Colorado-Our Last Day

On our last day we decided to head back up to Estes Park and the National Forest to get a little more time in and see some more elk.......

And enjoy the beautiful scenery....

Ok....I just love these aspens!

Josh came across this monster buck while walking out into this field.

That evening we headed back to Uncle Tim and Aunt Julie's for a little farewell dinner and birthday party for Mimi (Josh's mom).

Grandpa with Carter

Collin and Mimi blowing out the candles on her cupcakes

Josh with his cousins Kyle and Dillon

Kate, Grandma Donna and Aunt Chris

Grandpa, Gigi and the boys

Aunt Chris and the boys

Kate with Ethan and Sydnee

Our wonderful hosts....Tim, Julie, Syd and Ethan

Tim, Julie and the boys

Collin giving Mimi her birthday spanking. :-)

Syd cuddling with Carter

Uncle Terry with the boys

Terry and Kate

Thanks to everyone for such a wondeful time! Thanks to the Boxley's for letting us stay with you and to Uncle Terry for letting us borrow the vehicle for the week. Most of all, we are just so thankful for the time we got to spend with each of you. You made our trip so wondeful and we miss you already! Can't wait to come back!

Colorado-Day 6

Day 6, we headed up to one of my favorite little towns in the mountains, Estes Park. I love this beautiful, quaint town. Would love to own a 2nd home here someday. :-)
Approaching Estes...

Estes is also home to the beautiful Stanley Hotel which is where the Jack Nicholson movie, "The Shining" was filmed.
After spending some time in Estes, we then headed up to the Rocky Mountain National Forest. We went up to one of our favorite spots, Bear Lake.

Collin and Carter were obsessed with chasing chipmunks along our hike. They both can make the clicking sound the chipmunks make now. :-)

We then hiked up to another lake....not sure what the name of this one was...

Collin kept collecting pinecones and putting them in all the little chipmunk holes we found. He was so proud that he was helping take care of the chipmunk population. This probably added an additional 30 minutes to our time. :-)

Collin...aka....The Chipmunk

We took the rode to the highest point they would allow us to go. The road past this was closed because of the weather or potential of bad weather. I love how you can see the shadows of the clouds. It was very cold up here.

On our way back down, this cow elk jumped out in the road literally next to my window. I screamed as Josh drove past. He backed the vehicle up so I could take a picture of this "beast" that almost caused an accident. :-)

Beautiful Colorado

We got back into Estes Park and happened to catch all these elk on the golf course!

We then headed back to have dinner with Josh's cousin Brandon and his wife Keri. We had a great time, had a wonderful dinner and the boys even got in a little wrestling time with Josh and Brandon.

Brandon and Keri with the boys

Colorado-Day 5

Josh's uncle Terry, his wife Karen, and daughter Ashlyn decided to take us up into some Colorado "back country". When he said back country, he meant it. We were gone for like 8 hours that day in a vehicle with 3 toddlers.....the ride home wasn't too pretty. We had a wonderful time though and saw some of God's amazing beauty. I think Terry thought I was crazy because of the way I got sooo excited about all the beautiful colors of the aspen trees. I've always wanted to get pictures of them when they were changing colors and I was just so excited to have that opportunity. Truly a remarkable experience!

We saw some wildlife. We were really hoping to see a moose because Terry had seen some up where we were a few weeks prior, but no such luck for us on this trip. Collin was able to call a coyote out of the woods though with a coyote call, so he was excited about that.

Josh and Carter

Collin checking out the sights....with his binoculars backwards. :-)

We then made it high enough to see the beautiful changing aspen trees. I took sooo many pictures of them, but these are a few of my favorites.

Terry told me of a grove of aspens that he had seen before, so when we came upon it, I jumped out of the vehicle with Karen and we hiked off into the woods to capture some amazing photos. It was pretty surreal to just be out in the middle of nowhere amongst all these beautiful trees. I was getting a little scared that we would run upon something we didn't want to (like a bear), so we started to head back. I fell along the way and really bruised my bum, but it was well worth it. Luckily Josh had his binoculars out watching us and happened to see me fall so when I got back to the car Collin was quick to inform me that he saw me "bust my bottom" out there in the woods. Terry also informed me after we got back that not too far from here was where a little boy got carried off by a cougar once.....geez....wish I would have known that before I walked out in the middle of nowhere! :-)

This field behind us in this picture is the one I walked across to get to that grove of aspens. :-)

We then headed much much farther into the mountains up to Longs Peak. It was snowing pretty hard while we were there.

Carter was not a fan of the cold.

Collin loved it! He was catching snowflakes on his tongue and throwing snowballs at us all.

After our adventure, we headed back to Grandpa and Gigi's for dinner and smores! We all had a great time!

Colorado-Days 3 & 4

Day 3, Josh and I got the morning to ourselves. Aunt Julie and Mimi watched the boys for us while we went out and did a little shopping and had lunch together. It was nice to have a few relaxing hours to ourselves.

That evening, the men watched the kiddos and the women went and helped decorate for the reception and do some food prep. We had a great time and then went to Elizabeth's (the bride) family's home to have dessert. It was really nice to meet them all and hear some funny stories about Brodie and Elizabeth.

Day 4, we started our morning by going on a hike up to Horsetooth Mountain with Josh's cousin Jamie and Uncle Terry's daughter Ashlyn. Collin really thought he was the expert hiker who had climbed the tallest mountain. Carter got to ride on daddy's shoulder's the whole time. Collin was busy picking up pinecones.

We headed back after our hike to get ready for the wedding. We had such a great time and it was so nice to see such a happy couple. Congratulations Brodie and Elizabeth!

I loved these centerpieces on the table. Definitely going to use this idea sometime.

Cheesecake served as the wedding cake since it was the favorite of the bride and groom. So delicious!

Brodie and Elizabeth

Let the party begin! The Siebert boys sure do know how to tear up a dance floor! Collin and Carter just jumped right out there and started doing their own thing. They absolutely loved it and I loved sitting back and just watching them and laughing. It was soooo cute!

And they're off!

Our beautiful view as we left the ceremony.

Colorado Trip-Day 2

On day 2, we woke up to go have breakfast at Josh's grandparents' house. Josh's grandma Donna made her very popular Danish Pancakes. So yummy! It's a recipe that she got from her dad. Needless to say, they didn't last long. So glad she shared the recipe with me! :-)

It warmed up a lot that day, so we took all the kiddos to a really cool park called Fossil Creek. They have all kinds of dinosaur stuff, fossil rock walls to climb, giant mammoth, etc. Both boys loved it. It was so warm we ended up changing them both into shorts. Grandpa Terry, Tim, Julie, Sydnee, Ethan and Aunt Chris joined us for an afternoon of fun and wearing the kids out!

Aunt Chris spinning the kids around on this tire thing. It was really cool and super fast. I rode it once and got to dizzy to get back on. Carter and Collin couldn't stop laughing.

Collin and daddy climbed to the top of the giant mammoth.

Carter loved the slides of course.

Collin climbing the rock wall all by himself.

Uncle Tim holding a "pooped out" Carter.

Colorado Trip 2010-Day 1

October 6-13, we took a trip out to Colorado. Josh's cousin Brodie was getting married (to Elizabeth) and so we flew out to celebrate with them and spend some time with all of Josh's mom's family. We had a great time and look forward to going back! Thanks to Uncle Tim, Aunt Julie, Sydnee, Ethan and Dillon for letting us crash with you!

We decided to fly since Carter is not the best traveler in a carseat....definitely a great decision. Josh's mom flew with us and was a GREAT helper/entertainer. The boys were so excited to fly on an airplane. Collin has done it one other time before, but this was Carter's first plane ride. He did great. Was pretty fidgety at first, but fell asleep for the 2nd half of the flight, so that was awesome. On the way home, he fell asleep before we even took off and slept the entire flight! What a blessing!

Watching the airplanes come in....

So excited and checking everything out
We got to Colorado that evening and by bedtime, Collin was already breaking out Ethan's Star Wars attire.