Autumn Trip 2012 - Day Three

We stayed for 2 nights of the trip in a lodge at the base of Mt. Crested Butte.  It had beautiful views and looks like it'd be a fun ski area! 

 

 

We spent the morning riding the the chairlift to the top of the mountain.  Kyle thought it was the greatest ride in the world!  (Mama might have been a bit nervous the more he leaned forward though!).

Kyle had a blast playing with rocks at the top.

 

And mama thought the views were incredible!

We spent the afternoon driving the Ohio Pass and at a HUGE playground in Gunnison.  It was just what Kyle needed after yesterday's crazy amount of driving!

 

We ended the evening viewing Lake Irwin and enjoying downtown Crested Butte.  There was some wierd festival going on that brought a bunch of hippies to town.  Unique, for sure.

 

 

Autumn Trip 2012 - Day Two

We woke up at 5 am on the 2nd day of our trip so we could drive to the Marroon Bells in time for sunrise.  It was breathtaking!  The colors were peak and the weather was perfect (albeit a bit chilly).  We ate breakfast in the car before hiking around the Bells until a few hours after sunset when the Bells become fully lit.  

 

 

 

 

 The lake had calmed by then and made for a perfect fall reflections picture!

 

On our way out of Aspen/Snowmass, we took a detour to view Capitol Peak.  We had heard the colors here would be amazing and were told that a non-4WD car should be able to make it, so we figured we'd have NO problems in our SUV.  Boy were we (they?) wrong.  There is absolutely no way a normal car would've made it.  We had wished we had a Jeep, but we managed to make it.  And boy was the view incredible (and totally worth it!).  

After all that bumpy driving, Kyle had to go #2.  Here's Kyle's classic poop face!  Hilarious!

I love this shot I captured of daddy and son walking the trail.

Perhaps the best picnic location we've ever had!

Kyle found himself on cloud 9 with some sticks and rocks.

It was a long day of driving from Aspen to Crested Butte with many stops along the way for Kyle to play with rocks.

 

Autumn Trip 2012 - Day One

For our anniversary this year, we decided to take a 4 day trip throughout our state to chase fall colors. We started by driving out to Glenwood Springs (about 3 hours west of our home).  We did the famous Hanging Lakes hike to enjoy beautiful views of Glenwood Canyon and the majestic Hanging Lake.


As always, Kyle did wonderful in his carrier.

The canyon views were amazing.

And the treat at the top was unbelievable.  Dave rated it as his favorite hike that we've ever done!

 

 

Half way down, we let Kyle play in an old cabin. 

Peek! 
After finishing the hike near sunset, we headed to the Residence Inn for some free dinner and pool time before calling it an early night. 

Autumn Breckenridge Trip

Dave's friends from KSC held a long-weekend reunion trip in Breckenridge this fall and we had a wonderful time hiking, seeing the leaves, and enjoying good company with them. 


The gang half-way up McCullough Gulch

Hiking up the French Gulch

Family Photo Op up the French Gulch

The view half-way up the McCulllough Gulch Trail

The hike took a bit longer than we anticipated and got into Kyle's afternoon nap.  Not a problem for him; he didn't mind catching a few ZZZs on daddy's back.

On our last evening in Breck, we found a creek to entertain the kiddos.  Kyle had a great time throwing pepples into th stream.

 

 

 

It was great to get a good chunk of the group together and to watch all the children play.  Hopefully we can make it an annual thing?

A Day in Boulder

On our last day of the Memorial Day weekend, we woke up before the sun to head up to watch daddy and grandpa race in the Bolder Boulder 10K.  It's the largest race in the world and had more 55,000 runners.  It finishes inside of Folsom Field on CU's campus.  We made it just in time to watch daddy come in at a 6:40 pace.  We also got to see Grandpa finish with his best pace ever (beating his age in minutes!).  We enjoyed freebies and food afterwards-- it was a great event!
While in Boulder, we drove up to the Indian Peaks wilderness to hike to Lake Isabelle.  Much to our dismay, we found the gate up to Brainerd Lake closed.  Not wanting to waste the drive up there, we decided to hike up to the lake from the gate closure.  We took the Snowshoe Trail as it was labeled Easiest and this was the first hike Grandma and Grandpa had done in decades.  We were shocked when we found ourselves lost several times trying to navigate through all the fallen trees and poorly posted trail markers.  We had fun nonetheless and did eventually make it to Brainerd Lake where we were greeted with gusty winds and a picturesque packdrop of the Indian Peaks.  We decided to take the road back as we knew we would most surely get lost going back down on the same trail we took up.  Of the hundreds of hikes Dave and I have done, we have never seen one so poorly marked and difficult to follow.  I know the hundreds of recently fallen trees (my guess for the road closure) didn't help, but I don't see us doing this hike again.

We ended the day by dining at a restaurant on Pearl Street in Boulder.  While we waited for food, Kyle had a riot playing on a bear sculpture.


 

 

Kyle loved the Chik-fil-A cow (a sign he'll love the disney characters?) 

 

 

 

Look at the size of the trunk of this fallen tree!

The family at the windy Brainerd Lake

I carried Kyle down while Dave ran up to snap this picture of Longs Lake: