Our Trip Days 4-5

We enjoyed our surroundings while staying in Estes Park and of course my time with my family. One morning hubby and I went on a nice walk/bike ride. I walked while pushing Jonathan in a stroller and hubby rode his bike. It was pretty steep in some places. It took us a total of 3 hours. We walked/biked the 6 miles around the lake and walked/biked around town. It was so much fun. The interesting part of my walk with my beautiful red head was the "concerned" people stopping me on my trail. People would flag me down to let me know that my son is not only red but a red head at that. They were really "concerned" about how red he looked and thought that I had forgotten the sun screen. I would politely tell them "yes, he has sun screen on but he is hot natured. that is one of the reasons he does wear a hat on days such as these." Then they would take a step back to say " oh, well you know that red heads burn easily." My evil side wanted to say " Yes, m'am the red headed manual they passes out at the hospital seem to indicate that as well." However, my good twin won over with a polite "thank you for your concern."

nice!

our view while on our walk/bike ride

I'll  live in one of those.

Yummy!

looks like fun

After our fun day around town by bike and stroller we had dinner with my brother and his family. It was such a great time! I have missed my brother so much but count my blessings that he is still with me here on this earth. Plus, my sister in law is the best. He did good by picking her. We are so grateful that God sent Amy to us.

cousins

basketball with Uncle John David

Troy and little man

just a little wrestle time

It was really neat to see my little man with the cousins. He really enjoyed playing with older boys and would want to model what they do. I just wished we lived close by each other so we could enjoy more moments such as these. I am so grateful to savor every moment. It also reminded me of how little man seems to really enjoy the company of other kids around him. There is something to be said for having brothers and sisters around you when growing up. I love that he has so much fun with others.

Our Trip Day 3 Estes Park

One of the most beautiful things about Estes Park was you walked everywhere. You walked to get breakfast, coffee, the movies, to town (which was 1.3 miles to the center), to rent bikes, to the kids community playground or anything else you can think of. We loved it! I actually lost weight on this trip! I enjoyed the fresh air and the positive attitude of the people in town. People were so friendly! Here is a thought, most of the people I met were either locals or from TEXAS. Yep, many folks from Texas "summer" in Colorado. Crazy! We did meet some folks from New Orleans. It was very interesting. Our first official day in Estes we enjoyed the beautiful surroundings and relaxed!

Even McDonald's is prettier!

Flowers were planted all around the town center.

Just part of our beautiful walk!

Kind Coffee and it really was good & kind!

Hat buddies!

at the playground

love my boys

Just me and my boy

loved our walk!

perfect ending to a perfect day!

beautiful sunset!

Our Trip Day 2 Goodbye Kansas, Hello Colorado!

Once again we woke up at the crack of dawn to leave beautiful Wichita and get to Colorado! Here are a few more pictures of our long drive out of Kansas. We did make a big pit stop in Kansas so little man could stretch his legs. We were blessed that the gas station where we needed to fill up had an awesome play area. I think that is key when traveling with little ones is to stop at places so they can run and play. We made many play stops along our way since we knew most of our day would be in the car for this trip. I am proud of him! He did really well in the car!

Good bye Kansas!

Yep, we're not in Kansas anymore! Colorado's sign is beautiful!

Colorado's visitor center. It was small but clean. We like stopping at the visitor centers because you get all kinds of free information about the state. Trust me it is different then when you call them and ask them to send you free pamphlets. They only send a few and this way when you do stop you get to pick and choose. We did stop here for awhile to stretch our legs.

The nice thing about this visitor center was the play area outside and inside. It wasn't nothing special but a nice place to roam. What is it about boys and trees?

Yeah! We made it!

God did good!

Uncle John David and cousin Troy

cousins

Our Trip Day 1 Wichita, Kansas

Day 1 of our trip we stayed in Wichita, Kansas for the night. We got there early enough in the evening to see the city and eat a nice dinner. It was quite the adventure for mom and I to explore the little city. Hubby was back at the hotel getting little man settled or should I say letting him stretch his legs. One thing we have learned about our sweet boy is he loves hotels! I was the exact same way when I was younger. It is neat to see it in my son! We thought it was best to order dinner to go and eat back at the hotel so we could crash after a very long day in the car. For trips such as these a GPS does come in handy but you do need to update your maps before you go. We did not update my moms GPS trying to save money where we could. Well, we apparently needed the new maps for Wichita. They had a lot of construction so things were not accurate. Needless to say we got lost in some parts of the city. We did get to witness police officers take down 3 men. This happened right outside a place called His Diner. It is a place for people who are homeless to come in and eat a meal. Mom and I came to the conclusion that they must have fought over the last meal since they were at the end of the line. We decided that was enough thrill for one night. I must say this little city has some beautiful old buildings and it was fun to take pictures of them.

If I worked downtown I would eat my lunch here everyday. Such a beautiful place to relax and catch your breathe.

Loretta Lynn is coming!

After our little tour of the city we did finally find a place to grab some grub. When we got back to the hotel this is what we found little man doing.

Just give him a phone!!

so sweet when they are sleeping!

Our Trip Day 1 (Texas to Kansas)

We first traveled through Oklahoma and made a very important stop. Braums Ice Cream! If you have never eaten at Braums then I suggest finding a way to stop at one on your next trip. They are in the Dallas area and Oklahoma. I am not sure where else but those are the two main places. Anyway, my son as you know does not like sweets. Yep, you heard it. For his birthday I made a cake and icing from scratch and he didn't even have one bite. Everyone else LOVED it. Not my son. So when we stopped at Braums my first thought was maybe we can share something and then my next thought was ummm, hello this is Braums surely the kid will like it! Sure enough he did. GrannyBug and Little Man shared together in one of his firsts. His first vanilla shake! I don't mind him having something like this since he is a veggie and fruit lover to begin with. One of his favorite meals always involves salad with tomatoes and onions with vinegar and oil. So you can see why a treat like this is no big deal but yet it is...;0)

GrannyBug and Braums

There was no place to stop to take a proper picture but here it is anyway. The official Oklahoma sign.

Just a beautiful area in Oklahoma not too far from the state line.

Now, the first day was kinda of tough because we drove 11 hours to get to our first stop in Kansas. Well, that is with all our stops and everything! Day 2 was about the same amount of time. We REALLY wanted to get to our finally destination Colorado!

Visitor center in Kansas. One of the nicest visitors centers I have visited. They had restrooms, a gift shop, information center of Kansas and a Mc Donald's. It was very very clean!

Another area of the Kansas visitors center.

Our Hotel in Kansas.

Nothing more inviting than a well made bed at a Hotel. Plus, you don't have to make it in the morning!!!

The living area. We really liked this Hotel. It had a full bathroom in the living area and you don't typically have two bathrooms. It came in handy when we had to divide us up for the sleeping arrangements.

Tomorrow I will show you some of the beautiful sights that we got to encounter in the downtown area. Here is just a sneak peek...

blessing....

mrs. c

Trouble

I am so sorry that I have not posted in awhile but we have been having trouble with our computer among other things. Our desk top crashed on us so that leaves me with nothing. Hubby is having to download everything from the back up to his lap top. I can not share with you our Colorado pictures or any others until that is done from his end. Our garage door broke last week, we have a bug problem that is being fixed Monday, and My Uncle Billy passed away this week. Needless to say it has been a little crazy here the past few weeks. Just continue to be patient with me(us). I love y'all and thank you for the prayers for hubby to gain employment. We still have not heard anything from his last interview.

until next time.....

Eat, Pray, Love =0) I think that this will be a good one to go see!

Summer Time Fun