Krauses in Colorado

After our summer adventure in Iowa ended, we packed up our stuff and headed to Colorado to spend some time with the Kraus family!

The drive from Iowa to Colorado was largely uneventful except for one awesome experience. We stopped at a gas station to fill up the car and use the restroom. But when I headed to the restroom, I was confused by the toilet.... It was a Bidet! A Bidet is one of those fancy toilets that does everything from washing you to drying you, all the while with heated seats. It was a great experience. Unfortunately, there were no Bidets in the men's room, but I was able to convince Dustan to use the ladies just for the experience and to say he has used a Bidet ;)

Now, one of the main reasons we went to Colorado between Iowa and school was to see Dustan's sister Taylor, who had been serving a mission in Las Vegas. We made some neat posters, cleaned up the house, and greeted her at the airport! I had only spent time with Taylor a few times while Dustan and I dated, so it was great to get to know her a little bit better.

Taylor's welcome home signs!

After Taylor's homecoming talk at church. Me, Mama Kraus, Taylor, and Erin

One day while we were in Colorado, we spent the day down by Manitou Springs. We hiked the Incline first, which is a mile straight up, 2,000 feet of elevation gain, and 2,744 steps. This was probably one of the hardest physical activities I've done in my life. The first half of the hike up, I couldn't breathe. The second half, my legs had lost all strength. But we made it to the top and took a leisurely trail back down! After our hike, we dipped our feet in a creek and drove through cute downtown Manitou Springs and looked at a couple shops. Afterward we drove through Garden of the Gods before heading back to Castle Rock. It was a great and exhausting day.

Doesn't the Incline look wild?!

The ladies of the family. 

The boys of the family.

Garden of the Gods/Land Before Time

Also, here is a fun picture of me and my cute freshman year roommates at Garden of the Gods years ago :)

A few other fun activities we did while there was mountain biking, an endowment session at the Denver temple, roasted s'mores, THREE cross country races for the kids, chilled in the hot tub, played card games, and went to many parks.

We loved our time with the Kraus family and are excited to be back this year for Christmas! Coming up soon on the blog: our first anniversary mini vacation and back to school at BYU!