We "Camped" in a Yurt!

We took the kids yurt camping! Camping is a loose term here.

Yurts are semi-permanent structures, and they kind of remind me of a circus tent. They're becoming a little common in state parks throughout the country, and I thought it would be a good way to stay overnight at a state park with the kids. The yurts have bunk beds, a futon that folds out into a full bed, and electricity. There's also a facility located there with a flushing toilet, running water, and a shower. It was a perfect weekend getaway with two little kids.

The only public yurts in Iowa are these two at McIntosh Woods State Park, which is in the northern part of Iowa (about halfway between Des Moines and Minneapolis). The state park itself is pretty small, but it's located on Clear Lake, which is large & beautiful. We could see the lake from our yurt! I wrote about our yurt camping adventures on my travel blog, here.

We're Moving! ...to Iowa.

We're packing our things and moving to Iowa!

If you are like most of our friends and family, you're squinting your eyes at the screen and thinking, "What?! Iowa? Why Iowa? What's in Iowa? Corn?"

We have had this conversation countless times over the past year. Let me tell you, this isn't just on a whim. This is a thoroughly researched and calculated decision that Andrew and I have worked on for years now. All of our research and work has led us to the next chapter of our family's life... in Des Moines, Iowa.

If you've never spent time in Iowa, you probably are picturing silos and corn. Lots of corn.

In reality, there are a lot of amazing things about Iowa and, specifically, Des Moines. For example, did you know Des Moines, Iowa is the wealthiest metropolitan area in the entire country? It's true. When you compare cost of living to the average salary in cities across the United States, Des Moines is numero uno. This has played out true for us. For tens of thousands of dollars less that what we paid for our town home, we can get a single family home in Des Moines. Yet, Andrew's position in tech support actually pays more in Iowa. Make more, spend less!

Of course, Des Moines isn't the only city with lower cost of living, and that was one of the main factors we took into account when making our decision to move. We actually created a list of about 30 cities with lower cost of living in places we would be open to moving to. The cities we included were in states like North Carolina, Texas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. We based our information off of a cost of living index. If you've never used a cost of living index before, 100 is the national average. If a city's score is over 100, then it's over the national average. If it's under 100, then it costs less than the national average. You can find a city's score based on housing costs, health care costs, food costs, and more.

After creating our list of affordable cities, we started to look into other information that mattered to us. Colorado, as you might imagine, has some of the highest rates of drug use in the country. Even when marijuana is not included in the statistic, drug use rates in Colorado are near the top. If it was just Andrew and me, that wouldn't matter. The prevailing attitude in Colorado is that the government should have a small role to play and not police what people do to their bodies. Well, I suppose that's fine & dandy for some, but the lax drug laws and attitude are not the environment we want our kids raised in. Sure, there are drugs everywhere. We get that. Yet, there's a difference between a place where only 3% of the people use drugs regularly and a place where over 15% of people do. And guess what? Iowa is tied for the lowest rates of drug use in the entire country.

So, we started to think about Iowa fairly seriously. Des Moines is the wealthiest city in the country (income vs cost of living), and Iowa has the lowest rates of drug use. We had pages and pages of data we sorted through. We looked at firearms death rates. I know many people don't share the same attitude as me in regards to guns. I don't like them. I grew up in Chicago and never even had to see a gun until I moved to Colorado. Here, people we know keep an arsenal of weapons in their homes. Friends have conceal carry permits and weapons, and some sleep with loaded guns under their pillows. I'm afraid of what it will be like as our kids get older and start going to homes like those. We researched the firearms death rate in each state. You can see a list of death rates per 100,000 people at this link. The national average is 10.1 firearms deaths per 100,000 people. Colorado is over the national average (11.5). So is Texas (11.1) and North Carolina (11.7). States we had on our list with lower firearms deaths were Iowa (6.3), Nebraska (7.3), Minnesota (6.2), and Wisconsin (7.9). Iowa was looking pretty good, once again.

I actually started to rank each city on our list according to each criteria. Over and over again, Iowa had the best or close to the best numbers of the criteria that mattered to us. It wasn't even close. Des Moines, Iowa outranked every other city on our list.

People from Iowa have a lot of pride in their state. When we started to be more open about the possible decision to move to Iowa, we had two basic reactions from the people we told. People who never spent time in Iowa thought we were crazy. However, people who live in Iowa had nothing but glowing reviews. I have an aunt and uncle who have lived in the same house in western Iowa for decades. I told them we were starting to seriously think about moving to Iowa. My uncle told me there are a lot of jobs available in Des Moines. It's the number one insurance city in the country (third in the world). He also told me the tech industry is booming there, and everyone is in need of people trained in the IT field. In fact, billions of dollars are currently being invested in Iowa from companies like Facebook and Google. My uncle added, "And did you know that Des Moines was chosen by Forbes Magazine as the best city to raise children?"

I researched it, and it's true. In 2010, Forbes Magazine created a top 10 list of cities to raise a family. Starting from number 10, the list is: Buffalo, NY; Albany, NY; Knoxville, TN; Pittsburgh, PA; Ogden, UT; Provo, UT; Syracuse, NY; Rochester, NY; Harrisburg, PA; and Des Moines, IA as number one.

We visit Des Moines every so often because my brother lives in Des Moines. My sister lives in Nebraska, so we often just meet there instead of driving the extra few hours to Iowa. Still, we love visiting Des Moines. Yes, Iowa is known for farming, but that's because they have fertile land. Now imagine what that means for neighborhoods. Everything is so green and lush. My brother almost never waters his lawn. There's thick, moist grass that you can walk on barefoot. The trees are dense, and ivy grows over everything. The nights have the sound of my childhood: crickets and frogs. Everything is so alive! When we were there last time, we went to the large farmer's market the city hosts every Saturday morning the late spring, summer, and early fall. The Huffington Post has a list of nine can't-miss farmer's markets, and the Des Moines Farmer's Market is on the list. We also went to the Des Moines Arts Festival, which is consistently ranked in the top 10 art festivals in the country. Basically, the city hosts events and festivals that are worth seeing! Iowa is far from being a hick state. Remember that they were the fourth state to allow gay marriage, and they are very active politically (Iowa is a swing state, and they are usually the first state to vote in a caucus to determine Presidential candidates). When we were last there, Andrew and I sat out on the patio together. We listened to the nighttime and watched the lightning bugs. He said, "Becky, I could definitely move here."

Months and months later, we were still nailing down our decision. We are planners and wanted to cover every angle. We were still considering other cities, even Green Bay, Wisconsin! In the end, Andrew said he wanted to be a 1 day's drive from Denver so we can easily go back to visit friends and family. I agreed. It really helped make our final decision: We were going to move to Des Moines, Iowa!

We've been pretty hush-hush about our decision and progress made toward the move. We spoke to my brother first--about a year ago now--to make sure it would be OK with him. A few months later, there was a housing boom in Colorado. We decided to take advantage of the seller's market to sell our town home, and, so, we broke the news to the rest of our friends and family. We weren't yet ready to make the move, but we thought it was best to sell our house when the timing was good. That's why we've been staying with family for the last few months! Now, Andrew has a really great job offer, and we've worked at getting a single family house lined up. We should be settled in before too long!

We expect many aspects of the move to be difficult. We will have to make new friends, get used to new routines, and not have our parents nearby. That will be hard, but we hope to be happy with our decision in time. We're very excited about the increase in quality of life--being able to afford and live in a single family home, being able to walk to school & businesses, and enjoying a short commute to work. Wish us luck on this next big adventure!

The Little Turkeys

I've spent so many weeks making monster hats for friends and family. It got me thinking of last year, when I sent out a number of turkey hat packages to my friends and family. They all posted cute photos of their little ones wearing the hats. I thought I'd share a little collage of all the little turkeys from last Thanksgiving. 

Colorado Hikes: Roxsborough State Park

Happy Labor Day weekend! Andrew's up in the mountains with some friends, and my aunt and uncle are in town from Iowa. We decided to check out Roxborough. I'd actually never been there before, even though it's a popular day hike.

The day was perfect for hiking. We have had the craziest weather for Colorado, and I love it. It was overcast and cloudy, as it has been for much of this past month. It made for cooler temperatures and good hiking weather. I don't recommend doing this hike with kids on a hot, sunny day because there was no shade. It wasn't a problem at all for us today!

Unless you have a state parks pass, the entrance fee is $7. I didn't even think of that when I agreed to go with my family. Thankfully, my dad offered to buy our entrance fee! My mom brought her jogging stroller along. What would I do without my parents?

The main trail that we took (the Fountain Valley Trail) is mostly flat. We accessed it from the visitor's center. As we walked, there were a few lookout points to hike up to. We chose to do those, and they weren't all that easy with little kids. I wouldn't have been able to do those parts with the kids myself.

After the first part of the hike, we switched and put Oliver in the stroller. I carried Jo almost the rest of the way! At one point, my mom tried to relieve me, but Jo wasn't having it.

We left the stroller behind to hike up to Lyons Overlook. Oliver hiked up there himself! It was beautiful.

There was sand near the overlook that the kids played in. Oliver declared that it was brown sugar.

We didn't do the full loop. My dad helped me get the kids back to the visitor's center after Lyons Overlook. The visitor's center was air conditioned, and the kids got to color and relax. It was nice. They had a board on the wall that marked all the animals people have reported seeing and on what days. There have been a lot of black bear sightings recently! In July, there were a lot of mountain lion sightings, so definitely don't let any little kids wander off.

Picking Wild Raspberries at Meyer Ranch

This morning, we took the kids on a short drive up to Meyer Ranch Park near Conifer. From Denver, all you need to do is take 285 south to S Turkey Creek Road. When you exit the highway, there is a parking lot just on the south side of the highway. We parked there and hiked with the kids for about a mile (mostly uphill). We stopped when we finally spotted some of the wild raspberries.

I read the first week of August is usually the best time for wild raspberries, but Andrew and I are busy all next weekend, so we decided to check it out today. I'm glad we did! There were enough ripe raspberries right off the trail to keep us busy for 15-20 minutes. We saw even more raspberries that weren't ripe yet, so next weekend should be a great time for others to pick.

The hike up was difficult because we had to carry the kids much of the way. If we go again, we might try out a stroller next time because the (unpaved) path was pretty smooth most of the way up!

There were a few forks in the path. We mostly stayed south and west at the forks. When we turned onto the Lodgepole Loop trail, we finally spotted raspberries! Andrew said there are many more off the trail, but we didn't want to venture too far from the trail with the kiddos. So, we picked the ones right on the edge of the path.

Jo wasn't so sure about trying the raspberries at first.

Oliver, who had been grumpy about the hike, immediately perked up when we found berries to pick!

You can see the Foxloop Trail behind Andrew. So, we didn't need to go off the beaten path really at all to get raspberries!

After finally trying the raspberries, Joanna couldn't get enough! She wasn't too keen on picking them for herself, but she eagerly ate the ones we gave her. "More!" she said with mouthfuls of raspberries.

At first, Oliver just ate them all. I finally convinced him to save some, and he kept talking about how he wanted to show "Baby Sawyer" the raspberries he picked.

This part of the trail was nice and forested and shady.

Me and my berry picker!

Check out his loot!

 

Oliver was so happy from berry picking that he ran the entire way back to the car! Going back down the trail and not carrying kids was a lot easier than going up!

My berry-pickin' family.

This was my first time ever picking wild fruit. It was fun! Sure, hiking uphill for a mile while holding 25 pounds wasn't easy, but it was worth it once we started picking.

Hiking the Braille Trail in Genesee

We celebrated my mom's birthday a few weeks late this year. She was in New Mexico over her actual birthday, and we were off in Utah the following week. So, this past weekend, we decided to take her out for a hike to celebrate!

I wanted to find a nice, family-friendly hike for the kids, and I stumbled upon a great list by Mile High Mamas! You can find their list of hikes on their blog here. They recommend different hikes based on the age of your kids, and for little walkers, they recommend Lair o' the Bear (which we've already been to a couple of times), Lookout Mountain Nature Center (which we just went to on Mother's Day), Alderfer Three Sisters, and Genesee Park: Braille Trail.

I thought the Braille Trail sounded interesting. The Mile High Mamas say it was originally meant as a trial for the blind. It's supposed to be a flat, one mile loop. Perfect! So, we decided to take my parents there. As a warning, most of the signs posted for the trail actually call it the Beaver Brook Trail.

The hike was beautiful, but it wasn't what we expected. The ground was flat, but I learned they didn't intend for that to mean without an incline. The ground was mostly flat in the sense that you don't have to step over large rocks in the way, but there absolutely were inclines! I think we did the circle the wrong way. We found ourselves going down steps, and, at the end, we went up a fairly substantial incline that was difficult to do with little kids. We huffed and puffed a bit, but holding a 30 pound child on top of that made it strenuous! All four of us adults were switching off with the kiddos.

I thought the area was stunning, though. I think I can honestly say that it's the best forested area of Colorado that I've ever been. The trees were really dense, and I was surprised to see almost no pine beetle damage. It had rained the night before, so the smells of the pines were good and intense for us, too. 

It seemed perfect for hikers who are visually impaired. There was a rope on the side of the trail that went around the entire trail, so you can follow that with your hands. Also, all of the plaques contained a braille translation, too. The plaques mentioned where the benches are in relation to the plaque, so you can stop and sit. They also described what you might hear or smell instead of only focusing on what to see. Seriously, it was cool! On a side note, Oliver also thought it was cool that we let him pee in the forest. So, all around, it was very cool.

Summer Bucket List 2013:

* Watch a fireworks display on the Fourth of July.
* Bake a berry stars & stripes cake with Oliver.
* Run through the sprinklers.
* Go to a splash park.
* Play in the "creek" at the Children's Mordecai Gardens at the Denver Botanic Gardens.
* Watch our first parade.
* Ride the outdoor train at Belleview Park.
* Visit a petting zoo.
* Take the kids for a swim.
* Have a real outdoor picnic on the grass with a picnic basket.
* Watch a sunrise.
* Go for a hike in the mountains.
* Go on a road trip.
* Go out for an ice cream cone, and eat it outside!
* Make our own ice cream, and let Oliver choose the flavor.
* Pick and eat vegetables out of the garden we're growing at Grandma Judy's house.
* Eat cherry tomatoes right off the vine at Aunt Bonnie & Uncle George's house.
* Throw water balloons.
* Go tent camping overnight.
* Look at stars in the sky.
* Visit Andrew at work for lunch.
* Take the train downtown to visit Grandpa Larry for lunch.
* Go to the Fireman's Museum.
* Use sidewalk chalk.
* Blow bubbles.
* Take Father's Day photos with the letters that spell out "DAD" again.

Road Trip to Utah + Updated Summer Bucket List

We just got back from a last minute road trip to Utah! Andrew's brother lives there, and we'd hoped to go visit them in June. Things got delayed and then cancelled due to conflicting schedules. Last week, Andrew's work sent out a memo that said they would be closed on Friday, July 5, in addition to July 4. With four days off, we decided to make the trip to Utah happen. We went on lots of adventures including our first family tent camping trip in Wyoming! I wrote about our adventures here: http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/WhirledPeas/Trips/23214

Here are a few photo highlights of the trip:

With the trip came lots to mark off for our family's summer bucket list! We got to watch a fireworks display on the Fourth of July in Hyrum, Utah. The fireworks came with a view, as they were right in front of a backdrop of mountains. Oliver and I also made a stars and stripes cake. Uncle Zach didn't have a mixer, but he gave us an immersion blender to use. Oliver thought that was really cool. Of course, we got to mark off going on a road trip as well as tent camping. I'll be honest: the kids didn't sleep very much when we were camping. They really had a great time, though, and Oliver has already asked to go back to the sleeping bag and fire.

Other items that I don't have pictured (yet...) that I've marked off are blowing bubbles and running through sprinklers. We totally did those things this summer, too. We're making progress on our list!

* Watch a fireworks display on the Fourth of July.
* Bake a berry stars & stripes cake with Oliver.
* Run through the sprinklers.
* Go to a splash park.
* Play in the "creek" at the Children's Mordecai Gardens at the Denver Botanic Gardens.
* Watch our first parade.
* Ride the outdoor train at Belleview Park.
* Visit a petting zoo.
* Take the kids for a swim.
* Have a real outdoor picnic on the grass with a picnic basket.
* Watch a sunrise.
* Go for a hike in the mountains.
* Go on a road trip.
* Go out for an ice cream cone, and eat it outside!
* Make our own ice cream, and let Oliver choose the flavor.
* Pick and eat vegetables out of the garden we're growing at Grandma Judy's house.
* Eat cherry tomatoes right off the vine at Aunt Bonnie & Uncle George's house.
* Throw water balloons.
* Go tent camping overnight.
* Look at stars in the sky.
* Visit Andrew at work for lunch.
* Take the train downtown to visit Grandpa Larry for lunch.
* Go to the Fireman's Museum.
* Use sidewalk chalk.
* Blow bubbles.
* Take Father's Day photos with the letters that spell out "DAD" again.

We didn't go stargazing as a family, but I am happy to say that I get to mark something off of my own bucket list. I got to see the Milky Way! We were camping in the Medicine Bow National Forest, and at 1am, things were dark enough and clear enough for me to see the Milky Way and a sprinkling of star dust.
* Watch a movie in the park with the kids.
* Take the kids to Disney World.
* Take the kids to Sesame Street Place.
* Take the kids tent camping.
* Take the kids to the tulip festival in Holland, Michigan
* Build a snowman with the kids.
* Have a tea party with the kids.
* Have a real picnic with the kids (blanket + picnic basket).
* Pick wild berries with the kids.
* Stay in a log cabin for a winter night in the mountains with the kids.
* Take the kids to a parade.
* Take the kids on a drive to see Christmas lights.
* Help the kids with a science fair project.
* Take Andrew on a cheese tasting. 
* Live in an old, brick home.
* Pay off our house entirely. Own it out right!
* Make our very own garden.
* Dress up for Halloween as a family.
* Plant a fruit tree.
* Train and run in another half marathon.
* Sit in a hot tub in the snow.
* Throw a nice dinner party for no reason.
* Go on an Alaskan cruise.
* Go on another tropical vacation, just Andrew and me.
* Go to the National Cherry Festival in Michigan.
* Go to the Mackinac Island Fudge Festival in Michigan.
* Go to the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC.
* See the Northern Lights.
* See the Milky Way. (Medicine Bow National Forest, 2013)
* Go to Hong Kong with Phuong.
* Go to India with Aminta.
* Go to the Dominican Republic with Stasa.
* Get to every continent (So far: North America--including Central--and Europe)
* See Machu Picchu.
* Go to Paris.
* See Mount Rushmore.
* See the Crazy Horse Monument.
* See the Little Bighorn National Monument.
* See the Vietnam Memorial.
* Go to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
* See the Abraham Lincoln National Memorial in Washington, DC.
* See the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.
* See a whale (in the wild)
* Take a train across country.
* Camp on my uncle's land in Vashon Island.
* Go to the strawberry festival on Vashon Island.
* Go to the original Starbucks in Seattle.
* Go to a coffee plantation.
* Drink espresso in Italy with Andrew.
* Learn how to use a wet saw and lay tile all by myself.
* "Yarn Bomb" something!
* Build a window seat for reading.
* Backpack Europe (Phuong and I backpacked through Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Austria in 2006)
* Sky Dive (2002)
* Get a tattoo (2002)
* Dye my hair a funky color (Purple - 2001)
* Cut my hair super short (2000)
* See Yellowstone (2003)
* Ride a mule down the Grand Canyon (1995)
* Get my degree (2005)
* Train and run in a half marathon (Disney World 2009)
* Have a garden wedding (2007)
* Have children (2009 & 2011)
* Stay in the dorms (2001)
* Live in an apartment (2007-2008)
* Buy our first home (town home, 2009)
* Take the kids apple picking (2012)
* Build a sandcastle at the beach with the kids (2013)
* See the aspens in the Colorado mountains in the fall (2012)
* See the Maroon Bells (2012)
* Explore Mayan Pyramids (Belize 2008)
* Drive along Highway 1 through Big Sur (2008)
* See the redwoods (2008)
* Go for a wine tasting in Napa Valley (2008)
* See the Scottish countryside (2012)
* Learn how to use a jigsaw and use it (1997 and 2013)
* Learn how to use a miter saw and use it (2009, 2010, and 2013)
* Redecorate an entire room (first: 2009)
* Volunteer for a political campaign (Barack Obama, 2012)
* See a President speak (Barack Obama, 2012)
* Hike with the kids in a hiking backpack (2010 and 2013)
* Go treasure hunting! (New Mexico, 2013)
* Throw boxes of tea into the Boston Harbor (simulation, 1996)
* See the Gateway Arch in St Louis (1997)
* See a panda bear (San Diego Zoo, 2003 & 2005)
* See a bonobo chimpanzee (San Diego Zoo, 2005)
* Go to a Renaissance Festival (Larkspur, 2003-2007)
* Ride a steam engine (1997 and 2012)
* Vacation at Cape Cod (2010)
* Host Thanksgiving (2011)