Colorado Trip- Part Two

American Basin

The second half of our Colorado trip was spent doing some traditional outdoorsy-type things. Wed. morning my parents watched the girls and Scott and I took our rented jeep up to American Basin, which has amazing views. There was a gorgeous mixture of wildflowers, waterfalls, streams, and snow patches. Once we reached the basin we took off on foot toward Handies' Peak. Unfortunately we did not make it all the way. I got altitude sickness (the worst!) with a horrible headache and upset stomach. So we started back down, only to have to stop for an hour and half for me to sleep a little and recover enough to walk down the rest of the way. That evening we went over to Gunnison to eat dinner and then let the girls play at the park. They had some HUGE slides and I couldn't believe how brave the girls were to go down them. Unfortunately Kendall got twisted around in the gigantic tunnel slide and was scared of it from then on. When we returned to the cabin that night I still didn't feel well, so the girls gave me some flowers they had picked outside and helped make me a bed on the couch where I could relax. It was so precious. Thursday Scott and my Dad took Avery fishing at Deer Lakes and Kendall, my Mom and I hung around the cabin and went out to feed the neighborhood woodchuck or marmot, whichever it was. That night we all went out to Lake San Cristobal right outside Lake City and Scott, my Dad, and the girls all fished. The girls gave up pretty quickly and went on to the sport of rock throwing, but my Dad was lucky enough to catch one rainbow trout. On Friday Scott and my Dad went fly fishing with a guide for most of the day, and my Mom, the girls and I went shopping in town and got some neat souveneirs. We left on Saturday morning and arrived back home late Sunday afternoon. It was such a relaxing trip and we made so many great family memories-- truly what a vacation should be!

another pic of American Basin and the hiking trail up to Handies Peak

king of the mountain

beautiful waterfall cascading down the mountain

me by a big patch of snow

HUGE tunnel slide in Gunnison

Kendall going down a smaller tunnel slide

Avery fishing with her Barbie fishing pole (Kendall's pole was Disney Princess)

Avery and her Poppi at Deer Lakes

Colorado Vacation- Part One

Family pic on the porch the day we arrived

We spent all last week- from Friday the 2nd through Sunday the 11th- on a family vacation with my parents to Lake City, CO. It was so beautiful there, the weather was great, and we really enjoyed spending time together as a family. We truly had an amazing time, but there are so many pics that I am a little overwhelmed! Hmm . . .where to begin? We took our time getting up there, staying in Clayton, NM Fri. night and then reaching Lake City by mid-afternoon on Saturday. Sunday was the 4th, so we headed into town (our cabin was up on a hill on the far side of town) for the parade, then games and food around the town square. The girls caught on really quickly that the more they waved at all the people in the parade, the more candy they got. They raked in quite a pile and were so proud of it! That night we went back into town to get ice cream at the Soda shop and to listen to the band playing in the town square. Later we headed back up to our cabin to watch the fireworks since we had a perfect view. This was Avery's first time to stay up for fireworks and she loved it! She gave us the play-by-play on the whole show. Monday morning we took a tour of the Hard Tack Mine, and that night we let the girls play in the tent we had set up beside the cabin and had a campfire and made s'mores. Tuesday we rented jeeps and took the Alpine Loop drive up into the mountains and had a picnic at a scenic spot. That night we joined my sister-in-law's family and friends, including my niece Bailey, at their cabins for dinner. They all go to Lake City every year for the 4th and Scott and I went with them about 8 or 9 yrs ago, so it was fun to do again. Here are some pics from the first half of our trip.

waiting for the parade to begin

waving at the people on the floats to get candy

getting a snuggle from Kendall

having some ice cream from San Juan Soda Co.

dancing with our daughters to the music of a band playing in the town square

Kendall dancing with Mimi

Hard Tack Mine- Kendall liked to pull her hard hat down over her eyes

watching Poppi making a bench out of logs

playing in the tent

Avery & Scott making silly faces

Mimi, Poppi, Avery and Kendall

pretending to row the old boat sitting out by our cabin

Avery roasting her first marshmallow

enjoying some s'mores- obvious by the marshmallow all over Avery's mouth!

they loved having their car seats so close together in the jeep and held hands through much of the ride

our picnic spot along the Alpine Loop