Colorado Here We Come... Day 6

Well, just as I predicted, the sleeping in late was just a fluke. The kids were up early and ready to go this morning. So we packed up the minivan and headed north to Ouray.

Lia helped me pack this morning :)

Let me tell you something, the drive from Durango to Ouray was beautiful, but REALLY scary. We were seriously driving on windy roads through the mountains going 10 or 15 miles per hour. There weren't even guard rails on most of the sides, if you ran off the road you would just fall off the side of the mountain. I've never been carsick in my life, until today. Max said, "If I fall down the mountain, I'll use this (his stick sword) to poke the mountain and climb back up."

While we were driving through Silverton, Max said, "Mommy, when we switch houses, can we move here? Because I want to live on top of the mountain." I said, "What about Zoey?" and Max said, "We'll have to call her and tell her to move here." I said, "What about preschool?" and Max said, "We'll have to call preschool and tell them to move here too."

I told you the view was amazing!

Lia was so hungry, she decided to eat her toes :)

By the time we got to Ouray, I was so glad to be off of the windy mountain roads. We grabbed a quick bite to eat in Ouray and then walked around for a bit. It's really a cute little town, nestled in between a bunch of mountains. We stopped in a candy store and got the kids some rock candy, green of course. And I got some homemade turtles (not much though, because it was $20/lb!). Then we started off to Buena Vista for the balloon festival.

Daddy pushed Lia around in the stroller in Ouray. Notice her feet...
she loves to feel the wind on her toes.

The drive to Buena Vista was a much nicer one. We still had great views of the mountains, but no cliff edges to fall off of and not as many windy roads and no carsickness this time :). We even found a little museum with some train cars that we stopped at for Max and Ava to see. We got the kids nuggets at McDonalds again and Max said, "Hey, they have two 'Old McDonalds' in Colorado."

I loved these trees that we saw at the train museum.

The kids really loved these drawing books... especially after we got them some new markers.

Everyone was getting tired...

From the time we left Durango, we had no cell phone service. Usually what we do is when we get close to the town we're going to stay in, I start calling to find a hotel room. Well, we never got cell phone service back. So we pulled into the first hotel and booked our room. We then decided that since we got to Buena Vista early enough, we should head over to balloon festival and catch their evening portion, where they make the balloons 'glow'.

Now, let me tell you this, the Colorado vacation guide SUCKS. We had to drive to a gas station to get directions to the rodeo grounds where 'Balloonavista' (that's their cute little name for their balloon festival) was being held. They just don't make it easy to find anything. Seriously, how hard would it be to put an address in there?

So we drive down County Road 321 looking for the rodeo grounds. We see something on the right that looks like it could be the rodeo grounds, but there are no balloons and not very many cars. So we keep driving. We drive about 7 more miles before decide that must have been it. So we drive back. There is one hot air balloon. We get to the rodeo grounds and ask someone, "where the heck are all the balloons?" They said the balloons would be back around 8:30 p.m.

So we hang out. Josh talks to the lady who started the balloon festival six years ago. She excitedly tells Josh that there will be 5 or 6 balloons for the lift off tomorrow at 6 a.m. Josh relays this info to me and I can't believe it. How can you call it a balloon festival if there are only a few balloons? Seriously, we drove all the way here to see some hot air balloons and that's it?! I told Josh, "I can't believe they don't have very many balloons." And Max said, "But mommy, there's going to be 5 or 6 balloons!" Thankfully, my kids are still little, so they were just excited to see any balloons and weren't disappointed like I was.

So we watched the 'balloon glow' which consisted of 4 hot air balloons that 'glowed' momentarily. We waited over an hour and the balloon glow lasted about 10 minutes. So in case you ever want to go to Balloonavista, don't waste your time :(

Here's my 'Balloonavista' shot

Things I learned on day 6 of our road trip:
1. Colorado has a lot of trees... I don't think I've ever seen so many trees in my life.
2. I really don't like windy mountain roads... they make me nervous that we're going to fall off the edge.
3. The amount of time that Josh thinks it should take me to pack and the amount of time it actually takes me to pack are drastically different amounts of time.
4. Balloonavista is not as cool as it sounds.
5. When you tell the kids that you are getting ice cream for a snack, you have to do it, even if it's already 9 p.m. and they are SO tired.
6. Popsicles from the gas station qualify as 'ice cream' to little kids.
7. "I'll give you a dollar if you..." works on Max, not really on Ava, and definitely not on Lia
8. Lia is afraid of the hot air balloon burners.

Don't forget to check out Josh's blog post.

Colorado Here We Come... Day 5

So today started off differently than every other day so far.... the kids actually slept in! I'm not sure how that happened, but I'm betting that means they will be up super early tomorrow :)

So first off, let me say that if you're ever going to go camping in Durango, you should definitely stay at the KOA out here... it is really a great campground.

When Josh found out that they have a pancake breakfast every morning from 7 am to 9 am, he was super excited. So wouldn't you know it, 8:30 am comes around and Max and Ava are still sleeping. You could just see the disappointment on Josh's face. He was like, "we have to wake them up." And I was like, "no way are we waking them up." Then magically Ava woke up about 5 minutes later, followed shortly thereafter by Max and we made it in time to get pancakes :). Josh even wore his 'pancake mountain' shirt to celebrate the occasion :)

Josh shoving his face full of pancakes.

Lia just chilling, waiting for a bite of pancake

Check out Josh's shirt

After breakfast, we picked up aunt Michelle and headed to Mesa Verde to see some Puebloan ruins. Everyone said that it's an awesome time and we should definitely go while we are here. What they didn't say is that it's 47 miles from Durango to Mesa Verde (well to the front gate). Then once you get past the front gate, it's another 15 miles to the visitors center... 15 miles of windy, uphill roads through the mountains. It took us almost as long to get to the visitors center as it did just to get to Mesa Verde from Durango. From there, we drove another 5 miles to the first cliff dwelling.

To get to the first cliff dwelling, Spruce Tree House, it was a 1/2 mile hike up 100 ft vertically, but once we got there it was pretty cool. Max and Ava seemed to enjoy themselves, although I was super nervous the entire time that they would fall of the cliff (Josh thinks I'm too paranoid, but what would you do if your kid fell off a cliff?) So it was another 17 miles to the next cliff dwelling, but we didn't realize that until we were about halfway there. By that point, we figured that we might as well trek on. The second one, the Step House, was pretty cool too, but an even steeper 120 ft vertical climb over 3/4 mile. By this point in the afternoon, Lia was pretty tuckered out and kept dozing off in the baby carrier. When she was awake, she just laughed and laughed. It was pretty windy and she loves the wind in her hair, in her face, and on her little toes.

Looking up

Daddy tickling the kids

I liked these flowers. There are a lot of pretty flowers in Colorado :)

Ava was pretty tired from all the walking, so daddy had to carry her at the end.

Looking out at the valley

The clouds were threatening rain all day.

Lia was pretty tired too

Another valley shot

By the time we got done seeing 2 cliff dwellings, it was time to head back to the campgrounds and get some dinner. We made a run through the drive through at McD's for some nuggets on the way back. Even Lia got in on the chicken nugget action.

The kids love these wipeoff books I got from Target for the trip. One has faces and the other has animal bodies and you draw on the details. Ava likes to draw on herself too.

Yay for happy meals! For some reason, my kids eat great in the car.

Poor Lia really wanted a chicken nugget. You can tell how happy she is here. She ate the whole thing... it only took her about an hour :)

After dinner in the car, we got back to the campgrounds and decided that we HAD to make s'mores with aunt Michelle & uncle Fred. The kids were not too impressed with the messiness and stickiness of s'mores. They decided they liked unroasted marshmallows the best. Josh and I, however, enjoyed our s'mores... I don't think I've had s'mores since I was a kid.

Sidenote: In case you are wondering, here is how I like my s'mores:
1. First you get the graham cracker prepared... break it in half and set the halves out
2. Place exactly 6 rectangles of chocolate on one piece of graham cracker, then place near the fire so the chocolate melts... this in an important step because the melted chocolate is my favorite part
3. slowly roast the marshmallow... I hate it when the marshmallows catch on fire and get all burnt
4. assemble s'more and eat quickly before anyone else asks for a bite :)

Notice the marshmallows on the left side of the photo... those are mine... getting perfectly roasted and not burned

Now notice my perfectly melted chocolate :)

Lia REALLY wanted a marshmallow... this is Max teasing her... she made due with her graham cracker though

Oh, and on the way back to our cabin, I was walking with Max & Ava. They started crying to go the playground, so I said, one time to swing and one time to slide and that's it. We got over there and they did their sliding and ran to the swings. Literally, it started pouring rain just then. I pushed them on the swings for about 30 seconds, then said, 'we've got to go!'. So I'm running with Ava over my shoulder and Max puts his cape over his head to protect himself from the rain :)

Things I learned on day five of our road trip:
1. You can't open or close the door to the cabin quietly. It simply can't be done.
2. Lia wakes up every time we stop the car. Every time.
3. Max and Ava will fight over anything. Even if there are 2 of the exact same toys.
4. Ava really just wants to go to the playground and swing. She asked if we could swing about 100 times today.

Don't forget to check Josh's blog.

Colorado Here We Come... Day 4

Another early start today... the kiddos were up at 6:30 a.m. Why is it that when you're little and you're tired, you get up earlier instead of sleeping in? I'll never understand that :). Anyhow, after our wonderful continental breakfast, we decided to get on the road and finally make it to Durango. It was a nice easy drive to Durango from Pagosa Springs, with (believe it or not) only one potty break.

We were planning on meeting Josh's sister Michelle and her husband Fred in Durango, but they weren't quite here yet when we arrived. So we decided to head to the park for a picnic lunch.

Then I started calling around looking for somewhere to stay. There was only one place actually in Durango that I could find that had cabins. You see, when we first started talking about taking a vacation to Colorado, our good friends the Parsons (who used to live in Colorado) told Josh that we MUST get a cabin. So Josh wanted a cabin. Okay, so back to the only cabin rental in town... I called and they have a wedding this weekend, so they're all booked up! Kind of ironic, I guess...

Anyway... I guess I say that a lot... every night when I'm writing my blog post, Josh says, "Are you writing a book again tonight?" Why actually, yes I am, thank you very much!

Okay, back to the story... I called Michelle and mentioned that the cabins were booked, and she says, 'hey they have cabins here at the KOA'. So I call the KOA and sure enough, they've got an open cabin... yes they have wifi, no television (the Lakers are on tonight... hope they won :). So we decide it's a go and reserve the cabin. Oh, and the Parsons didn't mention that you need to bring your own bed linens :), so we had to stop at Wally World and get the kids some sleeping bags (but hey, they were on clearance for $10 each, so we got a great deal!).

So, we got to the campground and pull up to the cabin and I WISH that I had the camera out to capture Josh's face... it was priceless! Here's this TINY little cabin (super cute though). We go inside and there is a twin bunk bed and a full bed and a tiny ledge to put your laptop on. And barely enough room to set up the pack n play.

No bathroom. No television. But it has air conditioning. And a ceiling fan. And WiFi. And it's super clean. But I did see one spider running across the floor... he's gone to a better place now.... (don't tell Josh... he likes to relocate spiders to a better environment).

So, Josh sees the cabin and says, "Maybe the Solars aren't cut out for this", to which I reply, "You can't be grumpy about this because YOU wanted to get a cabin."

So, Max is so excited about his new Cars sleeping bag, that he actually wants to take a nap. He kept saying, "I don't want to go to the playground... I'm really tired... I need to take a nap." However, once he saw the bunk bed, he really just wanted to play on it. So right now he is sleeping on the top bunk and Ava's on the bottom bunk... let's hope no one falls out of bed tonight.

Oh, and Max kept calling the cabin "the shed", as in "are we going back to the shed to sleep?" I kept telling him it was called a cabin, but he wasn't exactly paying attention.

So after nobody took a nap except Lia, we headed to downtown Durango to have dinner at this cool soda shoppe which turned out to be closed. The sign said, "summer hours M-F 9 a.m. to 5 p.m." Seriously, how are those summer hours in a tourist town? So we ended up at some brewery which had good (but pricey) food. Then back to the shed, I mean cabin, for bed!

So, I've never been to a KOA campground (well, they spell it kampground, but I refuse to purposely misspell words... it drives me crazy!). I wonder if they are all as cool as the one we are at... there's a playground, a (heated!) pool, a little doggie park, they show movies every night at 8 p.m., there's a pancake breakfast every morning (Josh is super excited for that... you know he loves his pancakes :), and the bathrooms (yes, there ARE bathrooms, just not in the cabins, you have to walk a little ways to get to them) are super nice and super clean and have real toilets and sinks (none of that 'hole in the ground' or port-a-potty stuff.

Okay, I think that's the end of tonight's book, so we'll get to some photos! If you're still reading, thanks! And don't forget to check out Josh's blog. Tomorrow we are headed to Mesa Verde to check out some Pueblo ruins and cliff dwellings... should be fun!