Colorado

Colorado was amazing.  The drive up there wasn't bad at all.  Coming home was another story, but I'll get to that later.  KC got us through Missouri and into Kansas.  Then it was my turn to drive.  Everyone says Kansas is horrible to drive through and that it is ugly & barren.  I disagree.  Kansas is beautiful.  I wouldn't want to live there, but driving through is wonderful.  Kansas is a breath of fresh air.  I can just imagine running free through the great plains with the wind in my hair and the sun on my face.  It was neat to see things like these windmills...

I took a 5 hour energy shot to make it through my 6 hour driving stretch, but I don't think it did anything because I wasn't really tired in the first place.  I was already so excited, I didn't need it.  It would have been fun to stop at some of the roadside attractions, but we were on a mission to make it to Colorado by night time so on we went.  It was a good thing we filled a cooler full of nutritious and delicious snacks.  The only stops we had to make were for gas and bathroom breaks.  KC took over somewhere in Colorado, well before we hit the mountains.  This is the first mountain shot I took...

The mountains are absolutely breathtaking!  The girls and I were awestruck.  It's hard to describe how incredible you feel out there.  It's a spiritual experience.  We had to roll down the windows to smell the fresh pine air, wet with fresh rain.  We searched the mountainside for wildlife and waterfalls as KC pointed out points of interest along the way.  When we finally arrived, KC's dad and stepmom  welcomed us with hugs and smiles.  We lugged in our suitcases and got comfortable, and that's when it happened.  I followed Daisy out to the car.  She made it.  I didn't.  My eyes were focused on my 6 year old bounding out of the garage instead of on the ground in front of me.  I lost my footing and sprained my ankle.  Great.  Of course this would happen to me on the first day of vacation.  The pain right then was awful.  I was seeing stars and sitting down because I couldn't move.  At that point I was just praying that I hadn't broken it!  I eventually hobbled in and was immediately taken care of by Carol.  She got me an ice pack and brought me Advil and wine, and I was grateful.  The first Colorado day we drove back into Denver to meet up with the rest of the family.


We got to go through the Eisenhower Tunnel again, which is over a mile and a half long and a lot of fun.  I sort of ruined our Denver fun.  We were going to go to museums (there was a King Tut exhibition) and theme parks and whatnot.  But no.  We hung out in the hotel and watched television.  Awesome.  Family time was fun though.  I got to meet KC's mamaw and papaw, which was great.  They are such fun and sweet people.  Carol made sure I was as comfortable as I could be.  I met KC's sister Miranda and her boyfriend Oscar.  They were great.  Miranda is such a sweetheart.  And Oscar was great.  He taught the girls some Spanish, which was fun.  The younger generation made plans to go to the Casa Bonita (a resturant that was featured in an episode of South Park) which would have been a lot of fun, but sadly, we didn't make it.  After 3 days in Denver, we went back up into the mountains.  We did a lot of relaxing in the early days because of my foot.  KC's dad and stepmom took his mamaw and papaw to Hawaii from Denver, so we had their house to ourselves while we were in Eagle Vail.  KC found some old home movies in the basement.  Those were so great!  I got to see his mom (who died when he was 15), and his siblings and him when they were little.  It was so cool.  I feel like I know him a little better now just from watching those silly things.  :)

KC has been telling me about his favorite restaurant for 2 years now.  We finally got to go to Fiesta's!  I have to say....It was pretty awesome!  I got a chicken chimmichanga.  KC got the chilies rellenos.  He let me have a bite of his and they were to die for.......yum!!!!

It was so much fun going to the small town KC grew up in.  He drove us around and showed us his old house, the schools, library, the "Nearly Everything Store".  We went to his friend Brook's wedding...

KC's friends were so warm and welcoming.  I really enjoyed meeting and hanging out with Brook, Amanda, Mikey, Stephanie, and Travis.  I really hit it off with Stephanie.  She was so sweet.  I wish we had more time to chill with his friends and family.  




We almost didn't make it out to see fireworks on the 4th.  It just wasn't a priority.  We were going to check out the fireworks show KC's friend Travis put on, but the town he was working in was too far away.  :(  At the last minute I kind of got disappointed about not seeing any fireworks while we were in Colorado, so we did a drive by up a mountain resort in Beaver Creek.  We saw the tail end of the display from the comfort of our car, since it was sprinkling.  Oh well, at least we got to see them!  We ate all kinds of Mexican and diner food, which was awesome.  I had a really good banana malt at the Red Rock Diner.  KC showed us some cool mountains like Lion's Head and Castle Rock.  Because of my foot we couldn't do any hiking or river rafting, or anything cool like that.  But we did get to go to the Glenwood Hot Springs, which was really cool.  It was so relaxing after torturing myself for days walking around on a sprained ankle!!!  Check out the coffin shaped pool in the photo!  ;)


We saw a lot of wildlife while we were there.  We saw deer, buffalo, goats, a prairie dog, and lots of magpies (the state bird.  they were beautiful, but they're mischievous little things!).  No mountain lions.  Sadly.  It would have been cool to see one.
KC got a car while we were there, so the pleasant 10 hour drive out there turned into an 18 hour test of endurance.  It sucks to do that thing solo!  We were bad asses though.  KC ordered me to sleep when we got home because I had work that day.  I slept for 3 hours, then got up and worked 8 hours on my sprained ankle (and we were busy that day)!!  Yeah, I'm a tough lady.
All in all it was a pretty fantastic trip.  We are already planning our next trip out there.  This time we want to go int the winter.  My ankle will be jim-dandy and we'll go skiing!  I'm thinking January.  Did you all go on any vacations this summer?  Please tell!