Camping in Denver

If there are no seats on the plane, we could always put her in the storage bins... She actually got in here by herself by climbing over the edge. Makes a pretty good play gym.

We didn't get to the airport in time to check our luggage, so we ended up spending a fun-filled five hours running around the airport. She spent the first two hours or so in a remote (as best as possible) set of seats running at high speed in circles around the chairs and (giggling) screaming hysterically while one of us chased after her. Then we finally got to check the luggage and go through security and get some dinner. She melted down during dinner,  so Bill ended up walking her down the concourse while I ate.

Bill used his magic new touch pad to book us a hotel for the first night up in Frisco at the airport. She slept most of the ride up, but kept waking up (as usual). But we got to sleep in and get breakfast at the hotel and a shower, which was nice. She slept in a little crib in the hotel room and woke up several times but managed to put herself back to sleep.

We drove from Frisco to a place just outside of Leadville. The forest had a river running though it with the road paralleling the river and tons of unofficial camp sites where people just pulled their campers or whatnot off the road. We stayed in one of the official campsites, which had water and a pit toilet. It was a bit noisy Friday night, because the road ran close by, but not too bad.

We had a lazy first day, just throwing rocks in the river and digging in the dirt. We had to buy a warm hat for her, which we found at a bicycle store. It's a bit big, but it was pretty chilly at night and the only thing we can find.

We went for one long hike up the trail, which was very steep. We went as far as the tree line and a bit more before we had had enough. The mosquitoes right above the tree line were viscous, so we had to get high up enough to have a bit of a wind. We stopped and had lunch while lots of people (who'd climbed to the top) passed by on their way down. One guy walked by without a shirt on, and Isabella said "that person has no shirt" (or something to that effect), and the guy answered "because it's cooler that way" (!) 

We also spent a little time further up the river. We were looking for a hiking trail that went up to some lakes, but the road was way too bad to risk driving further on, so we stopped at a rather idyllic spot and we read for a while (she was sound asleep) and then threw lots more rocks in the water. And sticks. She's got quite an arm now, although we're having a bit of trouble getting her to *not* throw rocks at us or to no throw everything else...

We also went to a nearby lake, and she finally actually went *in* the water. After getting completely filthy shoveling dirt in and out of her bucket. She actually walked a good halfway around the lake. 

She did better sleeping this time. It was pretty cold at night, cold enough that our summer bags were not quite enough to stay warm. She didn't kick off her sleeping bag, but she did keep her arms out of it. And I ended up sleeping with an arm around her head to keep her from squirming off of the thermarest. And, of course, she ended up sleeping half on my thermarest, too.

We've been talking to the doctor again about IVF. They put me on Clomid for a few days, then antibiotics for testing. All of which you can't nurse on. So we've stopped nursing. We had three melt-downs, one on the plane back, and a fair amount of plaintive "Isabella want munchies", but within a couple days she basically stopped asking. The guy next to us on the plane out bought us some TV for her, to try to keep her distracted. Worked for about 10 minutes, and then she became more interested in the ear plugs. Oh well.