Friday, June 29, 2012

River Rafting!

This was part of our rafting adventure...there was a lady that took some pictures at one part in the rapids so it's funny watching Jacob's facial expressions from the start of the rapids through the end of them where he is lifting up his hands like he's on a roller coaster!  He did have fun throughout the experience...just a little scared in the beginning with these ones! =)  We had a great time!!!















Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Family Vacation to Durango, CO

Last week, we took a family vacation to Durango, CO in order to meet my family half way somewhere and spend a week with them.  We rented an amazing 3000+ sq ft cabin there and had such a great time!  Here are some pics from our trip!

 excited to start the long trek to Colorado!
 About 20 mi from Needles, CA (in the middle of the desert) we were at a standstill for about 2 hrs.  Had our car turned off because we only had 1/4 tank gas left so we had a nice, hot time in the car....decided to let Jacob walk around outside on I-40!

 This is what happened.  Semi burned to the ground with nothing remaining! Glad we made it to Needles eventually and a GAS STATION!!!! We filled up 19.4 gallons on a 20 gallon tank!  Too close for comfort!

 Happy Father's Day Daddy!  We stayed in Flagstaff the first night and went to Cracker Barrel in the morning for breakfast.  Enjoyed some nice french toast and pancakes!  I had some biscuits, of course.  Can't go there without biscuits!!

 Just one of the "bathroom" stops....for me. =)

 We made it!  Father's Day dinner at a really good BBQ place in Durango- Serious Texas BBQ.  Great food, fun atmosphere and good prices!!! Good way to start the vacation!  Glad to see my family!  Jackson was a little tired from the trip....but wouldn't sleep in the car....waited to sleep on Grandma!

 This is our porch.  Over 800sq ft porch!  We had rocking chairs, hammock, table, bbq, etc.  It was a great place to relax and look at the beautiful mountains...we hung out there often!

 Honeyville Farms.  Right outside of Durango they had a store that made honey...we LOVE honey.  Jacob and Jackson had fun tasting lots of different kinds of whipped honey like vanilla, chocolate, caramel, peach, etc.  We stuck with the Honey Bear and plain whipped honey! YUM!!!  I also got some blueberry/bosenberry/honey syrup so I can't wait to try it on some waffles or pancakes!

 Jacob and I throwing rocks in the river
 Park time!

 Who wouldn't want to relax like this?  Glad Jeremy could have some down time...He needed it with how busy he is at work!

 This was my parents' Master bedroom.  Surrounded with huge windows.  Jackson liked to take a nap in there!  I would too!!!  So pretty!


 Hiking with Daddy around the Mesa Verde Indian Ruins!

 Pueblo Indians Ruins.  Pretty cool.  Only problem was that you couldn't climb all over the rocks...and that's what Jackson wanted to do most!!!!

 There was a sacred room down below.  Jacob liked going down and checking out the room. Anything with climbing or ladders!


 Cliff Palace.  Pretty Amazing people actually built this and lived there for hundreds of years!

 lollipop for the hike!

 Jacob had an adventure packet to complete at the Ruins.  If he completed it, then he could be sworn in as a Jr. Ranger at Mesa Verde Park.  I only got have of the swearing...but it was pretty funny.  Jacob had no idea what he was doing!  =)  I forgot to attach the pic of him sworn in.

 Durango Community Center.  This place was awesome!!! It was indoor and had a climbing wall, lap pool, diving boards, lazy river, slides and a kids area and splash pad outside!  The boys LOVED it.  Jackson and Jacob LOVED the big blue slide in the back and wanted to go on it over and over!!!!  Glad we found this place while we were here!!

 Uncle Aaron time!!  They loved to play legos and build cool things with him. Of course, he built the fun stuff since he is a structural engineer!!!

 Aunt Tera time!! The boys LOVED her too!!!!!  We love TERA!

 And....can't forget Grandad time!!!!  

 One of the afternoons we went water rafting.  Jacob was old enough to go and wanted to go....so we took him with us.  The water level was really low since they didn't have lots of rain this winter, but we still had lots of fun!  I'll do another post of just the pics from the rafting.  He cried for the first part of the rapids and loved it after he realized we wouldn't let him fall out and he built confidence!  We had a great afternoon on the river!  Grandma and Jackson had fun at home....


 While my parents and Aaron and Tera spent the day taking the Silverton Train, we spent the day going up to Durango Mountain (Purgatory).  This was the drive up...so pretty!

 Jeremy and Jacob went up their first ski lift (for both of them!!) to a guided hiking trail for 2 hours.  (they were almost 11,000ft up!!)  In the meantime, Jackson and I went on our own short hike at the bottom of the mountain and watched the people go down the alpine slide!

 On Jackson's and my hike.


 Some of the fun things we did that day!  Alpine slide, bungy jumping, hiking and having fun!!!

 Our last day in Durango....We took some family pics- the boys and grandparents! (a few are out of order below)

 After we left Durango, we headed to a town called Ouray.  It's about 60 miles north of Durango but takes 2 hrs to get there.  Half of the trip is on a highway called The Million Dollar Highway because of the views you get along the way.  None of the pictures can actually do justice to what you actually see on the windy road there!



 A few waterfall views on the way

 Ouray, CO is called Little Switzerland of USA.  It's surrounded by breathtaking mountains and hot springs in the middle....This is a view from our hotel room balcony.  Really pretty river flowing through the town!

 The men.

 At our hotel....this hotel had one of the most comfortable beds we had ever slept in!!!! 2 kings too!

 Here are some family pics from Durango that got lost in the download... =) I love this one!

and this one....

 and this one!!!

 This was on our way to Ouray, CO


 This is in Ouray at a place called Box Canyon.  Pretty amazing.  A HUGGGGEEE waterfall in the midst of 2 cliffs....it was cool that you could walk all the way from the top of the cliffs to the bottom of the falls!

 They also had hot springs there.  This was a huge hot springs pool with all the nutrients and vitamins in the pool minus the SULFER!  It was awesome!  It ranged from 80-97-106 degrees so it was perfect for an evening swim.  Jackson was a little too confident since he had finished his swim lessons the week before....He would jump and jump and jump...sometimes with no one there to catch him!  Crazy kid!  We all felt so smooth that night and the next day!  I wish we had one of these close by!!!!

 On the last day before we parted ways from my family, we all decided to go on a 4mi Perimeter Hike around Ouray, CO. Nobody told us it would entail walking along cliffs for a majority of the time!!!!  It was pretty scary.  The boys were a little bit braver than my mom...who is really scared of cliffs and heights.  Thankfully, she made it through the hard part and to a place she could walk back through town!  Jacob did soooo great walking a couple miles all by himself after we got past the part where he could slip and fall off!!!  Jackson was held the WHOLE TIME. =)




 Above this house about half way up those rocks was the trail.  Just about where the tree line ends.  Pretty crazy.

 Well, after our lovely hike.....which ended early due to the crazy cliffs....we headed home!  We took the Utah route to change it up a bit.  It was beautiful!  


 Jackson loved playing hide and seek in the car.  They were soooo good in all the car rides!

 Since our trek back happened to fall on my 30th bday, I made us stop in Las Vegas so I could attempt to get lucky and win big bucks. 


 Unfortunately, my $10 won me $2.50 which I spent also in an attempt to win big.  Oh well.  We had fun checking out a few of the hotels before finishing our trek back!

Our time from Las Vegas-Home took longer than expected...we hit tons of traffic leaving Vegas (on a Sunday) and tons at the Agricultural Inspection Spot.  WHY!?!?!?!?!  Anyways, after an 11 hr day, we had a final stop at Charlie Brown Farms to grab some dinner and of course, a whoopee cushion. =)  That made for a fun last 45min until we finally reached home sweet home.  

We had such a great trip and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to spend extended amount of time with my family!! I love them lots and wished they lived close...but glad we can have trips like these! =)  Photos of the rafting trip to come..... =)  Jacob's face is classic!