Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Colorado Vacation: Day One

I can't believe it's already JULY! I always want to rush rush RUSH through late winter/early spring, only to get to August and wonder where May, June, and July went....well hopefully I can slow down and enjoy my favorite time of the year :)

Over Memorial weekend, Joel and I road-tripped to Colorado with one of my college roomies (Macy) and her husband (Paul). See?

It was actually very random how this trip came about. After Easter, Joel and I were saying we should take a trip somewhere outside of the Minneapolis/Omaha/Chicago/Kansas City area, but not like a full-blown tropical/expensive destination. He suggested Colorado, and I suggested we go with Paul and Macy. So, via the lovely communication vehicle that is Facebook, Macy and I chatted about our spring plans. It turned out they were ALREADY planning to on vacation, to COLORADO, during the ONLY five consecutive days we had available. Crazy, huh?!

Even though it kind of felt like we were inviting ourselves along on their trip, they were more than happy to extend the trip to include us :) On Friday, May 27, they drove from Oskaloosa at 5am to pick us up around 7am at home. Joel's sister, Rebecca, was kind enough to come stay at our house with Brady, so we took off and drove 10.5 hours to the Estes Park area of the mountains!

We stopped for some groceries, then headed into the mountains to stay at Paul's family's cabin. Now, it may not have looked that big from the outside, but it had a huge living/dining room, stone fireplace, fully-equipped kitchen, full bathroom, a master bedroom, and a "porch" room that really served as a second bedroom. And a basement they are working to finish. Oh, and Paul's grandfather built the entire thing himself. It was probably more "cabiny" than "housy", which is a perfect combination of rustic living and everyday amenities for this girl :)

After the long drive, we cooked up some frozen chicken masala (I took the ingredient list home because it was sooo gooooood), frozen lasagna, and frozen broccoli. For such a quick, easy, eclectic meal from the freezer section, we all loved it! Then we started a roaring barely lit fire in the fireplace, also built by hand, munched on some s'mores, and hit the hay early since we were all exhausted and the altitude took some getting used to.