HOME

We have been home now for 3 weeks.  It's surprising how quickly life swallows you up again and you're right back in the mix of things!

Getting home was not our easiest task as we had 18 hours of driving to do over 3 days and our travels home were some of the most problimatic of them entire trip!  We left our final trip destination in Colorado on Friday afternoon with plans to get as far as we could go.  We got as far as Amarrillo that Friday and parked at an RV park just a few minutes from the only thing we know to do in Amarrillo.....eat at The Big Texan Steak House.  So after hooking up the RV the next morning and almost driving away with our RV door wide open (Opps!), guess where we ate brunch? 

THE BIG TEXAN!

The drive was going well until we got a flat just outside Lubbock.  Maybe we should have taken that "bubble tire" off back in Estes Park?  This one was especially bad, since when it blew, it caused some damage to the RV, blowing a fender off and wrecking our electric cord.  So Joe changed the tire to our spare and off we went to Discount Tire in Lubbock.  Now I know there aren't too many very nice things to say about Lubbock, TX , so let me say this....The Discount Tire there is top notch!  They had us in and out in less then 30 mins and they were swamped!!!  So after that little bump in the road, we drove as long as we could and thought we might even make it home, but the kids had other plans and they just had to get out of the car.  So at 9pm we stopped in some little town about 4 hours from home and parked for $20 a night.  We went to bed early that night, as Joe and I had planned to get up super early for the last leg of our trip home.  This turned out to be the BEST idea we ever had!!!  Joe had us all ready to go by 5am and we put our sleeping girls in the truck and drove the entire rest of the way home in total peace.  When we got to our street, we woke Loralai up, so she could wave to Nana, who was standing in the drive way.  This entire trip, we had been leaving to go to the next destination around 11am and searching for things to keep the kids busy!  Well now we know for the next trip.  LEAVE EARLY, while the kids sleep and log twice as many miles in a day!

By this point, even Bean had learned how to change a tire.

See the portion of the fender that was torn off when the last tire blew?

Then this weather stripping started to come undone and flap around while we drove.  Awesome!

Upon our arrival, being home was simply surreal.  It was nice to actually just KNOW where things were for a change.  "I need a good trail to run on.", I know where one is!  "I need my car washed.", I know where to go!  That being said, the surreal part was we were noticing things that we never noticed before, signs, stores, houses, details, etc.  I literally had to relearn how to drive a standard transmission car and where roads go in Ausitn.  From there, we made progress.  It was so shocking when we first arrived though, and made me think how we don't actually SEE so much of what is around us when we are IN it.

NANA!!!

Moving back into the house was fairly easy given that we had left the house semi-furnished for our tenants.  So our kitchen was pretty well as we left it with dishes in their places and most of our furniture had been stuffed into Loralai's room to be stored and it was just a matter of pulling it all out again.  Joe and I were able to do this ourselves in just an hour.  We did sleep on the guest bed the first couple of nights as we were waiting  to move the furniture back out, until all the tile was steam cleaned and grout sealed.  Our tenant had 5 dogs, so it was needed.  The house was really left in great condition and the whole experience was a good one that we would do again.  Although, it is painful to write that security deposit back over, after watching it sit in your account for 5 months. 

Second week was all about seeing all the people we missed!  We had 2 big parties (We're BACK! and Loralai's 5th Birthday) in one weekend and several people just stayed the entire weekend here.  We also fit in lots of happy hours, playdates, and dinners with friends and family.  So of course, week 3, we were already on people overload and pulled back to do some things around the house and get settled down for Loralai to start school as a Kindegartner!  It was during week 3 that we started to see again all the things we wanted to change (New paint, new dishes, new siding, etc).  So here we go, working to right all the wrongs at our happy home and waiting to see what next week's theme will be.

Sauce, Thanks for being freakishly strong and helping us install our new microwave.

It's been a rollercoaster, but a good one.  Happiness seems to be all about finding the balance for me and letting go when I can't seem to find it.  :)  It's good to be home!  And we miss being on the road too. 

I'd be lieing if I said we weren't already planning our next adventure.  So stay tunned to the blog, I'll continue writting something every once in a while, as I see this more as a blog about how we travel and plan and live life as the travelers we want to be and not just telling about the destinations we visit.  So, for now, we are HOME.

Makin pancakes with Daddy.  We must be HOME!

    

Woodland Park with The Faerber's

We LOVE discovering new, cool places in Colorado, and Woodland Park is one cool town!!!  It's just 30 mins West of Colorado Springs, in the Pike National Forest.  Gorgeous and just the right size (which means plenty to do, but not a big city)!  Add to that, decent prices, great weather, a dinosaur museum, farmers market, and cheap bars and we were in heaven!  We would have loved being here under any circumstances, but making things 1000X better was the fact that our friends, Chelsea and James and their sons, Tobin (3) and Quay (1) lived there for the summer (another traveling family of sorts)!!!  They let us park our RV in their driveway and we were "neighbors" for a week.  The kind of neighbors that mess up your house all day, while your husband works in the RV and ask if they can use your shower. 

Standing in Tobin's front yard

Tobin is one of Loralai's best friends and they can play together for hours.  Juliet loved trying to play with Quay, but in fact scaring him and making him cry.  We spent a lot of the our time just letting the kids be together at the house.  I had some real estate deals to work on anyways and was able to catch up a little on the blog too.  Chelsea had some work and canning to do, so it worked out that the kids kept each other busy.

CAN!

Highlights of our time here included...

Florissant National Monument
This is a cool place about 30 mins from Woodland Park that is a monument mainly due to petrified redwood tree stumps that were found there.  They also focus on all fossils in general.  We did a little hike and looked at the stumps and fossils and got Loralai's final Jr Ranger Badge of the trip!  And Tobin got his First!



At this point in the trip, Juliet got very into "Ring Around the Rosies" and everyone around her had to do it alot.  She calls it "Pocket" (Pocket full of Posies).  So if you even mention the word Pocket, she will MAKE you do the song and circle.

Tobin and Loralai running the trails.


We made a day of our outing and took the kids to a nearby playground to run and eat lunch after we left. 

This was posted on the fence at the playground.  Hahahaha...

 



Date Night
Chelsea has some great ideas!  One of which was to take turns watching each others kids, so we could each go on a date night.  Yes, and thank you!  Joe and I went to a sushi restaurant and it was GREAT!!!  Yay for dates!  Something that was a rarity on our adventure.

Farmers Market
Woodland Park has by far, the best Farmer's Market I have ever been too!  And it takes place EVERY Friday!  I took our crappy stroller and the girls and we racked up!!!  Everything from slushies to grain fed rack of lamb!  I bought way more produce than we could eat and then left half of it with Chelsea when we left.  But it was fun!!!

Alpaca's

Have to stop to climb this big rock, of course!

Climbing Pike's Peak
Check that one off the bucket list!  I CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN!!!!  It was awesome, and terrible, and great, and hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be and TOTALLY worth it!  It's kind of a big deal that I did this, so prepare to be bombarded with photos!  They also help tell the story.  My dear friend, Chelsea, is and outdoor expert!  She and her husband own and operate Outdoor Wilderness Adventures (OWA), which is why they were living in Woodland Park for the summer.  She's done all kinds of amazing things, but since having her 2 boys, hasn't done anything super outdoorsie.  So she told me we were going to climb Pikes Peak while I was there.  "Um, OK.", was my response.  Well, she meant it.  We picked our day, Joe took off to watch the girls, and we left for the trail head by 5am.  EARLY!  Here is our story...with LOTS of pics!

After almost leaving our (old lady) hiking poles in the car, we started our hike UP the mountain.  We were so full of energy and excitement here.  Plus we had just peed on some rocks, so we were feeling pretty good!

This is what I looked at for most of our hike....The back of Chelsea, that's when I could even see her.

Two pretty girls checking us out.  There were actually a TON of women doing this hike to our surprise!  They way out numbered the amount of men we saw!



The views were breath-taking and probably the BEST I'd see on the entire trip!



A few snickers bars and coconut water and we're still going strong!



At this point we had done hours of what I consider to be "serious uphill hiking" and Chelsea turns to me and says, "Look, we're almost there!"  She was referring to the top of the mountain way off in the distance that I'm pointing to.  Somehow I was NOT comforted by how "close" we were!

Happy Chelsea! 
Honestly to her credit, she was trying not to be TOO happy, as to not piss my tired ass off too much at this point.

Our hike did start out very wooded, but the last 3/4 of it was above the tree-line and very exposed.  The trail also followed close to the road, which went to the top, for most of the hike.  It might have crossed my mind to just catch a ride up more than a few times.



The last leg of our hike was over this!  There was NO trail.  Chelsea called it "rock hopping" or something like that.  I did admit that is was kind of fun picking my path as I hopped UP the rocks, AFTER it was over.



We MADE it!!! 
5 hours and some minuets and we had climbed from 10,000 feet to over 14,000 feet!



We are Mountain Climbers!!!!



James had predicted it would take us 7 hours to climb to the top.  He had greatly underestimated his wife's pushy, no stopping to rest ass!  So we sat at the gift shop/donut shop and ate terrible donuts and the worst hamburger I've ever had in my life (And I was a teacher who ate school food!), and we LOVED it!

Here's where I would play "We are the Champions of the World" if I knew how to do it!

Climbing Pikes was the best possible way for us to end our trip!  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Chelsea for recommending we do it, and putting up with slow, grumpy, quiet cause I was trying to breath ME!  I love you and love that we shared this adventure together and love that our kids got to see us do it and our husbands supported us and watched the kids while we did it!

Estes Park Colorado



Taken at Bear Lake in RMNP

Our drive to Estes Park was eventful to say the least.  Joe noticed a bubble in one of our trailer tires Sunday morning on our way to Estes Park.  We needed some supplies too, so we stopped off at Walmart to get those and a new tire. I got what we needed, minus the tire in under 2 hours, and unloaded into the RV.  I even had to go back into the store for an item I forgot to purchase the first time.  I tell you this, because after all that, we were still waiting for Walmart to mount our tire.  Joe went to check on the status and was told, "It will take awhile."  It was then that I got the bright idea for Joe to put the spare on the trailer, so when we got the tire from Walmart all we'd have to do would be to throw it in the back of the truck. 

Well after another hour of waiting and being told, "It's still going to be awhile." we just collect our rim and cross our fingers that we make it to Estes Park on the spare.  We made it 70 miles.....and it blew.  Strange, since it appeared to be in great condition.  So Joe changes his second tire that day when he put "the bubble tire" back on. 

Back on the road again....but this time with no spare.  Joe wants to stop over night in Fort Collins so we can get a new tire in the morning before driving into Estes Park.  I start calling around to find a place for us to stay and learn that they are all outragiously priced ($80 nightly RV parks, and $180 nightly hotels).  No thank you!  So I convence Joe to just drive up the canyon, through remote National Forest, at night for an hour to get us to Estes Park!  We were both sweating bullets and looking for places we could pull off the road the whole time.  But, WE MADE IT!!!

Manor RV Park was a nice place and we had a spot on the river for most of our stay there ($52 a night for river).

It's late when we arrive, so we settle in and go to sleep. 

Estes Park is where I was born and I have returned there often in my life time.  My parents lived there for 8 years in the late 70's and early 80's and consequently, my sister and I were born there.  I have very few memories of  my early time there, as we moved to Texas when I was just 5 years old.  And yet, the town calls me to come visit.  It's a beautiful town, set in the Rocky Mountains, with The Rocky Mountain National Park surrounding it on 3 sides.  And because of my parents history there, we actually knew some people!

Sadly, this is the best photo we got of Ron and his wife and was taken by my 4 year old who was running around the restaurant with my phone instead of eating her dinner.

In addition to just being in Estes Park, our good friends, Hilary and Phil, met up with us for our last two nights there and stayed with us in the RV.  It was so nice to have some friends come and visit us!  We love you guys!!!!

Estes was a lazy place for us.  I knew it well and had already done much of the touristy stuff there in past visits and we were just getting off of going full force in Yellowstone, so here we took it easy. 

Although, easy for us, doesn't mean we didn't do anything!  Here is what we did...

I took the girls to the park one afternoon while Joe worked.  We had fun and the girls made some 20 min friends while we were there.

A couple of nights, we went out with some old friends of my partents, Ron and Hydie.  They were great, and one of those nights, invited us over to their house, where the girls were able to run around in their gorgeously landscaped yard and play with their dogs!   


I'd say they liked being at the house!

One day, when I especially needed to get away, Hilary and I went shopping down Estes Park's main drag.  Tons of cute stores!!!  And what was the last place I took my pregnate friend.....A Bar, of course!  But not just any bar, The Wheel Bar.  The oldest and bestest bar in Estes Park!  And a place my parents frequented when they lived there.  Funny story, I'm up at the bar ordering a drink and this guys next to me says something.  I smille, and he says, "You know you are in the old-timer bar of Estes."  I say, "As a matter of fact, I do.  My parents lived here in the 70's and 80's."  He askes what their names were and then jumps back from there bar when I tell him.  Then he tells me he's, Kent Summers.  I've heard that name so many times when I parents tell old stories of their friends and times in CO.  I couldn't beleive it!!!  Small world, and a very cool half hour!

Kent and his wife at The Wheel Bar

While I shopped and bar hopped, Joe and Phil took the kids to Fun City to ride Go Carts and have FUN!

Even Bean got to ride the go-carts!

Allenspark is a little town about 30 mins up the mountian from Estes Park, and was the actual town we lived in when I was born.  Besides just coming to the town to for memory sake, I crave the omletes from a little cafe in Allenspark.  My only regrete, is that I did not eat here EVERY morning!!!

Meadow Mountain Cafe

Rocky Mountain PLEASE!!!



In Allenspark, you can also find Crystal Springs, a free flowing spring where you can collect water.  My parents didn't have running water for much of there time here, so this was a well visited spot.

 We spent two days visiting Rocky Mountain National Park.  Really, we could have spent the whole week here, but we were a little National Parked OUT at this point.  We didn't even make it to a ranger program!  (I know....shameful.)  But it was beautiful and we enjoyed our time there.


Ridding the Estes Park FREE shuttle into the Rocky Mountain NP.  LOVE the shuttle!!!

 

We saw these boys driving down Old Trail Ridge Rd another day.



Me and my girl

Can you guess what we're doing here?  Bean had to get in on the Ranger action too.