First Half of Fall Break

 From visitors to fall break!

On Monday morning the Boones left, and we had pizza Monday with the Miners that night and played night games in the backyard together. They left on Tuesday morning, and my parents watched the kids while we had parent teacher conferences that afternoon. They left Wednesday morning, and Michael worked that day so that we could take off Thursday morning for our fall break trip through Southern Colorado.

We left Thursday morning and grabbed breakfast at Buc-ee's, then made the trek to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Such beautiful views! The drop offs were crazy and I was feeling grateful we did not go here with an 18-month old. We stayed in a house nearby that night, then drove to Telluride the next morning. It snowed on us, which we didn't really expect! We knew there was a chance, but it felt too hard to picture that after our 70-degree days in Fort Collins. We still had fun on the gondola ride and getting hot chocolate. We tried to visit a ghost town but the road was too snowy. We drove down to Four Corners while Asher took a nap, and hit four states at once. Then we had some Mexican food in Cortez and stayed in a Yurt that night. I really loved listening to the rain on the Yurt tarps and trying to stay awake for the BYU football game with Michael -- couldn't quite do it, and woke up to some fun highlights to watch. This season!

The next day we did Mesa Verde and the boys were champs on the hikes, especially little Asher on all those ladders. We tried three different kinds of fry bread after our tour through the cliff dwellings. One of them blew straight onto Westin's face when we went outside into the wind, which was unfortunately one that had honey all over it. This is why we're still a baby wipe family even though we've graduated from the baby stage. Haha we still ate the fry bread and he was laughing about it.

We stayed in Durango that night and had some pretty terrible Thai food and a pretty fun playground stop. The boys loved the treehouse at the Airbnb but I really don't like when it feels like you're living in someone else's very lived in spot -- I missed the Yurt!

We made it to Pagosa Hot Springs and attempted the hot springs even though it was stormy. We did have to get out a few times in the beginning when lightning would strike, but after a little while we had some good clear skies and loved dipping in all the different pools -- and even the freezing river running next to them! The boys had a lot of fun here and it really exceeded our expectations.

We're extending fall break, so a couple more days of fun still ahead!

Everyone wanted a wheelchair ride when Grandma was all done with it.
Lots of circles around our driveway :)

Let it be known that Ali held Kitty.

We finished the hardest puzzle we've ever done! So much orange and black.
I am gluing and framing this for a Halloween decoration,
my heart can't take it apart.

Filling up the swing set with cousins!

Made a haunted house!
Camden has been asking and asking to make a gingerbread house with Grandma and Grandpa,
so we went the haunted house route since it's October. He was just very attached to this idea!

He loves this semi truck that Michael had when he was a little boy.
He adds magnets to it and turns it into all sorts of vehicles.

My dad snapped a picture of me reading to my boys.
I love that all four of them want to stop and read a book with me,
or play with trains with each other, or whatever other little boy thing.
They just have a lot of fun together right now and I know their ages are at a special spot for that.

Magnet road!

First stop for fall break trip: Buc-ee's for breakfast burritos. What a funny place that is.

Our dog sitters threw Luna a birthday party.
Is this not the cutest thing?
She's two!

The boys brought their very loved stuffies from our Steamboat trip visitor center stop at State Forest State Park. I love how much they love those four stuffies.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
What a view! I was actually pretty nervous with kids here, those drop offs...
But they had fun even with my stress!

Painted Wall

Cruising from lookout to lookout, lots of in and out

Asher hahaha

Always happy when we have a deer sighting!

The boys love playing at different Airbnbs.
This was our first backyard and they ran and ran together the morning we were leaving while Michael and I packed up the car.

Snow in Telluride!

This first snow of the season in a little mountain town felt pretty magical.
But we were not very prepared for that!

Apple Cider (if you're Michael) and hot chocolate (if you're everyone else!) to warm up in Telluride. They had fun little Gondola car tables to eat in.

We had planned on exploring Alta Ghost Town but the snow made that road a little too exciting. We ended up having to turn around.

Asher fell asleep on the rocky snowy ghost town road and slept almost to Four Corners.

Four states at once! If Asher was more ok with pictures right now we would have put a boy in each state :)

Stayed in a Yurt one night! The boys loved sleeping in the loft area all together.

Camden loves a good picture pose lately :)

Asher conquered all the Mesa Verde ladders all on his own!

Exploring our Durango backyard before hitting the road

A drizzly day at the hot springs!

Vacation nights are tired nights. 
These little guys are so sweet. Camden and Asher prefer to share a room when we travel even if there's space to not have to. They're so cute.