Colorado Trip - Summer 2012

We invited ourselves up to Colorado while Mimi and Grandpa had their timeshare condo in Dillon. Our condo was a few doors down and Mimi and Grandpa let Alivia and Will sleep with them, while Matt and I had the littles with us. Overall, the trip was so fun. It was wonderful to just spend time as a family away from all of life's distractions. The mountains are so beautiful this time of year - I just wanted to be outside all day long. Thank you, Mimi and Grandpa for helping make our summer vacation so fun and memorable. I appreciate you so much.

I'll try to give a recap through the pictures that I took.

We spent the first morning at a nearby park

Next we headed to Breckenridge

So beautiful!

We picnicked by the water

Of course John wanted to get in the water!

Will eating his lunch

Lunch by the river

Poor baby Matthew had to lie on a rock for awhile! He didn't seem to mind

The next day we rode a gondola in Breckenridge - John was unsure about the whole thing

Alivia thought it was awesome!

Such a cute shot in the gondola

In the gondola

The following day we headed to the nearby Country Boy Mine for a tour

They had old mining equipment that the kids loved to climb on

Overview of the mining area

They had burrows that roamed the grounds - hilarious!

John absolutely refused to go into the mine, so Daddy had to entertain him while I took A and W inside

We learned how to pan for gold afterwards - it was really fun! We found quite a bit of fools gold.

Begging burrows - I had fed it a few goldfish crackers and it was begging for more!

View from our condo

Another view from our condo

Another day we headed for the Georgetown Steam Train ride

On the train - it lasted about an hour - perfect amount of time

View of the train rounding the bend

John and Daddy

There were beautiful views from the train of the valley

Afterwards we had a picnic lunch in Georgetown and then got some incredible homemade ice cream in town

The next day we returned to the awesome nearby park  - I wish this was in Austin!

Check out the cool stuff in this park!

Taking a break from the sun

Picnic snack in the shade

Baby Matthew being his sweet self

After naps we headed to the nearby stream that runs through Dillon

We had a picnic lunch with Mimi and Grandpa

The kids loved exploring the river and skipping rocks

There were beautiful rainbow trout in the river! Can you see it?

We walked to a nearby shop for ice cream - John had just about had it at this point.

We managed to fit in a hike around Sapphire Lake

John made my heart race as he climbed the rocks along the cliff

Sweet Will, beautiful mountains

Sweet Sister loved to feed the numerous chipmunks around the area

Our awesome guides - Mimi and Grandpa!

John had an absolute fit when we placed him in this carrier - but later on the hike said "I want my chair!" and climbed back in again!

We had a great snack along the way

The clouds started rolling in and we made it back to the car just as the rain started - whew!

Stuck in the airport after we MISSED OUR FLIGH HOME! AHHHH! 

I just had to capture the amount of stuff that we had with us - it made people stop and stare

Out of order shot from my iPhone - we ate a the best Cajun restaurant one night called "The Lost Cajun"

Probably the only pic I will ever have of Matthew in a hat - he looks adorable

Leaving the restaurant - can you believe I was wearing a FLEECE jacket in July?! I love the mountains!