Vacation

These first 3 pictures are supposed to be at the end of the post. However, they will NOT budge!! Sorry! Does anyone else ever have this problem??!!

At the end of June our family went to Estes Park, Colorado. My parents were very kind to rent a condo for all of us. This was a much needed vacation for me. I had not been anywhere since Spring Break of 2007! The scenery was absolutely stunning and the weather was awesome! I love when you are in places like this and get to see the unbelievable creations of God. I am not a writer, so I will be documenting with lots of pictures! We traveled all day on a Thursday, Praise the Lord that we had safe travels. For some reason, I was incredibly anxious about flying this time. I felt like I just wanted to cry! Hollyn did SUPER on the plane, not so great in the car though! We arrived at our condo Thursday night and met up with Greg and Jana.

Friday we toured the Stanley Hotel. This was a little anti-climatic, but still worth the trip. It is the place where Dumb and Dumber was filmed. It also was the inspiration for the location of the movie, The Shining. Afterwards, everyone went to get fishing licenses and we ate lunch. Hollyn and I went back to the condo for some napping while the other "kids" went on a vigorous hike. We cooked at the condo that evening.

This is the Fall River just outside our back porch. It was my own heavenly sound machine for naps and at night. It would be been the best sleep of my life except for little 20 pounder next to me that kept me all night!! Hollyn looooooves my brother Jameson, she calls him Gay-Gay. He has been asking for a new name!

On Saturday we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. The whole gang "hiked" (really we just leisurely walked) around Bear Lake then we had a picnic. It is funny how a setting like that can make a plain old sandwich tastes so good. The boys (and Michele and Jana) went fishing after that. I really won't talk about the bad luck with fishing that the group had. Greg said it was like a bad dream, as hard as he tried -he could never get to where he was going. The fishing situation was not what they thought it would be.

Greg and Jana have only been married a little over a year. To me they are kind of like an old married couple that already look like each other. (in a good way)

Jameson and Michele

Bear Lake

Saturday night we played a hilarious game called, Quelf. It is similar to Cranium but with lots of weird twists. It is hard to explain, but very entertaining if played with a group. I would think about things from the game and then laugh as I was trying to go to sleep that night.

Sunday the group went white water rafting, without me, Dad, and Hollyn. I was proud that my mom went! The three of us spent the day in downtown Estes. It is a a cute little town with lots of neat shops and places to eat. Sunday night we all went to Smokin' Daves BBQ. I am not really a BBQ fan, but this was the best BBQ we had all eaten. This is weird to say, but they had the best beans I have ever had in my life! Thank you to my friend, Dori for the recommendation!

Hollyn calls Michele "Mel-Mel." Whenever Hollyn goes over to my parents house, she always looks in different rooms to see if Michele is there! At times I think she loves her more than me!

The kids

Sunday night we went to the National Park to find wildlife. We didn't have much luck there, but a group of gigantic elk were sitting in a field just a few yards from our condo. They were huge! We all acted so hyper when we saw them, you would have thought we just won the lottery or something.

Monday we went to Estes Ark, a neat little gift shop full of stuffed animals. It is supposedly 1/4 the size of Noah's ark. We also hiked around the YMCA and went to downtown again. That night we returned to the Park and we ran into lots of little chipmunks. Hollyn would make little gasping noises and shiver when she saw them running around.

This is her reaction to the chimpunks...

I want to thank my parents for the condo, rental car, and GREAT food. You were very generous to provide this trip for us! It was a much needed break for me!! (Although my life really wasn't that different, just a much prettier view!) I have so much fun when I am with my whole family. There is never a dull moment. Someone is always making me laugh! Hollyn did horrible on the drive to the airport, but thanks to Benadryl she slept during the whole flight. I think the car ride with her put us all on edge! Needless to say, I won't be taking her out of town for a LOOOOONG time! (Not even for you, Melissa!)