Mountains of Family Fun

****Disclaimer---If I can post a billion pictures
to tell you about our rainy 4th of July baseball
game, how many pictures do you think I posted
of my 8 day vacation in Frisco, Co with my entire
family??? Consider yourself warned!!!!!*****

Yes, finally, as I mentioned above, it was
time for our vacation. This one was a tense one
to plan. Budgets to be worked out, detailed to be
ironed out and tons of random preparations that
always need to be done when we leave for any
significant amount of time. But, despite all of that,
we were so excited because this vacation we were
meeting my sisters and my parents for a week in
the high mountains of Colorado.


Ian's view out of the plane window. What a
peaceful way to start. Unfortunately, it did not
last.

We circled Atlanta (where we changed planes) for
a little over 30 minutes when we heard the captain
say "we are being diverted to Huntsville, Alabama
because we are running low on fuel." WHAT??? I
thought that only happened in the movies! Needless
to say, we missed our flight. This picture was taken
while John waited in line to see if the airline was going
to help us get a hotel since it was midnight. Ian and
Jenna were awesome. Not a single whiny word was uttered.
In the end, we got a hotel and these funny overnight bags.
The bags included toiletries we might need. Jenna loved
the mini-deodorant! The entire rest of the journey to
CO, she kept poking her head in her jacket saying
"Man, my pits smell good!"

This was taken out of my car window. It looks like
a postcard.

THE BABIES! We finally made it and the highlight
for me was to finally meet my new niece (Madison)
and my new nephew (Jackson). They are less than
one month apart and are both too stinkin' cute for
words!

The kids and my parents. Ian and Jenna were
so excited to finally get to see Grandma and
Grandpa. It had been over a year since they had
seen them last.

We made fast friends with Chance, the dog
next door.

Ryan, another new friend. Angie's friend Lesley
was also visiting Frisco while we were there so
we were able to play with her kiddos a couple of
times during our trip.

Jenna, Ian, Evan and Amo playing
at the cool park near the condo.
You might remember this park
from our Spring Break trip back
when we lived in NM...only everything
was buried in snow!

Evan, Jenna, Ian and Isaac
throwing rocks in the stream.
This was one of our favorite
past times!

Amy and Madison getting in on the rock throwing
fun!

Our first "real" adventure was to go to Sapphire
Point for family photos and (more importantly)
to feed the chipmunks. This is Spencer handing
the chipmunk a peanut. These little guys will
take the nuts right out of your hands.

Jenna and Taylor, Lesley's daughter. What a
cute girls!

The lookouts, John, My Mom ( Betty) and my
Aunt Rose. Rose has a condo in Frisco as well.

It's a Dads Life...Greg and Jackson.
(If you have not seen the Dad's life
youtube video...please check it out)

Kinda cool but kinda creepy. Who
honestly had nothing better to do
than create wooden tee-pees in
the middle of the woods? We found
this and others like it, on our way
to find a geo cache. We hiked almost
every day and every hike had
multiple "treasures" hidden along
it's trail.

"Music and Movies" was the name
of this cache. It was our second find
for the day. We were excited to
find it because we were pushing
our luck with the weather.

Yeah...we pushed too far. This is rain but two
seconds later when Angie took the same photo,
it was hail. The Dads had been saying "don't run"
for fear that someone would tumble down the
uneven surfaces. As soon as it let loose, they
yelled "Now it's time to run kids!"

Nature, we don't need no stinking nature. We
have three gamers and one watcher. Spencer
is hoping and hoping he gets a DS for his birthday.

Evan and I on the "bumpity bumps". Adventure
#2 was to go to Breckenridge for the day. We took
gondolas up to the ski resort area. There they have
all kinds of crazy activities for the kids to do. At first
Evan was a little nervous as the gondola would
shimmy and bump as we went of the poles that held
the lines. But, with an awesome ChristyRocks on
the scene, we soon made a game of it.

Super Alpine Slides. This is John
and Jenna heading down. They took
the ski lifts up the mountain and rode
the slides back down. Ian was so
brave because he had to ride the lift
alone. He loved it.

Ian is on the left and Angie/Spencer on the right.

Ian loved it but as you can see, he was still a

little cautious.

Mom, Amy and Evan...a few of the non-sliders.

After the slide, the kids walked half way up the

mountain so they could have a snowball fight.

Do you think she had fun? This was one of the

other cool activities that the kids tried out. Jenna

had the most fun and bounced sooo high.

Look at that crazy hair! Ian's belt

make him nuts so he did not enjoy

this as much as he thought he would. :(

Isaac didn't love it either. I was

proud of them for sticking it out

and giving it their best shot.

"Spencer, is it fun?" "Yeah, ummm,

well....sorta".

I rode with Greg, Angie and Jackson on the way

back down. Greg pointed out the beaver dam

below us. The gondolas took us up over a nature

preserve and there were several signs of the
beavers who called it home.

After our gondola ride, we headed

to Mary's Mountain Cookies, home

of the best cookies ever. We took

those yummy morsels over to the

park where the kids played. Here is

Evan heading down the stone slide,

perhaps the most unsafe slide ever.

Four little monkeys playing in park, one fell down

and bumped her face. The kids loved playing on

this climbing toy...until Jenna lost her balance and

fell through the hole, smacking her face on the wood

on her way down. A busted lip and a little roadrash but

other wise, she was fine.

Rose and Ian kayaking in Lake Dillon. This was

our next adventure...something I have always

wanted to try but been afraid of getting stuck

some where random.

Jenna did not enjoy her trip as much as the rest

of the kids. She had more fun trying to catch

the minnows that swam along the edge of the lake.

The May Family...I got my chance to try it out.

John knew I was nervous so he went out with me.

It was quite windy so I had trouble turning around.

The wind blew my hat off, the vest didn't fit correctly

so it was pushing on my throat causing me to gag

like an idiot and John was yelling "helpful" advice

on how to turn around. Although this "fight" in

the photo was staged, I did feel like thumping him

on the head. Despite my drama, I really liked kayaking.

There are a few things that Frisco has plenty of...

beautiful views, hiking trailheads and parks.

This is Taylor and Spencer at the one near the

Frisco marina. The tire thingy spun as they walked.

They had a lot of fun on it.

Ian peeking at me through the hole in one of

the climbing toys.

Isaac just hanging around.

Jenna taking a rest on one of the other climbing

toys.

The picture of Ryan earlier in the post was also

taken at this park.

The ski slopes of Vail...the location of our next

adventure. Vail was about 35-40 minutes farther

into the mountains from Frisco. This is where

Amy, her kids and my parents stayed (using

her timeshare) This day we were meeting

them for playtime at a pirate park and then

dinner at an outdoor concert.

Ahoy, Ian and Jenna

Isaac and Spencer getting ready to walk the plank.

John resting near the stream

that ran next to the park.

Isaac was captured, oh no!

Of course we had to walk the trail along the stream.

Hoots and Hellmouth...the free concert.

Amy was mistakenly told the band played

80's rock style music. We found out they really played

bluegrass/folk music. I updated John as to the

change is music styling and he said "I'm good with

anything as long as it isn't some hippee nonsense

singing about saving trees". Out comes the band

and they introduce the first song. Yes, you guessed

it..."This song is dedicated to the trees". I almost

cried I was laughing so hard. Who sings songs about

trees?????

Jenna and Isaac, picnic fun

Ian, Evan and Amy

Angie and Jackson

Some where under that pile of

kids is a Grandpa! (who was

loving every minute of being

smoothered by his Grandkids!)

The Girls and The Babes

More geo caching. By the time Spencer and I

made it up the embankment to finish the final

part of the hike, the rest of the group disappeared

into the aspen forest. I was starting to get nervous

waiting all alone in the middle of the forest with a

4 year old, reliving a million scary movie scenes,

when finally John and Ian reappeared.

The next adventure was panning for gold. Here is

Uncle Greg teaching us what to do. I think Jenna

heard "wha wha wha...get your dirt wet and muddy

and then smush through it....wha wha wha".

John and Jenna didn't find any

gold but still had fun. We were

here for several hours.

Ian and Isaac...no luck here either.

My version of Aunt Rosie's picture. When she

visits Fl, she always takes a picture of her feet

with the gulf and palm trees in the background.

I soaked my feet in an insanely freezing stream

thinking it would feel refreshing. It did...after I

took them back out and put my shoes on.

An old gold processing plant

This reminded me of the cart from Hoodwinked.

I had to convince Amy to get in it because it was

perched on the edge of a drop off. (thus I made her

go first!)

The view from Loveland Pass, the Continental

Divide. It is just incredible.

See, I wasn't kidding...it really is Loveland Pass. :)

It was much cooler and MUCH

windier up here!

Angie and her big boys

John and his kiddos. There was a geo cache hidden

here in these rocks.

Spencer found his first treasure box at the little lake

just a bit down from the pass.

Awww.....

Madison, resting after dinner at

Dam Brewery where my parents

treated us to dinner out. Amy says

Madison regularly sleeps with her

hands tucked behind her head like

this.

Greg enjoying our smores in the

park after dinner.

The view of Lake Dillon from the Old Dillon

Resevoir trailhead.

Angie found her first cache.

The kids used teamwork to find

this ziploc bag buried under the

bench.

On the way back down to the car, Spencer found

the biggest wishing flower ever!

We got back to find Amy and Madison

relaxing in the front yard.

Angie trying to tame that wild

hair of Ian's. He is a good sport,

he let her do everything except

braid it.

One day she will kill me for this picture. But

it sums up how the trip ended. Our week with

my family was AWESOME. It was laid back, no

pressure, great company. We had sad tears as

everyone packed up and left one by one for thier

journey back home. It was so wonderful to see

everyone again and we hope it won't be an entire

year before we see them again. Our flight left Sunday

morning so we decided to stay in Denver Saturday

just to make everything easier. Thank goodness

we did.

(I apologize in advance for even sharing this story,

But, it must be shared. If I had to live it, you

can read it. One rule, you may never mention it to

me in person...ever.)

Iwasn't feeling so great, my stomach was quite queasy.

I chalked it up to the stress of leaving the condo and the

drive down the mountain. I tried sitting in the hot tub

at the hotel, taking a shower but nothing helped. And,

then I threw up. Oh no. I caught the bug that Ian had earlier

in the week. John and the kids left for dinner, promising to

bring me some soup. I threw up again and then "the other end"

started to act up as well. Great...The kids come back and I sent Ian

to the shower to get ready for bed. OH NO...I ran to the

hotel's mini-bathroom and John is on the pot. I urgently yell

"get up, get up , get up". He looks at me like I have lost my

mind and hands me the garbage can and says "I can't". "YOU
HAVE TO!" At this moment, I know what I am going to have to do...

he thinks I have to throw up and I know that is NOT what my

urgent issue is. I have no choice...down go my pants, my bum is

squished into the little garbage can, my insides explode, John

is horrified, I start to cry because this is just too much. Oh no,

it can't possible get any worse than this...of course it can, silly girl...

I turn and start to throw up into the sink, swinging my fanny-in-

a-can right next to John's face. John stands up, trying desparately

to escape...he takes one step to the door when he spins around

and starts to throw up. About this time, I hear Ian start to cry.

Oh yeah...the poor thing was stuck in the shower for the entire

episode. This will make a great story for his therapist later.

"Where is Jenna?", you ask...sitting on the bed playing her

DS oblivious to the mayhem going on inside the bathroom of terror.

Thankfully, the bug only lasted a few hours and although we

were exhausted, we were able to fly home without any issue.

And so ends "one of the best vacations ever".

Despite the delays in the beginning and the horror at the end,

it was a wonderful trip and hope we can do it again. If you

haven't been out West, I highly encourage you to get out

there. My little snapshots do not do it justice. It is an

amazing place to visit.