Colorado Vacation [Days 1 & 2]

It's no secret that I love to travel. Like really really love. I'm always ready to go somewhere, so when Aaron mentioned about a month ago that it'd be fun to go somewhere this fall, I was in. Our budget was fairly small, and we came up with about six different trip plans (complete with spreadsheets, of course) before deciding on Colorado. We've been so excited and ready to go, and I'm happy to say, we are finally  here!

We're on vacation, so what do I do? I wake up at 2:00 in the morning and can't go back to sleep. So now, I am sitting here with a cup of coffee, wrapped up in a quilt, and thought I'd do my best to post about our vacation as it happens rather than trying to remember it all three and a half months down the road when I finally have time to blog about it. Most of the pictures will have to come later because I left my card reader at home and I can't seem to locate even my iPhone cable right now to give you those pictures, so... sorry.

We left on Sunday afternoon after church. We are road trippers, not flyers (though we plan on doing a little of that in 2015), so we hopped in the car (we rented this time so not to wear out one of ours in the mountains) and headed to our first stop, Amarillo.

I expected the Texas portion of our drive to be extremely boring. However, it was a change from our usual scenery and we all loved it. We stopped to pick cotton along the side of the road (which the kids thought was incredibly cool) and got to have a bit of a history lesson. It's been over 24 hours and Carson is still fascinated with his little handful of cotton and the way it feels and that there were 24 seeds that he pulled out. (Abby and Carson also found tiny watermelons growing on the side of the road when we stopped and they are very proud of them.) There were also hundreds of windmills, some cool scenery, and numerous oil and farm related things (the smells of both being the most prominent features). All of these things provided the kids with plenty of questions to fire at us at a near constant rate for the bulk of the trip. But on the upside, they required no electronics to keep them occupied. Win.

We made it to Amarillo around 10:00 and crashed for the night. We were all awake by 6:30, so we decided to get up and eat and get on the road. We had a short stretch of nothingness that was what I'd envisioned when I thought of west Texas, but before long, we were in New Mexico and the drive just got prettier and prettier from there. We drove for about eight hours or so, but for the most part, it flew by--there was so much to see!

Which on a side note, reminds me of a quote I heard (and loved) on CBS Sunday Morning this week in a story about video gamers and technology and such...

"And here's a fun fact: Did you know the real world is broadcasting in 3-D? All the time? I know, amazing!"

So true. Get out there, people!

Anyway, all that to say... we enjoyed the drive and Carson wants us to move to New Mexico or Colorado.

We made it to Estes early afternoon. We made a quick stop at the park to stretch our legs and get a couple of pictures before heading up to Trail Ridge Road.

We'd heard it was only a matter of time before TRR closed, so we decided we'd get up there while we could.

It was so beautiful.

We took our time driving up and made many stops along the way for pictures and to take in the view. Aaron and I were both amazed at the beauty and majesty of the mountains, but the cool part was hearing the kids' excitement and awe. Carson in particular was just so in love. Around every corner, he would say, "Ooohhh, it's so beautiful! God is so creative." And then, "Thank you mom and dad so much for bringing us here. I feel so lucky that I get to be here seeing these things. This is such a great opportunity!" (He really said these things!) And then he would just start praying and thanking God out loud, "Thank you, God, so much for making all of these beautiful things for me to see. You are so awesome." (Proud mama tears.) It would've been cool anyway, but that made it great. It was a great reminder to us 1) of how great God truly is, 2) how cool our kids are, and 3) why we make travelling with our kids a priority.

We finally turned around and headed back. Abby wasn't feeling well and Carson was starting to get a headache. On the way down, we saw several elk--one very closely--which made for cool pictures, and thankfully no one was charged (though Aaron braved getting down in the grass nearby and caught the elk's attention before deciding it best to head back to the car).

We drove into town and happened to catch Erik (a family friend) in his gallery at Images of RMNP. (Where Carson said upon leaving, "I love looking at his pictures! He is the best photographer I've ever seen in my life! He's number one, Ammie is number two, and you're number three, Mom... and that doesn't mean you're bad. You're a good photographer." Ha ha!) We stopped to say hello and then, on his recommendation, tried Baba's Burgers for dinner, which was an excellent choice. We stopped at the grocery store for breakfast food and finally headed to our condo, which is incredibly amazing. The kids went to bed pretty promptly, and we weren't far behind. I'm looking forward to sunrise in a little while so I can take in the views!

We're not sure what's in store for today, but I know it will be fun!