Steamboat Springs

 Fish Creek Falls

 Eating at Sweet Pea on the Yampa River.

We spent a few days at Steamboat Springs, Colorado this past week for a Colorado "staycation."  Steamboat Springs is such a cute town with beautiful views; I wish I could say I'd come back during the winter months to ski, but I'll be honest, I'm not much of a mountain driver or rider.  Bleh.  It was really cool seeing the ski slopes in the summer, though.

As soon as we got to Steamboat, we immediately went to Fish Creek Falls.  We made the mistake of choosing the paved path at the park thinking it was a short cut to the Falls, however, it took you all the way up the mountain and past several snakes on the trail,  Yikes!  I don't know if I was more scared of my children falling off the sides of the path and down the mountain or those snakes!  They definitely weren't the types of snakes you see in Florida!  Anyways, we made it to the Falls and it was breathtaking!!!  The boys had a great time playing on the rocks in the river as I was on snake lookout.  We survived, though, and made it out alive without falling off the mountain or getting bitten.

After we went to the Falls, we went in town and ate at this cute little restaurant on the Yampa River.  We decided to try out some local dishes- Bison and Rocky Mountain Trout; the Trout was delicious but the Bison...well, yuck.  It was still a pretty cool experience since we were right on the river.

We had big plans for the next day, but the weather didn't cooperate (50 degrees and raining).  We decided to do some shopping and then head back to Fort Collins.  We were all disappointed to say the least, but we quickly learned that there isn't much to do in Steamboat that doesn't involve the outdoors.  :(

Pool Party!

 Drew taking Anderson down the slide.

 Kate Bobo and Katie Friend

 The Jakes

 Anderson and Copeland

 The Walkers

More cell phone pics- I'm sorry!  These are from our pool party last weekend with the Friends, the Bobos, and the Youngs.  All weekend, the weather was beautiful here in Fort Collins.  Sure enough, we schedule a pool party for Sunday, and it starts raining and the temp drops 30 degrees.  The kids were determined to swim, though, and braved the 58 degree weather while the adults sat under an umbrella all bundled up.  Ha!  Either way, we all had a great time.  We sure are lucky to have built in friends in our new town; it has made this move so much better!

4th of July Weekend

 Mike, Lainie, Carrie, Will, shawty, Tyson, Laurie (Mike's sister), and Daniel out to dinner Friday night to kick of the weekend.

 The Summers 5 at the Fort Collins 4th of July Parade

 A Denver Broncos fire truck

 Santa Claus?? Christmas in July?

 Storm Troopers.

CSU cheerleaders and our mascot, Cam the Ram

 

For the past few years, we've spent the 4th of July at the beach.  Tyson and I debated on going back to Georgia to celebrate this year, but it didn't make sense since we just got here a month ago.  :( I also vowed to never fly with Anderson Summers again (or at least until he is old enough to sit still for at least 3.5 minutes) unless it was absolutely necessary.  Ha!  This year was about new traditions- we started the day out at the Fort Collins 4th of July parade and spent the rest of the day with new friends.  We had a good time but we definitely missed our Georgia friends and family. 

 

 

More on the 4th later.  And I promise to quit posting cell phone pics and start using my real camera really soon. ;)

Time With My Mom

Thanks to my amazing husband, I was able to fly home this past week to spend some alone time with my mom.  I took her shopping and to all of her favorite places to eat, and we spent a lot of time talking, laughing, and reminiscing.  It was such a special time, and I'm so thankful I got to spend it with my mom.

Black Hills Cavern

 This wraps up the last of our South Dakota trip.  For our last adventure, we visited Black Hills Cavern and got to go through this cave.  I can't remember all the history on it, but it dates back to the 1800s.  Unfortunately, there was no gold "in them thar hills."  It was still a pretty cool experience, though.

 "This one, this one right here.  This was my dream, my wish.  And it didn't come true. So I'm taking it back.  I'm taking them all back." -Mouth from "The Goonies"  Hahaha.  Tyson and I were reciting this and the boys looked at us like we were crazy.

 Mining for gold...except Mama and Daddy only bought the gem stones and fossils package.  Ha!  Jake said that if he found gold, he would buy an RV with it. (I've been telling the boys how I want to have an RV one day and tour the country in it).  Hahaha!

 All three (or four) of my boys loved the mining, and it turned out to be pretty educational.  They learned the names of several of the gems and where they originated from.

Bear Country

 While we were in Rapid City, South Dakota, we went to Bear Country, which is a drive-thru wildlife area.  I didn't photograph everything, but here are a few animals that we saw.  This is an elk.

 Reindeer

 Mountain goat

 Big horn sheep (or Cam the Ram, Colorado State's mascot, as the boys called it)

 This is where the bears hibernate.

 At first, we thought this bear was dead.  He was just taking a really good nap. ;)

 

 This bear walked right by our car; we had to keep the windows rolled up for safety or else I would've gotten a better picture.  You can tell the bears are really used to cars- they didn't even stud us.  We, on the other hand, were slightly freaking out. Hahaha!

 Another bear that walked in front of our car.  This one was HUGE!

More buffalo.