Another Tooth!

Elias finally lost a tooth that's been bugging him for a while. He's so happy.

CandyLand

Caught the big sis teaching the little bros how to play Candyland. She's got so much patience with them. They spent about an hour just playing. That's something I love about Leah. She can adapt to any of her brothers' ages and have fun with them.

Colorado!

We took a much-needed vacation to COLORADO! It was so beautiful. I'm still in disbelief that we were actually there, looking at real mountains and waterfalls and rivers. It truly was incredible.

We left super early in the morning and made it to Texas by the time the sun was coming up. So glad we've got a DVD player in the car because Cole would have been unpleasant to ride with. Toby was darling, snuggled up by my feet. Once we got to Texas, we stopped at Colleyville Nature Trail to stretch our legs for a bit and let the boys run around before getting back in the van. We made it to the hotel by evening and the kids had enough time to eat some pizza and watch The Goonies before knocking out.

Day 2, we got up and got back on the road. Texas is incredibly flat with lots of cows. Like, super flat and cows galore. It was a little nuts. And wind turbines! I've never seen them before and I sound like a tourist, but I didn't travel much as a kid. The most I've done has been with Zac. We found a rest stop with a playground and let the kids get out and move for a little while. Cole had a meltdown trying to get him back in the van, but we managed to keep going and passed through New Mexico. We saw more cows, some mesas, and even cacti. But finally, we reached Colorado and made it to our rental. 

Day 3, we went hiking from Hessie trail head to Lost Lake. We didn't see much wildlife aside from some ground squirrels. No bears, no moose, no mosquitos. The weather was super nice, like southern autumn temps. It was lovely. The whole hike with all four kids took about eight hours, start to finish. They were absolute troopers, even the boys. Zac and I took turns carrying them as needed, but for the most part, they walked. The views were totally worth it. And there was snow!

Day 4, we were too sore to do much, so we explored the town a little. We found some cute little shops, even a gluten free bakery. The kids had pizza from Beau Jo's (which I didn't eat because gLuTeN), but was told it was amazing.

Day 5, Zac made horseback arrangements, so we headed to Jackson Stables. All of us rode our own horse on the trail, except for Cole who rode with me. Everything started off smoothly, occasionally having to tug on reins to keep the horses on the trail. A few ahead of us started acting up, so us toward the back of the line started trailing behind. After maybe 20 minutes, Elias' horse got spooked and started galloping to catch up to the rest of the group. My poor baby was screaming, but he held on so tight. My heart stopped, I kid you not. The absolute fear that there was nothing I could do if he fell was overwhelming. Then, of course, mine took off right after his. It would've been less terrifying if I could use two hands to hold the reins, but had one arm wrapped around Cole's torso while he was screaming and crying and the other was making sure we didn't fall sideways. Add the challenge of the horse rearing up and you've got yourself a nightmare cocktail. Needless to say, one of the guides came to our aid and helped Elias and me down. We weren't about to trust horses who weren't in the mood to be ridden, so I passed Cole to Zac and another guide picked Elias and me up and took us back to the ranch to wait. Zac said the rest of the trail was relatively smooth, which sucks we missed it, but I didn't want to risk anymore issues. It could've been worse, but I'm glad it wasn't. We picked up some much-needed therapeutic ice cream.

Day 6, we made the sad trip home. We had a late start, so by the time we reached our hotel in Texas, we found they changed what room we requested. When we got our key and headed up, it was after 5am and the room hadn't been cleaned. There was trash on the floor, fast food containers, the beds were used, etc. Zac and I decided we would take turns and just drive the rest of the way home. It was annoying, we were exhausted, but I wasn't about to sleep in a gross room and they didn't have one available that would fit all of us. Bleh. However, the drive back was nice... until we reached Texas again, ha.