Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Vacation Part 2


After the wedding in Vail our plan was to go to a cabin, in Estes Park, on the Big Thompson River.  However, I'm pretty sure that cabin is no longer standing as the Big Thompson River swelled to twice its size and is responsible for the major damage in the park.  Instead we headed to Steamboat Springs!

I just have to document, for the future if Kade ever reads this blog, the worst tantrum in history.  It was the day after the wedding, which he stayed up past midnight and woke up at 7:00 the next day.  We knew it was going to be a rough day.  We were ill prepared for how rough it was going to be.  We went out for ice cream, which should make any kid happy, right?  Wrong.  The ice cream was in the wrong dish.  We got a different dish.  The ice cream wasn't mushed up.  We mushed it up.  Finally, after 10 minutes of crying, he tried it.  He liked it!  Uh-oh,  it had melted some and there wasn't enough ice cream left, he wanted more.  I gave him some of mine.  My, different, ice cream touched his (although I can't fault him for that as I'm the queen of food-not-touching...but he isn't.  More than once he's dipped broccoli into ketchup and mustard and devoured it.  I think he was secretly testing my gag reflex).  Anyway, cue the loudest, piercing-est scream/cry ever recorded.  I literally picked him up and carried/ran him to the car which was 4 blocks away.  Erik was left to pay and apologize.  The worst part about the experience?  I still had ice cream left in my dish!  He owes me and some day I'll make him take me back to Steamboat Springs and buy me ice cream :-)

Notice our hands firmly grasping Kade?  That's because behind that innocent looking brown piece of wood is a sheer cliff.  Those are TOPS of trees directly behind us.  Kade had a hand on him at all times during this walk.  I have more than a few gray hairs after that little jaunt!

The waterfall behind us is the one in all of the Coors Light commercials!

This form of travel, on the way back from the waterfall, made me much happier.  A bonus for Erik too because he got a decent leg workout in :-)

We visited one of the natural hot springs, which gave Steamboat Springs it's name.  

Erin and I could even sit in them!  We usually have to avoid hot tubs because of the chemicals.  Although the hot springs did smell a little like boiled eggs but we didn't have anybody to impress :-)

Of course no trip is complete without a little game of pretend baseball!  Everybody managed to hit grand slams in this game!

The Blue Team throwing rocks into a mountain lake.

Kade must've taught Erin his Cheesy Grin!

He found the tip of a broken fishing pole during this hike.  It kept him entertained for awhile, til he broke it when he used it to dig for treasures. 

Funny story about this hike.  We were kind of in the middle of nowhere and there was lots of evidence of wildlife around us.  And it was elk hunting season.  Anyone who knows Kade knows that he's loud, he moves a lot and he never stops talking or making noise.  Ever.  I actually encouraged him to yell as loud as possible, as often as he wanted (which was a lot because there was a fantastic echo off the mountain sides up there!), to keep bears and mountain lions away.  How many gray hairs can a mother acquire on one vacation?!  Anyway, by the end of our nature walk any wildlife that was nearby was now miles away.  As we were walking out of the woods, 3 elk hunters were walking in.  You could literally see the devastation on their faces as the Tornado walked by them.  They had a loooooooong walk ahead of them if they were going to find any elk that day.  

After Steamboat we headed to South Dakota.  We only spent part of a day there before heading home.   This big guy greeted us as we pulled into the Black Hills.

We took a ride on a steam engine built in the 1880's.  Kade asked if it was Thomas the Train we were riding in :-)

All in all it was a great trip!  Kade did AWESOME in the car for that long and I can't wait til our next family vacation.  I think somewhere with a beach, sun and ocean is in order!  I wonder if Kade would object to wearing a life jacket 24/7 on this future trip....















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