Colorado Vacation

Hello Everyone!

A couple of weeks ago we left on what was to be our very first "family vacation."  We were bound for Colorado!  Our plan was to stay in condos for 6 nights in Breckenridge (one of Mommy and Daddy's favorite places) and basically take our time, soak in the mountains, and enjoy being together as a family.  There were other stops along the way, but we mostly just stayed in one place and enjoyed it to the fullest.  We left on Friday and made it to Limon, which was about as far as we wanted to push it with the kids.

Here we are getting ready to leave Grandma and Grandpa Cox's house in the Family Truckster.  

I wish I had video of this.  Elsie picked up the bible and started doing an ad lib children's story.  Hilarious! 

Our first stop in the mountains was the ARGO Mine in Idaho Springs.  Very cool tour.  Elsie loves gold mining after watching Gold Rush on TV, so we thought it would be a fun place to visit. :)

We even got to pan gold!  It's a LOT of work!

The ARGO Mine

After the mine we headed towards Breck and stopped for a picnic lunch at Lake Dillon.  

We arrived before the check-in time for our condo so we rode the free gondola up to the base of Peak 8 and checked out the fun park they set up there in the summer.   

We climbed a couple hundred feet up one of the slopes and found snow!  There was still quite a bit left, but it was really dirty.

Sunday morning we decided to hit up the shops downtown.  One of them was a children's play place.  It was all  educational and was REALLY neat.  The kids had such a fun time!

Owen got to do construction... 

...and Elsie got to do a chemistry experiment.  We mixed blue and yellow liquid and scientifically proved that it made green.

The view from downtown Breckenridge

There are so many shops and places to eat it is almost hard to choose, but this one was nice and we got to eat outside.  (It was about 70-75 and sunny every day we were there)

Monday we hit up the Peak 8 Fun Park.  We started off riding the ski lift up to probably 12,000ft to do a little sightseeing and hiking.  The hiking didn't last long but it was beautiful.

Top of the world!

Elsie was big enough to ride the alpine slide and mountain coaster with an adult.  That adult happened to be me and we had SO much fun!  We rode the slide 3 times and the coaster 4!

More gold panning

Owen and Mommy played a round of putt putt

I HAD to buy this.  Check out her face! :)  Seriously though, that thing was freaky fast!

At condo #1 Elsie and Owen thoroughly enjoyed the "cat beds"...

...and the bunk beds.  First time ever in bunk beds and they LOVED them.  Elsie got the top and Owen slept in the "fort" underneath.  They were really sad when we had to leave.

We spent Tuesday in Silverthorne at the outlet mall and a really cool city park.  The kids really dug the park, unfortunately we didn't get any pictures.  On the way back to Breck we stopped by a beautiful overlook of Lake Dillon. 

Owen admiring the view

Squirrel!!! 

Look at that view!

Condo #2 had 3D TV!  None of us had experienced that yet, so it was kind of cool.  Too bad there wasn't some football on!

Wednesday we took the neatest hike.  We drove up to Hoosier Pass, then hiked up a 4x4 trail for about half a mile.

Going uphill at altitude while carrying a kid is a pretty decent workout!

This was our reward.  About 30 minutes of hanging out in one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  Glad we went around that one last bend!

It's a beautiful picture, but it was absolutely spectacular in real life.

Looking south on the far side of Hoosier Pass

Heading back down

Believe it or not, we ran into someone from Garmin who was at the pass shooting a promo video for one of our cycling products.  She was nice enough to take our picture.  Small world, huh?

Tuesday started with another nature hike...

This one not as strenuous as it loosely followed a creek, but beautiful in its own way.  

Lunch on the deck at Condo #2.  What a view!

Thursday we were scheduled to take a horse drawn wagon ride in Keystone (about 10mi away).  Owen was REALLY looking forward to this because he loves horses.  This was one of the views from that ride.

Here we are on the wagon with the pilot and co-pilot in front of us.

This made his day

Friday morning we left Breckenridge behind and headed back down I-70.  We were going to ride the famous Georgetown Loop Railroad.   Pretty sure this was the highlight of Owen's trip. :)

Digging it

Really digging it.

Owen takes his trains seriously. :)

Saturday we took on Rocky Mountain National Park and Trail Ridge Road.

Another climb at like 13,000ft...

Totally worth it!

Stunnning...

Elsie brought along her camera too and she was very eager to take pictures with it.  Here are some of the best ones.

Don't know how, but she caught the dog in mid jump. 

On our Peak 8 hike

Going up on the mountain coaster

The fun part of the mountain coaster

Aerial view of the alpine slide from the chair lift

Ok, Elsie didn't take this one.  I did while we were on the chair lift getting ready to ride the alpine slide. 

We all had so much fun on our trip.  It was SO special to get to spend that kind of time with the kids.  We got to see some of the best scenery in the country, do fun things together, spend lots of time outside in beautiful weather, and eat at lots of good restaurants.  I couldn't have imagined anything better.

Adios,
Ryan, Sarah, Elsie, and Owen