Colorado 2014

Colorado 2014

For the past several years, some amazing family friends have invited us to vacation with them at their home in Colorado.  It is always quite an adventure and this year was no different.

First, the scary part.  Just getting us there.  Gibson was 20 months old which is not the easiest age for flying!

I brought a bag of "tricks" for him, but was really hoping he would just sleep.  No.  Such.  Luck.

He kept me REALLY busy on the airplane...like not a single minute of relaxation...but we made it with no crying.  Well, the lady sitting in front of me might have been crying a little because G was constantly kicking or pushing on her seat, but I didn't hear it.  =)

Finally, we landed in Colorado and located the car our friends had left for us at the airport, and we began challenge #2.  Traveling for 2 hours with 3 kids and one of those gets extremely carsick.  Despite dramamine and sea bands...this time was no different.  Poor Brooklyn screamed and cried for about the last 1.5 hrs of our 2 hour car ride.  We'd stop every once in a while and let her walk around so the trip actually ended up being a lot longer than that.  But finally we arrived at their house and the good part of the vacation could begin.

Hiking in the beautiful mountains...wading in freezing cold streams.  I don't know how these girls could stand it!  I could only dip my toes in for seconds at a time!  This is Brooklyn with sweet Kiaya!  There birthdays are only days apart and she's one of the first friends Brooklyn had when we moved here.

This year they took us to a new area we hadn't been to before.

You pay for an all-day pass and you get to do all kinds of fun stuff!

They had a bungee trampoline thing.

A rock climbing wall.

Brooklyn was, of course, determined to make it to the top.  At one point, she got frustrated and said she couldn't go any higher because she couldn't figure it out.  I told her she did great and just to come back down.  Well, me telling her to come down was all the motivation she needed to figure it out.  Next thing I knew, she was at the top ringing the bell.

Eddie and I traded off.  One of us would do fun activities with the girls.  The other one would just follow Gibson around doing whatever he wanted.

He's obsessed with flowers so we spent a lot of time at the flower pots just walking around saying "flowers" and smelling them.

Pure joy.

There was also this cool stream with lots of rocks that entertained the kids for 2 hours.

You can see Chan's lovely creation she made out of mud at her feet.

And then there were these cool beach balls that you could climb inside and roll around in on the water.

Here are both of the girls bouncing on the trampoline at the same time.  You can also see a bounce house in the background that we spent some time on.

I'm really disappointed that I don't have any pics of B on this obstacle course.  I think I was on "G"-duty when she did it.  Brooklyn is obsessed with American Ninja Warrior (well, we all are) and the had a course there where she got to pretend she was on the show and she did great!

Chan tried rock wall, too, but she was more interested in charming the workers and somehow got them all to just swing her back and forth on it or spin her around.  This is about as high as she ever climbed.

Ice Cream Break!

And digging for treasure!  We came home with 2 bags full of rocks and gems!

Riding the bull.

So much fun with our precious friends.

A day of 4-wheeling.

Just stopping for a picnic.

Rain came just long enough to cool us off then was completely gone.

Another day we spent at a small lake near there house.

Doesn't that background look unreal?!?  So perfect!

A rodeo at night.

Everyone else sat and watch the rodeo. 

I followed this handsome fella and his glowing bouncy ball around the whole time.

He's so busy, but so very happy if you just let him roam and explore!

(I would not advise trying to keep him seated on a bench, though!)

Our little cowgirls!

Getting ready to try to catch a goat or a calf or something and get the ribbon on it's tail?  I'm not really sure, but the kids thought it was big fun.

And the next day, ready for another 4-wheeler ride.

Brooklyn rode with Daddy.

Chandler, Gibson and I kind-of cheated.

I drove them in the Ranger.  It drove like a steady car.

It had a roof to keep us shaded and a windshield to keep the dirt off us.

Pretty sweet ride.  And as you can tell, the kids thought so, too!

The next day we all 9 loaded up in 1 car.  Koli and I were in the front.

And we did a little rafting!!

Chandler, Gibson and I sat out the first round and let the daredevils figure out how to navigate this raft.

Once they got it figured out, Chandler and I hopped on board to check it out.

G was napping in the car so Koli and Kessler kept him company.

After our rafting adventures, we headed over to the giant bobsled.

Brooklyn was my partner this year!  That meant we went as fast as possible the whole ride down.  Super-fun!  Then we got G-man and headed to the playground while Eddie and Chan had their turn.

The next morning we left around 4 in the morning to make our flight.  Another full drive of Brooklyn feeling awful and screaming and crying for the full 2 hours, but we couldn't stop for breaks this time or we'd miss our flight!  I was hoping kids would sleep in the car or on the flight.  Sadly that didn't happen, but the 2 littles crashed in the car on the ride home after we landed.  They were both asleep before we exited the parking lot.  

Such a fun trip!  Thank you Kelldorf's and Lee's for having us out again!!