Eilers 6: Colorado

Every year we head to Westcliffe, CO. Brent's family has a cabin in the mountains. We loaded in the car after Ezra's Championship swim meet, Saturday the 29th. It is a 13 hour drive to the cabin, so we try to drive 8 hrs the first day and then the other 5 the next. Our goal was to stay the night in Amarillo. I remember going last year when Elynn was younger and it was a harder trip. She 'cried it out' a lot in the car because we couldn't really do anything else with her. She was so hard to entertain and just wanted to be out of the car or held. So this year, I was praying it would be a little bit better of a trip. It was the best trip ever. The kids did AWESOME! In that 8 hr period, we stopped 1X for dinner and potty, got back in the car and drove about 2 more hours to our destination. No crying/screaming/fighting or complaining! When we told them we were going to stop, they even said, "don't stop. Let's keep going till we get there." ha! The same thing happened on the way back. Super easy/Fun road trip!!
We stayed in Colorado from Sunday to Friday afternoon. We lacked a lot of the regular crew this year. So, this year it was Opa, Oma, Our family, Brent's brother, Brian, brent's sister Melanie and her family, Uncle Johnny, Aunt Mary, Adrian and his girlfriend.
The weather was amazing. Cool/cold with afternoon showers the whole week. We were able to hike and camp in the mountains with Ezra and Emersyn while Elynn stayed behind with Brent's parents, sister and brother-in-law. Emersyn and Ezra even hiked up 2.5 miles on a trail to a lake at the top of the mountains. They loved camping in a tent and wanted to stay 2 nights. The day we came down from the mountains, it was July 4th so the little town was having a parade. We arrived just in time for the parade, with even a few minutes to spare. So we loaded up on coffee and baked goods and watched a cute parade. That evening the guys went fishing while the girls stayed back at the cabin. We all met up at the lake later that night to watch the fireworks that were going off over the lake. Such a fun day. Friday was another fun filled day. Most of the crew went to this great stream to catch more fish. When they were satisfied with the amount of fish they caught, we headed back to the cabin to eat lunch and pack up. We love Colorado and hate leaving, but are so thankful we are able to go every year.
Such a cute thing..Ezra was super sad to leave. He was crying so hard and kept saying, "it just makes me so sad to leave. I love Colorado. I don't want to live in the city. I want to live in the wild!" All Brent could say was, "I know what you mean, bud." I am sure that is the same feeling Brent has often. Ha!