On the Road to Colorado

We took our annual road trip to Colorado a couple weeks ago.

I took over 1,000 pictures in ten days.

Our digital album arrived just days after we got home.

I have so many stories and memories this blog could go on forever.

But it won't….or I will never do it.  

Some highlights:

Little dude did AMAZING in the car so much.

We figured over 10 days we drove about 42 HOURS!

That is tons of driving!

When we'd hand him his blankie or ning ning he'd immediately look like this:

Really, I could do a blog on preparing for a road trip and a separate one for surviving a road trip.

After several years and trial and error, I think we really nailed it this year.

There were tons of smiles!

Yes, that is an actual chrysalis there.  We didn't take one on the road.  We took two. 

I texted my fiends pictures for the to guess what state we'd be in when it hatched.

I must admit, though….

There was some of this….

Screen time and a baby screaming, "Unbuckle this $%^%& carseat!!!!"

Iowa.

So close we can feel it now!!!!

But really hours still away.

TGFS

Thank God for Stickers!

FIFTEEN hours later…..

We made it!!

They played with their cousins for a bit and we unpacked and all got a good night's sleep.

The next morning was 4th of July.

 We went to the top of Lookout Mt. and it was a gorgeous day!

 Real or fake…

This kid is OBSESSED with horses!

And so is he…

still.

Just a little sunny!

I was the crazy mom saying,

"Just open your eyes real quick!"

A quick trip down memory lane….

really the whole trip is Memory Lane for him.

Meg and Brecken at the Uno's 4th Party.

They could be brothers:-)

Hollis, if you're reading this…

That's Nash sneaking water balloons.

I didn't have the heart to tell on him.

It was too darn cute!

He'd smile for the camera while trying to be all sly!

At the top of Genesee.

A stranger asked to take our pic and it's totally in my Top 10 of the whole trip!

LOVE!

Red Rocks 

My favorite place.

Love everything about it.

Quick trip to Downtown Golden.

The next day Ted and Hollis took us to my very first Rockies game.  

We had FOURTH row seats right behind home plate.

And Justin Morneau plays for them now!

Who knew? ;-)

It was about 92 degrees but the beer was cold and Hollis and I had the best time chatting through the entire game.

So. Much. Fun!

 The next day we drove to Colorado Springs to the North Pole.

Santa was waiting for us as soon as we entered the North Pole.

That place is magical.

We had the best day.

And V asked for a mouse.

Yes. A real, live, white mouse.

It took some getting used to, but Brecken did learn to love rides.

Apparently I have so many children, you just can't even see Santa any more.

I cannot tell you how close these two are.

Christian and his cousin Walker.

They are the same age and so similar.

They just run and run and play and play.

And this one is so darn cute, it's hard not to include 100's of pictures.

We had dinner at Ted and Hollis' Unos.

They let the kids back to make their own pizzas.

And the food is seriously amazing!

We would eat there once a week if we could.

The beer wasn't bad after a long day either:-)

I wanted to see Columbine High School for the first time.

Even years after and during the summer it had an strange feeling.

However, the kids were running around and happy and they have a beautiful memorial garden, so I did snap this pic.

 

32" gets you on most rides.  (Don't know why these pics are out of order! :(

Preparing the dough.

The sunset on the way back to Aunt Joan's house.

This is in the Top 20 of my favorite pictures of the trip!

We lunched at the famous hot spot Casa Bonita.

The food has never been worse.  OMG. 

But our seats, have never been better.

The kids actually ate and LOVED every minute.

Even better they had their cousins with!!

How happy are these kids to be together?

Love it!

We made a pit stop "on the way" to Breckenridge.

Vail.

Beautiful city!

After paying $17 for an hour of parking we got $20 worth of smoothies.

#expensivecity

Finally.

Our favorite destination:

Beautiful Breckenridge!!!!!!

We had dinner right here just hours after arriving.

It is gorgeous.

Truly breathtaking!

Here's our condo Ted and Hollis hooked us up with:

C is taking a shower and writing on the glass and you can see the top of V's head in the bath.

And that's just one of the bathrooms.

The view from T & H's room.

Walker and Christian on the gondola on the way to town for breakfast.

I wish we would have asked a server to take our pic while we were eating.

We were a table of ten with two high chairs.

We were quite the sight!

If you climb high enough, you can find snow.

Unfortunately for Mark and Ted they had to push strollers up the mountain.

V & C were both upset they didn't dress appropriately to enjoy the snow.

It was 82 mind you.

Not much we could do.

He wasn't too sure about the whole thing.

Here's the whole crew.

I so wish we had more pics of all of us!!!

I got a special Breckenridge frame and look at this pic every single day now.

Love it!

We let the Big Kids (4-8) go in their own gondola.

They were in heaven!

Waiting for their pizza.

#exhausted

But these two party animals?

#letsgetthispartystarted

This place is so gorgeous!

I took so many pics!

The background is almost as amazing as the kids!

We took the long way back.

Which mind you, the short way, is long.

I took about 50 pics out the window and we even pulled over a couple times.

#theyarethrilled

Less than one hour after getting back to Aunt Joan's we were on the road again.

Our first time to the Denver Aquarium!

Wow!  It will be an annual thing from now on!

AMAZING!

Brecken is currently completely fascinated with fish.

We had to pull him away from each exhibit.

She took her time too.

This background looks fake but the sharks are real and swimming around and I told the kids to look scared.  Nash seems to really understand the look I was going for.

They got to feed sting rays.

I love this picture!

Even though I didn't know them when they were in high school I've heard tons of stories and understand how close they were/are and love that now they're both fathers of three.

It's fun to watch them immaturely mess around but then discipline their kids or hold their babies.

This is what this trip is all about!

After this awesome trip through the aquarium they have a restaurant too!

HUGE floor to ceiling aquariums all around the restaurant.

We were all pretty much toast by this time, especially the babies, but we stuck it out.

And then the music changed and the MERMAIDS came out.

It was incredible.

I'm pretty sure Christian fell in love.

He couldn't take his eyes away!

We headed outside to run around for a while.

This time was so bittersweet.

It was time to say good-bye and nobody wanted to.

Our Godson and us. :-D  #solucky

Poor Christian was so sad he couldn't stop crying.

Nearly three weeks later, he read the word walk and started crying because it reminded him of Walker.

They really do have a special bond!

Saying good-bye to Aunt Joan is so hard.

We were all packed and ready to go.

I wish I had a picture of her eating breakfast with the kids in the morning. 

It's the cutest thing ever.

They all sit and chat and eat.

Adorable.

You'd never know they see her only one week a year.

Memorable Moments in CO:

Ted stealing Mark's debit card in Breckenridge and then generously paying for the entire breakfast the next morning.  Only a cousin can get away with that!  So funny!

The night Mark and I were reading and bed and suddenly Christian sits up grabbing his head and said, "Ahhh!"  "Christian, what's wrong?!" I asked.  "Oh man!  I accidentally thought about two things at once and my head hurts so bad!"  He was completely serious.  Mark and I looked at each other and didn't know whether to laugh…or cry.  I told V the story the next day and she looked at him like only an 8 year old sister can and said, "Seriously?" with raised eyebrows.  

He said, "You have no idea how bad it hurt!"  

The mints (Elk Poop) the kids were obsessed with that opened and spilled EVERYWHERE!

The street in Breckenridge.  The bathroom.  The restaurant.  Bottom of stroller.  Damn mints!

Every time I would give up and say, "Looks like the animals aren't out now," and then a deer or four were right around the corner.

Sour cream not cream cheese on Victoria's bagel…but.."don't tell her, I don't want to hurt her feelings."

Victoria picking up rocks everywhere.  My purse weighed nearly 15 pounds when we got home.

This kids swimming in baths and sleeping on clouds at Aunt Joan's.

Ted looking for his Rockies hat.  Did you ever find it?!

Mark and me looking for an ATM at the game.  At least we got to see the entire stadium!

Spending time with our CO family.  Priceless!

And then we were off to SD…..