Davis Family Vacation

We spent Memorial Day weekend (+) with my family in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  We took a trip there about 10 years ago, right before Bryan left on his mission, and decided it was time to go back.  We had a hiccup at the beginning and a hiccup at the end, but hey the middle was sure fun!

The beginning hiccup was Lincoln's early arrival, which meant that Bryan and Alex weren't able to join us.  We were bummed about that!  We thought about trying to reschedule even though the condo was already paid for, but even if they would have let us change dates, Bryan & family wouldn't have been able to go until too close to my due date for me to travel.  So there really wasn't a good chance for us all to be together this summer.  So we decided to just go ahead as planned and make the best of it.

On Friday we stopped in Heber on our way out for some lunch.  We went to Dairy Keen, which apparently we shouldn't have done on the same weekend as the Thomas the Train event going on there.  It was a madhouse.  And to top that off, the toy in the kids' meals was wooden train whistles.  Lovely!  But the kids loved it so I took deep breaths and we survived.  The whistles have mysteriously disappeared though.  Strange.

After being forbidden to ask "Are we getting close yet?" the girls did pretty well on the drive.  We pulled into Steamboat just before sunset.  The girls explored the condo and my mom fed us a yummy dinner. 

Saturday we hiked to Fish Creek Falls, which is a place we went last time we were there.  (I'm not sure I can actually call it a hike though, since Londyn, Natalyn and I all "hiked" in our flip-flops.)

  

After the hike, ("hike"), we went to ride the Alpine Slide.  Which, lucky for us, had just opened that day.  It wasn't as fast as the one in Park City, but I actually think that was a good thing for our girls, since they weren't 100% sure they liked the idea in the first place.  But after it was over they said they loved it.  We played on some playground toys they had there then headed home for dinner. 

(Nate, did you really think I would not post it?)

We played some games after dinner that night, and everybody went to bed pretty exhausted.  Sunday we left my Mom and Dad and all of the kids in Steamboat, while Marie, Ky, Nathan, Will and I headed to Denver to meet our new nephew Lincoln.  We wore our Sunday clothes down, hoping we would be able to catch Sacrament meeting with Bryan and Alex.  It was kind of lucky we did, I think.  Bryan asked the NICU nurse if we could all come in at the same time, and she said "Well if you're for a blessing you could all go in."  Well Lincoln, it was an absolute "blessing" to meet you! 

    

We made it in time to their Sacrament meeting, then to their house for a quick but delicious dinner, then back on the road.  When we got back to Steamboat Springs, my folks were at the botanical gardens with the kids.  I guess the ward house there is being remodeled or something, so they had church in the mortuary.  I'm sure it was . . . memorable!  There wasn't enough space for classes so they just had Sacrament meeting.  The kids had a fun day with Grandma and Grandpa, and we were glad that we could go down and meet Lincoln.  (My folks already met him the week he was born.)  He's really such a doll.  Word on the street is that he may be able to go home this week!  Yay!

Monday we went to the "Amaze'n Maze", which we stumbled upon last trip and thought the kids might enjoy this time around.  We were right.  I was sure it would give me a claustrophobic panic attack, but it didn't.

   

 

We found a park to have a picnic lunch, play wiffle ball, bocce, frisbee, and the kids played on the park toys. 

 

Jacey is quite the bocce player.  Who knew?

 

(We love Nate.  Even though he's kind of strange.)

After the park we headed back to the condo and Will and Ky took all the kids swimming. 

 

How I spent my pool time.  (Yes, my belly really is that big already.  Yes, I still have 10 weeks to go.)

After dinner my mom had a fun FHE prepared that the kids enjoyed.  Unfortunately Blake and Londyn were so beat, they were in bed before dinner.  So they missed it.  I think we figured that Londyn slept a total of 13.5 hours that night.

Tuesday morning we gathered up our things and cleaned up the condo.  My folks and Marie's family all rented bikes and rode along the river trail.  I was a little hesitant to commit to 3 hours on a bike (see above photo) so we decided to go walk around the tourist shops downtown instead.  The main street was all under construction, which was kind of a bummer because it's such a charming main street.  And you know, construction doesn't exactly ooze charm.  But still, it was fun to walk around.  We met up with the bikers for an ice cream cone at the soda fountain.  After that we took the girls back to the maze place to play some mini-golf while the bikers finished their ride.

 

And that is the last picture I took of our trip.  I guess I thought the adventure was over.  Wrong!

Marie and Ky's van had been acting up as we drove around Steamboat.  They stopped by the auto parts store and the Greese Monkey on the way out of town and we crossed our fingers that it would make it home.  Long story short . . . it didn't.  They broke down about 15 miles outside Craig.  Luckily we were caravaning, so we loaded up our car with passengers and Will ferried them back into Craig.  They got a motel room and a tow truck, and a few hours later my family plus my mom were headed back to Utah, leaving the Driscolls and my dad stranded in Colorado.  Nice, aren't we?  They rented a van the next morning and made it home later that night.  Their car is still in Craig and they're still trying to figure out what to do about that. 

Not an ideal end to an otherwise very nice trip!  But it really was a fun vacation.  The weather was just beautiful, even though it had snowed the week before.  The condo was just right for us to all be together.  And even though we missed Bryan and Alex and Lincoln, we were glad we got to have a short visit with them too so I'm still declaring this a successful Davis Family Vacation.  Thanks Mom for all of your work and planning to make it happen!  We had a great time!!!