Rocky Mountain Road Trip '09

Road trips are always filled to the brim with adventure when driving a 2 and 4 year old...this one was no exception! :)

A little over 2 weeks ago we embarked on a 21-hour journey to visit the beautiful Rocky Mountains and spend some time with my dear family.

The ride went fairly smoothly, especially considering our very active little boys had to be contained in their car seats for almost an entire full day. Thank goodness for DVD players and new library books!! (It also helped that 10 of those hours were spent resting during the night)

We arrived at my dad and step-mom's condo around 5 in the afternoon. Within seconds of our energetic boys climbing out of the car, they had their swim suits on and were running to the pool. Freedom was returned to them once again!

Here are the boys as their feet touch land again for the first time in hours:



The next 6 days that followed included 2 long bike rides:



Several trips to the playground:




Hiking:










Enjoying fields of wild flowers:




A Snow Ball Fight:


A train ride:



A little relaxing:





and LOTS of swimming. It was a wonderful mixture of getting out to enjoy the stunning beauty of the Rockies and taking moments here and there to kick our feet up. We were so thankful for the deep breaths of refreshing mountain air and the ability to get caught up on a little reading, (and, of course, helped the boys build several castles out of blocks).

The following week we spent catching up with my family:





One evening we even had the opportunity to catch up with my best friend from high school and her husband. It was refreshing to be with her and catch up on the many years we've been a part.

Although so many fun memories were made, here are a few highlights:

-- For my husband: two 18 mile bike rides with our family to one of our favorite ski towns. (T was able to have his bike attached to one of our bikes while P rode in the chariot)



-- For Mr. T: his first ever sleep-over with his cousin! My sweet sister and my brother-in-law, (who have 4 kids of her own), offered to let T spend the night...it was so kind of them to do so!

Another highlight was T's first time going under water to swim in the pool. (Something we tried so hard to have him do last year at swim lessons but he was too scared)

-- For P: the train ride was thrilling and he's NEVER sat so still as he drank in all the sights and sounds!




Another highlight for P was cuddle time with the grandparents:





And, of course, there's the meeting of Master Yoda:



-- For me: being able to have quality time with not only my husband and boys:



but also my mom and step-dad, dad and step-mom:




as well as my sister and her husband and their kids. I LOVED watching all the kids interact so well together, it filled me with such joy!



The car ride back home was more eventful than the first. When we stopped at 3 am to get gas, I opened our Yakima storage tub on the top of our car to get some bottled water. The boys and I then went to wave to the trucks driving by and run around the parking lot for a few minutes, (yes, it was the middle of the night but I could not think of a better way to get rid of some pent up energy).

By the time all was said and done, my husband thought that I closed the latch and I thought he had...and when we put 2 and 2 together it was a little 2 late! After accelerating onto the highway, we heard the disconcerting sound of several items loudly ricocheting off the windows. And that was indeed the point that we put 2 and 2 together.

By now we had covered at least a quarter if not half a mile from where we had gotten on. We had to go back and re-trace our path back to the first location where we heard "the noise", (we pursued this middle-of-the-night-search half way out of curiosity, I might add).

Our newly turned 2 year old picked that exact moment to loudly demand, (as only a 2 year old can), that we pray. I'll admit that prayer was rather far from my mind at that exact moment...but pray we did!

My brave husband then did the dirty work of leaping out of the car and dogging quickly coming semi trucks, (unknowingly heading straight at him), as he cris-crossed the highway over and over again retrieving the items that had came pummeling out a few moments before.

The good news is that all the fallen shoes were found, (a total of 6!)...and only one pair suffered great casualty. Let's just say that they look like a new kind of road kill.



Sadly, they were my favorite pair of shoes too!


I guess that's Murphy's Law. At least I now have the pair for show and tell! :)

If only shoes could talk! I think this pair must have been hit at least 7 or 8 times by the time we re-claimed them, (that's A LOT of wheels -- considering they were hit by 18-wheelers!)!

All went well for us again until we crossed over into our home state. We were given a speeding ticket for 5 over...$93 to be exact. Oh well...we'll just try hard to look at it like an expensive, (and not-so-desirable), souvenir.

Other than that, we're so thankful for the great trip and sweet memories made along the way.