All About The Peanut: Spring Break 2014

We really wanted to take a vacation for Spring Break - mainly because the last time we took a vacation was July 2012 for Kristen and Dave's wedding in Mexico. Between moving and the pregnancy and Henry's arrival, we haven't had much down time. So when, after a few drinks at the Lot a few weeks ago, our friends mentioned getting a rental in Colorado for Spring Break - we were all in. In retrospect, taking an 8-month old baby anywhere, not to mention a place that has gotten record snow fall, is not the most relaxing activity to engage in. However, Hayley was able to go with us to help with the baby and after a rough first day, we ended up having a wonderful vacation..

Pictures and details below:

Because we booked our trip late, the only affordable option for flights was Spirit Airlines... we have never flown Spirit, but I have heard terrible things. However, the tickets were literally thousands of dollars cheaper..so I figured we could deal with bad service and long lines. I am happy to report, however, that our Spirit experience was great. There was about a 10 minute wait to check the bags (and yes, you have to pay for checked bags - but we do that on American as well), but the flight attendants were super nice and the seats (we paid for the larger seats up front) were awesome. The flight attendant even let David go in and meet the pilot.

Our flight was late on the day on Tuesday, so most of Tuesday was just traveling. Once we got into Denver, we rented a giant SUV and made the drive up to Estes Park. Henry cried the entire drive.. literally, the entire drive. In fact, he cried for the entirety of almost ever drive we took in Colorado. Like I said in my prior post - the kid is persistent.

The only time David has ever had soda of any kind is on a plane.. and he thinks he is quite grown getting to order a Ginger Ale on the place.

When we arrived Tuesday night, it was pretty apparent that David was not adjusting to the altitude very well. In came in the house and went straight to bed. I called his doctor and they suggested trying some Advil before going back to a lower altitude. I had some infant ibuprofen that really seemed to help and everyone went to bed for the night.

On Wednesday morning, both kids decided to wake up at 4am (which was just a 4 hours after Matt and I had gone to sleep). David wanted to get up and see all the snow he missed coming in the night before. We got up and had breakfast and played with the kids before Travis, Carol, Lila and Sky got up. When everyone was up and about, we headed to Bear Lake (in Rocky Mountain National Park) to go for a hike. Typically, we are told, this hike is stroller/kid friendly- but, as you can see in the pictures, they have gotten a lot of snow..so it was a bit too treacherous for Henry and I. We hung back while Matt took David.

The house we rented was surrounded by deer. I don't know what kind of deer (big ones?), but we almost hit this one backing out of the drive-way.

In the afternoon, we headed snow sledding. David was tired and still struggling to adjust to the altitude. Henry was not sure what to think about the cold weather or the fact we put him in a borrowed pink leopard print marshmallow suit to keep him warm!! When David finally got to feeling a little better, he was super excited about sledding. However, he manged to have an epic crash the first time down. He decided to lay down in the sled, turning it more into a luge which gained a lot of speed down the hill. He flew over the top of the barricade, went air born and was tossed out of the sled. I tried to rush over and fell down while holding the baby. The whole scene was just a mess. Everyone was fine and he ended up having a lot of fun going down the hill (although he went with Matt until he got the hang out it).

The kids were out as soon as we got back to the house.

On Thursday, we drove to Eldora to go skiing. David had a blast at ski school and Matt and I took a private lesson to try and remember how to ski. Henry, our teacher, was not the best..but I think we got the hang of it after a while.