Adventuring {Stompin' the Old Grounds}

We made a little trip to our old home in Colorado at the end of May.  Originally, we planned it to coincide with a one-day conference Gregg wanted/needed to go to in Avon, but that got postponed and we decided to go anyway, just cutting it short by a day (which was a good thing, in the long run, with sick kids and sleepless nights for all).  But it was fun to be back in our old stomping grounds and to see our dear friends from the Vail Ward.  I also loved being a "visitor" in a place that I knew so well - no anxiety driving around to places, knowing the good places to eat without having to look anything up, already having memories of all the spots we visited.

We left early Saturday (the 27th) morning.  Our first stop was a little park in Price where we met up with our missionary grandparents who were travelling to Colorado, too, on their first day of their cross-country trek to their mission in Ohio.  It was fun to eat our lunch with them and play at the park for a little while before we all hit the road again.

We've driven past Colorado National Monument many, many times but have never stopped till this trip.  We had it planned into our agenda and made it happen.  And I'm so glad we did!  The drive through the park was awesome!  We did it nice and slow while the kids slept in the backseat.  Then we turned around and went back so we could stop at one of the many trailheads/overlooks for a short hike to a spectacular view.  We also visited the visitor's center for a stamp in our passport (and a potty break).  The tunnels were Callie's favorite part (of the whole drive through Colorado, really - she's always liked tunnels).  We stayed that first night in Rifle, which gave us time to enjoy the park, get some grub, and swim in the hotel pool (trip highlight for sure for the whole family!).

Our hike on Otto's Trail for amazing views of
Independence Monument.

Group shot courtesy of some friendly Canadians at the viewpoint.

Could it be any prettier with those clouds?!

We could see climbers on that giant rock formation in the
middle of the canyon - way up at the top!  Yowza!

A few blooming cacti along the trail made my day.

Distance shot of a red cactus blossom - I couldn't
get any closer without traipsing across crypto-
biotic crust.

Cool views and vegetation, plus a tiny purple (!)
cactus flower if you can spot it.

We found a great, greasy, local hole-in-the-wall
diner named Munchies in Fruita for dinner -
it was exactly what we were looking for!

On Sunday morning we got up (early, thanks to Sam), ate breakfast in the breakfast room, and headed to church in Avon at the Vail Ward with all our old friends.  We even got asked to say the opening and closing prayers in Sacrament Meeting.  It was wonderful to be back "home" again, and Gregg counted at least eight times someone saying, "You're back!  To stay?"  After church we drove to Jeremy's (our old home teacher and Gregg's coworker at Ryan Solutions/Inntopia, who has a big house in the mountains all to himself with plenty of (free) guest rooms) house near Leadville.  We got settled, explored a bit, had dinner, and even made s'mores for dessert.  Then it was bedtime and no one really slept well due to Cal and Sam coughing a lot of the night.  (Sigh.  Yawn.  Someday sleeping won't be such a big deal.)

Early morning jammy walks on the streets of
Rifle (because the hotel stairs and lobby had
already been lapped multiple times) with Dad
while Cal is still sleeping (say what?)

A quick rest on the luggage cart as we head out
the door to church.

Just hangin' out on the bar stools - their favorite spot in the
upstairs.

Jeremy's "backyard".

Callie told me all about the lichens growing on
this big rock.  "They're green and soft and fuzzy."

She made it to the top and was so proud.

Jeremy's street.

His house.  I'm standing on the driveway in front of the garage,
which is up above the house (obviously).

S'mores time.  (That's the garage behind.)

First s'more for this kid.

He loved it!

Yeah, I could live here.

Bedtime stories from "Uncle" Jeremy.

Our plan going in to Monday was to spend the day in Vail, hitting up all the great playgrounds there and eating at our favorite restaurants (Moe's BBQ and Larkburger).  We pretty much stuck to that plan, with a few exceptions (Moe's was closed, darn it!, so we had lunch at La Botegga (T.E.D. sandwich for life!) and the kids were so worn out from their colds we headed back to Jeremy's early and ate leftovers for dinner).  Oh, and we can't forget Memorial Day breakfast (pancakes, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns, oj) to start everything off.  We met up with our friend Heather for lunch, too, which was so fun.

Stop numero uno: Pirate Ship Park!

Surprisingly underwhelming response from the
kids on this one.  I'm going to blame the coughing
and sniffly noses and chilly morning temps.

Park number two (and my personal fave going in): Ford Park.
Half of it was under construction - bummer again.

But can you beat a view like that while you swing or teeter totter?
I think not.

That's our room when she was born here at
the Vail Valley Medical Center almost four
years ago!

We wandered along the streets and bike paths
of Vail Village, stopping a few times to splash
rocks in the river en route to Lionshead Village
for lunch.

Checking out an old gondola car set up on the
streets of Lionshead Village.

Park number three (the one the kids seemed most
excited about): Sunbird Park.

After lunch we made one more park visit:
Nottingham Park (we used to call it the Library
Park back in the day) in Avon.

These teeter-totter toys may have been the
favorite amenity of all the parks we played at.

Leftover noodles and salad and pancakes and
sausage for dinner - and eating at the bar stools,
even, like it's no big deal!

A little downtime Turbo watching and cuddling
on the couch.  (Really rare, so it must be
documented.  Also, I wanted to take a picture of
Jeremy's kitchen, so there's that, too.)

The little hummingbird neighbor was a little
skittish, but I did snap a pic of him (not that
you can even see him in this pic, but just
pretend.)

We packed up Tuesday morning and "followed" (loose term - Jeremy travels that road a lot quicker than I did) Jeremy and Gregg back into town.  The guys went to work and the kids and I visited a couple more parks and even hit up story time at the library (for old time's sake).  We met up with Gregg and Jeremy for lunch at Larkburger (at last!).  After we stuffed ourselves with truffle fries and a chimichurri burger and/or chipotle chicken sandwich (holy moley yummorama!!), we were back on the road again.  Sam slept for three hours and Cal for two, so the drive was rather uneventful and we got to listen to a big chunk of our favorite Sherlock Holmes as the miles rolled by.  We stopped at yet another park in hot, hot Green River (bringing the trip total to eight different parks in four days; no pictures of that one, though) to stretch our legs and run around.  One last stop for a cooler leftover dinner at the Spanish Fork Canyon rest stop, and then we were homeward bound.  Cal was still awake when we pulled in at 9:30 pm (thanks to that long car nap), but other than a past-her-bedtime-related meltdown then, we had smooth sailing in our travels.  It was a good trip with these littles and they were troopers, indeed.

My roommate was an extra early riser every
day of the trip.  How can anyone be this cheery
at 6:17 am (and I told took this picture this late
when I finally relented and got him out of his
bed after willing him to go back to sleep for
nearly an hour!).

Parkin' it at Little Beach in Minturn for a good chunk of the
morning.  (Sam fell asleep on the drive here and was sleeping
in the car for another 20ish minutes while I snapped pics of
Cal playing at 8:33 am.)

When I asked her after which park was her fave,
Cal said she loved the locomotive.

She also loved the shorter monkey bars and
gave them a try (this was as far as she got, but
it's further than she's even been before).

Little Beach has a great little spot for rock
splashing.

This is Sam's skipping rocks formation
(he throws them differently when you say
skip it vs splash/throw it).

Such a lovely morning!

And back to the train.

And back to the river.

I think they were feeling a bit better today -
they were much more active than Monday.

Snacktime on the locomotive.

Next stop: Donovan Park in West Vail.

I really loved this one.  I think it was my favorite of them all.

A tunnel slide with windows.  Never seen
that one before.

Climbing the spiral staircase.

Swinging with a Vail view.

And we got a second (third?) spring since
everything was blossoming while we were there.

We hit up the preschooler story time at the
library after the morning's park adventures.
Sam's favorite part was the lego tractors in the
play corner, naturally.

Chow time!

And I think we took care of that pile of
deliciousness sufficiently.

Homeward bound.