Colorado Vacation 2010

Sara has loved Colorado for years, since her first trip out there in 2002. Kevin and Carson love it now, as well. Maybe we'll find ourselves out there one day, but maybe we won't. If we don't, we'll just take more fantastic trips out there to visit Auntie Sara and Uncle Adam. That's what we did last week. It was simply perfect. Well, pretty close, at least.

(A side note here, for those that don't know... Sara and Sara were suitemates and then roommates for a couple of years during their time at Michigan State University. They are also Phike sisters, as they're both alumni of Phi Chi Theta, and are best buds.)

We had quite the trip and saw a lot! We visited and explored Denver, Boulder, Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Lake, Winter Park/Mary Jane, Idaho Springs, Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Canon City, Victor, Mt. Evans, Aurora, and Parker.

We left Friday from Detroit. We had a direct flight to Denver, which we thought would be a better thing to do since this was Carson's first time flying. Turns out we would have been fine going out of Flint with a layover because Carson loved flying on the airplane! He thought it was pretty cool to see the clouds below us instead of above us and loved flying through the clouds, even with the bits of turbulence while doing so. He said he felt like he was on a roller coaster. :)

We arrived in Denver on time. We had packed Carson's little suitcase as a carry-on with lots of toys. He insisted on pulling it through the entire Denver airport... and its a pretty big airport with a long way to walk! He did it, though! Carson got his first ride on a subway-type train at the Denver airport, too. You have to bring one into the main part of the airport from the terminals. He thought that was really fun because it goes quite fast and you're rocking and bumping along the entire way. We picked up our luggage and then Adam came to pick us up. We headed back to their house to wait for Sara to get out of work.

Once Sara was home, we loaded up the car again and took off for dinner at Wahoo's Fish Taco - so good!! Then we were on our way up to Estes Park. We rented a cabin up there for the weekend. This was Kevin's, Carson's and my first trip to Estes and we will definitely be going again. It is just amazing up there. Its absolutely gorgeous and our pictures don't even come anywhere close to doing it justice.

Friday night was a little rough for Carson. It was an incredibly long day for him and most of it was spent in his car seat between the ride to the airport, the ride on the airplane, and the ride up to Estes. So he got a little cranky towards the end of the night and had a hard time falling asleep at the cabin. Thankfully, he didn't really have any issues throughout the rest of the trip... and thankfully he started to sleep a little later each morning as his system adjusted to mountain time. At the start of our trip, he was staying up until 9pm or so, but would pop up wide awake at 5:30am (which is 7:30am in Michigan and is normally as late as he'll sleep).

Our cabin was really cute and homey with a great location. We got to see the family of deer - a buck, doe, and two fawns - that live in the area quite a bit. Carson loved that they would come walking right up into the driveway.




On Saturday, we explored downtown Estes Park in the morning, having coffee, walking around, shopping in the cute little shops, and grabbing some lunch at a local joint. Then we headed back to the cabin for a quick rest. After that, we headed out to explore some of Rocky Mountain National Park. We hiked around Bear Lake, which was beautiful! At the very end of the hike, Carson ended up falling and putting his front top teeth through his upper lip and skinning some of his nose and just under his nose. Poor guy! He recovered quickly, though, and took a nap when we got back to the car.






We then took a drive through Moraine Park and got to see some elk grazing. Lots of females grazing and walking around, while most of the males were lounging in the grass so you could only see their huge rack of horns sticking up. We also saw Longs Peak, one of Colorado's 54 "fourteeners"... mountains that reach an elevation of over 14,000 feet. Longs Peak reaches 14,259 feet and is the only 14er in Rocky Mountain National Park. We then headed back to the cabin for dinner, after which we went back downtown for some really delicious homemade ice cream! Yum! The perfect way to end the night!



On Sunday, we packed up the car to take a very roundabout way home. We started out by heading back into Rocky Mountain National Park and up Trail Ridge Road. It is the highest continuous paved road in the U.S. reaching elevations of over 12,000 feet and it crosses the Continental Divide. We took our time, stopping at scenic overlooks and visitor centers. We saw two male elk right alongside the road, munching on the tundra and ramming their horns into one another. Carson thought it was so awesome to see the elk "fighting." We also saw two juvenile moose grazing and drinking from a pond in the Kawuneeche Valley. We were very excited to get so lucky to see all the animals!






We headed out of Rocky Mountain National Park and into the little town of Grand Lake for lunch. It is a cute little town with several large all-sports lakes, including the largest natural body of water in the state of Colorado. And when I say little town, I mean little... its population was recorded as only 447 in the 2000 census! Kevin says he'd love to live there. :) We spent some time playing on a playground in town after lunch, then we piled back into the car to head down to Winter Park.

Winter Park and Mary Jane are two popular ski towns. Obviously there is no skiing in the summer, but they have lots of other fun things to do. Kevin and Adam went down the Alpine Slide, which looks kind of like a zig-zag water slide (without the water) down the mountain. You take a chair lift up to the top and sit on a sled that is sort of like a luge sled on skateboard wheels. Then you go very fast zig-zagging down the mountain. They both came off it with huge grins. There is also a chair lift that takes your mountain bikes up so that you can do a really sweet looking downhill course. Someday we'd like to go back to do that. Carson got to play on some fun playgrounds and played lots of the chime instruments they have through the village. He loved it!






After Winter Park, we got back on the road and headed to Idaho Springs where we ate dinner at Beau Jos - a place with a huge gluten free menu and delicious pizza. We walked around town a little and got back on the road to Denver. We did see some interesting and funny things while in Idaho Springs, though. There are two medical Cannabis centers in town (and its another small-ish town... so it was funny that they had two centers, even). In front of one, there was a group of guys using a chainsaw to carve out eagles and bears in logs... while they were smoking joints! Right on the main street through town. We got a good laugh out of that!

On Monday, we took it easy in the morning to just give Carson some down time and play time at home. Then we headed down to Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs. We went through the Garden of the Gods, the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, and the Air Force Academy. We got to experience one of Colorado's summer monsoon storms roll over the mountains and into the valley. It sure comes and goes quickly!

Garden of the Gods is in Colorado Springs and is a huge park filled with very tall and unique red rock formations. The park is also known for its rattlesnakes during the hot summer months, but thankfully we did not come across any of them! We all (and Carson especially) loved rock climbing and hiking through Garden of the Gods. Wow, that place is beautiful! There are so many amazing rock formations and lots of hiking and biking trails. We were really wishing we had our bikes! We were in Garden of the Gods when the storm rolled over the mountains, so our visit was unfortunately cut a little shorter than we had anticipated, but we still had a great time during the couple of hours that we were there.









The Cliff Dwellings are pretty cool, too. They are located in Manitou Springs and are the ancient dwellings of the Anasazi Indians and are literally carved right out of the side of the cliff. Carson had so much fun climbing through them and exploring. We picked up some souvenirs in their gift shop. Carson picked out a magnetic boy necklace, Kevin got a cool knife, and Sara got a really pretty necklace.







We took a drive through the Air Force Academy on our way back. Its a huge campus/base and its just beautiful! We had wanted to go through their visitors center, but Carson had crashed out in the car on our way there, so we just drove through the enormous campus instead. Its crazy to think how different our lives would be, had Sara gone there for college.




We spent Tuesday in Denver. We went to the Children's Museum in the morning. Carson had a lot of fun playing in the bubble room, playing with trains, pretending to be a veterinarian, painting, and just playing. We had lunch at the museum (they had all organic and local choices in their little cafe... it was great!) and then took a walk across the parking lot to the Downtown Aquarium. Carson loved the aquarium! We saw lots of cool fish, sharks, turtles, and sting rays. We even got to pet some stingrays!












After the aquarium, we went down the street to the REI Flagship Store. That is one awesome (and huge) REI! We had a great time in there, too! They have a lot of playscapes inside for kids, so Carson was loving it! After REI, we headed back to the house for dinner and finished off the night with a trip to one of the parks that are within walking distance of Sara's and Adam's house.

On Wednesday, we headed south to Canon City. We took a ride on the Royal Gorge Scenic Route train. We had nice, comfy seats on the train and spent much of the trip in one of the open-air cars. The train travels 24 miles round trip through the Royal Gorge, which is 1,250 feet deep. You get a unique view of the Royal Gorge Bridge from below. The bridge is the highest suspension bridge in the world. We also saw lots of white water rafters and kayakers going down the Arkansas River. The entire train trip is just beautiful and amazing! Again, the pictures do not do it justice.



After our train ride, we spent some time at the park to burn off some energy, and took a drive on one of the National Back-Country Scenic Byways through Phantom Canyon. Wow, was that cool, beautiful, and again, amazing! Its a 40-mile route that follows an old train route that was used to take gold mining supplies in and out of Victor and Cripple Creek, two gold mining towns. It has a 20 mph speed limit and consists of all dirt roads. Much of it is single-lane and it just winds through the canyon, through rugged tunnels through the mountains, and right along steep drop-offs. Its quite intense!



We ended up in a small mining town called Victor. It used to be a big gold mining district, but is now just a small town that has been sadly overtaken by some South African strip mining companies (they still are mining for gold, but the strip mining totally ruins the landscape and its quite sad). We stopped in at the visitor's center, met some locals, and took a walk around part of town. Then we were on our way again. We stopped in Manitou Springs for dinner at Adam's Mountain Cafe. Yum! That was our favorite meal of the trip! And everything was organic and local, even our beers! It was awesome! We love the crunchiness of the mountains and Colorado in general. It is so much easier to be healthy out there!

We took it easy on Thursday morning again, just playing around the house. Then we headed out to take a drive up Mt. Evans, another 14er. This one is located just west of Denver and reaches 14,264 feet. The road is paved up to 14,130 feet (then you can hike the additional 134 feet up) and is the highest paved road in North America. It was a beautiful drive and again, quite intense! Going up, especially, since the hairpin turns looks as though you will drive right off the edge, it is so close and steep. We made some stops along the way to check out the scenery or the resident mountain goats, go wading in Summit Lake, and had fun checking out the castle at the summit. It was a great end to our trip.








After Mt. Evans, we headed back to Aurora to have dinner with Sara and Adam. We went to an awesome mexican restaurant in Parker so that we could try green chile (YUM!). Then we packed up our things and loaded most of our stuff in the rental car. We had to leave Sara and Adam's house by 4:00 AM on Friday morning to make our flight home. We were not ready to leave. Not a single one of us, which is not the norm for us... usually at least one of us is ready to go home. It was just such a wonderful trip, we weren't ready for it to end! And Sara is always sad to say goodbye to Sara. But we look forward to many more trips out to Colorado in our future! We are so thankful for safe travels, awesome memories, and spending time together as a family. We are also very thankful for such great friends that hosted us in their home - thank you, Sara and Adam! We miss you guys already!

2 1/2 Years Old!!

Carson is now officially 2 1/2 years old, as of Friday the 13th. Its hard to believe that he will be three years old before we know it. He is turning into such a little man and he is so, so fun! We love watching him grow and mature.

Carson continues to surprise us with things he picks up on. He knows many of the road names near us and can tell you which road we're on and which way we'll need to turn onto what road to get where we're going - whether its home, or to a relative's house. He is just such an observant little guy.

He also pays attention to everyone's cars. I took a drive through the car dealership on our way home the other day. As we're driving through, Carson pointed out all kinds of cars that he recognized. We went by the Grand Prixs and he said "those are like Mama's car, but they're a different color." He said similar things about the extended cab pickups being like Grandpa's truck, the regular cab pickups like Uncle Mike's, the vans like Nana's, the Malibus like Uncle Danny's, the Enclaves like Aunt Jeri's, and a Jeep like Aunt Sharon's. He was not wrong on any of them. He is definitely his father's son. :)

Carson is back in a singing phase. He went a couple of months without really singing much. But now he is singing again all the time. His favorite songs to sing include the Alphabet Song, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Jesus Loves Me, Deep and Wide, Row Row Row Your Boat, This Little Light of Mine, When the Saints Go Marching, and Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam. He loves to learn new songs all the time, too. This morning he was learning to sing some nursery rhymes - Jack and Jill and Humpty Dumpty. He really enjoys playing all of his instruments still, too. And he's quite good at playing parts of Mary Had A Little Lamb on his xylophone after he watches us play part of it. We're really looking forward to Miss Laura's Kindermusik class which starts up again in about a month. Carson is very excited to see her and his friends from class again!

Carson loves riding anything and everything - his bike, trikes, tractor, four-wheeler, cars, and he loves riding around on the bike four-wheeler and tractors. He is a pro at riding most of them and is getting so good at steering and making turns properly. He'll be ready for Mama's old little 4-Zinger gas powered four-wheeler pretty soon!

Carson has quite the imagination these days, too. He is so fun to watch play with his toys. He makes his guys talk and do lots of fun things. He changes diapers on his bears and pretends to feed them and care for them like a baby. He sends them to school while he goes to work, takes them for wagon rides, and takes them on lots of fun adventures.

We continue to enjoy lots of creative time this summer. Carson absolutely loves it! We've been doing lots of painting outside - both with brushes and finger-painting. We spend time coloring with crayons and markers everyday, as well as drawing on his easel. And we've been making some fun crafts with things we find outside (leaves, sticks, pinecones, rocks, etc.), too.

Carson continues to love learning his numbers, letters, and simple spellings of words. He is just a sponge, soaking everything up!

Carson got to meet his newest cousin - Haleigh Madison - about a week ago. Haleigh is Sara's cousin Megan's and her husband Marty's first child. They moved to Virginia last year and Haleigh was born in January, so we hadn't had a chance to meet her yet. They were home last week for Haleigh's baptism and to spend time with friends and family, so we got to finally meet her! What a beautiful little girl she is! She is such a happy little girl and Carson just loved her!

We traveled to the Thumb of Michigan to a little town called Forester yesterday afternoon for the re-wedding of Sara's great Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jim. It sure was a hot and humid day, but it was good to see some of the Odykirk family that we don't get to see very often. Carson had a lot of fun playing with his new friend, Lili, who is six and lives in Portland, Oregon. They really had a good time together. Carson is quite the little story-teller these days, too. We were all sitting around chatting, watching Carson and Lili swing when, totally out of the blue (and quite loudly), Carson says "my mom hits me!" Haha! Its hilarious because I've never even swatted at his hands or anything remotely close to hitting. I have no idea where he got that from, but we've since asked him about it and he defiantly tells us that "no, my mom does NOT hit me, she loves me!" :)







Its been an amazing summer so far and we're looking forward to lots more super fun things coming up! We are leaving Friday for a vacation in Colorado! We can't wait!

America's Roller Coast ~ Cedar Point!

On July 22nd, we left for a family trip to Cedar Point. There were 15 of us that ended up going - Great Poppy, Aunt Sharon, Uncle Reno, Becky, Charlie, Charity, Nana, Papa, Aunt Lindsay, Aunt Jeri, Uncle Mike, Kyle, and the three of us. We all met up for breakfast at Big Boy in Ann Arbor on Thursday morning and then took off for Cedar Point. We all stayed at the Hotel Breakers, which is so convenient and extra nice with a toddler in tow. It was so nice to be able to walk back to the hotel when we wanted to or needed to change into or out of our swimsuits. And the walk was so much closer than the Sandcastle, which is where we've always stayed in the past.

We had been prepping Carson for weeks in advance. Talking to him about Cedar Point, roller coasters, rides, water slides, etc. He was so looking forward to seeing where Charlie Brown and Snoopy live, but he had absolutely no idea what to expect when it comes to the roller coasters. When he first saw the coasters, as we were driving around the park to the Hotel Breakers, he was just in awe. He first saw the Blue Streak and just exclaimed with so much enthusiasm, "WOW, a rainbow!" It was so cute. He then figured out what a roller coaster looked like.

After we checked in at the Breakers, we headed into the park. Carson was JUST tall enough to get a wristband so he could ride the majority of the kiddie rides. We first made a stop at the Magnum (there was no line!) so that most of us could get our first coaster in. Carson enjoyed watching us all go by above him and Nana. :)

We all had a great time! We'd all start off in Cedar Point in the mornings, but with a heat index of 104 degrees, most of us were ready for Soak City by about 11am. So we'd spend all afternoon over there. Then we'd all meet up for dinner and had hopes of returning to the park afterwards. Unfortunately, storms rolled through both nights. They did re-open the rides on Thursday night, but we had all decided to just go to bed since we didn't think they'd be running with all the tornado warnings. So we were bummed when we found out they had re-opened. Oh well, we had already had a pretty full day, so it was ok.

We'd split up into different groups at different points in the day, for those that wanted to go ride all the roller coasters, those that went to Camp Snoopy or Planet Snoopy, and those that went between the two. Carson absolutely loved all of the rides! He had so much fun on the kiddie roller coasters - the Jr. Gemini and the Woodstock Express. He even put his arms up on the Jr. Gemini (but of course I missed that picture moment)! He rode quite a few rides. According to him, his favorite was driving the monster trucks, with the roller coasters a very close second. :) He really loved the swings, too. He didn't really ride anything he didn't like, though.












Kevin went off to ride a bunch of coasters with some of the cousins for a while. He finally got to ride Top Thrill Dragster! I think that was a highlight of his trip. Kevin and I rode the Maverick together while Carson went to drive the old-fashioned cars with Nana. I also rode the Magnum with Kevin, my Aunt Sharon, Reno, dad, and Lindsay. But I was playing it safe with the coasters this trip, with my gallstone issues and some precautions from my surgeon. So I wasn't really interested in riding too much. I was there for Carson - to see him smiling and loving it, having so much fun! :)

We spent most of our time at Soak City. They have some really nice kiddie areas. We spent most of our time at the two huge kiddie pools with lots of play stuff and water slides in them. But we also had fun over at the deeper kiddie pool just swimming and over at the giant splash pad type thing that has lots of slides. We also spent a lot of time in the Lazy River and at the Wave Pool. Kevin went down most of the water slides and I did a couple of them, too. I'd rather relax at the pool, though. :) Carson took his naps on the lounge chairs in the shade on both days we were there.







It was a great trip, but it was good to get home, too. We were all exhausted by the end, especially with the heat. We look forward to another extended family trip next year... at this point, it looks like we'll be going up near Green Bay, Wisconsin in June. But for now, Kevin, Carson, and I get to look forward to our next vacation to Colorado! We leave in a week and a half!! We can't wait!

Be sure to check out all of our pictures! They will be up in the albums soon! We didn't get pictures of nearly every ride that we went on, but we definitely took plenty! :)

Bay City Tall Ships Celebration

Back on July 17th, we took a drive up to Bay City for the Tall Ships Celebration. We've never been before, so we didn't know what to expect, but we thought Carson would enjoy seeing the "pirate" ships. It was probably the hottest day of the summer when we went. And it was crowded. Very crowded. The lines were extremely long to get on any of the ships and with the heat, we just didn't feel up to standing in those lines. So we just walked around a bit, took some pictures, and had some lunch. The ships are beautiful and so cool to see up close. We'd have liked to get on one or two of them, but just didn't have it in us to stand in the line and fight the heat any longer than we did. We got to see Bay City finally, though. Neither Kevin or I had ever been there that we know of.

A Visit from Uncle Justin, Aunt Mary, and Rebecca

A few weeks ago, Uncle Justin, Aunt Mary, and Rebecca came to town to visit. We had a family party at Grandpa and Grandma's house with a great dinner, lots of playtime, and we watched a few old home videos from when Kevin and his siblings were kids. It was great to have everyone together! It seems like it happens so rarely, so its always so fun when it does. The kids all had a blast! They played outside and inside and the constant sound was laughter throughout the afternoon. The boys and girls often split up - the boys playing ball or action figures and the girls playing Barbies, but they came together to play quite a lot, as well. Carson and Rebecca had fun playing some great music on Grandma's piano together, too. We got a nice concert from the two of them. :) Carson had so much fun playing with all of his cousins and he is still asking when he'll get to see them all again... he says he'd like us all to go on one big family bike ride next time... and that he wants to ride in his bike trailer with Rebecca! :)

4th of July Weekend

Playing some catch up here again... I'm nearly a month behind right now - oops! So we'll start with the 4th of July weekend. We had an eventful holiday weekend. It started out as planned, but did not end as planned. It was still a good weekend, though.

Friday night, we went to the Silver Lake Ski Club ski show, which is part of the Fenton Freedom Festival. The show was really good this year with lots of very talented jumpers and barefooters. Upon arrival, as we were walking down the sidewalk, Carson tripped and fell, skinning his nose and both knees. Poor guy. He cheered up quickly and really enjoyed watching the skiers. His favorites, as they were last year, were the jumpers. Maybe we'll have a jumper of our own one day. :) We are glad Carson enjoys watching the shows and hope to keep him interested in the years to come. We're really hoping he'll want to join the team as part of the pre-show in two years.

On Saturday, Kevin took off to Indianapolis for a guys' day with his dad, brother, and brother-in-law. They toured the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and it sounds like they all had a really good time. Carson and I took a ride out to Saranac/Ionia in western Michigan. Auntie Sara flew in from Colorado for the weekend, so we had to go visit! Sara's niece, Noelle, was also there and she and Carson had such a great time together! They were so cute! They picked raspberries, played with the kittens, played catch and soccer, took turns in the swing, and just ran around chasing birds and just exploring. They really hit it off well! At one point, they went and stood under this group of fruit trees, talking quietly to one another. When Sara and I would try to sneak up to hear what they were saying, we'd be given looks that told us to back off. :) It was so funny! Until they decided it'd be fun to eat the leaves off the tree! :) We had a great visit with Auntie Sara and her family and were sad to go. But we are really looking forward to seeing her again on our trip to Colorado in just three weeks!




On Sunday, we went out to Aunt Sharon's house for a family party on the lake. Carson and Mackenzey had such a great time together. They get along so well and were so cute holding hands all the time. Unfortunately, our day of fun was interrupted by a trip by ambulance to the emergency room. Turns out Sara has a large gallstone and had a pretty severe attack. It was pretty scary, but we're thankful that's all it was.




We took it easy for the rest of the day and on Monday, since Sara was pretty weak after the attack. But all-in-all, it was a great weekend! We had a lot of fun celebrating our nation's freedom this year, even though it didn't go quite as we'd planned.