Colorado Vacation: Part II

We started the second day of vacation on a two-hour scenic train ride in the mountains from Durango to Silverton. This was absolutely beautiful. I was just in awe at the beauty.

The kids really enjoyed it, but I do believe after the first hour they were over the scenic views. 

So many times we were right on the edge of the mountain.

When we got back to the resort we decided to take the ski lift to the very top of the mountain for some more scenic views. 

We headed out to dinner at a very popular local joint. This place was really neat with live music and fire pits. I could definitely see how this would be a cool late-night place if the kids were not with us.

Colorado Vacation: Part I

 Right before school started we took a road trip with our quarantine family. It was a much needed vacation right before we all settle into our new normal of online school. We all piled into an Expedition and hit the road for 8 hours to Durango. We stayed just north of Durango in Purgatory, a cute little ski village. 

I will be honest, I was a little worried about 7 people being crammed in an Expedition for 8 hours, but it went very well. The kids were great and they "slept" for half of it since we left town at 4:00 in the afternoon.

Here we go.

After such a long day in the car, we decided our first day in Colorado would be pretty chill. We purchased an afternoon pass to the activities at Purgatory. This included rock mining. The kids loved this. I believe they mined 4 or 5 bags of rocks the whole week. We now have a lot of rocks at home which we are putting through a rock tumbler. Max is excited about this because then he will have a rock collection.

They had a roller coaster ride. This was really cool and kind of scary. Max and I rode together and those quick turns on the rollercoaster were freaking me out.

There was another ride where we rode "cars" down a luge. First, you took the ski lift to the top of the mountain. The first time Max and I rode together and raced Andy all the way down. We won! The second time down, Max went by himself. We were very proud of him for deciding to go alone. Him and I raced down the mountain and I passed him quickly because he was riding his brakes. I get down the mountain and look behind me, here comes Andy. Where's Max? He rode the brakes the whole way down the mountain...just putt, putt, putting along. We were all laughing about this. It's so his personality. Very cautious and careful.

Day one was so much fun and I couldn't wait for our upcoming activities that the guys planned. The weather was beautiful and it was so nice to be outside all week enjoying the 70-degree temps and the scenic views Colorado had to offer. 

First Day of School

 Max had his first day of school on Wednesday, and due to the pandemic, he started online. It's very difficult to have a first grader doing school online. It's definitely not ideal and he really struggled with it. He used to LOVE school and now, not so much. Max will be doing online school until at least October 12th. I do not agree with the District's decision, but there is nothing I can do about it, so we have to make the best of it. I am hoping things will get better as time goes on and Max will learn to love school again. Right now he's just doing what is asked of him.

In positive news, Max grew 2.5 inches from last year. He is now 4'4" tall and very proud of it.

Happy Birthday to Me

It was my birthday and my two favorite people in the whole world made it a very special day. Max made sure to make me breakfast in bed with OUR favorite breakfast. 

He did let me pick my favorite Disney movie that we got to snuggle in bed together and watch after breakfast. 

 

 Of course we had my favorite gluten free cake. 

 I did get a Barefoot Dreams robe that is super soft and overly warm. Max had to snuggle up with me because it was so soft. 

 Nobody enjoys getting older, but when you get to celebrate a birthday with two amazing people it makes the day so much more special.

Crayon Project

There has not been anything to do for months now. It's been very hot here lately and that isn't helping us go stir crazy. A friend of mine posted online about a crayon project they did and I thought it was at least give us one hour of entertainment. It was 115 degrees here last weekend and it seemed like the perfect weekend to do the project. 

We first unwrapped all the crayons. Max helped me hot glue gun them down to the top of a white board.

We then took it outside and placed it at an angle so the sun could destroy the crayons with its excessive heat. To prevent the wax from going everywhere we put the board in a cardboard box that would collect the runoff wax.

It took a total of one hour to get our final artistic piece complete. I took a picture every 15 minutes so you can see the transformation of what 115 degrees can do to crayons in one hour. Note, the white crayons really didn't melt very well.

It was a hot weekend and we made the most of it with swimming, playing, making banana bread, and a fun artistic crayon project.

Happy 4th of July

Since we are in the middle of a pandemic our original 4th of July holiday plans were canceled. Instead, we decided to celebrate at home with our quarantine family. Andy made a fantastic meal for everyone. He smoked pork and ribs and made homemade potato salad. And he made freshly squeezed strawberry lemonade. It was all fantastic and might have been the best part about the weekend.

We had our friends over for some pool fun and once it was dark out we started fireworks. The kids put a million fourth tatoos all over their bodies and played with glow sticks before we started the show.

Max has never been a fan of fireworks so he eventually went inside and watched from behind the glass door.




It was a late night but a very fun fourth with a great quarantine family. Even Zoe and Hazel got to spend the afternoon together playing.