UT/CO Trip Day 9 - Eat, Shop and Puzzle

After the day we had, the only things we could muster on our last day was finding great food...

Buying souvenirs....

And finishing the cabin's EPIC puzzle that has not properly been cared for.  For shame. 

We enjoyed our last hours in this gorgeous house nestled in these fabulous trees.

Tomorrow we drive!
 

UT/CO Trip Day 8 - Quandary Peak

 We read about the different "Fourteeners" near Breckenridge to find one that was considered "easy" so that all the little people could make it up to the top. Quandary Peak was the one! It was easy and it was close! 

We made sweetened pancakes the night before for easy trail munching. And we packed the grown-up packs with SOOOO much water. 

Look at those happy, optimistic faces!

Just stopping for a kick breather and pep talk a few minutes in...

Soon the sun was coming up. Gorgeous!

I can get enough of the sunbeams and the little flowers along the path. Focusing on them helps me ignore my burning legs. 

The kids took turns needing encouragement to continue on the path. Laney wanted to turn back in the first 15 minutes, but Mark quickly made it his mission to coach her along the way. 

One beautiful view gave way to another as we climbed past the tree line:

That's where we met the mountain goats! They were close and they were crossing the trail. 

It was clear they do CrossFit, so we gave them right of way. 

Right about that time, groups started to splinter off.  Laney and Dad left us in the dust. We were lucky if we spotted them up above us on the switchbacks!

Megan and Emma were the next to go... bye! don't fall off of a cliff or break your leg or talk to weird men or eat poisonous plants!

That left me and the littles. Todd and Courtney nonchalantly hung back to keep us safe. Somebody needed to eat some of these silly hiking pancakes. 

I'm not gonna lie, the girls were super over it. I was sure that we could inch our way to the top. We started counting 10 steps and sitting down for 5 seconds....10-5-10-5-10-5. 

I did that thing that mothers do where I picture the kids finally up at the top of the mountain and their hearts surge with inner pride and accomplishment and it becomes the foundation for their future adult selves as they face all the hard things that will most certainly come their way. Without it, what will become of them??

Don't do that to yourself, my sweet future mamas and papas. Life mostly doesn't work that way. 

When the real crying started up, I began to worry about Everly and how much her body should or could handle. I told Todd and Courtney that I thought I better turn around. 

That turned Courtney's frown....

Upside down! 

She said, "Heck no. If anyone is taking those girls down, its ME."

We are took a photo to commemorate how hard these guys worked and how really high they got! I was proud of them! The got to the first false summit!

Todd and I hiked on and as we came around a bend, I heard a very faint, "moooommmm" off to the side. We looked over and Megan and Emma were laying on the only patch of vegetation in sight, they were clinging to life.  We urged them onward, promising them glory and accolades upon reaching the summit. 

Not this summit. 

A different summit. 

We certainly love our false summits around here. 

And then Meg sat down. And she started hyperventilating and I had a heart to heart with myself and decided I'd rather have a kid that knows that I can listen than one that knows that all it takes to climb a Fourteener is to have a mom willing the drag your lifeless body to the top. 

It never ceases to amaze me how much worse going down is than coming up. Even with gravity on my side. 

Torture.

But remember? 

Laney and Dad were up ahead and they were gonna make it!

Look at that view! Hard fought and well-deserved.

That feeling just might get her through some tough times in the future. Or maybe it won't....but my word, I love the look on her face. 

Todd, Emma and Aidan also made it to the top. I had to settle for the picture in the parking lot. 

Oh...did I forget to mention? Megan and I had a nice nap on the road. Mark had the keys in his backpack....at the top of the mountain. 

You'd be surprised how comfortable gravel can be when you are truly truly exhausted. 

When we finally made it back to the cabin...we had a full evening planned. 

*You may be wondering where Mathew was in all these pictures? He ditched us about 15 minutes into the hike, raced ahead and passed us again as he came down off the mountain, telling us he made it all the way to the top and he'd be waiting for us by the cars. After all was said and down, Megan and Laney called him out and finally got him to confess! Laney stands as the sole Hufford kid to summit Quandary Peak!

UT/CO Trip Day 7 - White Water Rafting & St. Elmo's

My my....aren't we the fancy ones? Martinis in the morning, that's how we roll. 

The main even today is white water rafting! We had a bit of a tense moment when we realized we were driving in the wrong direction and would possibly miss our start time. It was decidedly unchill, especially by Colorado standards. No outing is complete without a mini panic attack for fear of losing our reservation time and a bunch of money. 

But soon we were gearing up. Helmet fashion is all the rage in Colorado.

Everybody was excited except for Everly. She's...um...adventure averse. I decided not to discuss it with her too much. It's one of my main parenting techniques....don't give them a chance to opt out. 

After some instruction on proper rowing technique and responding to commands, we were off! Soon we realized that our guide graduated from the University of Dad Jokes. We weren't mad about it. 

Everly was dead center and had a death grip on her strap. She was not interested in going into that water.

Mathew and Megan were assigned to the other raft. Their guide was the strong, silent type. Todd took over the entertainment portion of their ride, luckily he was ready with several helpful questions about the history and local flora and fauna.

I found out later that Mathew purposely made a goofy face during the entire ride so as to ensure this face in ALL the photos:

We "pulled over" for a bit to let anyone interested to do a bit of cliff jumping. 

Once we were through the larger rapids, Anna got to take charge! He taught her how to call out all the commands. And she rose to the challenge!

As we were loading up the cars, we decided this would be the perfect day to drive out to St. Elmo's and see the chipmunk colony. Fat, sassy chipmunks will aways be worth driving out of our way. 

Back to the cabin and we fired up the jacuzzi!

Heck. 

Yes.