The day after school was out we left on vacation. The last day of school was also Steve's last day of work. It was a stressful May doing all the end-of-school activities, wrapping up a job, planning a 3 week vacation, trying to find a van for our vacation, and figuring out a new healthcare plan. And to add to the stress, my phone quit so we ended up waiting around for the mail Saturday morning to get my new phone. But it finally arrived and then we were off on a 3 week road trip! It is the longest vacation we've ever taken. And we'd be in a car together for a lot of it. And camping in a tent most nights. And some campgrounds don't have showers. Would we survive??? Stay tuned...
The first day we only got as far as Hays, KS because of waiting around for my phone. It was about 95 degrees so we opted for a motel with a pool over camping. Olive wasn't sure she remembered how to swim. She figured it out.
I brought lots of car activities and amazingly they never even touched the ipad! These girls are the best road trippers. They both loved reading Smile. Multiple times. Hannah said her favorite thing to play in the car was legos. Olive said Hannah. :)
milkshakes in an airstream diner
Our campsite was by a creek. The girls called this their "water works" where they cleaned rocks.
Pikes Peak
Olive was very unhappy and didn't want to be in the picture because it was 45 degrees. She and Hannah decided to wait in the van while Steve and I explored the peak.
It was so cool to be at the top where clouds were forming and blowing over me.
Our new (old) van.
On the way down
Olive had some altitude sickness and didn't feel like hiking. She made it as far as the first big rocks. We picked her up on our way down.
Snowball fight!
Garden of the Gods in the background
We visited my childhood friend Abby in Woodland Park, CO, in a park near her house. The last time I saw her was our 10 year reunion and we're coming up on 20! In high school, people sometimes called us twins because we both had long blonde hair and were similar heights. And now we cut our hair off to about the same length so we still look kinda alike! We talked for about 3 hours and I could have talked much longer. It is so sweet to catch up with old friends.
We got a picture of her two girls and my two girls (she also has 4 more boys!) Calla and Hannah were like two peas in a pod- both very outdoorsy and athletic.
Next stop: Great Sand Dunes National Park. This was in everyone's top 3 of all the things we did on vacation. It is a surreal landscape and the pictures don't really do it justice. The dunes are HUGE. It is very tiring to walk on them, but SO MUCH FUN!
They loved to jump off the edge and scare me. Although I know it is just sand and they can't *really* get hurt, it still makes my heart hurt to watch it. Bonus: landing in the sand made a farting noise, so this was a favorite activity.
Watching the sunset at our campsite was AMAZING.
Day 2 on the dunes (because one isn't enough). And this day we rented a sand sled!!
Snake print!
My face says it all.
The guy in the background was filming people sledding for a video. At one point he interviewed me about why we chose to come here. So I might show up in a promotional video some day!
Sand in his teeth.
This is how BIG it is. The dots are people.
black sand
And then we leave Colorado. For now.
1 comment:
Did you get a name or anything from the guy making the video so can search for the finished product? So does this make you as famous as your car that was in a commercial?
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