If you read an earlier blog post, you know we’ve been in Colorado for some family gatherings !! It was wonderful having time with family we rarely get to see!! Our trip was packed full of adventure! Lots of bike riding, a wedding, and tons of family activities at Snow Mountain Ranch!! If you missed the last blog post, we started off our trip with a fun display of fireworks for the 4th of July!

On our first full day in Colorado we took the boys on a quick bike ride around the neighborhood Kelli grew up in. We even had the chance to visit the elementary school she attended! The boys had a great time seeing the house their mommy grew up in! And of course the playground equipment was highlight! Honestly, everyday we were at Grandmom’s house they would asked to go back and play on the excavators!! They had so much fun!!

The following day we went on a spur of the moment pick-nick up Lookout Mountain! We met up with some of Kelli’s cousins that she had not seen in at least 5 years! It was wonderful meeting all the second cousins and they all hit it off immediately!! After lunch we all took a short walk around and then headed over to Buffalo Bill’s grave. Apparently, there is a conspiracy about Buffalo Bill not actually being  buried on Look Out Mountain, who knows?! It was fun to read the different facts and look around! And of course we HAD to wrap it up with root-beer floats, ice cream and fudge! Unfortunately we were all so excited for our treats I forgot to snap some pictures. 

The wedding was a beautiful ceremony and everyone had a great time at the reception! The boys even got to pay for a dance with the bride, a highlight for sure!! As with the rest of our time with family it was wonderful spending time together! We really wanted this time to be about family and decided that since there was going to be a professional wedding photographer we wouldn’t take any of our own photos!

The day after the wedding we headed up to Snow Mountain Ranch!! The drive up from Golden is absolutely beautiful!!! However it is definitely a LONG drive! We arrived at the campground before the rest of the families. So to help burn off some of the “stuck in the car” attitudes that had developed during the drive, we got the bikes out right away and took a ride around the property. We took our time! Enjoying not being stuck in a car!! A few highlights of the ride were: seeing the trail horses and scoping out the tubing hill right next to a fun little park with a zip-line!!

Once everyone arrived we were able to check into the reunion cabin, have an amazing dinner and get everyone settled into their respective rooms!! To finish off Day 1, we took the boys to try roller skating for the first time… Needless to say, it didn’t last long!! Neither of the big boys were too keen on having big heavy rolling shoes stuck to their feet!! It was still fun trying though!!

Most of the extended family went tubing with us! Obviously Jonathan was too young to join us and hung out with one of Kelli’s Uncles who preferred to hang out and watch everyone else! After Jackson’s 1st and only ride down the hill, he decided Jonathan had the better idea and opted out of any more trips down the hill! Joshua on the other hand, LOVED it!! He even got brave enough by the end of our time to head down the hill all by himself!! The middle of the day was spent hanging around the cabin, playing at the playground and letting the boys ride around on their bikes! We ended the night with the boys first time “playing mini golf” and playing around on the little pump track!

The next morning after breakfast and packing the van up for our drive all the way back to TN, we headed over to the amazing dog park to visit with Snow Mountain Ranch dog sled team dogs!! It was really interesting listening to the leader/trainer of the team talk about the ins and outs of training, taking care of the dogs and fun stories of his dog sledding adventures.  It made us eager to head up to Alaska to visit with Jeremy’s cousins who train their own dog sled team!!

We had SO much fun on our trip! It was wonderful having a chance to see everyone and enjoy some fun activities together! Next blog post is all about DOWNSIZING!! Check back soon, we are going to talk about getting rid of all the extra STUFF!!

We are onto our next adventure….