Vacation

Bear with me, because this is going to be a long post with a lot of pictures.

For the 4th of July, our little family went on a road trip to Colorado Springs to visit my family and their awesome new house. We planned our vacation so that we could stop and visit a number of national parks on the way there and back. We even rented a car so we could have more elbow room and still bring our stroller and cooler and whatnot.

In an effort to make the trip more enjoyable for our boy, Michael was flipped around to face forward in his car seat:

We left early in the morning so we could make it to Goblin Valley before it got too hot and gross. We bought a hiking backpack for Michael so we could easily haul him around. He seemed pretty happy with it:

Before heading down into Goblin Valley:

Michael enjoyed the rocks, if not his hat:

Jeff certainly had fun climbing around:

My favorite formation was the gargoyle head. Can you see it?:

We also stopped by Dead Horse Point:

Point, get it? Hahaha! We're funny.

It was mind blowing and absolutely gorgeous. Jeff told me that a lot of supposedly Grand Canyon movie shots are actually Dead Horse. It makes sense. It was that amazing.

On our way to Cortez, CO, we called our hotel to let them know we'd be checking in late. It's a good thing we did, because it turns out they'd over-booked after losing our reservation and had no room for us. They had to find us another place to stay since it was their mess-up, so it was an interesting drive trying to talk to everyone with phone service going in and out. Thankfully, we did finally get another hotel and a good night's sleep. The next morning, we got an early start to Mesa Verde, stopping at almost every scenic viewpoint we could.

Even though we got there relatively early, we weren't able to get tickets for the Cliff Palace tour. Instead, we went to Balcony House. The tour wasn't as fun as we were hoping, but it certainly wasn't the tour guide's fault.

This picture was taken moments before Michael had a complete meltdown and refused to be comforted. Unfortunately, we were past the point of no return but still at the beginning of the tour. We still had to fight with him up ladders, through narrow halls, and haul him through a 12 ft long, 18 inch wide tunnel that was the only way out:

We tried to hang back and not ruin the tour for everyone else, but it was pretty miserable and embarrassing.

The cliff dwelling was pretty cool, though:

We had planned on staying in Mesa Verde for a few more hours and see more cliff dwellings, but after Michael's freak out we just left. Maybe it will be more enjoyable for him in a few years.

After Mesa Verde, it was a straight shot drive to Colorado Springs -7 hours of driving. We passed through a lot of fun, little towns and saw interesting things like cows and The Feed Store Church.

We finally made it to my family's house after many stops to McDonald's and parks so Michael could stretch and watch other kids play (a favorite past time). Ki and Tess were so happy to see Baby Michael and Michael loved all the attention he got. He played with his aunts and uncle and adored the new large deck:

Tess doted on him, helping him eat and drink and bringing him toys:

We all had a lot of fun with family, playing cards, eating good food, and just hanging out. For the fourth of July, we went up to the Air Force Academy to watch fireworks since CO has a mass fire ban. They were spectacular fireworks. Even Jeff, who enjoys fireworks about as much as he enjoys parades, had a good time.

Jeff and I also had a lot of fun spending time on my Dad's new shooting range. We both got a little better with our handguns and had a great time shooting my Dad's elk rifle and our shotgun.

Michael got some good quality time with his Grandpa Veronin, too:

We had originally planned on visiting a few more National Parks on the way home, but didn't want to risk another Michael freak out. Instead, we stopped by my Grandma and Grandpa Durney's house for a quick visit and made a quick stop at Flaming Gorge dam.

Michael wasn't feeling terribly social, but we did get a nice picture of my grandparents with their oldest great grandchild:

It's really good to be home again. We're hoping to make it a family tradition to take a road trip during Jeff's forced, paid vacation over the 4th of July. Hopefully Michael will get better in a year or two and we can spend more time exploring and hiking wherever looks interesting. And camping. That would be a lot of fun.