Deserving Vacation Time

 

ONE Suburban, FIVE Children, SEVEN Tote bags, ONE Stroller, TWO Bikes, ONE Ice chest,,TONS Of snacks!!!! 

One content baby, One bored 5 year old with a camera(maybe he wasn't bored), and one great driver.

That, my friends is all it takes for a successful vacation to Colorado.  We could have taken so much more, but decided to leave the kayak, fishing poles and other bikes home.  Glad we did.  And so it begins .  The first leg of the trip, only 5 hours.  Destination... Moab, Ut.  A place called Red Cliffs Lodge.  Prepare to pull out the large bills for this all Reclusive setting up the canyon from Moab perched right on the river.  The rooms are nothing to brag about, but the setting is one of a kind.  I'm sorry now that I didn't get more pictures of it.  Stayed one night.  After a great buffet breakfast overlooking the Colorado River we took a stroll around the grounds.

Not too shabby.  The weather was quite warm.  We did nothing but mess around.

Mac and Roxie were willing to pose for the camera, but do you think I could get all five kids together at once?

Not a chance.  Only three and their fighting at that..

Roxie is so sweet and has an unbelievably mild temper. She was practically perfect the entire nine days.

Luke....always messing around, but being good.  Always wants to give a sarcastic look.  He is so much fun.

What could entertain a boy better than a wooden fence?  Got to get one of those soon.

Then there is Celine.  She is practically perfect too, except when she's not.  She will hate me for putting this picture in, but I just had to.  I don't remember why now, but she got upset about something.  We all started teasing her and calling her a cry baby.  It was really quite mean and we are all working on the name calling thing.  It's just that she was so dramatic.  Boy did she pout.  Did I used to be like that as a young girl???Hmmm.  Not sure. Maybe.  This kind of behavior just proves that your a true girl. Right?  So she hid behind the wagon.  Still didn't stop us from getting the perfect picture.  Thanks Celine.  You made us all really laugh.  You are a lot of fun to tease.

Here is a partial glimpse of the place we stayed in Moab.  The river is right behind those trees. Highly recommend going there.

Next on the list is Ben and Sarah's house.  Ben is Josh's bestest bestest friend.  He's a dentist..

I know, It's hard to believe this guy is a dentist.  He is good at it though.  Atleast I think he is.  I have never actually had him do any dental work on me or any of my family, but we would if we had to.

They live in this super super super cool house of which I am totally jelous.

See what I mean? 

Who wouldn't want doors like this in their house.  I do I do I do.  Just look at the natural light streaming in.

  And who wouldn't want to sit here in the back yard all summer?  Perfect really. And who made this all possible?.............

Sarah ofcourse.  Ben's really great wife.  These are their extra adorable children.  There is one on the way.  I'm sure she is really cute too.  Wish they all lived closer.  We spent two fun filled nights at there house.  We hiked, we picniced, we shot nerf guns and water guns, we bbq'd, we swam. We saw an extremely funny play.  There is nothing we didn't do,  but that is always the case when we are with Ben and Sarah .                                      

I forgot to mention that we went to the fish hatchery with Ben and Sarah.

A quarter will get you a little Dixie cup full of fish food so you can feed these starving trout!!

Quarters don't come easy when your three.  Almost four.  Luke had to salvage what he could.  I helped him out or we would have been there till midnight.

I really think Luke enjoyed feeding the fish more than anyone.  He took it very seriously.

And this is some of us trying to toss and catch water ballons in towels.  This activity lasted about 10 minutes before the entire ice chest full of water ballons was gone.

Don't we look like a bunch of dummies?  Who cares.  This is what quaility time is all about.  Acting like dummies.

Here is Celine acting like her happy self.  By the way, the other two adults are Micky, Sarah's sister, and her friend Fletcher.

Seeeeeeeeeeee.........Happy!

Then we went for a hike in Aspen.  We saw the most amazing waterfall. It was colder than we thought it would be.  We were above 8000 ft.  Colin wrapped Roxie's blanket around his waist to keep his legs warm. He looks good in pink.

Ben promised Gummie Bears to whoever could spot the first fish.  Celine was the winner.  He hasn't paid up yet, but we know he is good for it.

That's me and Mac and Luke way up there on the bridge.  This is where a really nice expensive camera would come in handy.  I don't know who that other lady in the photo is, but she doing a great job.

Josh is doing a great job also.  He didn't complain once.  Infact, I think he really liked the extra load.  Years from now he can show this photo to Roxie and Luke when he won't give them the keys to the car.  Proof he really did love them once.

I had to put a couple pictures with me in this blog or no one would believe I was even on this trip.  Not that I like my picture taken, but I would hate for my kids to look back and never see me interacting with them in a photo.  I just always am the one shootin' the camera.

After the hike we had a picnic.  And Roxie is happy as usual.

Completely happy.

Remember how I said it all it takes to make a boy happy is a wooden fence?  A wooden tree works as well.

A stick that can be widdled down is also great entertainment.  Colin continued to work on this the entire trip with his pocket knife.

Right next to where we were staying was a 48 acre park.  The best money we spent on the entire trip was at the bike rental shop.  For $35.00 you can sit on the grass and watch your children ride all over the place for a couple of hours.  Who knew?!!

See what I mean?

Then ya just park it and have a little snakaroo.

The next day, the kids caught some air.

Literally

they had a blast

And a little rock climbing was going on.

I was sure that Celine would make it to the top..

Turns out Colin was the only one to make it all the way.

Mac gave it  a real serious try though.

Look at the excitement.  And the blurry camera job.

This entire time we think that Roxie is asleep in her stroller.  Well, she was, for a while.  We were a ways off by the rock climbing wall when Josh saw this.

Her smile gets even bigger when she catches my eye.

I don't know how to rotate this thing, but what a good baby.

The Coyote Cafe....The only restaurant I have ever been to where you can order spaghettios.

No matter what trip we are on there always seems to be a bench to sit on for this famous pose.  In case we forget later, Roxie has a tortilla in her mouth.

I told the children that they could throw a penny in the water.  They thought that meant take mom's wallet out of her bag a place it carelessly at the water's edge.

This is what you do in your down time.

As I said, The bike rentals were the best.  On our last day we took a family bike ride down the Colorado River.

Stopped and picnicked

Roxie, once again just happy to be alive.  Did I mention how great she is?

We got a little more spread out on the way back due to certain people getting worn out.

Mac never grew tired.  He was way ahead of the pack waiting patiently.

I wasn't far behind.  This by far was the most memorable and beautiful part of the trip.

Time for a swim after a grueling bike ride.  This just proves that they can have fun together without fighting.

Ya might even say this was a RELAXING vacation.  Just ask Celine and Luke.

THE END