Our Colorado Adventure

Jake and his Nonny

Jake & Ryan in Creede

View from the train on the way to Silverton

I LOVE this pic of him looking out the window!

Paw Paw and Jake getting ready for some fishing

Big Meadow Lake

Well, we just made it back from a great week in Colorado. Andrew really wanted to go, but he had a lot going on with work so he had to stay behind with Timber. So me and Jake made the 14 (or so) hour drive with mom and dad. We went in dad's new truck, which is a very comfortable ride and from the very beginning decided we would see just how many Wal-Mart stores we could stop at between here and there. After about the 4th Wal Mart, we finally gave up on that. The first night, we stopped in Trinidad, Colorado and stayed the night in a new hotel that was rather nice. We woke up the next morning and drove a few more hours to our final destination, South Fork, and our cabin 'the Dry Bean' which I renamed the 'Wet Noodle.' We got to spend a lot of time with Robbie, Janice, Ryan, Uncle LH, Aunt Bill, and LaDena and Jake got to play A LOT with Zach and Brianna (cousins he didn't even know he had:) Jake and Brianna were cut right out of the same mold and it was quite amusing listening to their conversations. For example, while Jake was trying to explain many things to Brianna she finally said, "You just think you know everything." Jake's reply, "Well, listen cause I DO know a lot."

We went to Big Meadows Lake a couple days and fished. I spent a couple hours on the bank one day and caught zip. Five minutes after I gave up and walked back up to our camp, a couple men had moved into my spot and caught a big one. It didn't take us long to realize Jake was more excited about his Batman fishing pole than actually fishing with it. After about half an hour, he decided, "This takes too long." and was off to play with the other kids. One day Dad went with Robbie and a group of guys to fish at a different lake a few hours away, so all the women and kids went to Creede to walk through the town, have lunch and do some shopping. Another day Mom, Dad, Jake and I drove to Durango and rode a train to Silverton. The scenery was beautiful and the train ride was fun (for the first half). We rode the train to Silverton and back, which was three hours each way, so the ride back seemed REALLY long. Our last day there, Dad and I got up in the morning to go rafting with a small group. We were expecting some good rapids with a guide. What we got was a woman with her four year old son and a bus, who dropped us off with a raft. When we asked her where she was going to pick us up, she replied, "Oh yeah, I was gonna show that on the way here. Just stop at the bridge." So we all floated down the river in the HOT sun. It was nice and pretty uneventful... until it suddenly got cold.... and then began to rain... and then the rain felt freezing cold and was hard, because it was really SLEET! So we paddled and shivered and laughed for the last 30-40 minutes until we finally made it to the bridge and the lady finally showed up in her Scooby-Doo van. It was pretty hilarious! We had a great week with mom and dad and the Baughmans; and Jake got to learn and experience a lot. He discovered that he prefers Diet Coke over the original, that you get to have a lot more sodas on vacation than at home, that he is a champ at Aggravation (the board game and the original:), that he is not afraid to pick up a dead animal, that he's not-so-crazy about trains anymore (even Thomas!), and that, while chasing girls with worms may be fun, its not the nicest thing to do.

The ride home went by quicker than the way there (probably because we avoided all Wal Marts and only stopped at one McDonalds). And on the way, we stopped in Aubrey to see Baby Gracie (Nathan and Amber's new baby girl). So I will be posting those pics soon. So now we're back home and suffering heat-shock and I'm enjoying a few more days before I'm back to work and reality really sets in...........