Leaving Colorado

When we drove through this area three weeks ago, all the trees were still green.  Yesterday, when we were there, the trees were yellow, green, and orange. It was very pretty.  We stopped in Vail to play at a park.  We ended up taking a bus into town and having lunch at a pizza place. 



This last view is of the Rocky Mountains from the Utah side. 



Back to Denver

Yesterday we drove back to Colorado, through Wyoming.

When we got here I ran my filthy car through the car wash and went to the bank.  Then we went to the park and played with the kids.  After that we had some posole and went to bed.

The posole had cilantro and it was great!

Half way there I think

I had a little trouble finding the right road leaving my cousin's house this morning. My GPS does not know about road closures and I got turned around.  Thanks so much to the nice officer for those excllent directions and for not giving me a ticket. I think we may be in Iowa now but I didn't see the entering Iowa sign or I would have gotten out and taken a picture.  Maybe we can find the entering Minnesota sign.  Kids are taking a little break and eating and hopefully Erik can take a nap in the car.

Made it to Colorado

If any of you have ever taken a 7 hour drive with two kids you can imagine how I feel right now.  They did really well up until about the last half hour when Erik wanted to go home and get his bike.  I assured him that neighbors of Uncle Michael would have bikes that he could ride but he wants me to go home and get his bike. He let me know that over and over for about half hour.  That and that fact that he never wants to go on a road trip again and he wants to go home.  Driving all that way in one day may have been a little ambitious but we made it and now we are in a nice hotel and soon to bed.  I think we may try to swim in the morning.  I was not able to get a shot of us as we crossed into Colorado since we were on a main highway and I might have been going a little fast.  The speed limit is 75 on these roads so I don't think I will get a ticket for 80.  Kirk told Erik I would give him a quarter for every police car he pointed out to me but he hasn't been doing a great job so far. 

We had good weather for most of the drive but there was a patch there in Utah where I couldn't see out the windshield real well but I saw the blue sky up ahead and aimed for it.  We were able to get out of that storm and headed on into Colorado.  There is some real pretty country in Arizona and Utah.  When I was able to peel Katie and Erik away from the dvd player they enjoyed it as well.  I debated having the dvd player because I wanted to talk to the kids and all but there is just way too much driving and only one person doing it so the dvd player is a big help.

Tomorrow we have about a three and a half hour drive to Denver and then we get to stop at my brother's house for a few days and the kids get to play with their cousins.  My sister in law said she would try to teach me to cook so wish her luck on that one.  They eat much healthier than I think we do on a regular basis so the kids may get introduced to some vegetables they didnt' know existed. My brother texted me earlier and asked me what I wanted him to pick up at the grocery store. I told him dinosaur nuggets and wine. 

Kingman, AZ

We made it. When we left this morning we were driving in rain but we drove out of it by the time we hit Selma.  Day one of driving wasn't too bad thanks to a dvd player, headphones, a voracious reader, and a nap.  I was surprised to see that California has just about every single rest stop closed for repairs.  There were some long stretches with no place to stop so that was a little rough.  We stopped in Fenner, CA where there was a little gas station and store.  Gas was 4.99 a gallon.  Luckily we didn't buy any and can fill up cheaper in the morning.  We hit a thundercloud when we entered AZ and saw a rainbow.  It wasn't safe to stop and take a picture by the entering AZ sign so we didn't do it.  Now we are off to swim in the motel pool and find some dinner.

Tomorrow, the Grand Canyon with two kids on leashes.