Fort Collins Family Visit and the Beautiful Poudre Canyon

 So this is a very belated post.  We were in Fort Collins two weekends ago when we went to the Wyoming football game.

We stopped in Rock Springs to eat at the Chinese buffet. It was pretty good. The boys were especially excited about the huge koi fish they had.

Our four year old even got to feed the fish.  That was pretty exciting for him.

I thought this was a pretty light - not the ornamental circle, but just the metal part of the light with the colored globes.  I really don't think those two parts went together very well though.

I was shocked to see this fortune.  It's a Bible verse - Proverbs 4:23. That's the first time I've seen a Bible verse used in a fortune cookie.

 And this might just be the best advice ever found in a fortune cookie.

After lunch we headed to my Mom's house, where we visited with her and with my sister and her family.

These two are only 30 days apart in age, and they were a riot.

They would chase each other and pretend to fall. It was too cute.

Uncle J brought over a video for the kids to watch.

The little peas in a pod.  The last day we were there we went out to eat and the waitress mistook them for twins because they were seated together at the end of the table.

I didn't realize how close their hair color is until I saw these pictures. Our son's seems darker (and looks darker now, since we've cut his hair since this visit).

Here's what we were watching - Shaun the Sheep, a British animated show with no words.

We only got to visit for a short time before we had to head home.

On the way home we took the Poudre Canyon from Fort Collins to Walden, then headed  north through Saratoga, WY and back onto I-80.  It was the most beautiful canyon we've been through in a very long time.  (I was driving, so my husband took the pictures).

This was my favorite section - through such steep, rocky mountains.  The road follows the river the whole way.

 There was quite a bit of evidence of the flooding from last month, but for the most part it's been cleaned up.

 There was only one section where the road was down to one lane.

Isn't this a cool bridge - it's just a walking bridge.  We pulled over and considered walking across it, but found that it was a private bridge.

The kids thought this tunnel was pretty cool.

 We picked the perfect time to go through the canyon because the fall color was just gorgeous.

At the top of the pass there was snow.  We had to stop and have a bathroom break right along here - where the forest service has the kind of bathroom that is just a hole in the ground with a seat over the top of it... and drafty.  It was chilly.

We saw several moose just before getting to Walden, which claims to be the "moose viewing capital" - not sure if that's of the world or just the US - ha.  Anyway, going that way added about 1.5 hours to our trip, and we didn't leave Fort Collins until after 4 pm, so it was about 1:30 am when we finally got home. It was well worth the diversion though.  Very pretty.