Eilers 6: Colorado!

Well, it was that time of year again, where we load up the car with camping gear, ice chests, bags of clothes, kids and a dog and head to Westcliffe, Colorado for a week. Brent's family built a log cabin (on their own) in Westcliffe that is about 20+ years old. The cabin has two rooms, one bathroom (where you have to pour water into the toilet to flush it), part kitchen and living space. It has a half wrap around back porch with an AMAZING view of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains. The cabin is pretty rustic with no electricity or running water. So, basically, you go to bed when the sun goes down and get up when the sun comes up. The neighbor down the road kindly lets us use their cabin too. Their cabin has two rooms downstairs, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living room and loft/bedroom upstairs. We use that cabin to shower. We stayed at that cabin with Brent's brother's family. They have 3 kids.

View from the cabin

There were about 7 deer that came up the the cabin

Brent and his family have been going to this cabin for a long time. We have been going as a family for 4 or 5 years. We go every year at the same time. When we all go, which we all went this year, there are about 20 of us all together! It is so fun. We have such a good time with Brent's family. All the cousins (9 in all) are close in age and play really well together.

We left for Colorado Friday afternoon, and arrived Saturday afternoon. We stopped and stayed the night in Herferd, to break up the trip. When we arrived at the cabin, Michelle (brent's sister) and her crew were there, along with Melanie (brent's younger sister) and Kevin. Oma, Opa, and Uncle Fr. Brian didn't arrive until late sunday night.

While in Colorado, we went hiking up by Horn Creek Trail to a stream and the kids got in the FREEZING cold water. They thought it was great. I made Ezra get out of the water for a little bit because his legs were so red and felt frozen. The adults could barely put their hands in the water, let alone, their feet, while the kids didn't want to get out of it! After hiking, we headed into town for some much needed ice cream. Ezra slept through the whole ice cream goodness, so I took him to town a different day to get some more ice cream! One day we went to the small town, picked up some sandwiches and went the the soccer field and play ground to have a hang out day. The weather was so nice. It was mid to low 70's during the day and 40's at night! One day was a "work" day, for the boys. Opa rented a backhoe/front end loader to dig a hole for a cellar. This cellar will hold two water tanks and be storage. Uncle Kevin and Uncle Danielle placed pipes under the house the kitchen and bathroom, so one day, we will have running water! Wednesday, everyone (except bradley, caleb and zachary who were sick) hicked up music pass. It was about a mile and 1/4 hike up the mountain. We hiked up the "pass" where you could see the spot that the boys and melanie camp and fish. It was neat to actually somewhat see where brent goes camping every year. Part of the mountain where we stopped to have lunch had SNOW. The kids were so excited. They made snowballs and had a snowball fight. After eating lunch, and hanging out on the top for a while, the crew, who were heading on to camp out over night, continued to hike, while the girls and kids headed back down the mountain. Ezra did such a great job hiking up and down the mountain!! I carried Emersyn on a backpack all the way up and back down. That was a workout!!

Horn Creek Trail

Emersyn and I resting

Ezra playing in the Freezing water

Getting ready for our hike up Music Pass

Susanna, Grace, Me, Emersyn and Ezra

Fr. Brian, Maria Victoria, Juan Paublo, Grace and Susanna

Ezra hiking

The crew eating lunch at the Pass

Emersyn had a hard hike!

View of the pass

Family photo. Yes, ezra has a pot on his head.

Snow that we found

The camp ground where they stayed the night

The lake

They caught 40 fish!

Soccer field

Emersyn and Solonas watching

There was a HUGE dirt pile these two loved playing in!

He loved it here

She loved the 4-wheeler

One night we had a camp fire and made DELICIOUS S'mores

The rest of the time we just hung out. It was so nice to just not do anything!! We headed back to Texas the following Saturday and drove straight through. It took about 15 hours. We stopped to have breakfast and a late lunch with Michelle, Danielle, their 4 kids, Melanie and Kevin.