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.

A random stop in Dalhart at a convenient store!

We had such a great time, but it was so nice to be home and in our own beds!

Our California Trip

Getting on the plane

We boarded a plane for California last Thursday, and came back home Sunday. It was a quick trip, but well worth it and jam packed with loads of FUN! On Thursday, we landed in San Diego where the weather was OH.SO.AMAZING! I even debated on "loosing" my plane ticket back to Texas. I mean, I LOVE Texas, but the weather in California definitely makes you second guess Texas Summers! After we landed, we loaded on a shuttle to the rental car lot and picked up our MINI VAN! Yes, you read that right, we rented a MINI VAN! It actually worked out because we were able to let some of our family ride with us to different locations. After the mini van was loaded with all of our gear, we headed to the Beach! This was not a planned trip, so we were not really prepared to stay at the beach for a while. We had NO TOWELS! However, we did it anyway! We put Ezra in his swimsuit, grabbed some lunch and headed to the water. It was so nice. Ezra loved it. He loves running in and out of the water away from the waves. Emersyn, well, she does not like to be in cold water (which the ocean water in cali is way different than in texas!) and apparently she doesn't like putting her feet in the sand. Brent ended up holding her the whole time while she watched Ezra run and play. We probably stayed at the beach for an hour or so, by that time, Ezra was wanting to wipe the sand off and we still had no towels. We rinsed off, changed clothes and loaded back up in the van and headed to Temecula, California.

running from the water

This was our destination for a few days. My cousin, Doug, got married and Ezra was a ring bearer in the wedding. We had a great time in Temecula. The wedding was so pretty. It was on a hilltop at a winery! Not a very big wedding, but a very nice wedding. Ezra actually walked down the isle with the little flower girl. He was supposed to be holding a cute little pillow, but once he saw that she had a basket full of rose petals to throw, he threw me the pillow and said "here mom, I don't want this" and helped her throw the flowers. It was pretty cute! Hey, whatever gets him down the isle! We didn't do too much in Temecula, since we were helping prepare for the wedding, then attending the wedding, but we did get to take the kids to a park and play, walk Old Town Temecula and enjoy a great burger at In and Out! It was just nice being with my family!

The winery

Emersyn checking things out at the rehearsal

My model

sweet ring bearer and flower girl

helping throw the flowers

Doug and Aimee

Ezra and Lincoln on the dance floor (where they were most the night)

She was into everything!

 On Saturday morning, we got up, packed up our luggage and loaded back into the van. We were headed to DISNEYLAND! We arrived at Disneyland around 830am and didn't leave until 830 or 9pm. We had a jam packed day of FUN! We road all the rides (well, all the ones we really wanted to), saw our favorite characters, ate good food and even got some souvenirs. It was such a great trip! A great first trip to start the summer off.

Disneyland

The only character they would take a picture with (if I was holding most of them!)

Tarzan's tree house

Buzz ride

Woody and Jesse

Teacup ride

It's a small world ride

Toon Town

Now, we will be home this week, and head back out on the road this weekend to Colorado, with Brent's family for a week! Should be really good times!! We are looking forward to it.

Craw fish Boil

Last night we had a Craw Fish Boil and invited two families over. It was so much fun. We had 20 POUNDS of craw fish, with sausage, corn, potatoes, onions and mushrooms! So much good finger-licking food! The kids all played outside together and obsessed over the craw fish. They loved just standing by the ice chest of craw fish, staring. They even were brave enough to pick up the live ones!! After they were boiled and being eaten by the guys, the girls weren't really in to eating them, the kids pick up the dead heads with the pincher's attached and acting like they were fighting! I was impressed! I thought they would all be afraid of them. After the pounds of food was cooked and gobbled up, we had some ice cream and homemade brownies! It was such a great night.

staring in "awe" of the craw fish

Brent and Johnathan getting everything ready

Ezra and Gavin shelling the corn

Plate o' Food

Sweet Emersyn

The Garrison's

Playing with gross dead craw fish

They loved it!