2019 Colorado Visits

Documenting events that happened a year ago. Whoops haha.

I was so lucky to be able to visit Dustan's family in Colorado twice last year! Similar to my family, the Krauses don't like to go more than a few months without seeing Eloise, haha. So as an early birthday present for me, they flew out Lou and I at the same time as Dustan's sister Taylor and her daughter Elodie (who is the same age as Lou) at the very end of February. It was so wonderful! Unfortunately, I was terrible about taking any pictures and don't have a lot to document this visit. But the main highlight was going to see a fiddle concert just us girl adults! It was so fun to have a night out, eat Texas Roadhouse, and listen to some good music from Natalie MacMaster and her family.

And in June, Lou and I headed back! We flew to Colorado and stayed about a week before Dustan drove up and joined us for a second week.

Even before Dustan arrived, we still partied a bit! The weather was so nice, so we spent a lot of time outside. At the Kraus house, the girls loved jumping on the big trampoline and playing in the pool and eating so many snacks.

We also did a whole day at the nearby lake and hung out at the beach. The weather was so beautiful and the water (though a bit chilly) was so refreshing. Eloise loved sitting in the shallow water and playing with toys especially. And that girl loves sand!

We also spent an afternoon on the Kraus boat. Most everyone water skiied (except Taylor and I, who were both pregnant haha) and we snacked and swam very briefly in the chilly water. At one point, Eloise had a bit of a meltdown while I was swimming--we're still not sure if she was worried about me or if it was just some separation anxiety.

We also just did some fun little outings like shopping for flowers, out to dinner at Cafe Rio for Taco Tuesday.

 

Then Dustan was there! He had stopped for a day in Moab on his way over to mountain bike, and he got up early and mountain biked most days with his family (brother and parents) while we were in Colorado. Here are a few pictures from mountain biking.

These are from Moab:

These are from riding with his family in Colorado:

We did some more boating while Dustan was there, and it was so fun to see him slalom ski. We spent most of the day on the boat. We packed cards, played games, ate snacks, and just hung around. I tried to keep Lou up on the drive back home afterwards, but no luck haha.

One of the highlights of the week was doing a day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a bit of a drive (almost two hours one way, if I remember correctly). The little town was quaint, I wish we'd had more time to check it out. But we drove straight up to a hike! We packed a lunch, then began a hike up to Bierstadt Lake. It was only about four miles roundtrip, which once again was great for us pregnant girls haha (Taylor was like 37 weeks pregnant if I remember correctly, and I was still sick from being in my first trimester).

The hike was beautiful and a wonderful change from our Tucson climate and scenery. We had some grand mountain views as well as a winding stroll through pines.

Bierstadt Lake was beuaitufl!! It was surrounded by mountains and trees. The weather was windy and chilly and just perfect. We enjoyed a picnic lunch of PB and Js while the girls chased around (and were terrified of) a duck that was hanging around. Lou loved putting her feet in the freezing water. It was perfect!

It began to sprinkle on the hike back down, but thankfully the rain held off until we made it back to the car. In true Eloise fashion, she refused to nap on the entire drive back to the Kraus house. But it was a wonderful little day trip!

Soon after, sadly, it was time for Dustan and I to make the drive back to Tucson! It was a bit of a long drive (about 14 hours) to make in one day with Eloise, so we stopped in for the night in Alamagordo, New Mexico. It was definitely a little bit ghetto, but we chose it so that we could visit White Sands National Park the next day. It was pretty cool to just be driving through a bit of a desert landscape like Arizona (dirt with sparse plants and trees) and suddenly be surrounded on all sides by huge dunes of white sand.

We rented a sled from the gift shop and spent an hour climbing up dunes and sledding down. It was so fun and so hot! We were all red and sweating in no time.

And then, it was time to finish the drive back home. It was a wonderful couple weeks!