Colorado Vacation

Over Labor Day weekend, we took a few extra days off from work and went to Colorado with my family. To say it was amazling would be an understatement. We had the best time biking, kayaking, eating, laughing, and playing together. But before all the fun happened, we had to drive 8.5 hours with a toddler in order to get to our vacation location of Frisco, Colorado. The day before leaving I realized that we wouldn't survive without a portable DVD player, and luckily my sweet neighbor, Emily, hooked us up with a great one. It saved our lives! Sullivan was pretty much happy as a clam the entire drive...there and back.

Eric couldn't leave until 4:30pm on Friday afternoon due to work, and since most of my family had arrived on Thursday, I was really anxious to get there. We planned on just driving into the night, and figured we'd get there by 1am-ish. We're usually up until midnight anyway, and Sullivan would just be sleeping, so it wouldn't be a big deal. Well, we took a route through Provo, and got stuck in some awful traffic that delayed us at least an hour. Then, we had to stop for dinner, and gas, and bathroom breaks, and by midnight we were still 3 hours away. But we had made it to Grand Junction and decided to stop for the night. It was a good decision to stop and rest, but we ended up being the family at the motel with a screaming child at 1 in the morning!? So embarrassing!? Sullivan had been sleeping in the car, but when we went in to the hotel he woke up and was totally out of his element. He refused to be set down and refused to lay on the bed and refused to go to sleep. After what seemed like forever of on and off crying, Eric finally suggested that he might be hungry!? He is a genius. All I could find in his diaper bag was fruit snacks, but two bags of those seemed to do the trick. He finally fell asleep at around 1:30, and it was bliss the rest of the night.

The next morning he was happy as a clam, enjoying a pre-breakfast snack of raisens and fruit snacks on the comfy hotel bed. And of course at the exact moment we were leaving our room, our wall neighbors walked out of their rooms. Seeing as how there was no way they weren't interrupted by Sullivan's howling the night before, I apologized for all his crying. They were French, and so nice, and just laughed at me, telling me, "in France our babies cry too!" Phew...thank goodness for nice people!?

We made it to Frisco by 11am on Saturday morning. On Saturday we biked to the marina, got some lunch at the Butterhorn where Eric's life was changed by a ham and cheese croissant, and took a bike tour through town. On Sunday we hit up a local ward's sacrament meeting, then biked to Silverthorne and did some, um, "window" shopping at the outlets. :)

On Monday we went kayaking and canoing in the morning. It was Sullivan's first water adventure, and he did great in the canoe with his grannie. It was probably the most memorable kayaking excursion ever. It was so fun to be out on the lake with family, enjoying the beautiful scenery and lovely weather, and laughing our heads off at Heather and Ryan's pathetic attempts at racing Eric and I (we killed them!?). Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries after taking the three pictures below, so we have no evidence of Heather, Ryan, or Aunt Jeanie and Uncle Jim...but they were there too. And they had fun.

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After kayaking we went over to Breckenridge where we had lunch at our favorite restaurant, Bubba Gumps. There is just nothing better than a bucket full of shrimp!? Heaven! And of course, we had ice cream stops littered throughout the trip...when you're on vacation it's illegal to say no to ice cream! My life was changed by coconut flavored ice cream...my new favorite!

After lunch we took a gondola up the mountain to hit up the alpine slide. The gondola ride was awesome, and the alpine slide was fun too...Eric and Ryan raced (Ryan won...barely!), and Heather and I raced. And Heather killed me!? She was out of my sight within the first ten seconds. By the time I got down the slide she had been off for quite a while and was wondering if I had gotten hurt or something!? And by the time I showed up at the bottom, there was someone else right on my tail. Apparently I am really slow.

On Tuesday we got rained out, so we did a bit some more shopping at the outlets and hit up the swimming pool at the Silverthorne Rec Center. They had an awesome baby pool, the best twirly water slide ever, and a fun drop slide. It was awesome and it was a great way to spend a rainy day.

On Wednesday it was time for us to leave Frisco, but we weren't quite ready for the vacation to end, so we drove 1.5 hours north to Steam Boat springs and stayed a night there with my mom and dad at one of their time-share condos. The biking trails in Frisco are amazing, but Steamboat biking trails just might rival them!? They have a gorgeous bike trail right along the beautiful Yampa River, and we had the best time biking it. We stopped along the way at the botanical gardens and a hot pot...it is a hot springs town, afterall.

And after riding for nearly an hour, we found a park right off the bike path and decided that Sullivan probably needed a break from the bike trailer. He loved the break...

And that evening we decided to do a nice relaxing pizza and a movie back at the condo. Sullivan came with my mom and I to the condo lobby to rent a movie, and I showed him the Toy Story DVD box. I had played Toy Story for him one or two times back at home, but we was never really interested in it for more than 10 minutes. I was just wondering if he would recognize it all. Well, he sure did! After seeing the box, he had to have it and refused to let it go!? He about had a melt down when the front desk guy took the empty box in order to the get the real DVD. And once we were back at the condo he had to watch it right then!? And here he is below...enthralled in Toy Story. And now we have a Toy Story monster on our hands!? A mere two weeks ago he could care less about movies or Toy Story, and now it's ALL he wants!? It's the first thing he thinks of when he wakes up, and all he wants to do in between. He brings me the tv controller multiple times a day and points to the tv and whines and cries!? Ack!? I refuse to play it for him more than once a day, but I even hate that!? He's too little to be a couch potato! Is this normal!?

So, there you have it...our Colorado vacation. A big thanks to Uncle Jim and Aunt Jeanie for allowing ALL of us to come and stay with them at their condo in Frisco. And a big thanks for all the domino games...I'm not a big gamer, but after three straight nights of dominos, they've turned me into a fan. :)

I love Colorado.