San Francisco [Day 1]

A few months ago, we just happened upon an incredible deal on airfare from Houston to San Francisco. It was not a trip we'd been planning, but we felt like it was a deal we couldn't pass up. (Bonus points that it just happened to be my birthday week!) 

So, January 12th we got up early early early to board our 6am flight in Houston. The kids were excited/nervous for their first flight.

Ready for their first flight! (Well, Abby flew at 18 months, but...)

When we landed, the pilot let Abby and Carson into the cock pit, which they thought was awesome, of course.

 Abby gets to check out the cockpit after the flight!

Carson gets to check out the cockpit after the flight!

We landed in San Francisco and took off! We hopped on a train, and then on a bus (we decided not to rent a car while we were there), and then we parted ways. The boys had booked a tour at the Giants' ballpark just after lunch, so they got off the bus and headed for the park, while Abby and I dropped all of our luggage off at the hotel and then went to go spend some girly time together. We walked to the Marina and then to Ghiradelli Square, where we had a huge ice cream sundae for lunch. (Why not?!)

Boys at AT&T Park (Home of the SF Giants)

Boys at AT&T Park (Home of the SF Giants)

Girlie time at Ghirardelli Square! Yes, that was our lunch.

Boys at AT&T Park (Home of the SF Giants)

We met up with the guys after their tour and walked over to the Ferry Market (deemed a sort-of food court for foodies) for a bite to eat. It was a really nice place with lots of good eats.

Ferry Market Building (It's like a food court for foodie's!)

After going to the hotel to regroup/refresh, we headed over to Fisherman's Wharf for the evening. We enjoyed playing tons of old games at Musee Mechanique and then went to get some authentic sourdough from Boudin's Bakery. (I had clam chowder in a sourdough bowl--how's that for San Francisco?!)

Musee Mechanique

Musee Mechanique

Musee Mechanique

Watching them make Sourdough at Boudin Bakery

Day one in San Francisco was really nice. I may or may  not have put us on the wrong bus (or the right bus going the wrong way) a few times, but we sort of got the lay of the land and had a wonderful time!

Colorado Vacation [Days 6 & 7]

We were sad to leave Colorado, but our vacation was not over yet! We drove down through New Mexico on our way home, and, while very different from Colorado, we found that we were also stunned by New Mexico's unique beauty. I loved this drive. On our way to Santa Fe (our stop for the night), we crossed Rio Grande Gorge. Pictures don't do it justice. It's huge. And you don't even know it's there until you're right up on it. I was fascinated, but the rest of my crew did not like being up on that bridge. Once I got my picture, they ran to get their feet back on land.

Rio Grande Gorge

Posing for a photo before everyone runs back to the car. It's cold and scary up here!

Rio Grande Gorge

We arrived early evening to Santa Fe and had a little time to walk around historic Santa Fe. Very interesting and fun (but so cold)! Our hotel ended up not being the greatest, so we stayed out as late as we could.

Dinner in Santa Fe

The next morning, we got up early to head on back to Texas. We had one more destination to hit before we left New Mexico, though--Pecos National Historic Park. Much of our school year thus far has consisted of learning about the early Spanish explorers and missionaries who came to this part of the country and also about the Indians who lived here, so this was a great hands on experience that made history real for Abby and Carson (and for us too!).

Spanish Mission at Pecos NHP

In the ruins of a Spanish Mission at Pecos NHP

 Of course, while we were here, the kids wanted to earn their Junior Ranger badges. The Ranger was hugely impressed with their knowledge and insight and predicted incredible things for their futures! (He also insisted that they really deserve some ice cream.) They were very proud.

Kids being sworn in as Junior Rangers at Pecos NHP. Their insight into the painting behind them was what prompted the Ranger's amazement at them.

Finally, we said goodbye to New Mexico and made the long trek back to Texas feeling very full, incredibly blessed, and utterly in awe of God and his creation and love for us. 

Colorado Vacation [Days 4 & 5]

After taking some time to get acclimated to the altitude, we decided it was time to do some hiking in RMNP! We started off at the Bear Lake Trailhead and hiked up to Emerald Lake. It was a long hike that was definitely difficult at some points, but it was SO worth it. It was so beautiful!

Getting ready for our first hike at RMNP at the Bear Lake Trailhead

Family pic at Nymph Lake

Above Nymph Lake

Emerald Lake

After earning their official RMNP Junior Ranger badges

Day two, we headed out to Wild Basin for another day of hiking. It was cloudy and drizzly, and we pretty much had the trails to ourselves. Afterwards, we pretty much all agreed that this was our favorite hike. It wasn't as difficult, so we were able to really take in all of the beauty. We hiked up to Calypso Falls before the rain really started coming down and we turned around.

Calypso Falls

After our hike, we drove all around and explored. We'd planned to do some other outdoor things, but with the rain, that just wasn't happening. We did a little Geocaching in the rain, which led us to a pretty park with great views, and later we drove to Boulder just for the fun of it, bought a game, and went back to the condo for family game night.

Sad to have to leave this place!

Estes Park

Colorado Vacation [Day 3]

Yesterday morning began with the sun kissing the very tops of the mountains and the kids standing on the fence of our "back yard" to watch the elk grazing on the golf course. They were not far from us at all and the we were all kinda fascinated by them. While the kids stood out back we had coffee and got breakfast ready and enjoyed some down time.

Drive through Big Thompson Canyon

After breakfast, we decided we'd hop in the car and head for Cheyenne for a little day trip. The drive through Big Thompson Canyon was incredible and it left us ooh-ing and ahh-ing around every turn.

Wyoming Visitors Center

My little jailbird

Before long, we crossed the Wyoming border (Yay, another state off our list!) and, after a stop at the Wyoming Visitor's Center (see above), we drove into Cheyenne to go to the Wyoming State Museum for a little educational field trip (hey, we still have to do a little school this week). We spent a couple of hours there. The kids did the museum scavenger hunt, learning about Native Americans and Pioneers and dinosaurs, coal, and more.

When we finished our museum visit, we headed downtown for lunch at a yummy little burger joint. We left the restaurant and spent just a few minutes walking around their very cool downtown for pictures. They have really neat historic buildings with interesting signage. We enjoyed Cheyenne because even their downtown wasn't huge or overwhelming or crowded. It had a small town historic feel, but was still very urban and cool and interesting.

We spent the afternoon walking the streets of Estes Park, eating saltwater taffy and the most delicious ice cream (Gee, why are our kids so hyper?!). The weather was perfect--cool, but not cold--and the Aspens lining the streets and dotting the mountains were glowing yellow. It's beautiful.

Our evening ended much as it began--with the kids sitting on a blanket on the edge of the golf course, watching the elk (who had come even closer now) until long after the sun went down. Steaks on the grill, a game of chinese checkers going on on the floor, and a deep feeling of contentment --and if I'm honest, exhaustion. A great end to a great day.

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!

Family Day at Magik Theatre

Saturday, we had a really fun day with family downtown. We started off by going to see Shrek: the Musical at the Magik Theatre. It was so good! Everyone enjoyed it. 

Afterwards, we spent some time walking around downtown and just hanging out together. The weather was perfect and it was great just being together. 

Some of our crew with Donkey

and with Lord Farquad

And, of course, with Shrek and Fiona

Cousins