Jumping on Beds..........

Paddle Toward the Waves

40 is the year of "Just Do It!".....that is what I have decided anyway!   Why?

Why not?

Actually because I am a chicken if you must know....life is too short to be afraid.

My goal is this......anytime I start to feel a hesitation toward something, ignore the hesitation/fear and just "paddle toward the waves!"...... a little kayaking metaphor for you!   I say this, but as usual will not hold myself to it (disclaimer), just something I am going to try out.  My usual response to uncomfortable situations is to run for the hills or just take the safer route. Sometimes, going the safer or easier route, isn't what is needed, is it?  The scary/uncomfortable or harder route is usually the most rewarding and in the case of kayaking, paddling toward the wave, although scary will keep you from tipping over.

Gia told me this will be a year of spiritual exploration (something like that, can't remember what the exact term was).

So, not sure if any of  that ties together but I will find out this year anyway one way or the other.

40 is cool so far....less than a week of course. But I had a really wonderful celebration and am feeling very lucky to have loving people in my life.

My attitude towards birthdays is that the only people I want to make a big deal out of the whole thing are Mannie and the kids.  A phone call from my parents works too.

But, I have to say, this year, I received many emails, cards, facebook wishes, flowers and blog wishes and I truly felt loved.  It felt really special.

I am very lucky to have a connection with many wonderful people.

I was going to be a little more specific about the birthday thing but then I decided to just say a general THANK YOU to my friends and family for a special day(s).

We never did get out yesterday.....except for a bike ride.  Mannie took the kids to the pool last night and I met up with a friend for dinner.  After dinner(at the Spectrum) I walked over to Target to get a few things.  The night was absolutely beautiful, perfect temperature.  I got home in time to see the kids exhausted and about to fall asleep! I am thinking I may take the kids to the pool the night before school starts and completely exhaust them so they will fall asleep earlier.  Our summer hours are a little later than what they will need for school.

Speaking of school, I figured out what I am doing for back to school presents.....I am going to make a test one and see if it looks okay......decoupaged vase with sunflowers.  I will post if worthwhile.

Well, must go clean house.........paddling TOWARD that wave right now....feeling hesitation........must clean the house, must clean the house!!!!

 

Denver - Part 2

Good morning!!

We are having a slow start to our day today. I don't have a single plan for the day and so far that feels good.

The kids are playing right now and putting finishing touches on the cars we made out of cardboard boxes. (Costco leftovers)

We are having "family movie night" on Friday with a twist....it is drive in movie night which means watching a movie from a cardboard box if you want to get technical about it all!

I have high hopes to actually get some control over the messy state my house is in as well.

But other than that....I am giving myself the goal of thinking up something fun for the 4 of us to do today so we are not homebound all day.  The weather is REALLY hot so that puts a few restraints on what I might want to do.

I only have "us" together for another week and change so I need to make the most of having company.......I am going to feel so alone when they are gone.

I am going to write up a little post tomorrow about my 40th because I have lots of people to thank  and some pictures to share (I think....I haven't uploaded anything yet).

But thought I would share a little more on Denver.....I have been blogging from Mannie's computer and I have to say, I am a complete Mac snob now....his PC takes forever to post pictures so blogging has been a little bit of a pain.  One of the things on my list of things to do when the kids go back is to get my computer fixed once and for all.

Anyway, Denver was cool.....we started our Saturday morning with  a little excitement.....as we sat eating our breakfast, see breakfast photo...LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!! :) It is the little things in life.....seriously!!!

But anyway, as we sat and ate, the fire alarm went off.....so we got a visit from Denver's finest and they were fine!!! They were nice.....they gave curious kids a tour of their firetruck.....so nice.

After, tours and food, we headed out to find the museum in the FREE SUV the hotel provides...amazing!!

The museum was packed so it was beyond wonderful that we had these VIP passes because we were escorted to the front of the line.  I didn't understand that when I bought this package, this actually was a VERY smart thing to do.

The exhibit was cool, lots of things found at the burial site.  The kids listened and looked and seemed to get a lot out of it.   You will NEVER guess who narrated the National Geographic tour??????   Harrison Ford!!! aka Indiana Jones......seriously??? Amazing.

Then we hit the kids area, which was lame, I will say, but the kids seemed to like it so that is all that matters really. 

After the museum, we walked around a bit, checked out the capital. 

Cool.

Okay, time to get back "On the Road Again!"....we headed south through Colorado Springs, Pueblo, then cutting across west toward Durango.  We didn't make it that far though. We stopped in Monte Vista for a night.  We almost hit the Great Sand Dunes National Park but we were tired out and just wanted to check in somewhere by that point.

We stopped at this one Trading Post (White Mountain Trading Post in Fort Garland) and it is run by these people, family maybe? I don't know but they have all these old buildings and a tee pee set up to educate travelers on Hispanic and Native American heritage.  It is "free" and very interesting.  But they follow you around in order to educate you and at first I was a little uncomfortable with the whole thing...I like to mostly look not listen but once I got "over it" and just embraced the idea of allowing this stranger to teach me, I actually learned alot.  They had a pithouse which is an underground house and they gave us a tour....I had visions of them locking us down there....seriously, I did, but like I said, once I got over the fear of strangers opening their space to strangers in order to educate, it was COOL and it really helped us better understand the concept of a pithouse for when we arrived at Mesa Verde National Park (a couple of days later).  So, I am thankful for that and we gave them a donation for their time, which they encouraged of course, part of the following around thing I was feeling uncomfortable with.  But, the displays are absolutely amazing!! Really amazing to see how passionate they feel about preserving the heritage....very neat.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos from our tour........

a pithouse.....

We ended our day at a unique Best Western.  It is the only hotel, I believe, where you can watch a drive in movie from your room. Although, I am a hotel snob and this was not the cleanest of the hotels, so I preferred to watch Despicable Me from stinky Felicia!!! ;)  LOL. 

The room was fine, served its purpose.......sleep.  Just didn't like the part when I stepped on all the burrs inbedded in the floor while walking around barefoot!! Oh well, traveling is an adventure right?  Yes.

Here is the view from our hotel room at sunrise......cool.

Denver Rocks....the VIP tour

We hit Denver on our little tour of Colorado!!

For whatever reason, all the moons and stars were aligned when we arrived in Denver...sometimes that happens in life....you are at the right place at the right time.

Well, I had booked our hotel before arriving....didn't want to mess around with a big city.  We were staying for one night.  I chose the Curtis......highly recommend if you go!

I usually don't book places and packages but for some reason, I found a pretty good deal in booking a "King Tut" package......the exhibit was visiting the art museum in town and with all the Egypt stuff we had done, I just couldn't resist.

So, the Curtis is a funky and hip hotel.  Each floor has a theme.......I LOVE themes.....another reason I had to book with the Curtis.  Since we had the King Tut package, we stayed on the King Tut floor.....so fun. 

The package is great.....you get free parking in the garage, money to spend in the hotel, 2 VIP tickets to the exhibit which ended up saving us BIG time!!! You also get 2 tickets for a free drink.....actually a Nile Martini.....except I don't like martini's so they let Mannie and I get a beer instead.  They also gave the kids King Tut coloring books and randomly, Silly Putty.  We got 2 rooms for this place which then included  4 VIP tickets.....only they gave us 6 VIP tix all together.......why? I don't know, but we didn't argue. 

But the museum was on tap for Saturday and the day we checked in was Friday afternoon.....we quickly showered and got dressed and decided to head out to explore and hit the COLORADO ROCKIES game!!! Yes, how could we NOT go to a baseball game in the summer, in a new city???? But even better, Mannie's work buddy/friend hooked us up with 5 free tickets!!! Amazing seats!!

Good things about the game:

1. The team mascot is a dinosaur.....who knew??? But my Cami was one happy girl!!!

2.  Daddy caught a ball that a player threw to the crowd before the game started!!!  Daddy ROCKS!

3. We got to pet a REAL LIVE CRICKET!!! ;)

4. We were at Coors Field.......so I had to have a COORS LITE!!!

5. The team came back with a 3 run homer to win the game!!!

6. We went on the field after the game!!!!  Thanks to Raz, nicest guy, he is the groundskeeper for the Rockies!

7.......oh, and I forgot to mention.....we also got a FREE bike cab ride to the game.....Charlie had wished to do that, I thought they would be too expensive soo I poo pooed it and then out of no where, this guy representing Southwest Airlines stops and offers us a free ride to the stadium.

Does it get any better than that??? Well, yes, throw in some cotton candy......

Okay.......a perfect night!!

King Tut later....have a great day!

Must go finished stashing away my recent Costco finds....and by finds, I mean, paper towels, lots of bread, milk and orange juice....oh, and  the biggest box I pretzels I will never finish!!!

Bye.

\

Back to Breckenridge

Howdy!

I had such a lovely birthday......how can you NOT love a birthday, it is probably the one day when everyone you know tells you how fabulous you are all day long!!! I could get used to that!! :)

We took a little family boat ride around Newport for 3 hours! It was great. Mannie packed us lunch and even thought to bring the ipod so we had music!  Then we hit the Dunes so the kids could go swimming for a bit.  Then dinner in San Clemente......I loved it but way too much garlic on my food so sadly I don't think we will return to Sonny's.  But I enjoyed it while I was eating it.

Overall, a wonderful day.  Today we are meeting up with Suzy and Laura for some kind of summer fun! Our first time seeing Suzy and the kids all summer, can't wait!

So, I still haven't finished up my vacation re cap! It was a long vacation, what can I say?

While in Breckenridge, we found lots of fun things to do!

Everyone had a chance to pick something to do!  Cara choose horseback riding and she really wanted all of us to do it.  I wasn't sure if that would work out since Cam and Charlie are not as crazy for horses like Cara is and quite frankly, I am scared of riding horses (shocker! Yes, I rode a horse as a teenager and had a crazy horse who terrified me for life!) but to my surprise, we all did it.

We rode up and down the Rocky Mountains! Cool.  Beautiful scenery. We had one scare when Cami started to slide off her horse in slow motion while we were riding on a narrow path with nothing but slopes going downhill on either side.  But once she fell off completely, our guide pulled her hand and got her back up.  Cami didn't seem to be scared, she said her horse saved her and kept her safe.....I was shaking......and her horse stepped on her foot which maybe did save her from sliding down the mountain.

Other than that, it was pretty mellow, the horses followed each other and so I didn't have to deal with any rogue horse.

Here is one I took of Cara.......right after this pic, my horse rode very close against a tree and I got whacked in the head by a branch and my hat flew off.  

Here is my prince Charming!

Here is the only proof I have that I was on this tour, that is my hand.

We rode through a little creek...

Little Cam.....pre falling off the horse.

So, Charlie's choice was to ride the gondola up the mountain to  an area they had, like a fun zone thing....they had an alpine slide and some other things I can't remember right now.....well, I am old ya know, memory is bad now :)

Here is Cami after it clicked through that first thing....do you know what I mean? The gondola kind of jolts.....love her face!

Cara and I on the gondola

Charlie and Mannie:

Pretty gondola scenery!

THE KIDS LOVED the alpine slides!!!!! I couldn't bring myself to do this one......why? I don't know.....I think I was still traumatized by the horse thing and the gondola ride up the mountain(afraid of heights)......but I couldn't bring myself to get on another one of those ski lift rides and then go hurling down a mountain on a concrete track .......so, I sent my children to do it!! Ha!! ;)

Mannie took Charlie and Cami down and Cara rode by herself....everyone (except Mannie only got one turn......they would have done it all day, but it was expensive!)
One last one....

Cami's choice was to go swimming.....she is a little fish......my choice was to eat out for breakfast at the donut place......

Mannie's choice was to go white water rafting!!!

We hit this on our way to Denver in Idaho Springs.  After 5 days, we checked out of Breckenridge....I was sad to leave, loved it so much but we had more fun  ahead, so I wasn't that sad.  Anyway, we headed to Denver and detoured for our raft tour!

I obviously didn't take pictures on the raft.....too busy paddling, holding onto the kids and didn't want to kill my camera!  But we got one pic right before we shoved off!!

One of my favorite memories of the trip for sure! The water was cold but completely refreshing!!! I got hit quite a few times!!  I can't wait to go back and do it again!!!

Then we hit Denver! More on that later.

40!!!

Today is a wonderful day!! It is my birthday!!!! (This is my newfound attitude after watching the cancer commercial a couple of months ago, I wrote about it) But yes, a birthday is a gift!! and I have been lucky enough to have 40 of them!!!

Yup, that is me up there......see that pimple on my forehead?? Lovely. See, God gives me little reminders that I can't be THAT old if I still have the skin of a teenager!!  Here is a better view of the teenage acne:

My in laws watched the kids this weekend and Mannie and I had some wonderful couple time!!

The first thing we did was kiss our little ones good bye on Saturday morning and head off to San Diego for a fun kayaking tour of the 7 caves in La Jolla.  

The interesting thing about us going on a kayaking tour is that I am actually terrified of swimming in the ocean for fear of being attacked by a shark......ever since I saw Jaws as a kid, this fear has sat with me.  

Funny thing is that, on Saturday, as we waited for our tour to start (AFTER we had paid for it of course, non refundable) we found out that GREAT white sharks had been spotted off the shore, THE very shore where we would be leaving for our tour!!!!  Here is a news clip! and another! 

What are the flippin chances??  Seriously!?  Truly amazing!

 When I signed up for the kayaking, I don't think I truly realized that I was actually going INTO the ocean.  I don't know what I was thinking, that these 7 caves were on a bay perhaps??? I really don't know....but suddenly, I began to realize that not only would we be paddling above 18 foot great white sharks but also somehow we had to get out there......yes, I was NOT going to be magically lowered into the calm part of the ocean in a kayak!.......NO, we had to paddle out there!!

But the good news was, that we had a dependable, mature and experienced tour guide to keep us safe!!

So we head down to the beach to meet our tour guide.  Helmet in hand and life vest on, I braved the walk to the beach with Mannie.  There were kayakers everywhere!!! Wow, this is a big business.  Our tour guide was still out with the tour before us so while we all waited for Kevin (dependable, mature and experienced tour guide), one of the other guys gave us a little instruction on paddling.....the key is to paddle directly INTO the wave so you don't flip over!!! My heart starts to beat quickly at the thought of tipping over into the great white sharks mouth!!!! 

Has anyone seen Kevin????  The guy giving us paddle lessons is looking at his watch, calling around for Kevin!!  

Finally, Kevin emerges from the ocean and starts walking right BY us, taking off his life vest, when the paddle guy "reminds" Kevin that we are all waiting for our tour to start!!  Kevin, apparently, was never told that he had another 2 hour tour so he is pissed off since he thought his day was over!  He takes his vest and throws it down on  the ground in anger and then grabs his kayak and starts shaking all the water out of it while muttering to himself......I AM NOT JOKING!!!! This is the man who is going to save my life??? Actually, man is exaggerated....boy is more like it.  Panic is setting in now.

The only thing that keeps me from running for my life is that I am in the same kayak as Mannie and he is one athletic dude so I feel safe on that front.  So, with a gulp in my throat, I get on the kayak.....the thought, "What the hell am I doing???" crossed my mind as Mannie and I (me in the front btw!!) start paddling for the big ocean waves that I am usually standing on shore running AWAY from......but we start paddling toward the waves and then I get slammed with a biggie......sopping wet!!! Oh btw, I didn't wear a bathing suit, because surely  I won't get wet (another strange delusion I had regarding an ocean kayak tour)!!! duh!!!  

But the good news was, we didn't flip over while out in the ocean!!!  Kevin ended up being a really nice guy too! He was just having "a moment" as we all do once in a while.  He was a great leader, with lots of info. on the area.  And we never saw one shark....even though Kevin informed us that the water we were paddling over was a leopard shark breeding ground.....but the visibility (of the ocean) was really bad.  We did see sea lions though, that was cool.  The caves were cool too!

Oh and this is where Dr. Suess lived.  

And his book, The Sneeches was based on how the people of La Jolla felt about the rest of San Diego (according to Kevin, that is!)

Overall, I am glad I didn't chicken out and that Mannie and I had a fun little out of the ordinary adventure.  Oh, and we did flip over......as we were riding the waves in to finish up....we completely flipped and I got bonked on my nose with the damm paddle!  

Then after we dried off, we headed out to dinner in La Jolla......a fabulous Italian restaurant, great food and singers!  Gotta love a place with lounge entertainment!!  

Sunday.....we hit San Clemente to water a baseball field Mannie is working on.  Then we went into town.....I haven't been in years......it was SOO charming!! It feels like a retro California beach town!!! Seriously, I live 5 minutes from San Clemente and I don't think my kids have ever been. I loved it.  They had a cute craft fair and farmers market.  We walked around and got some goodies.  Then went to see EAt, Pray, LOve......then pick up the kids and Gia and Gramps took us all out to dinner at Newport Landing in Balboa..we made it in time to see sunset on the beach! 

And tonight is a FULL moon.

Overall, an absolutely wonderful 40th birthday celebration!!!  I couldn't ask for more!  

Life is good.

Thank you God, Mom and Dad!

One last one......this is the only one I love......one of the caves over Mannie's shoulder!

Breckenridge, CO....and a snippet of Vail

Today I am going to get back to school haircuts!!

Yesterday, we got back to school supplies.

Before I left for vacation I got all the back to school outfits...well, except Charlie's which I have since found at Target. 

We are almost ready.  

Okay, now back to vacation stuff, not this yucky back to school talk!!! Yuck.

                           We made it to Vail in time for dinner after the grueling day of hiking at Arches! :)

I LOVE Vail......like, if I was  a billionaire, I wanted to purchase a little condo there so I could fly in on my private plane and sit by the fire and sip hot cocoa...not ski, cause I am terrified, but sit by the fire in a fluffy wool sweater and drink my hot cocoa.  

But summer in Vail (since I have no comparison) was gorgeous.....it was a cute, adorable town with pretty flowers everywhere and a creek running through it.....I LOVED IT!!! We ate at the best pizza place (for the West side of the country anyway) for dinner.  I didn't take many photos in Vail, because after all, I loved it sooooo much, I was going to come back during our stay in Breckenridge!!!!  Right?

BUT!!!!! Then I got to Breckenridge!!!!  Vail who??? Vail What????  

Breckenridge blew Vail away.........out of the sky and into the universe!!!!  We had exchanged our week timeshare for a week in Breckenridge.  We stayed at a great spot......here! It was dark when we arrived but I could tell it was cute from the front passenger seat.  Cara got out with Mannie for check in and came running back to the car all excited, "Mom, it is so nice!!!!  I love it here!!!"  

We had a one bedroom apartment.  It was darling.  The living room had a pull out couch for 2 kids and then one slept in between Mannie and I in the king size bed.  We had a kitchen which meant we didn't have to go out to eat that much......but I will say, I found a breakfast place I loved!!!  This place:

Just throw the word donut in there and I am in love!!!  We ate there 2 times.  I think it was the most popular place in town.

The weather was cool when the white puffy clouds covered the sun but hot when the sun was out full blast.  We had a few moments (like half hour periods) of rain and thunderstorms which were awesome!!!   We were at 10,000 elevation again.....which meant my nose was constantly dry....I got a little tired of that feeling.  I also didn't sleep all that great during our stay....but other than that it was heavenly. 

The kids played in the pool....

We had a picnic by the park/pool area.....

We walked around the downtown area....got a few souvenirs...Here are a few pictures from downtown.....flowers, flowers, flowers!!

More flowers:

I think it is a town law that you must plant beautiful flowers outside your store and have hanging baskets of flowers as well because there are flowers everywhere!
  Okay one more with flowers!

More Breckenridge: / A fun memory, the kids were playing in the creek in town and we got caught in a rainstorm so we ducked under this bridge and huddled together!

For me, as a mom....one of the best parts was the whole "new kitchen" thing....cooking always seems a little more interesting when I am somewhere new (and nice).....and the washing machine and dryer were right there next to the kitchen so anytime anyone had anything dirty, we just threw it right in....it was so effortless....then back into their suitcase.  Chores always seem so easy when not here at home!  

Memories I will remember:  the little ones:  playing Go Fish at the kitchen table one night....having a picnic at the pool in between swims, walking over to the tee pee with the kids....

the kids jumping over the balcony to play in the "back yard"....Charlie making toast and hot cocoa all the time! 

We had some big adventures as well in Breckenridge!!  Next post for those.

Arches NP - Moab,UT

 We headed up the 15 and over to the 70 toward Arches National Park.  As we approached Arches, I said to Mannie, why don't we check out Arches? It was something I was curious about but hadn't really thought we would actually go see it as we had a long drive from the cabin to our first stopping point (Grand Junction, CO).  He hesitated but then said, why not? So, we turned off the 70 and headed toward Arches. 

It was wonderful.  There is a reason why a place is designated as a National Park...it has something special to offer us all, each park.  We paid the $10 entry fee and headed straight to the Visitor Center.

 

Upon arriving at the Visitor Center, I asked about the Jr. Ranger program for the kids.  The Ranger gave us a little booklet with activities for the kids to work on and an empty garbage bag(for collecting trash on the trail).  The first thing on the list to do was attend the 15 minute movie which to our luck was just starting.

I wasn't sure if the kids would be up for sitting(after being in the car for so long) through a 15 minute movie about rocks, but pretty quickly into the movie, the narrarator mentioned that Indiana Jones was filmed at Arches and just like that........my kids were hooked and excited!!!

 

see tiny us in the above picture?   

So, we started out on the road to see cool rock formations.  It was getting late in the day but we drove around to all we could see and the Visitor Center closed at 6:30 so we collected any garbage we could and checked out all we could and then headed back to the Visitor Center so the kids could get their badges. 

   

It was hot that day and Cami had grown tired of the looking at rock thing so we called it quits and headed out to find a place to eat for the night. 

 

Mannie was in heaven.  He loved Arches, was totally fascinated and I was so happy we made the stop.  Leading up to this trip was very stressful on Mannie.  He had jobs going and was trying to wrap everything up so he could leave for this vacation and not be stressed.  Some past jobs were also late in payment so he/we had the stress over that as well....in the end, everything had worked out and we made the decision to go ahead with the trip.  Seeing Mannie enjoy this day made me feel that our decision was a good one and I was happy to see him able to relax.

So, we stopped at this place Buck's for dinner.  They sat us on the back patio.  The weather had cooled down and the patio was shaded by the shadow of the mountains. They had a nice water fountain going.  It was totally relaxing.  We ordered some dinner and just hung out and talked.  Mannie started looking through our AAA book on a hotel to stay for the night in Moab.  He thought Grand Junction would be nothing special and that if we stayed in Moab, we could check out Arches in the morning again.  I thought that was probably a good idea.  He called around and got us a room at a Best Western in town.  It was sort of a relief to not have to get back into the car and drive again.  I am sure he felt that way too.

So, we finished up dinner and headed to Moab (the town) to check in......the town was so cute.  It was a total tourist town and it was night so it was all lite up like a tourist town would be.  I loved it.  We checked in and decided to walk around town.  It was one t shirt/souveneir shop after another.  

We were just about the only tourists in town to speak english too.  It made me realize how many people from all over the world travel to see our National Parks and how lucky we are to be able to drive to them. I had a new appreciation for these natural wonders at our finger tips. 
 

We slept good that night.  Everyone had a bed and we were tired from the heat of the day. 

The next morning we woke up and grabbed some food(free breakfast at the hotel!).  We headed out early, back to Arches for some more exploring.  I was happy to have the extra day to tour around.  

We decided to go check out one of the big attractions called Delicate Arch (the one on the Utah license plate).  We didn't really read up on it though.  It was a 3 mile hike but if you read a little more on it, you would find out that half of the hike is uphill and to bring plenty of water.  We missed that section.   We bought maybe 4 water bottles with us.....let me tell you, you need about 2 water bottles per person and snacks!!  The other attractions are tiny little hikes.  I think I must of been delirious and thought this would be a little more than that.  

Well, we started off and quickly started stopping to rest in the little bits of shade available. 

 

 That was probably a sign that we should have taken note of and turned around.  But there was this big carrot hanging over our head......THE ARCH!! We MUST see the ARCH!!  Where was the arch??? Around the corner?  The next corner??? Surely, it is around the next corner???  We climbed up rock, endless rock, dragging our poor kids who started to get tired, hungry and hot.   Actually, for the most part, the kids did okay, until we were almost there!!!  Cara broke down in tears......complete exhaustion.  I felt so bad because I could totally relate.  I sat and hugged her while Mannie, Cam and Charlie went down to stand under the arch.  

Cara and I watched from the distance and she cried and cried and I tried to be her cheerleader for the long walk back. 

We took a long break and then mustered up the energy to head back.  The walk back was downhill so that was the only thing that saved us. Mannie took turns carrying each kid.  He was fine.  He is amazing.  My legs were shaking walking down the rock hill.  This is the part of the trail where you see your car in the parking lot except it looks like an ant can drive it!  You are almost there but not really! 

In the end, we made it.  We were all hot and exhausted.....and starving. It actually felt kinda good.   And I am so happy we did actually make it to the arch.  Cara recovered but I am not sure she would agree with me on that point.  We headed to McDonalds (which I hate) but that was the BEST chicken sandwich I had ever eaten!!!  

Mannie said that he was ready for another hike.  Show off!  :P

 

How can this man be married to one of the most out of shape women out there?? It baffles my mind sometimes, how we can be a match?

Well, it was time to leave and head toward Colorado.  Our destination was Breckenridge.  We took the most beautiful scenic road to get over to Colorado....it was the 128.  

You follow along the Colorado River  in a canyon.  Huge red Rock on either side of you....shady and cool..seriously amazing.  I can't describe it, nor do my pictures do it justice....but it was absolutely beautiful. 
We dipped our feet in the Colorado River......nice and cool........ahhhh!
 

Grand Junction was nothing special, so happy Mannie had us stay in Moab instead.  That is the cool thing about having an itinerary but not being married to it or any hotel reservation. We were sort of wandering gypsies for a few days. 

We made it to Vail Colorado for dinner!  I LOVE Vail....but I will save that for another post.

Have a good day!

One last pic....

The Cabin - Brianhead, UT

Our first stop on Roadtrip 2010 was to visit Gia and Gramps at the cabin.
 

The cabin is a cool little spot backing up to the National Forest (I think Dixie) so no one can build behind them and they have a HUGE meadow and beyond to explore, look for deer and just be in a quiet, natural playground.  

We stayed up there for 2 nights....we get a hotel room 
(see room above).... down the street from the cabin but the first night, the kids wanted to spend the night with Gia and Gramps at the cabin, so Mannie and I had the room ALL to ourselves!!! Yay! It was wonderful, well, except the fact that we arrived around 11pm and by the time we dropped the kids off at the cabin, we crawled into bed and fell asleep.   But, the room had 2 queen beds which means that I sleep with 2 of the kids in one bed which means I barely sleep so to have the bed ALL to myself was wonderful!!  Then we awoke to the most awesome thunder and lightning storm ever!!!  Thunder is SO LOUD up there at 10, 000 ft.   I started to get a little nervous that the kids were terrified but not nervous enough to call over there.  I knew they were safe with Gia and Gramps so I left it at that.  Mannie and I got dressed and ate a delicious breakfast in the hotel restaurant.  This hotel just opened up in December of 2009 and it was gorgeous....and only $107 a night with AAA discount....a very nice spot for  a little getaway.  

Anyway, after our mini mini date, we headed over to spend the day with Gia, Gramps and the kids.

It was raining when we arrived so we found everyone all cozy in the cabin playing cards and the Ben Franklin crackling away.  
 After the rain left, we got busy outdoors....

Fishing.....
 

horseshoes...
 

tree house architectural planning 
 and building(maybe putting on addition is a better way to describe it since the tree house was already there)....
 

Fairy coin hunt (for Mannie and I - kids hid them)....
 

ice cream making....
 

campfire food.....
 

The cabin is like a nature center....
 

Gramps and Gia collect bones, bugs, plants.....you name it, if they find it, it becomes part of the cabin decor/research station....it is amazing and we are so lucky that they have so much knowledge of nature and of course their surroundings.  I always feel safe being there with them and I am grateful that my kids get to experience their grandparents love of this spot in the world.

Look how cute the kitchen is!
 

Here is the bathroom!
 

Gia had picked some wildflowers and so I read the kids this book by this favorite author of mine....I figured we would see lots of Indian Paintbrush and I was right!
 

After a full day,we all headed back over to the hotel for a little swim at the indoor pool....for some reason, swimming in an indoor pool is VERY exciting for a kid....and this one had a waterfall thing which was extra cool!!  
 

The next morning(after a bad night of sleep....Cara, Cam and I in one bed....Cara sleeps sideways and Cami was a little moving/wiggle machine), we woke up to rain again(temperature in the 50's probably) and then had some breakfast and headed out toward Arches National Park(temp in the high 80's)....more on that next post! 

Total deer spotting count for the cabin was 15 I believe!

Oh and this is what it looks like when a porcupine eats.....
 

cool huh?

Family photo...
 

Home!

We made it safe and sound back home from an INCREDIBLE trip around a couple of states but mostly touring the amazing state of Colorado!

 

We logged almost 2,500 miles on good old Felicia!  Thankfully she got us around safely up and down mountain after mountain.  

We saw countless National Forests, crossed the Continental Divide a few times and toured 2 beautiful National Parks.  

Happy to be home.... my body is ready to stay at one elevation for a long time!  (I think the highest we got was 12,000 ft.)

Unfortunately, I am sick right now...I have a ton of laundry to do and my head feels like it might explode into a million pieces. 

I enjoyed the escape from the everyday ho hum of life and now it is over and I am right back into the ho hum and not feeling well at that....so HO HUM.

We had the most adventurous vacation as of yet.....now that the kids are older, I am noticing our vacations are filled with alot more DOING as opposed to LOOKING or RELAXING.  

I managed to get one photo on my computer but now I will work on the rest and update with a recap. The photo was taken at Arches National Park in Utah....I asked a stranger to take a photo of us under the arch thinking he would get the actual arch in the photo but when I checked my camera, this is what I saw and I loved it nonetheless.

My favorite spots were Breckenridge and Durango for sure.....gorgeous spots.  

Well, I suppose I will be off to get the day going, the kids are thrilled to be home and not cooped up in the car.  I may be hitting Urgent Care to check on this cold I have.....feels like it could be a sinus infection(head exploding thing).....then a trip to the dreaded grocery store.....ugh, I hate the ho hum!

Have a good one.

Colorado

We are heading out to Colorado in a few days!  I am extremely excited about this....just wanting a change of scenery, not that the scenery here isn't pretty but excited to see new things.  I have never been to Colorado so I am not sure what to really expect other than seeing things on websites.
This is the binder I made, copying Nora's idea of being organized for the trip.  I actually am not sure if it is an attempt to be organized or more of my dreaming away of new places and my efforts to plan.  I think I may need to think about becoming a travel agent because I love to plan vacations.  The travel binder is filled with maps, journaling pages, mapquest directions, park information, hotel information and some tabs for receipts to keep all the paperwork in one spot.  We will be spending ALOT of time in the car and I think it is better to keep the stray/loose papers to a minimum....here is one of the journaling pages I made......
Now onto the kids......I usually buy the kids new toys for travel but this year, quite honestly, I can't afford to go crazy on that sort of thing....I did get them a couple of new things but mostly, I thought about ways to make my own activities for them to fill the time in the car.  They have their art journals that I made, filled with blank pages and coloring pages/mazes/wordsearches so that is going with us.....then I got the U.S workbooks at the Target dollar section for each kid....everyone gets a new pack of crayons too! Thank you Target for cheap crayons!  I also made the kids little Animal Journals because I have high hopes for spotting wildlife on this trip!!  Then of course we will bring the Leapsters, videos, stickers, snacks and books.  We are also going to collect postcards and make a little family travel scrapbook.  I found some fun little items to share in case you are traveling anytime soon.....I found the license plate game among others here....and found Lego bingo here ...it fits nicely in a gallon size plastic baggie....and naturally I had to go here!
   So, as you can see, I have been busy planning and started to lay a few things out to start packing but I am going to kick that in full gear tonight.  

We have been pretty busy around here and it has been strange to not write on here but I find that the more I don't write here, the less I want to  which feels strange. So, that is why I decided to sneak a few more pictures onto Mannie's computer and post today. 

 I still haven't made a move on fixing my computer but I will want to when we get home and I have a ton of pictures I will want to upload.   I have to say, I am sooooooo excited about being a little disconnected from the internet for a while.  Although, Mannie is bringing his laptop so I may be tempted to get on and then of course there is always the Facebook updates from the road when I am bored to tears in the car!  But for the most part, I am looking forward to no computers or the bloody Disney channel which has become my enemy this summer!  I just want 100% family  time and that is what I am most looking forward to....of course I am sure that tune will change after being cooped up in the car together for days on end driving! ;)

Alright, well, I miss the interaction here of my bloggy friends (you 3 people know who you are :) LOL!  I will eventually be back full time in a few weeks!  But I can't even begin to think about that because that will mean that the trip is over and summer will almost be over as well!! I can't stand that thought!!! 

In other news.....Thank you to Joann and Julie for the audio books and Julie, it was SO good to see you today! (I cried seeing Julie), I miss seeing you often!!  Julie is awesome, totally amazing mother and friend! Always an inspiration...... actually, I need to say, ALL  my girlfriends are inspirational so don't get your feelings hurt out there!! (especially you Suzy, I know it crossed your mind!!!! ;)  and I miss you too btw!!

Alright, off to finish getting my life in order... 

Hope summer is fun for all!!!