Colorado Visit Part Five: Garden of the Gods

Is this the longest vacation ever or what??!??!!?  I really am forced to blog about it too because if I don't I will never remember what we did! But, I don't think my 2 readers will mind all the pictures and information!  

While Travis was working, I took the kids to Garden of the Gods.  It was mostly awesome.

This is where the "mostly" comes in :)  Poor Theo - that pretty much sums up his feelings about Colorado.

Kissing Camels!

The gorgeous city view from Mike's house - it's so beautiful up there!

The kiddos watching Cars in the home theatre - and if you examine closely you can catch Beau picking his nose - BONUS!

decorating Pappy's tree

us being cute

Mike (Pappy) and the kids!

at Whit's End waiting for our lunch in the Soda Shoppe

 After Travis was done working he wanted to go to Garden of the Gods too, so back we went!

Mama and Daughter

This is the best picture of the kids ever!

Travis & I, and a little tiny foot

some homeless kids we saw - pretty strange

Colorado Visit Part Four: Theo's Birthday!

Theo's 1st Birthday party was off the hook!  We had about 40 or so people! Uncle Bob & Aunt Nikki opened up their house and we packed it! Nikki decorated it all cute and tolerated an army of children who invaded her home!  We had an amazing time- although I don't think Theo appreciated the onslaught of people.  But, he needs to realize that his birthday is mostly for me & Travis.  Ha ha!!!

Great Aunt Rick and Great Uncle Ruth with the Great Nephew Theo

This was right on Uncle Bob & Aunt Nikki's street!!

CUTEST CAKE EVER!!! THANKS NIKKI!!!

He was torn - cake or corndog!! What do I choose???

Deterioration

Full Blown Not Havin It

Too much love for the guy

He recovered and Uncle Bob gave him some encouragement!

Some of my favorite people in the whole world! My cousins! I am so glad they came out and  I totally wish I would have taken more pics! I was just so excited to talk with everyone and be in the mix that I forgot to capture the moments! 

Justin & Jack hammin it up!

Not the best mothering moment but he really liked the way they sounded when they banged together!

Poor Joey never got a minutes rest with my kiddos around!

This was an awesome birthday party for Theo! It was great to see a ton of family and friends all together celebrating a birthday for our little boy who most of them had never met!! We are so blessed to have so many people who love us! And we decided that we definitely need to make it to CO more!!

Colorado Visit Part Three: Green Mtn. Falls

Ahhh...we arrived in our destination of Manitou Springs which we stayed at for the next 10 days. It was nice to get there and unpack. Here I am looking relieved and chillin on the couch.

Beau & Maizie quickly took to the dusting of snow that was on Pappy's deck. They threw it at each other but mostly ate it.

Here they are all excited to ride in Pappy's truck! It really is quite exciting!

We went to Green Mountain Falls to eat breakfast at a place called "The Pantry". The Wade/Weizenecker families have been coming here forever, so it was a must during our visit!! We had a great time catching up with Uncle Bob & Aunt Nikki!!

Outside of the restaurant there is this lake. See how it is frozen around the edges but thawed out in the center? Well, I don't know what Beau was thinking but he ran right out onto that ice to catch himself a duck, luckily he tripped and fell which made him realize his crazy mistake. That day could have got real whiny real fast!!

Theo thought he wanted to get down and crawl around on the freezing ground and was quickly convinced that being carried was the way to go.

A different part of the lake actually was frozen solid and was cleared for skating. Here's a couple of weird skaters I saw there.

Jack kept throwing the snow up so it would fall on him. Such a cutie!

The kids helped Pappy & Daddy cut down the Christmas tree for Pappy's house! It looks good!

Colorado Visit: Part Two- Rifle/ Glenwood Springs

We arrived in Rifle, CO on the 7th and stayed with Steve & Lindsay Zimmer. It was so nice to hang out with them and their family. On the 8th we spent the day in Glenwood Springs! We spent 2 1/2 hours in the hot springs pool and it was AWESOME!! I thought it would be too cold for the kids but they enjoyed themselves fully and had no knowledge of the cold weather.

We walked around Glenwood Springs for a while after we swam and it was so pretty and COLD!

Travis & the kids overlooking the hot springs pool!

Maizie stomping on a piece of ice.

Jack thought this piece of ice looked like a wedding cake topper.

Freezing our booties off and heading to get some hot chocolate!!!

Travis & Steve...what more is there to say?

All the kiddos together! Nevaeh loved Maizie!! And baby Faith loved everyone!!

Fun!

Colorado Visit Part One: Cove Fort

On December 7th we embarked on our first ginormous road trip as a family! We left at 4am from Long Beach to arrive in Rifle, CO by the evening. The trip was PERFECT and totally epic!! We had such a great time and were so blessed by our time with family and friends. Here is the play by play of our awesome adventure!!

The kids are all nice & cozy - notice Pico gets his own seat right next to Theo ;)

I strongly urged Travis to stop at a historic place along the way. The kids were so excited to see the snow! Maizie & Beau did not remember what snow was like at all. Beau was getting his whole self wet and cold but loved every minute. We stopped at Cove Fort in Utah. It is an old fort from 1867 that is run by the Mormon church. They were super friendly to us and the kids and gave us an awesome tour.

This laundry room made me think I need to stop complaining about laundry!!! ;)

The Fort was built to protect the people from the Native Americans that were surrounding this area, however there were never any battles fought there. Beau's head is right by one of their look out holes so they could keep vigilant watch for any "enemies".

The Fam at Cove Fort!

Can you tell we're a bit unprepared for snow and cold?