Vacation - The First Week And A Day

This is my very random brain spill about our vacation so far. I want to document it here to reference later and as a journal for my kids. Feel free to take a peek. I'm warning you though... it is long and a bit scattered.

Wednesday, July 2 - Left for Grandma & Grandad's house... earlier than expected. Off to a good start. Minivan packed to the gills. First trip with no diapers or stroller in a long time. Wow! Visited with G & G for a while that night as Cooper showed off his Power Ranger skills, Jack & Corey watched baseball with Grandad, and Allie & I looked at a family history book with Grandma. It was awesome having Grandma sit with us and tell us stories about some of those people. As always, I am amazed by my history. The stories of the people that I come from. Sharing that time with my grandma and my daughter. Awesome!

Thursday, July 3 - Up early... though not early as planned. (Thank goodness!) Breakfast with the grandparents then on the road toward the mountains. Singing Amarillo By Morning with George Strait on the stereo in Amarillo in the morning. Stopping at the Texas/ New Mexico line to take our traditional picture by the sign. Seeing the first mountain on the horizon. Stopping at the New Mexico/ Colorado sign for photos. Getting a phone call from my sister... she can't come to the family reunion next weekend. Really sad! Driving through our favorite towns... Durango, Silverton, Ouray. Stopping in Silverton for dinner. Jack playing in snow on the side of the road. Arriving at my sister-in-law's house. So proud of the house that they built with their own hands! Sleeping with the windows open and feeling that cold Colorado air.

Friday, July 4 - Morning visit. Kids in matching t-shirts. Off to Telluride for the parade and a day full of Fourth of July festivities. Jets in the sky that made my heart pound. A Norman Rockwell parade. My boys playing baseball in the park with strangers that are best friends for a moment. A park that is nestled in the heart of the mountains. More kids' games hosted by the local fire fighters. Cousins spending time together - a dream come true. Riding the gondola up the mountain. Cooper was in awe. It was a first for him. Buying homemade cookies from little girls that had set up a table. So Americana. Strolling down one of my favorite streets on earth. Soaking in Telluride. Picnicking in the park. Visiting with family. Watching the kids play in the creek. The water was so cold. Waiting for the fireworks. Jack gone - for hours - playing baseball with new friends. Cooper falling asleep in his aunt's lap. He adores her. The most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen. I wondered if Tom Cruise was watching the same fireworks as we were. Later, I found out that he was! A crazy traffic jam trying to get out of town after the show. Not even caring... the windows were down. We are people watching. In Telluride! The kids were watching Father Of The Bride in the backseat, and we were quoting lines in the front seat. It is one of our family's favorites of all time. I tear up at certain parts of it every time. For 11 years. Every. Single. Time. Someday...

Saturday, July 5 - Our little family is off to my absolute favorite town in the world. Ouray, CO. We stop in Ridgeway for lunch. True Grit was the restaurant. They really filmed it there. I thought of my Grandad. He loves John Wayne. It was fabulous. Great food, a balcony, a mountain view, a mountain rain shower. An umbrella over our table. After lunch - Corey to the fishing store, me to the thrift store. I love the Ridgeway thrift store! Lots of books... cheap enough already but on sale for 50% off. Finally, off to Ouray! My heart pounds harder at the sight of it. I really in truly get tears in my eyes when we round the bend. We shop a bit. Souvenir shopping is one of Allie's and my favorite things to do on vacation. Didn't buy a thing. Just looked at a lot. Stopped for coffee and melt-in-you-mouth homemade candy at Mouse's. Went on an adventure to try to find a mine at Jack's request. I almost had a heart attack on some of those mountain roads. Us in our minivan. Them in their jeeps. Finally, we turned around. (Thank goodness!) We stopped to play in a waterfall. It was so beautiful!!! And cold. Back to town to the hot springs. We love the hot springs! We all swam, and Cooper rode his first water slide. I marveled at the scenery while I sat in the hot water... one of my favorite things to do. I remembered the December day that I spent there in those hot springs while it snowed on me. We finished swimming, and the kids played at the park. I took the mountains in and wondered how this place could become mundane for some... and hoped that it never will for me. We ate dinner at Maggie's. Outside on the patio. It was delicious. Saw a bear on the way home. A first for me! A real live bear! Got back to the sister's house and read until I went to sleep. Woke up very sick but was better in a couple of days.

Sunday, July 6 - Slept off the hard night that I had. Packed up to go camping. Went to the grocery store and was reminded of why I love Wal-Mart. Prices. Selection. Finally finished my book and got to start a new one. Went up into the forest of Aspen trees. Woods Lake. A lake and a river! The view was breathtaking! Truly. Breathtaking. Set up camp. Went for a hike to the lake. Watched my little boy with a pocket knife and tried not to gasp too often as he made a "cooking stick" like his older cousins. Roasted hot dogs. Roasted marshmallows. Sat by the campfire until the rain forced me into the tent. Fell asleep with my baby boy. Unusual and Divine.

Monday, July 7 - Slow paced morning around the campfire. Hot chocolate. Big breakfast. Flannel shirt and flip-flops. That's me! Trip to town. A bit of shopping. A picnic in the park. Girls went one way. Boys the other. Girls - A trip to The Free Box - a Telluride tradition. It is an amazing thing in the middle of town... literally free stuff. Polo. Abercrombie. Izod. Under Armor. Everyone gives. Everyone takes. I got a trash bag full and an adrenaline rush to boot. Time with Roxann doing our favorite thing - looking for bargains. Free. Even better. Allie even liked it - though she would probably not say so. Then, a stop at the Telluride airport where Roxann works. A celebrity sighting! More adrenaline. I love celebrities. Any of them. All of them. This one - Kathy Najimy. The Sister Act nun. Not Whoopi. The other one. :) I think that we saw the paparazzi looking for Tom & Katie too (Or the Beckhams. I think that they were visiting the Cruises that day. Flew in on a private jet.) Did I mention I love celebrities? Boys - Fishing at Woods Lake. Cooper fell in. I kind of had a feeling that he was going to. Mother's intuition, I guess. He was pulled out immediately. Cold and wide-eyed but safe. We all got back to camp. Cooked dinner. Me, Quesidillas. Roxann, Chili Rellanos. Now that is some camping cooking! Sat around the fire. Ate roasted marshmallows with 2 squares of Hershey's chocolate stuffed inside. Roxann's invention. A taste of heaven!

Tuesday, July 8 - Another slow morning. Coffee. Breakfast burritos. Broke camp. Hiked to the lake. Took tons of family pictures... that's just how we are. Back to sister's house. Corey and Jack off to fly-fish. Finally. He is a patient man. Other kids, watched Monster's Inc. Me, took a shower. Nothing is better than the after-camping-shower! Then, a picnic by the river. That evening, a drive to a lake to catch crawdads. Just for fun. It was fun. And gross. But fun. Cooper made us laugh so hard. He named each one of his. "Turgel" "Samich" "Derek" So funny! The drive home - full of deer. A night of laundry and spaghetti.

Wednesday, July 9 - That morning, deer in the backyard. Lots of them. One, 5 feet from us. Eating pineapple out of a trash sack. So funny! Repacked. Said goodbyes to Roxann and family. And we're off... headed for Durango. Stopped in Ouray. Had to! Couldn't just pass through. Ate lunch on a patio, of course. Did a little shopping. Our traditional purchases... a Christmas ornament, a charm for me, t-shirts for all. And one more thing... a hippie purse that I couldn't live without. Back on the road. A stop in Silverton to see the train. We love Silverton too. Then back in the car. Stopped at another waterfall. I don't think that we could ever get enough waterfalls. Finally. We made it to Durango. Great hotel. A little balcony. A mountain and river view. Dinner with Corey's niece Sarah and her boyfriend Seth. So sweet. Great restaurant. Then, Starbucks. Walking to everything. That's Durango. That night, computer - almost the first time in a week. Email. My friends and family via their blogs. Technology is great! Wrapped up the evening on the balcony with Corey. Just my guy and me. Lovely.

Thursday, July 10 - Morning on the balcony. Coffee. The river. The cool air. Sweatshirts! Corey had to work a little, so the kids and I walked to McDonald's. The boys needed the walk. The play place. The wrestling. Sarah & Seth met us there. Then we went for a long - much longer than anticipated - walk to try to find a playground. It was great. Along the river. Rafts and kayaks. Throwing rocks and sticks in the water. Missing the stroller. For more reasons than one. Finally - the park! The boys played. The girls chatted. I found out that there is a Sonic in this town!!! I celebrated. With a Sonic drink. Corey finished working around noon and we took the kids up to the ski resort. Purgatory. We rode the ski lift up to the alpine slide. Me and Cooper. Dangling in the air. All cuddled together. Then squealing all the way down on the slide. As fast as we could go. "Stop", I told myself. "Soak it in." Jack rode the lift alone. Well, with a boy his age. Basically, alone. I was nervous. He did great! After the slide, the kids did the trampoline-harness thing. Jack first. As high as he could go. As many flips as he could turn. Smiling the whole time. Then Allie. Calm and steady jumps. No flips. Lots of smiles. So telling of their personalities. Then Baby Boy went. Little bounces at first while saying, "I don't want to go high." Followed by bouncing as high as he could go. The biggest eyes. The biggest smiles. I laughed so hard that I had tears running down my cheeks. Really. Then, the big kids climbed a rock wall, and Cooper jumped in a bounce house. Next, we were off to play putt-putt. Golfing on a mountain is hard. Think about it. But it was fun. The afternoon rain came. It always does. We took cover for a while then finished our golf game and headed to town for dinner. Great pizza at a funky little joint. Home Slice. Took over an hour to get it. They were in no hurry. That is the mountain way. Back to the hotel. More balcony time followed by swimming followed by the National Geographic channel. The only safe thing on TV. Then, finally... a bath and a book for Mommy. Awww! Vacation!

That brings me to now. We leave the hotel tomorrow, and I don't know when I'll be at a computer again. This weekend is my family reunion - one of the reasons that we came to the mountains this summer. I have not been to it since I was in junior high, and I am so very excited about it. I'll update when I can. It may be when I get back to The Sauna State. Ooops... I mean The Lone Star State.

Friends... I miss you. Thank you sweet, sweet Elizabeth for taking care of my Milly! You are the greatest! And Family... Coby & Sara, I am so sad that yall are not going to be here with us. We will miss you! Take good care of those babies. XOXOXO