So the first portion of our trip was a day long drive with the fam to Colorado, followed by a long weekend stay at a gorgeous house in the mountains outside of Canon City, with Nathan's entire family. And by entire family, I mean parents, grandparents, 4 siblings, their husbands and wives, and 8 little ones! But this house was amazing and more than adequately accomodated all of us in comfort. It was honestly just a perfect weekend.
The trip started out early on a Thursday morning, when we piled 3 sleepy, pajama-clad kiddos into our mini-van at 5 am, and set off for Colorado. It was hysterical, as Hayden repeated no fewer than 5 times before leaving our neighborhood, "mommy we are STILL in Texas!". I realized he probably couldn't comprehend that it was actually going to be hours and hours and hours until we crossed first into New Mexico, and finally into Colorado. I was so proud of them though really during the drive. There was a lot of sleeping during the first 4 hours, and then some movie watching, coloring, stopping to play and nurse, and only a minimum of whining, crying and general mis-behaving. As we passed the off-ramp for Nathan's parent's property in southern Colorado at about hour 11, we both commented that really the drive was totally do-able! However, as we crept up on the 13th hour, heading from Pueblo into Canon City, things started to break down, and we were more than happy to pull up in front of a beautiful, three story, 6 bedroom house in the mountains, and to be greeted by Mammaw, Grandpa Bill, and a very excited and smiling cousing Brylin.
The whole weekend was just full of the sound of little feet scampering all over the house to get into something fun together, and lots of giggling, and running and playing. It was super heart-warming to watch the boys form bonds with their cousins, and also to really enjoy spending time with their grandparents and aunts and uncles. Wrestling matches abounded, as well as nature walks, table tennis matches, and tumbling routines. I love love love my niece and nephews, and I just adore that they will grow up with these special memories of vacations taken together.
Ruthie was of course a dream baby on the trip, and just was passed from aunt to uncle to grandma the whole trip, with a huge smile on her face, and as my family was quick to note, always a cute outfit and bow :) There are 4 "babies" in the family, and 4 "big kids", and one teenager, and it was fun to lay all the little ones on the play mat together and watch them grab for each other and just enjoy the company of other little babies. They all rotated between the swing, the jumperoo, and the playmat haha. Just a bunch of sweet kids. One of my favorite parts of the trip was trying to organize a photo of all 9 kids together. I mean just getting all of the kids awake and dressed at the same time was a major accomplishment, and then to get them all happy and smiling? Forget about it haha. But that is what makes the memories of this photo so sweet and funny. Love the cousins! And one more to come next February :)
Aside from just hanging out at home and eating the most fabulous meals (Nathan's family is full of foodies), we also saw the sights of Canon City. While we had to sit out of the big white water rafting trip this year because of the kids, we decided instead to head aboard the Royal Gorge Railway, for a trip through the canyon, along the "white river" as Hayden called the Arkansas. The snowmelt was at it's peak when we were there, and in fact the river was running so high that the canyon was closed to rafters for the time being. The rapids were quite spectacular, and the boys were super intrigued by it, and especially enjoyed the outdoor rail car where we could get a front row seat of the river.
Some of the other highlights of the trip included another mini-trainride overland to the TOP of the gorge, where we were then able to get off and take in the spectacular view of the Royal Gorge and the bridge spanning it. Unbelievably gorgeous, although it almost gave me a heart attack to watch the kids get so close to the edge, even with a strong fence between us and the open air. How are kids so brave?! And it was funny because Nate and the baby had to sit a few cars back from the boys and I, and I could hear Ruthie squealing in delight the whole time. Very very cute :)
After the mini-train ride, we all headed into the Royal Gorge park itself. I was a total basket case about this outing because I just really don't like heights myself, and I hate seeing my kids be in any way vulnerable either. So this was really an exercise in conquering my fears! Rationally I knew that it was totally safe. I mean there was NO way a child could have gone over the edge of that bridge - the fences and railings were high and completely well made. But still....this was a wooden slat bridge. You could see the rapids thousands of feet below you. Scary. Furthermore, the wind was blowing, and the bridge was swaying pretty noticeably. The boys LOVED it, and I tolerated it for the views haha. Then to further test my anxiety, Hayden insisted on riding back across the Gorge in the aerial tramway. Now I've ridden lots of trams while skiing, so this is nothing knew to me. But literally, the Royal Gorge is over 1000 feet deep, with raging white water at it's base, and it's freakin scary! Grandpa Bill held Brylin up to the window to look out, and I could see her mom struggling not to grab her back haha. Hayden was right up there too, and loving every minute the breeze blowing in his face, and soaking in the sights and experiences. It was pretty fun :)
Now in viewing the previous couple of photo collages, you may have noticed the lovely fashion choices made by a few of the guys. There is a story behind this haha! A few days before we left, my mother in law reminded me that it was Father's Day while we were all together, and could I think of something we could do for the dads? Well clearly nothing as mundane as cooking them all breakfast would suffice for this group. We put our heads together and came up with the idea of tie-dying them all t-shirts that had "Super Dad"-like phrases on them, that they could all wear together during our trip to the Royal Gorge. Well, it turned into the most fun project. While the boys were off golfing together, all the moms and kids took off to the Dollar Tree to buy supplies, and with the kiddos napping or otherwise occupied (this got messy!), my sister-in-laws and I tie-dyed all the t-shirts. It was amazingly funny and fun to try our luck at tie-dye, and then to attempt to keep it a surprise from all the guys! I mean where in a vacation house do you hide 7 soaking wet and dyed t-shirts to dry?! I took one for the team, and hung them out on our balcony, in hopes that none of the boys would see it because our room was kind of off on the side of the house, and hoping that Nate wouldn't venture out there or see it through the closed blinds. Well....of course there had to be a flaw in my plan - which in this case turned out to be Pierce. Big surprise. The little munchkin managed to lock himself in our room!! Ugh....so Nate had to scale the balcony and go through the sliding door to get to him and unlock the door. So the surprise was ruined for him, but it was quite comical as he asked me what all those shirts were haha. We gave the guys their shirts at breakfast on Father's Day, and it was so cute, because they were such good sports to all wear them out that day. In fact, Nate's grandpa Powell had his regular shirt off, and his "Papa Rocks" t-shirt on within about 30 seconds of receiving it haha. So cute! I love these dads and it was awesome to spend the holiday together.
I cannot thank Nate's parents enough for organizing this trip for us, and giving us the gift of a perfect weekend spent with family. And I want to shout out to all my lovely brothers and sisters that I LOVE YOU and you are SO fun to spend a weekend with. I will never forget our game of Catch Phrase (which would have only been better, if possible, with Dan O present). And you all have the cutest kids ever :)
Thanks for reading about our big Canon City adventure. Stay tuned for more highlights from our time spent in Denver, Fort Collins, and Oregon!
Sounds like a blast! Great pics, and can't wait to hear all about the trip in person :-).
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