The LOST trip to Colorado: Part 2

My brother Tom was married in the mountains in Colorado, and we were all lucky enough to go and enjoy it with him!  We stayed in a big cabin in the middle of the nowhere and it was gorgeous!! (and I saw a real live bear...)

Hanging out the day before the wedding.  Tom made this man-size Jenga game to play!

Mei and Noah chillin'

Checking out the surroundings with Mei.  

I LOVE the mountains.

Breakfast in the cabin.

Our view from the cabin porch.

A bunch of us went hiking around the area to a place called "Lost Lake."

Later that afternoon the storm clouds rolled in.  

Just in time for the wedding...

This is Sofie and I walking up to the meadow where the ceremony would take place.

It poured during the entire ceremony.

The lightning was spectacular and the thunder sometimes made it difficult to hear the ceremony!

So much fun!

(Meili loved it)

This was supposed to be symbolic of them bringing soil from each family, and nurturing the plant together.  However, the irony of watering a plant in the pouring rain had everybody laughing.

Good thing Scott was there as Best Man to hold the umbrella.

The rain was dripping off Tom's nose, making everybody laugh.

Finally married!!

The dinner party afterward.

My Oreo truffles :)  I made about 500 of them.

Hiding from the rain.

And of course, the skies cleared as soon as the ceremony was over.

I've never seen Tom so happy.

Congrats!!!

The LOST trip to Colorado: Part 1

Roadtrip out to Steamboat Springs, CO!!

In July my oldest brother Tom got married to his darling Renee.  They had a mountain wedding up in the Never Summer Mountain Range of Colorado, so we hopped in the car with the kiddos.  

Halfway-ish we stopped in Steamboat Springs and stayed in a fancy condo with my sister and her family.  It was a lot of fun and way too short.

One of the stinky springs in Steamboat.

Sofie's first experience with a teeter-totter 

Hopefully Mom's last experience with a teeter-totter.

Cooling off in the river with cousins.

Resting in the condo. 

Hiking to some falls.

Farewell to the Mountains

The last campout of the year.

  sniff sniff.

(so lots of pictures)

  This time the weather was perfect and we had plenty of time to relax.  The mountains are so beautiful and I will dream about them all winter.  

Loading up the spaceship...I mean van.

View from the Alpine Loop.

My camera was out of batteries, so these beautiful pictures were taken by the lovely Dia.

This is the little stream that runs behind the campground.  This month is was very low!

My lifesaver Shayla with Mei.

Again, a great shot from Dia!

Relaxing in the shade.  Sooooo wonderful!

(Derek, Andrea, Dia, Gordon, other side of the table is Noah, Shayla, Lisa, and Don)

Burn Baby Burn.

We dragged Dia up to Timp Cave the next day.

I had never been!

Dia

The valley below, hard to see because of all the smoke from wildfires!

Pausing to catch our breath in the shade.  It was a steep hike, and high altitude was taking it's toll.

We had little T with us too, he was such a trooper!

Our random friends from Taiwan.

After trying to speak Chinese with them in the cave they became our best friends and wanted a picture.

Love it.

Timp Cave

"The Heart of Timp"

The girlies decided to find rocks, pinecones, and bark to sell on the side of the road.  They made a few dollars!  Yes, that is my daughter posing like a crazy woman.  So cute.

Dia and the kids enjoying the cold water on their feet!

Dia, Shayla, Mei.

Maybe Dia is saying, "Huh? I don't speak crazy 9 year old speech..."

Nutella on a hot scone.

Her new favorite Nutella combo.

My new favorite way to cook bacon.

My 3 precious daughters! :)

Cooking bacon.  Pretty sure she looks like she wants to die.  But I think Dia had a good time!

Just chillin'

"The Great White Hunter"

There was a mouse infestation up at Timpooneke apparently.  If you look closely in Dad's left hand you'll find the 7th mouse Dad caught in his trailer.  I'd post the close up, but the poor little mouse looked too cute and dead.  A little disturbing.

A Few Last Hurrahs!

We're trying to fit as much summer as we can into the next week or so as summer comes to an end!

We found a nice shady spot to enjoy some Mexican food at the Riverwoods in Provo.  They had a live band playing on the stage in the background.

Thank goodness for the splash pad!!

Meili.  Number One!!

Aunt Roo came to meet Dia and to relax with us.

Drying off in the sun.

This place is really fun.

Dancing with Daddy and Dia to some live music.

Then we played on Grandma's trampoline

Making our new slave girl clean off the trampoline ;)

Nice and cool at Grandma's.

We took Dia up the hill to watch the sun set over the valley.  It was beautiful!

This weekend we're going camping again, hopefully I can get pictures of that up soon as well.

(still haven't put up pics from the last camping adventure, our trip to Colorado and my brother's wedding!!)

Insta-mom

In a matter of seconds we became parents of a teenager :)

Our Hungarian Exchange-daughter has arrived and we are sooo happy she is finally here!

Fishin'

If you don't want to watch the whole thing, at least watch from about :30 on.

Meili's reaction to this fish...