Mountain Vacay

Wonderful! That's what I have to say. We returned a couple of weeks ago from our summer vacay...Colorado this year. And the weather was so refreshing (highs in the 70s and 80s, lows in the 40s and 50s) that I have decided there's a way all of us who live here in the scorching heat in the south should vacation...never...ever, ever...ever! take a beach vacation in the summer. Pack up and go somewhere cooler. It was so enjoyable! I HIGHLY recommend it. We'll see whether or not I stick to that (our beach vacation last summer with my family was fun), but...just sayin'.
We spent 5 days in Breckenridge. Our wonderfully gracious friends Matt & Kristen have a condo there that they offered up to us, again (see our Colorado pics from two summers ago for our first trip). And then Sam and I stayed a few extra days in Colorado Springs with Matt & Kristen doing fun stuff with the kids. I'm so glad we decided to stay a little longer because Sam and I saw some neat places.
Breckenridge was, once again, very fun and relaxing. From the condo it's a quick 5 minute walk to town so we made a trip daily to play in the park, throw rocks in the river, play barefoot in the cold grass, or just walk through town (and eat some very good sweet treats). One day we rented bikes rode around Lake Dillon from Frisco to Dillon. There at the marina in Dillon a water taxi picked us, and our bikes, up and we boated back across the lake to Frisco. Beautiful views. There was even a sailboat race getting ready to start when we were out on the water, so we saw lots of sailing going on. While in the marina office, getting info about the water taxi, I overheard someone telling a guy who was renting a boat, "now, you can't swim...it's far too cold". I mentioned it to John and he said he thought the water temp was probably in the 50s, obviously too cold for swimming. Uh...no...someone on the water taxi asked the boat operator...30s!!!...I think he said it was about 38 degrees! Oh my goodness! We also took an afternoon hike one day to a little lake where John was able to fish (not his only trip out to fish, but the only one with us). He caught a trout for Sam to see and Sam loved it. He hasn't stopped talking about it yet. This was the first fish Sam has seen him catch...actually the first time he's watched him fish, I think. Although, Sam's not yet the best fishing buddy because his favorite thing to do throw rocks in the water. Not so good when trying to lure fish to your fly on top of the water. Sam loved that we had a creek right outside the back door of the condo and loved "hiking" up the creek trying to heave the biggest rocks he could into the creek. He asked to "go on a hike" every day. I also got a little mommy time and took a trip to the spa one afternoon.
One really interesting thing going on up there, although very sad, is the infestation of pine beetles. If you look through our pictures, you'll notice many brown, dead trees. Particularly around the lake (in Frisco). Pine beetles are spreading throughout the region and killing the pine trees. In one area, may have been Frisco (which is a town between Breckenridge and Keystone), we heard that 70% of the trees are affected....70% of the trees are dead! And the scary part is that it's very possible something could spark a fire and the area would be changed tremendously. Imagine the ski resorts up there with little to no pine trees. And this isn't just affecting the upper parts of the mountains. We saw many dead trees in populated areas, in communities, around homes, schools and beautiful little "ski towns". Very sad.
After returning to Colorado Springs, Sam and I got to do some touring. Garden of the Gods was beautiful and Sam loved climbing all the big red rocks. We also took a trip to zoo where Sam got to feed giraffes...one of the neatest zoo exhibits I've ever seen. John was completely disgusted that a city of 400, 000 in Colorado could have a zoo that is so much better than the city of 2.5 million that we live in...come on Dallas! We also spent an evening in Manitou Springs, which was one of the most unique towns I've ever been to. I would have loved to have spent the rest of the weekend there. We missed out on an afternoon swim because of a storm that came through, but we took advantage of that time by doing a little project with the kids...we attempted to make oil cloths that would eventually be made into sandwich wraps. Unfortunately Kristen texted me a few days after we left to say we must have put too much oil on the cloths, because they were still dripping...oops!
It was another great family vacation, and a trip I'm sure we'll take again. One of the best parts was that Sam was actually aware of, and in awe of, the change of scenery. (Living in Dallas, he obviously thinks the world is flat.) As we left Colorado Springs the first day to drive into the mountains (to Breck) Sam looked out the window, and in amazement said, "Whoa! What's that?" It was a sheer rock cliff, the mountains. It was fun to hear him be so interested in the mountains and to appreciate the beauty of them...even at 2 years old. These are the times when family memories are made and it's so exciting.

You can check out out pictures on our photo website. (Password is our last name, case sensitive.)