Longs Peak Climb

Brandon and Nick at the summit after 6 hours of hiking.
Geoff and Brandon better not slip!
Nick and Brandon afte the Keyhole Longs Peak in Colorado
Brandon, Mindy and Geoff at the Keyhole portion of the climb. Nick is taking the picture.

Brandon and Nick went climbing in Colorado on Longs Peak. They got up at 1 a.m. and drove to Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.

As the tallest peak in the park, they had a great time and it took around 12 hours round trip. The trip was fun although it was foggy and the second part was hard. I wanted to go, but not on Longs Peak! It's technical and high and well, I like sleeping in!

Rockies game and Mount Evans

Nick, Brady, Brandon, and Ava head into Coors Field to watch the Rockies on our last Sunday in Colorado. We all had a great time and I got to get some dip n dots, which always makes anything better. We went after church and had fun watching the game, eating lots of bad food, including nachos and hotdogs and then headed home for a nap.
Hot. Hot. Can you tell it was 90-plus degrees? We were so hot at the game i went through two 4.00 bottles of water trying to keep Ava cool! Our seats were really close to the field--four rows from the first-base coach!
Here is the Rockies sign before we went in. The Rockies won the game against the LA Dodgers. It was neat to see the players so close.
Little Brady (in his Bass Pro hat) and Nick took this before we entered the field.
Jessie and Ava high up on Mt. Evans.

Winterpark and Rocky Mountain National Park

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Dinner at Granby Lake with Colin, Olivia and Ava.
Becca, Ava, Rachel, Olivia and I were shopping in Winterpark.
Everyone was stopping their cars to watch this Elk at Rocky Mt. National Park

Brio family pic

Christina, Grammy Shmidt, Sharon, Ava and me
Brandon, Ava and I
Everyone smile!
Grammy smiling during dinner with Ava.

We recently visited Brio at Easton since Brandon's family was in town and got some family pictures. Here they are...

Garden of the Gods and Seven Falls

Entering the famous Seven Falls in the Springs.
Garden of the Gardens rock formations
Ava and I at the top of the mountain view overlooking Seven Falls.

I took this picture while waiting for Brandon
to come down from the top of Seven Falls. I loved how
Ava was enjoying watching the water fall down the rocks and took the picture from behind to capture her.

Colorado vacation_The Springs

Brandon laughed because i kept on telling him to be careful with Ava near the edge of the cliff.
This was taken at the top of a high cliff
The red-rock formations were spectacular
Visitor and Nature Center entrance
Ava has snacktime

While we were in Colorado, we visited Colorado Springs for a night. We went on priceline.com and got a hotel for 55! And it was three stars! Hey, I love a deal. Anyways, we drove down from Denver, which took about 1.5 hours in our rented Jeep Commander.

During our time in Colorado Springs we visited Seven Falls, Garden of the Gods, Macaroni Grill (he...he) and Manitou Springs, along with Pikes Peak! At the top of Pikes Peak, we ate their world famous donuts and took some photos of the cog rail. We found out that 'America the Beautiful' was penned after a professor was on the top of the mountain for two days as saw the beautiful view from the top. It was really breathtaking. Being up that high makes your problems seem small and very insignificant!

Colorado vacation_Mount Evans

High on the top of Mount Evans
Olivia loved being on Mount Evans
I wonder how the car drive down was with Colin!
Colin, Jessie and Brady enjoyed a picnic with us at the top!
After our trip on Wed. to Mount Evans, we travelled to the Rocky
Mountain Park to go to Winterpark. The poles on the side
of the road help to indicate snow levels during winter.
So, we are back in Ohio and man, the land of the plains is so...flat! We had a great time and it was very hard to return home. Remember, my comment about how i missed my house? I miss the view there more! And my sisters and little nephew and nieces!

Most mornings we would head upstairs and see Colin, Olivia and Brad either playing in the family room or eating breakfast, which usually included their favorite fruit in the world, blueberries!

I love how Brady says blueberries! He says it in this high singsongy voice that makes you wonder how you missed this fruit all of your life. It must be good!

I have loaded pictures today to show some of our highlights. Thanks so much Jessie and nick for a great time! You are the best hosts! And Rachel and Olivia- thanks for your van and getting to be sort've roomies.

Till thanksgiving!