Where to start? We flew out of Dallas, into Denver on Tuesday, June 24th to start our long 3 week vacation. Our agenda was to go to the family reunion, spend a couple of days with may family, go to Minneapolis for the AMC convention, and then go to see Aaron's family, then back to Colorado Springs and on to Denver to catch our plane back home.
We got into Denver with no problems. The kids behaved relatively well on the plane. Kelsay didn't like the take off or the landing. Don't blame her. Those are the parts I hate the most too. Actually I hate flying. It's faster, but once you are on the plane you are stuck. No way to stop and take a break till your done. Gets a little claustrophobic for me, but I am glad that our usual 2 day 15ish hour drive was cut down to 2 hours on the plane. We found fantastic ticket deals so driving and flying were about the same price. So why not fly the friendly skies?
We spent Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday at Granna and Grandad's house in Colorado Springs. Nice and relaxing as usual. On Thursday we packed up and headed toward the reunion. On the way we stopped at Great Sand Dunes for a picnic and to play for a little bit.
Maddy wasn't a super big fan of hiking in the dunes but she LOVED playing in the little creek that you have to cross to get to the dunes. She could have stayed and played all day long. Kelsay liked the creek too. It was a great break to let the kids run around and Aaron had never been to the dunes before so it was a win for everybody.
After the dunes we stopped in Alamosa to get a cold drink and pick up some last minute grocery items for the reunion. It's a small world because Nan and Billy pulled up right in front of the van just as we were all getting ready to leave. They didn't even know that it was us there. I think my Dad kind of scared them with his crazy man wave until they figured out who he was. We drove on and made it to the camp in good time.
The kids had so much fun with everyone. Maddy was in kid heave with Cooper, Kendall, Clayton, and Karsyn to play with. The explored all over the place, looked at chipmunks, planted pine cones, tried to start fires by rubbing sticks together, treasure hunt with Grandpa, lots of junk food to eat. Kelsay enjoyed all the attention as well. Didn't know it at the time but she was teething the entire time we were up there so she was a little grumpy and didn't eat well, but, thankfully, she still slept good at night. Uncle Billy and Aunt Nan were great to walk her around outside---her favorite activity at camp. In fact, on the last morning we were there, she saw Uncle Billy walk into the room and her face just lit up. You could tell she was thinking: There is the man who's going to take me where I want to go.
One of the highlights was playing in the creek. The kids had a great time. Maddy was afraid at first because the water was pretty fast flowing. I helped her get in the middle of the creek and then she loved going in the "fast water" as she called it. Her goal after the creek was to get big enough and get enough balance that she could come back sometime and stand in the fast water by herself like Cooper and Kendall.
We had the variety show as usual this year. That was not a success for any of the kids except Cooper. All the rest got stage fright and backed out of their acts at the last minute. I think next year we need to have the talent show a day earlier and maybe in the afternoon so the kids aren't to tired and emotional to perform.
The day we left the reunion was June 30th which was AMC awareness day. We wore our shirts and took a pic on the top of Wilkerson Pass. Maddy also found a caterpiller there. She adopted it, named it Cinderella and gathered some food and some rocks for the caterpillar's pillows and set the caterpillar up in a cozy home under a small tree. I hope it survived. I think it might have been a little traumatized.
When we got back to Colorado Springs, we decided to roast marshmallows in the fire pit. Maddy had a blast doing that. We all enjoyed too. Just as we finished our marshmallow roast a rain shower came in. It was so good to see some rain since the Springs have been pretty parched for the last few years.
The next day Aaron and I went to a movie in the afternoon for a belated anniversary celebration and Granna bravely watched the kids alone since Grandad was driving Tam back to Denver to catch her plane. Maddy and Granna spent their time making cookies and I'm not sure what else.
The next day it was time to head back to the airport to catch our plane to Minneapolis. Stay tuned for another post about that.
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