Steamboat

Every day I look out my back windows and can see the mountains.  Albeit, I see them over a sea of houses and through some power lines, but I can still see them.  If we had ended up moving to Dallas last year, I would have seriously missed being near them.  I love seeing them every day.  When we went to California and visited a couple of different beaches, it was very beautiful, but to me, nothing compares to the mountains.  Maybe it's because I have lived near them my whole life.  I love the beauty of them, the smell of the pine, the spontaneous growth of wild flowers where it seems like they shouldn't be growing, water falls, and no matter how hot it gets during the day, once the sun goes down, the air feels crisp and cool.  (I don't like being hot.) 

It has been our tradition for the last 10 years (except last year) or so to spend at least one long weekend up in the mountains.  Our destinations vary each year.  We have stayed in Steamboat Springs, Silverthorne, Breckenridge, and Estes Park, to name a few.  This year we stayed up in Steamboat, one of my all time favorites.  Not only is there tons to do, but the scenery is just gorgeous, and the drive up is beautiful too.

We kept seeing abandoned barns and houses along the way.  Trent could tell I was dying to get some pictures, so he pulled over for me.  (Actually, I think he just wanted to have an excuse to be able to put the car in 4WD.  Whatever road there used to be to get to this cabin was long gone.)

Our condo wasn't quite ready when we got in to town, so we spent some time at the pool while we waited.  The boys had themselves a serious chicken fight.  Trenton was ruthless!

He was dunking Colson right and left.  Colson was too busy laughing his head off.

At least he helped Colson back up every time he dunked him.

After a while, grandpa had had enough of his face and head getting pulled all over the place and opted for no more chicken fights.

That was fine with Preston because he stole grandpa for his own and jumped to him in the pool for the next half hour.

The next day we spent the better part of the morning fishing.  Preston had been begging me for weeks to take him fishing, so we thought we better let him try it while we were there.

I think this is the only picture I have of him sitting.  Once he figured out how to cast, sitting was out of the question.  Fishing for Preston means cast, reel it in, cast, reel it in, cast, reel it in, and all at top speed to boot.  We kept trying to tell him to leave the worm in the water so he could get a bite, but he just couldn't do it.  I think he tried out everyone's fishing pole, besides his own, too.  He would get his line tangled or caught on something, then would go convince one of us to hand over our pole to him, then he would get our line caught or tangled on something just in time for us to have his pole ready to go again.  He had SO MUCH FUN though!  All of the fixing and untangling of the fishing line and the rebaiting of the hook was totally worth it.

Vivi loved fishing too.  I think she stood in this same spot the entire time we were there.  Grandpa was so nice to teach her how to fish.

Colson had a great time.  He tried every spot on the lake until he found where the fish were biting best.  He got really close to catching one on three different occasions.

Trenton thought he had a big one, and was a little disappointed when this was what he pulled out of the water.  ;)  While no one caught a fish that morning, we still had a great time trying.

Later that day, we took a short hike up to the falls.

We thought we'd take a break in the shade for a short minute.  My kids sure do love their grandpa.  It's no wonder because he's so good to them.

The kids with Janet and Steve.

Here are the falls.  Beautiful!

I am so terrified of heights, it was all I could do to make myself sit on this little ledge for a family photo.

Preston and gramps.

 My mom, Colson and Steve.

I had Jilly in the Moby wrap the whole time we were hiking, and it was a toasty day.  By the time we got back to the car, she and I were a sweaty mess!

Later that evening, Trent, the kids, Janet and Steve headed back to the pond to try their hand at fishing again.  Colson caught one this time!  And of course I don't have a picture because I was back at the condo fixing dinner.

We had such a fun weekend spending lots of time together doing fun things and enjoying some beautiful scenery.