Our first family vacation - Day Three

I absolutely love Colorado...the view is just breathtaking no matter where you are...Day three (our last day) of our family vacation started with going to eat breakfast at a 50s' diner place...yummy! Then we went to a local park and played for a little bit. We got some great pics there too!

Its kind of hard to see...but all four us are smiling in this pic (above)

Nothing beats riding in the swing for our girls :)

This slide (see below) was metal, super hot and SUPER fast!

Overall, a great day....we came home, both the girls took a nap, watered the garden, fed the horses, ate dinner and packed everything up. Our 9 hour drive was just about the same, very long, tiring, dark, and the girls slept off/on for the most part. I hope that this will be one of many vacations for us in the future...

Thank you so much to my dad & step mom for everything! I am so glad we got to come up for a visit! Destin has not stopped talking about it...seeing you both, the mountains, the garden, the dogs and more...I don't think she will ever forget :)

Our first family vacation - Day Two

Day Two of our trip to Colorado...we got up early, made a pancake breakfast, did our daily "chores on the farm", and went to Garden of the Gods. We took sooo many great pics, but the ones below were my favorites :)

The last pic of me with my earring (from my wedding) that was lost at Garden of the Gods :(

Later that afternoon, we went to a pizza place and discovered a really cool slide and game room in the back for Destin to play on. Gpa Todd even went down it a few times too!

We all went for a walk on their property too...I love the cactus photo!

I will sign off w/some cute pics of Arwen playing in the baby pool. I don't know if I have ever truly mentioned how much she loves WATER. She loves to blow bubbles in the dog water, bath tub, and of course baby pools. The water was a little chilly, but Arwen didn't mind splashing in it :P

One last tidbit...Patrick and I went on our very 1st Date night without the girls on Saturday night {Sorry Mom!! I know you wanted to be the first one to watch them!!}. We went to a Mexican place (that was soooo gross!) and then stopped for dessert at a yogurtini place where you add your own icecream and toppings. The girls did great - no tears, and played the entire time after eating dinner with Gpa Todd & Gma Julie. They didn't even care when we got back :( which made me feel really good knowing that they had so much fun they did not miss us.

I am hoping that this will be the start of many date nights to come :) Stay tuned for Day 3 of our CO Vacation...a trip to the park.

Our first family vacation - Day One

This past week, after the girls got over their "bug" and Patrick found out he would have Friday & Monday off work for the holiday weekend...we made a last minute decision to take our 1st family vacation to Colorado.

My dad & stepmom (Grandpa Todd & Grandma Julie) have been in the process of moving out there since the beginning of May from New Mexico. And since no time is better than the present, and Pat doesn't get paid for when he has days off - we decided to just pack up and go for a weekend visit!

If any of you know us real well, this was a very BIG step for us. Usually we plan for weeks out, and are very detailed on when, what, who and where...but this time we planned in a little under two days, to venture cross country to see Gma & Gpa Sowerby.

The moment we told Destin she was SUPER excited! We told her she would see Gma & Gpa, the mountains, and the BIG dogs (they own 4). And for the next three days that is all she talked about...

So we packed up clothes for all four of us, extra clothes, toys, books, movies, snacks, drinks, pillows, blankets, cameras, phones, chargers, baby bed, and everything but the kitchen sink...found a wonderful dog/fish sitter - my mom. Thank you so much! And we left Thursday night, after dinner and bath time. Perfect time for falling asleep all night, right?

Well, the girls did fall asleep soon after we left for about 2 hours. Then after a short stop, they both woke up and stayed awake for about three or four hours each. Eventually, Arwen fell asleep and we had to make Destin fall asleep by turning off her movie player.

Friday (Day One) ~ We arrived in Colorado in 9 hours, at about 3:00 AM...we slept for a few hours, then the next day we mostly just hung our with Grandma and Grandpa.

Destin absolutely LOVED watering all the flowers! Gma had so many to choose from!

The view of the mountains from their upper deck.

On our way to Lowes to buy some flowers

The girls played in the pool in their underwear/diaper

We got to meet & feed the neighbors horses, Reba & Blondie.We went to Lowe's - where we bought some flowers to plant (many on clearance!), saw the mountains (driving by), checked out their huge farm house/barn/land, played in the pool, met the neighbors horses, played with the dogs, and enjoyed each other's company.

Planting and watering the flowers w/Gma & Gpa

I love this pic of Arwen smiling!

I LOVE this pic of Grandma Julie & Destin!

One of my fav ones of my dad (Grandpa Todd) & Arwen
We took sooo many amazing pictures...so I am only sharing my favorites..stay tuned for Day 2 - our trip to Garden of the Gods.