Clan Piccini's Day Out

We used to have days out quite often, but now that Rick's new job has him working 4 10-hour days (W-Th-F-Sun) and the girls are back in school... we don't get to take off as much as we like. Today was the PERFECT day for an outing, a random head-where-the-wind-leads-us outing :o) And the wind led us lots of places!!

First we went to breakfast at one of our favorite places, Great Scott's Eatery, here in Broomfield. The girls love the 50's diner atmosphere, and the food is awesome! Rick & I had corned beef hash, Emmie had French toast (she eats like a bird, but she'll eat all of her breakfast at Great Scott's!!), Abi had eggs and Kiera had Bavarian stuffed French toast (with caramel syrup and bananas!). So yummy... if you are ever in town, you should try it out! :o)

After breakfast, we headed off to the little mall, Flatirons Crossing, to see if we could find Emmie a minion from Despicable Me. No luck, but we did find me the coolest hoodie at the Disney Store, on sale! To be saved for cooler weather, of course (seeing as it was 90 degrees today)!

That's right, a sweet Jack Skellington hoodie... I'm in love! I tried it on when I got home, and almost died of heat stroke, but it fit! :o) Very soft and cozy, and on sale (did I mention that? LOL).

We hightailed it out of the mall, because, let's face it, malls are no fun unless you have a LOT of money to spend. :o) From the mall, we took a backroad (I love backroads! So much to see!) into Golden, our favorite city... and one we haven't been to in MONTHS! We thought it would be cooler in Golden, but it wasn't. There was a breeze though, and that helped. A LOT. We figured we'd stay away from actually walking around the shops, so we headed for the Clear Creek and the Clear Creek History Park. We were lucky enough that we came on a weekend where they had one of the buildings open. They do this randomly in the summer, last year we lucked out and the house was open and they were baking cookies! This year, it was the old schoolhouse! We ventured inside and found old desks, slate & chalk and old readers. The girls loved it!

Here, Abi is checking out one of the old desks and playing with the slate. I thought it was so cool how the desks were laid out... there were smaller desks at the front (for the 1st grade) and they continually got bigger (up to 8th grade, which sat in back). The lady in the schoolhouse told us that the teacher would tend to give attention to one grade a day, and the other grades would do work they were assigned and could do on their own.

There was also this cool list of rules for the teachers, dated 1872. They are as follows:

1. Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimneys.

2. Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the days session.

3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils.

4. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.

5. After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.

6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.

7. Every teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.

8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.

9. The teacher who performs his labor faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of twenty-five cents per week in his pay providing the Board of Education approves.

oh... kay.... :o)

Right next to the History Park is Clear Creek. We just wanted to walk next to the cooler water, we had no clue that people LOVED to tube down the creek! But there were TONS of people on the water today... and the girls wanted to join in. Having no inner tube or raft, we settled for getting our feet wet...

Emmie kept telling us it was really cold (well, yeah, it comes off the Rockies!)

Kiera said her feet were numb LOL

And Abigael just kept trying to wade further out toward the center. The creek is pretty shallow, but deep for Abi, so we kept having her come back.

Here is a little clip of the girls playing in the creek... by this time, Abigael had fallen on her butt and her skirt and bottom of her shirt were soaked. She thought this was funny, and kept being silly...

Now. After this video was taken, a couple had shown up with their BIG dog (to catch their girls after tubing down the creek)... Abi loves dogs. She was walking toward Kiera and the dog, toppled forward, and fell face first into the creek! The creek was moving pretty fast, way too fast for my baby, and she was being swept away! Kiera was lunging for her and, at the same time, the man caught her by the arm as I was going for her, too. Here is Abi's after picture...

Funny thing. We had her sitting with us, out of the water, and she kept begging to go back in :o) (now, rest assured, this all took place on the side of the creek, where it was only up to Abi's calves... but once she fell down, it was moving too quick for her. We were about a foot away, her sisters even closer... not expecting it to happen. I'm explaining for all the people who will say that we were being negligent. We weren't, it just happened. We decided on the spot that next time we go to Golden we are 1- packing swimsuits & towels for the girls and 2- packing trunks for Rick) :o)

After our trip to (and in) the creek, we had to find dry clothes for Abi (since this was unplanned). Off the the BIG mall, the Colorado Mills Mall... it has a Target attached :o) We wandered the mall for a little bit, to appease Kiera's pre-teen need for a mall fix.... this must be either genetic or maybe ALL pre-teens & teens have this gene... Kiera is constantly asking to go to the mall. She can't even tell me WHY, she just wants to go! :o)

That was our big exciting day LOL Nothing too exciting, but fun for us... thought I'd share :o) I hope the wind leads you in some fun direction soon!