2 days worth of dirty diapers by Tuesday mid-morning!
Thankfully, the laundry mat was still open in La Veta. I wasn't too impressed with their machine selection, but beggars can't be choosers. I wasn't given many options on how I wanted to wash them and the machines were pretty tiny. So I choose a cold wash and inserted my $2 in quarters. The time on the machine read 24 minutes- what?! I guess I am just used to my HE washer. A normal cycle is at least 45 minutes and with the diapers, I always add an extra rinse. Not an option, so we went to drop off the recycle we had been collecting all week. That, my friends, is another story entirely!
After the recycling fiasco, we went back to the laundry mat. The diapers were almost finished. I noticed the HE washer was open, so I decided to give them another swirl. I chose the hot cycle and inserted $3 in quarters. It was a 28 minute cycle. Good grief can any clothes get clean that fast, let alone cloth diapers?! Nonetheless, I added my Rockin' Green Soap and hoped for the best. Then, I dumped in a little extra for good measure and went to the La Veta Public Library to use their computers.

As we looked to the mountains from town, it appeared to be raining most of the morning in the canyon. It was still a little cloudy when we got back, but I strung the tiny clothesline and draped the rest along the railing. I was hopeful that the Colorado sun would help bleach some of my covers; the Kansas sun sure hasn't been much help, so maybe the higher altitude? WRONG! There were a few sprinkles as I was laying them out, ever-so-neatly to get the best sun. Less than 20 minutes after I finished:

DOWN POUR!

I guess they needed an extra rinse anyway. After the shower, I shook off the pine needles that had fallen on the diapers and wrung out the extra water. I really could have used a spin cycle, most were pretty drenched! Michael strung some extra clothesline throughout the cabin and we hung them inside. We kept the fire going and tried to keep it hot so they would dry before we had to pack them up. Cloth diaper laundry turned out to be the hardest part of cloth diapering on vacation in the mountains. Everything was re-washed once we got back to Kansas.

None of us were really ready to come home. As you can tell, Tate helped by unpacking the suitcase I had just organized.

We took our time getting back home. If you ask Tate, just a little too long for his liking. We stopped more than a few times and it always seemed to be right after he fell asleep. One of our stops I will blog about later. I have already been long-winded enough, but I did warn you!