Vacation, Part Deux (picture heavy)
So we spent the last week in Denver, thanks to some wonderful family and friends. You know how you get the free vaca if you just sit through the sales schpiel for the rental property or time share? This was a reconnaissance mission, for sure. Except the salespeople were my husband, my Dad and my friends and the vacation WAS the sales job. I went in totally skeptical because I LOVE Houston. LOVE! I think I’ve written enough to make at least a few of you barf over how much I love Houston. And my boys love our neighborhood and their friends. And even Tony who CLAIMS he was not in it for the sales job and left SAYING his heart was in Houston took approximately 2.5 days to relocate that heart for good. To be fair, Denver was always the place we would retire but I’m 33. This was not imminent. I was a tougher sell for a few reasons. First, I am absolutely phobic of heights and driving along the side of the Rockies = my worst nightmare. Plus also I’m a nervous driver anyway. And then there’s the snow. But dammit if the Rockies stole my heart too. And more shockingly, they stole the hearts of my kids who by the end of the trip were ready to pack their bags and move in for good.
But lets back up a minute to right about the place where we get off the plane. This is what we saw:
Keep in mind, this is MID-MAY!!! Talk about your warm welcome. not. I was less than thrilled. Actually I was wishing I had drank heavily on the airplane. Plus we absolutely do not even own clothing appropriate for this kind of weather. Luckily it was pretty warm despite the snow and the kids made due with borrowed gloves and I packed extra shoes for everyone.
Of the five days we spent in Denver, three were snowy. Two were in the upper 70’s, low 80’s. Seriously. Whacked OUT!
The kids had fun having massive snowball fights…..
{you have to enlarge these pictures to really appreciate}
And building a giant snowman with Grandpa….
And combining the two….
And eating snow….
And falling in the snow….
And climbing rocky snowy icy boulders that threatened their very lives….
Occasionally some elk, deer or fox wandered through the yard….
And eventually it stopped snowing….
And eventually that snow started to melt….
And we got out a bit. We went to red rocks….
We also went on a gold mine tour, visited a dinosaur nature center, toured the Coors factory (all you can drink beer! Woot!) ate buffalo, visited Dinosaur Ridge….
Let me interject here to say that we are HUGE dinosaur geeks, particularly Dalton & Teegan who both have literal encyclopedic knowledge of dinosaurs. Talk about your living history!
When we weren’t seeing the sites, we hung out back at my Dad’s house, what I fondly refer to as The Cabin even though their REAL cabin is in Michigan. When you are at 8000 ft, though, with bear and mountain lion outside your back door it sorta feels like a cabin.
Addy played with Grandpa….
Noah read to Grandma….
Teegan cooked and had painting lessons….
And we all just sort of hung out and enjoyed the lack of oxygen 
Rough life, huh?!
When it was less slippery, Addy & Noah played outside in the snow
and collected dandelions to blow (quite the juxtaposition!)….
If we had made the travel plans after the job loss we would have stayed much longer - we definitely were not in a hurry to return home. Unfortunately our tickets weren’t changeable so we had to limit our stay to a short 5 days. We all fell in love. Dalton & Teegan said they’d readily move if they could move their friends with them. You know, as much as I love where we live now and as beautiful as I thought it was, you really can’t fairly compare beauty when one half of the equation is the Rockies. Everything else looks so…well….flat. Blah. Boring. While its nice to be home with our comfy familiar environs, my morning walk just wasn’t the same.
May 19th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Denver would be ideal for our family…in the meantime I am gunning for Tahoe. Flat land just doesn’t compare to the mountains. Sounds like a fabulous trip, I can see why you loved it there!
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May 19th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Sounds like you have moved in your heads! I LOVED the pictures!
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May 20th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Woah - did I miss something - you guys are moving to Colorado?? Or thinking about it? How great!
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May 20th, 2008 at 2:48 am
looks quite wonderful!! my heart has always been in the mountains. that is why we tried living in TN for awhile but it wasn’t for us. I heard there is quite a large population of MI people living in Denver, they even have a Red Wings bar ???
The pictures are great! I’m so glad everyone had a wonderful time! Anytime you need a snow fix again, feel free to come visit us in Michigan!!
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May 20th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Tell Teegan and Dalton they’ll make lots of friends here…the only difference will be the much cooler activities they can do with those friends if they live here - hike, snowboard, have snowball fights, mountain bike, kayak, climb, etc. Seriously though, lots of homeschoolers, very liberal (in our parts anyway!), and MOUNTAINS. Now that you’ve seen ‘em, there’s no going back. Trust me. Flat land will never be the same to you! Colorado misses you guys. Come back.
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May 20th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Colorado is one of my all-time favorite places to visit. You’re right, it’s just not fair to compare any other state with CO. I would move there in a heartbeat, if only I could convince Tim. Although that is some seriously crazy May weather.
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May 20th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Apparently I am not feeling to CO love….
Perhaps it is b/c I want you closer to me, and I know that I am not going anywhere….who knows where laurie& co. will be in a couple of years….probably in SE Asia somewhere(and then we can all visit them there….)….Move to the east coast… we have mountains, variable weather, oceans, ME and soon Chris….
Seriously though, these pics are amazing. I am so glad you guys got to have some awesome family time!
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May 20th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I love Colorado, too. I REALLY love it in autumn. Such a beautiful show of colors! Oh, my gosh, it just takes your breath away. I’ve never been there in the dead of winter, though, and I’m pretty sure I’d get very tired of tons of snow very quickly. While the mountains in Tennessee don’t compare to those in Colorado, at least the land is not completely flat here. (To a girl from south Louisiana, just the tiniest hills here seem like mountains!) Our winters are much, much milder, too.
Glad you guys had a great time, and super glad you got to hang out with the Goods. Isn’t it fantastic that the Internet gives us the opportunity to meet great people? Even better is the fact that you can use the Internet to purchase plane tickets in order to go visit those great people. Petunia and I are still hoping to meet you and your family one day!
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May 21st, 2008 at 1:03 am
how funny that i was recently thinking about CO and now u might be moving there!! b4 i left CA for WA, it was between WA & CO but i wasn’t sure i could handle all that snow!
today was freakin’ 100 degrees in SA, and no kidding, MY DH CAUGHT THE YARD ON FIRE!!!!! while BBQ’ing. nice. we just are NOT used to the DRY grass & crazy heat!!!
if u move, i’d love to meet up with all u crazy bloggers sometime as i’m planning to spend some serious time in CO in the summers to ESCAPE the TX heat!! dh is a teacher so at least that’s 1 major perk, summers off!!
i had tried to ask Laurie what part of CO they were in b/c i loved all the pictures, but i know u guys don’t really know me : P but i’d love if someone could help “fill me in” on CO b/c i’m seriously considering moving there in the next couple years as i don’t think i can stay in TX forever!!!
if we don’t go back to WA, we’re headed to CO!! but i promised dh at least 1 full school year here, ugh.
i’m excited to see if you guys move to CO!!! but yeah that was some crazy snow for May!!!
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May 21st, 2008 at 10:10 am
was it unusually snowy for that time of year?? i know the Pac NW has had a very cold spring this year.
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Nicki reply on May 21st, 2008 10:38 am:
Yeah, it was SUPER unusual. Everyone kept apologizing for the weird weather. I think the 70’s is more typical than the snow, for sure!
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May 27th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Great write up and pictures Nea. Even tho we had a wierd spring, the sun is out and its warm here. Looking forward to some bike riding today. Glad you had a fun time and we loved having you. More elk came by today and asked where Addy was? Wasn’t throwing food out the window fun??!! Love to all, Dad
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