Kristen Lummis's Blog (3)

As a parent, I know that it is risky to say the word "never." Never is undeniably a long time from now. When I say "never" now, I mean "never" now. But somehow, "now" has a way of changing into "then" and with "then" comes a time when "never" doesn't mean "never," but instead means, "I was wrong."

It's a word I try to avoid. But last weekend, while hiking…

My niece was visiting last week from the Denver area. She is 8 years old, full of energy and loves to be outdoors. So do I. So on Saturday, despite the threat of rain, my mom and I took her hiking on the Colorado National Monument. Here is our report from the Devil's Kitchen Trail.

1. Lots of Prickly Pear Blossoms. As the…

Last May, we made a bad parenting mistake. We let our younger son ride The Ribbon. The Ribbon is a gorgeous expanse of slickrock high above our valley which connects to a series of singletrack trails ending near our home. Our older son loves this ride and he was pretty sure his brother would love it too. Dad was enthusiastic and so without a second thought, I drove them to the trailhead and dropped them off.…