Vacation #2 2010

*Lots of pictures in this one… I tried to limit them, but I think all the words needed some pictures.*

I voted for the beach, but was over-ruled with votes for the mountains, and I’m so glad! Steamboat Srings, CO, also known as Ski Town USA, was our destination. We wanted to break the 16+ hour drive up, so we stayed in New Mexico for a night on each end of our trip. It wasn’t 2 hours into our trip that we discovered that our DVD player was broken. We used our newest electronic toy (Tom-Tom) and found a Walmart in Silver City, and invested in a new one. Jenna was happy to have some shows in the car. We learned on our first night away from home that young Adam does not like sleeping in an unfamiliar bed. He had to fall asleep cuddled up with us, and then be transferred to his crib (this night and every other night on the trip).

We stayed for a few nights with David’s former roommate, Brandon, and his family in Castle Rock. Their kids are close in age to ours, and it was fun to spend time together. We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (which was beautiful) and had a blast hiking around to see the animals. It started raining, and then pouring while we were there. We got soaked, but still enjoyed ourselves.

We bought a few crackers to feed the giraffe. Jenna got a hold of one and just tossed it over the fence. Dave showed her that if she held it, the giraffe would use it’s long tongue to get it. She loved it!

The zoo was wonderful and the kids did (mostly) great. They were all exhausted and fell asleep shortly upon getting into the car for the 45 minute drive back to the Alley’s house. I cannot fail to mention that we were almost in a car accident leaving the zoo, and we could simply not deny the hand of the Lord is protecting us. The Alley’s were in their car behind us and they too saw the car run the red light and almost t-bone us. It was on my side and I watched it coming for us. It was so weird to watch things happen in slow motion as we were slowly pushed and the other car was held off and went between our car and the Alley’s. My heart was beating so fast! Lots of prayers of gratitude that night.

On Tuesday, we took the beautifully scenic 3.5 hour drive to Steamboat Springs, and arrived a couple hours before check in time. We were directed to a park up the road, right off the Yampa River and next to a natural hot spring. We dipped our feet in and let the kids run around and play. It was beautiful but smelled very strongly of the sulfur in the water. We were glad to find out that you can only smell it within close proximity of the natural water source. That evening after dinner in our room, we went for a dip in the pool and hot tub at our resort. Adam and I preferred soaking in the hot tub, while Dave and Jenna liked jumping into the pool.

The first morning we got up and headed to the Fish Creek Falls. The Falls were an easy 1/2 mile hike up a path and we were able to take the double jogger. It was a beautiful site! It was only 75 degrees out, but the sun was high and there were no clouds, so we were all sweaty. I actually got a little too much sun on our first day… but it was worth it. Adam was asleep for the ride down the path and Jenna was asleep moments after we left the parking lot. Good times.

After our lunch/nap break, we headed over to the Yampa River Botanical Gardens. Tons of flowers and plants that I have never seen before! The kids enjoyed running around and climbing… and entry was free.

Day two we headed up to Steamboat Springs Ski Area, just up the road from our room. We paid the hefty fee to ride the gondola to the top of the mountain. Both kids loved the ride- but it was really cold up there! It felt so good to be cold in August. So. Good. The views were wonderful and we could have spent hours up at the top of the world enjoying the fresh air… but the kids were more interested in playing in the mud/water puddles. They have it set up so that in the summer, the ski trails are set up as mountain biking paths- which I thought was pretty neat. We saw quite a few bikers heading out for an adventurous day. I would love to come back in the winter and see everything covered in white…. with my skis of course. Again, both kids were asleep moments after getting buckled in the car.

Our afternoon plans were to hit the Hot Springs. You can’t go to Steamboat SPRINGS without soaking in the hot springs, right? They have it set up so that the hot springs are pumped into a collection of pools. It was fabulous and the kids loved the warm water (ranging in temperatures from the mid 90’s to 110 degrees). We were in for all of 10 minutes when we had to get out because of lightning and rain. We got a hand stamp and took a drive and had dinner before coming back. It stormed pretty crazy for about 2 hours, but we really wanted to try to get in the water again. We headed back over around 6:30, and had to wait out another 20 minute storm hold. We asked Jenna to say a little prayer so that we could have fun- and it worked! No more lightning! It did sprinkle on and off, but we had a great time. Because of the storm, there were less than a dozen people in the pools with us. Very nice. I think it would be even nicer surrounded by snow to be in the naturally hot water.

I didn’t want to leave the Hot Springs, because I knew we needed to pack up to start our drive the next day. Who ever wants a vacation to end? While I was anxious to sleep in my own bed, and for Adam to fall asleep in his, I did not want it to be over.

We got to take the scenic route home, through many old mining towns. The views were gorgeous and the kids did well. We taught them both how to ‘car dance’ and thought it was adorable that even Adam would lift his arms and wave them in the air. We stayed in Farmington that night, in a budget hotel. No cribs were available, and the room wasn’t big enough for one any how. Adam had a VERY rough night and almost fell out of the bed with me on too many occasions. I finally got up and put him on a makeshift bed roll on the floor. That didn’t work either! He would toss and turn and hit his head against the bed or wall and then wake up. I tried making a wall out of pillows, but it just didn’t work. So both of us slept horribly. He was up and angry about the night by 6 am. We tried distracting him, but he was ready. He got his shoes and went to the door and just cried. We were all checked out before 7, and after a quick breakfast, he slept in the car for the next 3 hours.

We noticed that our home route took us through Snowflake AZ so we stopped for a detour to see the Temple. Neither David nor I had seen this Temple, and let me tell you, the grounds are beautiful! Water falls and overlooking views- just beautiful. Jenna like seeing the ‘princess’ (bride) coming out for pictures.

Just outside of Globe, I got stopped by a highway patrol men. I was going too fast through the twisty mountain roads, and the Tom-Tom had failed to tell me what the posted speed was. He said he clocked me at 73 in a 55 (I was sure it was 65, like it was on most of the other stretches, but no such luck). Lucky for our pocket book, he only charged me for ‘wasting resources’ which is a $47 fine, and not the $190 fine that the speeding would have been. Whew!

We were all happy to be home. Adam could not stop smiling and wanted to play with all his toys. Jenna spent about 2 hours that night checking on all her stuffed animal friends. Neither them, nor David or I, put up a minute of fuss come bed time. The laundry is only about 1/3 done, but the bags are un packed. Yippee for vacation! Next stop, HAWAII on Intuits dollar :)

I was trying to link my album of all the pics, but it’s not working. I’ll try posting some of the other good ones in post through out the week.