Discliamer: Kyle and I are going to Colorado an obnoxious amount of times this summer. The family trip to South Fork (like last summer) to Dirk's place in Willow Creek Ranch - has been on the books since last summer. I sprung the Estes Park (two weeks before the family trip) on Kyle, so I take full responsibility for that one. The third (yet to happen) will just be Kyle and I again and is with a group from church - destined to be a good time. :)
Okay, so our trip with the kids - what a treat for it to look so much like last summer! It felt like - this is our place - this is what we do - and its only been two years! We loaded up late afternoon on Friday (after Kyle's grandfather's funeral in Marble Falls actually) and headed to Stratford. Auntie Joycie was prepared for us to get in super late. Left the front door, not just unlocked, but open - because its Stratford!
And we're off!
The stretch from Brady to I-don-know-where was beautiful. Everything seemed post-storm and I couldn't stop taking pics from my phone out the window. Why does it seem like even on the way to Colorado the sky is more beautiful???
Big full rainbow (which later prompted a viewing of Double Full Rainbow with the kids). We're such good parents.
I mean - seriously????!!!!!
When you can see a storm off in the distance.
Standing outside at a gas station.
STRATFORD
The kids all snuggled in their bed. We crash.
Sweet cousin Kenlee came over to hang out and we pretty much headed straight out to some McBryde farm land to check out the big farm equipment. Gared was in town, and Misty who joined us later for lunch, but all the other McBrydes were elsewhere. We'll just have to go back. :)
In a GIANT new seed-planting tractor-machine. (Help the city girl!) This thing has GPS, netflix, chair massager. Okay, really just the GPS (that plants seeds to within like an 8th of an inch of the exact location or something crazy like that.)
That big.
Corn?
Kyle LOVED getting all the details on ins and outs and whys and hows from Gared - back to his agrarian roots at least for a morning.
And these three.
Lunch with the Stratgord crew that was in town - Auntie Joycie how did we not take a picture??? We must do better next time - and stay longer!
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Are we there yet?
Just a couple of hours after settling in...we were welcomed properly.
THAT'S A DECENT WELCOME
Rainbow aftermath / Champagne supernova
We had Sunday to ourselves as we waited on the Schwarz Family (Bo, Sally, daughter Said - 7, Eloise - 5+) to arrive in their RV from Arkansas). Their adventure is a whole other story (and theirs to tell) but we'll just say that the first few nights in the RV involved copious amounts of vomit from a small child and lots of references to the Griswold family.
They finally made it, and although their little virus continued to work its way through their family, it never manifested itself in quite the same way or in quite as powerful a way - mostly just took one person out at a time with some blah symptoms, so it was rare to have us all together. But we persevered and still had a great time (and miraculously none of the Mezgers got sick which is just crazy).
We did some of the same activities as last year: fishing/hanging at the pond/driving the razor, chubaks (chipmunks) in Creede at the Mining Museum, actual mining at Last Chance Mines, horseback riding at Freeman's (plus their amazing burgers), and a new adventure - a drive to Wolf Creek Pass to play in the snow - because in Colorado you can PLAY IN SNOW! This year we left off rock climbing, rafting, and the trip to Great Sand Dunes - how is the world did we do all of that last year?
FISHING
I liked being on Maggie duty actually. She will still tell you how she caught a fish with daddy's fishing pole and it was splashing and splashing in the water.
Owen caught a big brown trout pretty early in our trip - but I think that was his only one.
Maggie was content to blow bubbles.
Sadie with her big rainbow trout not long after the Schwarz's arrived!
This year we did a lot more playing around the house - which the kids said after last year they wanted more of. So, they did lots of fort building and pine cone gathering and squabbling like sibblings (even among the non-siblings) but mostly just good ol' fun.
Just hanging out at the lake/pond.
And razor rides!
(This was just to park the razor.)
One morning the two dads took the two eldest girls on a hike - a big one - up a big mountain. They powered through but I think it ended up being a little bit more than they bargained for.
And another evening we wanted to get our for an evening hike - but we ended up just wandering around the neighborhood - all piled in the minivan - and ended up just stopping and finding a hill (which I dubbed Bear Claw Mountain to make it feel a little more legit). We actually got a group shot at the top!
My little mountainer in her "I came, I saw, I conquered" pose.
Remember these guys?
Remember these guys? Doing this?
Rebecca - the ring leader.
Maggie is the giggliest.
The most patient.
And some ice cream in Creede afterwards (with clean hands).
Ah, the mine. Where you might accidentally walk out of $50 worth of rocks that look amazing out there and all identical and unamazing at home.
I think this little series was right after the big girl's hike - Rebecca came back with a yellow nose from all the flowers she smelled.
Some pile-on-Bo time.
Maggie in particular was a big fan of Bo's cooking - her favorite things we did one day was: pancakes. And to see her eat Bo's spaghetti was - well, it was ALL over his face.
Rebecca, during a little down time, became completely enthralled with an infomercial about some AMAZING ;) copper cooking pots that are completely nonstick. I think she could have watched it over and over again like an episode of Wild Krats.
Back outside, some time at the pond turned mud-bridge making. (This was during a few minutes when Kyle told me I could take a break - thanks babe - bathtime is going to be really fun, since its now totally necessary).
Two big outings left.
Wolf Creek Pass - so many amazing memories at the WC Ski Area back from Camp Buckner days.
Left side: water/snow goes to Pacific. Right side: water/snow goes to Atlantic.
SNOW!
Best morning of the trip!
A little group pic at our sledding spot.
Sadie
Eloise and Sally
We saved the thing the kids were most excited for until last day (even though I think they enjoyed the snow day more) - horseback riding at Freedman's.
Our entire group! (Taken by the infamous Wrangler Chris, from Muleshoe, TX, from last summer.)
Bo on his strusty steed - angle makes him look huge or the horse look tiny!
R on Sorley, who we thought was named Swirley for most of the trip. And O on Lex.
M and A on Favor (same as last year!)
All the Schwarz's (Sadie started out on my beloved* Buckshot from last year - but he was a little rowdy (really???) so they switched her. Good call. Hoping Chris is back next summer, Buckshot, not so much.
Silly faces!
Just driving to/from outings is beautiful!!!
And makes you hungry!
One of the last nights we decided to take our burger fixings down to the lake and grille and hopefully a little family kickball (Owen had been begging all week and with people being out sick we had only managed halfway games). We get there and there is already a small gathering of neighbors - apparently this is something they do every Thursday evening in the summer - it's like First Friday (but on Thursday and in the mountains)! They were so welcoming - made sure we knew we could stay! Most were retirees who either summer in the mountains or are there year-round and they seemed to LOVE having the kids around.
Sally's creation - banana boats. Bananas, sliced open, filled with marshmallows and chocolate chips, wrapped in foil and heated over the fire - eaten with a spoon. Delicious!!!!!
It doesn't get much better than this.
The Schwarz's got each of our kids little stuffed chipmunks - my kids are still sleeping with theirs. Their names are Chicky (Rebecca - because she thought they were actually called chickmunks), Chippie (Owen, the literalist), and Sarah (...Maggie).
We loaded up bright and early and hit the road on Saturday to do the big drive home. The Schwarzes stayed that morning and then headed West to Gunnison (or was it Durango?) on their way on the rest of their the Grand Canyon in their big RVing America adventure.
It was fairly uneventful except for a pretty wild dust storm (yep, outside of Lubbock) and a really quick rain storm that turned to hail right outside of - wait for it - Hale Center, TX. We followed the veteran West Texas drivers and pulled over under an overpass (and almost got stuck) to wait it out. No damage!
Made it home really late but made it home. And I only hated Texas (the heat/humidity) for about three days when we got back so that's a record!
Seriously, so love getting to make these memories with our kids in the same place - hoping to make it back next summer for sure!
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