The Nalley Family: Steamboat Springs, Colorado 2012

Our sweet friends, the Lee's, recently invited us to vacation with them at their house in Colorado for 7 days!! We had the time of our lives and created such special memories that we will cherish forever. Thank you, Lee Family!!

Day 1:

The Flight

Of ALL the things I was concerned about on this trip, the girls behavior on the flight was my #1 CONCERN!! Since Chan is still under 2, we flew her as a lap baby, and I was really afraid she would REALLY want a seat if B had one and that this would cause her to get upset for the majority of the flight. I pictured myself hot and sweaty and trying my hardest to keep them quiet so as not to disturb others on the flight.

Well, all that worrying was for nothing!! Our first flight had TVs in the headrests with Direct TV!!! We could pick from any of our normal channels: Disney, Sprout, Etc.! Fabulous!!

Our layover was about 2 hours and they were perfect the whole time.

And then, on our last flight, Chandler fell asleep and B just conintued to color the whole time!

Piece of cake!!

Chan slept the whole flight, while Eddie carried her off the plane, the whole time I unloaded bags and waited until our ride came to pick us up from the airport!

When we got their, we took a quick ride down the rode to meet some of their friends...

and got to see rabbits, goats and hold these 5-old-kittens!!

Pretty smooth day!

Day 2:

Bike Rides

Chan got a quick nap on the way to the bike shop rental store. They are just SO SWEET when they are sleeping!!

The kids riding in the "cage" didn't have to wear helmets, but we thought we'd try just to be on the extra safe side. Chandler was not a fan.

Our original plan was for B&C to share a cage and the Lee kids to share another cage, but when we got there, there was only 1 left. So the littlest ones had to share...

Baby Kessler can be a bit rough, so Chandler was a little apprehensive.

And this meant that the big girls (our 4-year-olds, Brooklyn and Kiaya) were going to HAVE to ride these tandem bikes!! I was super-nervous and DID NOT think that Brooklyn would be able to do it.

But I was very wrong!! She did perfect and didn't have 1 accident all day!!

We stopped about half-way thru to give the kids a break and let them dip their feet in this stream.

This bike ride was so much fun and probably my favorite memory of the whole trip!!

Afterwards, we stopped at a candy shop with this horse out front. The girls were DYING to get on!

Day 3:

ATV riding

Chandler COULD NOT stay awake on the ATV

And Brooklyn, our little daredevil, couldn't get enough

On our way, we passed a huge herd of sheep...here are a few of them lying down

Our lunch view

picnic time!

After our picnic and some mountain climbing,

we rode up a little farther to this spectacular view!!

where there were tons of these tiny little chipmunks!

Koli broke off little bits of chips for the kids to try to feed them

Chandler was about the only one who had the patience to lay there quiet and still enough to lure one over...

And her hard work paid off!!

We finished off that adventure with some ice cream on our way back to the house

Day 4:

Taking it Easy

After 3 very long and full days, we decided just to stay around the house.

We walked down the road so the kids could feed the horses.

Let the kids play in the hot tub...

Watched the deer in the backyard. This was Eddie's FAVORITE part...we have about 100 pictures of this deer!!

They have this white thing in their backyard called a salt-lick that the deer love so we got to see several while we were there.

That night we drove in town for dinner and saw this spectacular rainbow.

(It was much more vibrant in person)

Day 5:

Another ATV ride

We were ready a little earlier than everyone else so I decided to take that opportunity to attempt a photo shoot!

I really wanted a pic of the back of their hair. Their little matching double braids were so cute!

(And took me forever to do!)

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This is a picture of the back of the log cabin where we were staying.

And since we had a little time before our ride, my friend Koli (who is a professional hairdresser), took a little time to play beauty shop with Chandler, our girly girl.

She painted her nails and added a little pink and purple to her hair...

just what every girls needs before an ATV ride, right?

Another picnic stop on our ride...

Day 6:

Water Park & Rodeo

But first things first,

Chocolate muffins for breakfast???

Yes, please!!

They have these natural hot springs there that they've built a water park around.

I guess this is the only picture I took while we were there???

Oooops!

That night we went to our first ever rodeo!

Below is Chandler with Koli's father-in-law, Papa Doe
She became very attached to him while we were there.
I've never known her to do that before...very bizarre, but he didn't seem to mind.

They let 3-5 year olds go out on the field and chase this lamb around to see who could get a ribbon off it's tail??? B is in the middle of the pack and she LOVED that!

That night we went to this cool steak place where you cook your own and they had these saddles for the kids to sit on. They made my kids SOOOO happy!

After such a long day, though, it didn't take long before Chandler was out!
Are you seeing a pattern here?
This girl can and will sleep anywhere when she's tired.

Day 7:
Taking it easy again

Eddie went home to Texas early this morning. Since I had the girls by myself, we decided to just to spend another day relaxing at the house...