... and on to Colorado!

After spending a few days in Chamberlain, we had another long day of driving to get to Denver.  This driving day didn't go quite as smoothly as the first.  I was still fighting a migraine and wasn't in the best place to deal with a certain 3-year-old who wasn't cooperating with our potty stops.  Oh, well.  We made it, even if it took us a bit longer than we had hoped.

Adam let us stay at his place that first night in Colorado, and unfortunately we were up a bit too early, especially since we were all dealing with the time change.  On Tuesday, Adam and Libby took us to Dinosaur Ridge and then up to Lookout Mountain.  (This is a picture of fossilized dinosaur footprints on the hillside.)

 The girls really enjoyed the nature center up on Lookout Mountain, probably because they found a room full of stuffed animals that they could pretend with :)

After lunch at Adam's and a quick stop at a grocery store, Adam escorted us up into the mountains to Libby's parents' condo.  Thankfully, the girls both slept some on the way, but that didn't stop them from being a bit crabby that evening.  We got to hang out with Adam that evening before he headed back to Denver so he could work on Wednesday.

Wednesday was our family day in the mountains.  We tried to do a mini-hike in the morning, but the altitude change plus the little legs we were bringing along made us cut the hike short of the mountain lake destination.

 Matt and the girls scrambled to the top of a little hill.

Anna slid on her bottom down the hill.  Her clothes were SO dirty every evening!.

Kate poses with the mountains at our first snack break.  All of the downed trees are ones that were infected by the pine bark beetle and were cut down by the forest service to form a potential fire break above the towns in the valley.

Anna liked the bridges, the flowers, the wildlife, the whole experience.

The girls came away with good memories while Matt and I had tired arms from carrying Kate :)

In the afternoon we drove up to Loveland Pass.

Family Portrait (with my eyes closed, of course)

Apparently Kate's solar activated shirt gets REALLY colorful at  more than 2 miles above sea level.

Mommy and her babes

Kate and Anna really seemed to enjoy this experience.  They loved all of the alpine flowers blooming on the tundra and wanted to hike along the Continental Divide.  Matt and I, however, ran out of breath for that :)

Thursday morning Adam, Libby and Cedar (Libby's dog) drove out to the mountains to spend the day with us.  We did a shorter, successful hike in the morning, with Cedar and the girls' stuffed animals, too.

We then rode on the Georgetown Loop Railroad in the afternoon.
 

The train went over this bridge twice, once on the way down and again as we returned to the station.

This is the steam engine that is SUPPOSED to pull the train.  However, for the two full days we were in the area, it was at the depot being serviced :(

Mommy and Anna being silly :)

Side story about the railroad trip.  Kate did a great job this whole trip with using the potty ... except for when we were at the depot.  She had fallen asleep on the way to the train station and took awhile to wake up when we got there.  Then she just wanted to play instead of go potty.  Until she tripped and fell :(  She's the kind of kid that when she gets really hurt, she just loses control of those muscles.  So we had a big accident to clean up.  Except that I had just emptied the diaper bag of extra clothes since we were running low on clean clothes by that point in the trip and I was trying to pack things up for our traveling days.  So ... we found a pair of Anna's 5T sweatpants in the glove box of the van that needed to be rolled up for Miss Kate, and then bought a nice souvenir t-shirt for Kate.  Of course since Kate got one, Anna got one, too, and wanted to wear hers at the same time.  Silly kids.


In the evening, we grilled out for dinner, tired the girls out by having them run around with Cedar, and tried to get things packed up for the next day of traveling.

We drove partway back on Friday, stopped in Iowa at a hotel, and finished up the trip yesterday morning/afternoon.  Unfortunately by this point our food choices were very limited and we were all pretty low on sleep; as a result I ended up with another headache for the last bit of the drive :(

Overall, the trip was great.  The girls did a wonderful job considering how out-of-routine everything was.  We all made some good memories, too.  I think Anna's reflections sum the experience up well.  She said she didn't like that long of a vacation because she missed her bed by the end.  However, she also said that she really liked getting to spend time with her family, especially her extended family, and to do things that she normally doesn't get to do.  Well said, Miss Anna :)