On Top of Vail Mountain

Once my Dad and Torchy arrived, we ramped up the intentional activity scale. On my day off, we headed up to the top of Vail mountain right as they opened. Here are some photos:

On the gondola

Generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of gondolas.

But I worked on getting over that for the cause.

And to be fair, the payoff is pretty good.

We took a very short hike around the top.

Then we posed for photos.

A family pose.

With plenty of evidence I've got to get some weight off.

Ugh.

Even the flowers posed.

There were very few flowers though, it being so dry.

Then we found the pony rides.

On top of the mountain, there is a restaurant, pony rides, a jumping bungee thing and maybe a couple of other things. There are more activities on top of the Breckenridge mountain, which I'll show you another day. Anyway, LM wanted to ride the pony right off. So, Grandpa went in and bought him a ticket right off. 

There was as small pony and then an even smaller one.

Of course, LM wanted to ride the BIG one.

No helmet this time, but he held on really well.

And the video, with my expert commentary included.

It was a beautiful day on top of the mountain. We went down after a bit and drove a long way for some pizza. But, that's another story. 

See you soon.

Arrgh! Ahoy Matey!

Love this photo - looks like he is jamming to Muno's (on his shirt) music.

There are several amazing playgrounds in and around Vail. This one, a pirate playground, is adjacent to a stream that is, at least this year, pleasantly walkable! So, Daddy and the boy had a fun time at this location several times, sometimes without me, sometimes I got to tag along and dip my toes in the cold, cold stream too! Here are some photos:

Walking the plank...

...on a different day.

Hi Mommy!

Hi Baby, Mommy loves you so!

Up on the lookout.

This is the paparazzi shot.

When I went through the photos and saw this one, with the sunglasses, Daddy carrying the boy, etc, I thought, if we were famous in any way, this - this one - would be the photo in People Magazine. Ha. Doesn't it look like all those "celebrities with their children" photos that appear in those sorts of magazines? It amused me.

Looking down the slide.

It's soooo funny and so much fun to see the Mommy at the other end of the slide.

In this one, you can see the whole slide tunnel in his glasses.

OK, go already, sweet boy!

Out of the ship, into the boat.

He totally thought he could climb this rope. 

He sort of could, but not quite yet, really.

Into the stream!

Picking up and throwing rocks.

I'm so glad the boys had such a nice time while I was working in the mountains. 

See you soon.

Water!

This boy loves water. And, the places we stayed in Vail and Breckenridge both had a pool. Here are a few photos from their time in the water:

The floatie suit.

In this photo, he's in this suit that has floaties inside of it. It was Andrew's once, and Brooke very kindly gave it to us to use. It barely fits him, and I think that might have been one of the issues. He played with it happily only for a little while. Then he started pulling on it and complaining about it. So, we went and changed into his usual suit. Oh well. We'll maybe try again sometime, with the next size up.

Then, a friend of mine who lives near Aspen came over one day with her husband and son. The boys went swimming that day. Her son is a couple of years older than LM, so of course, LM thought he was the coolest. He was jumping into the pool, so LM did too. Here is a video of the daredevil in action:

A few minutes later, unprovoked, he starting jumping in backwards into the pool as well. Then, his new friend Jack followed suit. Funny. LM and S also got to swim in Breckenridge - here are a couple of photos from there:

Great fun.

See you soon!

Mountain Beauty

Here are the obligatory photos of the floral beauty I encountered daily on my way to and from work while in the mountains. Obligatory because of their beauty and because it keeps me sane. Double whammy:

Colorado is dry, people. 

The creek was REALLY low.

Peonies! Beautiful.

The state flower of Indiana.

Peonies remind me of my Nana and my Mom.

Columbines - state flower of Colorado

Well there you go. I hope maybe you will enjoy them as much as I did. Maybe it'll make your Monday a little more bearable...

See you soon!