Okay so I know that I am totally behind and now out of order, but I will try, and this trip was kind of special, so I wanted to include it. For my 30th Birthday/10th anniversary, Pete and I traveled to Grand Lake Colorado alone (meaning no child!!). Grammy graciously offered to take Cadence to Vegas to visit with cousins while mom and dad went away for 8 days.
Now we kicked around some more exotic locations, but ended up deciding to go to Grand Lake, which is a quaint little town outside of the Rocky Mountain National Park. This little town suited us perfectly! They had a beautiful little historic main street boardwalk, with an old fashioned shooting range, arcade games, go carts and even a community musical theater. We were in love and started planning our retirement. (in case you are wondering we are going to open a game shop/bakery here in 20 years.
And yes the dog got to come along too. Long story, but we stayed in a pet friendly town house, that was incidentally nicer then our own home. The dog got walked every day though, since there was so much to see and so many trails to explore. The weather here was so wonderful, it really never went above 75 degrees and it rained every day, but in a good way like a light shower for 30 minutes or so, then blue skies again. Perfect!
Pete, loves squirrels, don't ask me why - but he loves them, tries to feed them when we go camping, etc. In Colorado, they have this giant animal that is a relative to the squirrel, called a marmot and they get up to 30 pounds! Pete thought they were the coolest thing about Colorado.
We saw a ton of Elk on our trip. In fact one day we decided to drive through the Rocky Mountain Park, we sort of procrastinated this because we thought it didn't sound very cool, but it was by fart he neatest thing we did on that trip. The road through the Park is the longest highest road in America. The elevation goes up to 12,000 feet (FYI. trees can't survive past 11,000), so of course this road is mostly cliffs and mountains, and it had to be under construction ( a little nerve racking for me). We drove all the way through and went into Estes Park, which is the larger more commercial town associated with the National Park. We shopped, ate Indian food (Grand Lake is lacking in the ethnic food) then drove back through the park. This time we took a different road back through, it is an unpaved one way road that has a length limit on the vehicles it allows on. I thought I would be terrified, since this road was only 9 miles and reached the same elevation heights that the other one did in 21 miles (IE straight up a all switchbacks). But this road was really awesome! First of all, no construction and no other cars, we stopped to take pictures of a waterfall, and bunnies without worrying about holding up traffic. Best drive ever.
Best thing about that drive were the spectacular views! Also we came upon a herd of about 20-30 elk mostly all male. we were so close! The entire drive was so breathtaking.
Unflattering self photo by a waterfall.....
I also talked Pete into going horse back riding. The back story on this is that he is never (i mean never) wanting to do this, or pay for it. He is always giving me a shpeel about how he had to do this on a farm, why would he pay for recreation. But he did for me, since I wanted to do it, and you know what? He loved it! wanted to go again the very next day. I had to post our pictures of us horse back riding since it seems so typical us. Of course it rained on us, and I had the most stubborn naughty horse (just my luck right?) So of course this is what I look like - kind of nerdy and clumsy then Pete...
Looks like a freaking cowboy stud, all natural, rain just rolls right off him, no he doesn't want to wear the ugly rain poncho provided by the guide, where I am saying "yes please, poncho me!"
So yea we had an amazing time. Hopefully we will not go another 10 years between a vacation with just the hubs and me. sigh, I miss it all ready.
So I am throwing up pictures from a few different activities, smashing them all together for one big Halloween Blog. - Lazy I know. First I crashed a daddy daughter night out to the haunted house. This is a once every 10 years kind of event, since they charge so dang much! Also it was so crowded on a Friday night that it is really hard to be scared when you are jammed in there. However it was pretty cool and authentic. So we had a good time checking out all the inventions and decor and what not. Like I said, good every 10 years.
Cadence and Molly, Retro Space Aliens. I made costumes similar to these for a work event at the Planetarium, and my daughter thought it was the coolest thing, so she got it in her head to be that for Halloween. She even called herself a Venga Babe (from the band VengaBoys - it's a song). I have to give her props it turned out way cuter then I imagined! Molly got green alien glasses, which Cadence didn't think was fair, so I found these purple Lady GaGa glasses, which I thought fit all too well. I even made them matching trick or treat bags. I know my child is spoiled.
Molly down right glowed in the black light alley.
The girls colored Day of the Dead masks. They also got to listen to a Romanian story teller, participated in Australian rituals and made gypsy potions.
Cadence touching the Vietnamese Lion Dancers.
