Carbondale

 A little over two weeks ago we returned from our final reunion in Carbondale, CO. Since we made the long trip out to Utah last year and were hoping to save another 2 day's drive, round trip, we convinced some of my family to meet us in Carbondale. We drove just two hours west of Breckenridge and my mom, Jim, my sister Karina, and her four youngest drove 5 1/2 hours and we met at the KOA there.

Since Victoria and Natalie are about the same age, I had one excited 9-year-old (the rest of us were excited too!)

Monday afternoon, after we arrived, the kids instantly began playing on the playground.

Austin and Peter, hitting it off again.

Swings are always great when Grandpa can push!

Nikolas is now two since then, so he and Erik enjoyed seeing each other

We explored the river that was very close to our cabin.

 Took a dip on the pool. As you can see, it wasn't very deep and was kind of cold, but it was great for the kids!

 The kids had the best slumber party ever that night! (Not much slumbering for some of them.)

Erik sometimes take a while to warm up to people, but he finally warmed up to Grandpa after seeing him the previous week at our house. 

 What's a reunion with Grandma Pat without some kind of show?

Calvin, Austin, and Peter playing their part in the skit.

 Tuesday, we went for a little hike.

 Then we got a real treat. We learned about some hot springs that were free, so we checked them out!

The closer to the river the cooler it was, the closer to the mountain, the hotter it was.

 Wednesday we went to Redstone and explored the small museum, saw some horses, played on a playground, and got ice cream.

It was a cute and quaint old town.

 The rest of the day was more playing at the playground, games in the rec room, and more time at the river nearby.

Grandma's accessories

What's a campfire without s'mores?

 We were very glad those who came out were able to make the trip. My sister went back to get ready for a very long trip to California and my brother was preparing for the birth of their fourth child who came 6 weeks early! Luckily, he didn't end up coming to see us. Baby Izaak is still in the hospital developing his lungs. We're praying for him to get strong fast!

On the way home, we got to stay with my cousin, Celeste, again like last year.

Baby Lennon

Ivy

Ellia

We are lucky to be able to see family when we can!

Mercado Reunion in Breckenridge

We recently returned from a family reunion in Breckenridge, CO. with Jason's family. We'd never been to Breckenridge before and it was a beautiful place to go! Karissa noticed the altitude as soon as we arrived. She said, "It's hard to breathe!" We were about 9,600 feet.

Some of the highlights of the trip:

-being with family (the kids loved playing with cousins, aunts, uncles, and Gramms and Abuelo)

pizza on the first night with cousins

 -watching the parade on the 4th of July with Gramms and Abuelo
-the view!

one of the many rivers we encountered on our trip out west

 -the gondola ride up to Peak 9 (or was it Peak 8?) where they have all sorts of fun activities during the off-season for skiing

the kids wanted to ride with Aunt Auburn, Uncle Jason, and Mali

 -miniature golf with all the family

Erik wasn't into it though, he played with the same four cars the whole two week trip- wouldn't let them out of his sight!

 -the roller coaster (not pictured)

waiting patiently while some of us rode the roller coaster

 -watching movies with cousins during downtime

 -swimming (the pool was heated, but it was just a tad too chilly for me since it was only in the 70s!)

-exploring

 -the view!

Erik called this "Erik Snow" since we had just seen Happy Feet 2 and the baby penguin is called Erik.

 -hiking!

-my girls went with Gramms and I to paint plates while my boys fed some fish with Jason

-bowling with everyone (two-year-olds Erik and Corban each got a strike!)
-imagination games with cousins

Same hike, different day

-the hot tub

-the rec. path

It was great to see everyone. We love Colorado!

Mackinac Island 2014

After we worked our tails off to finish Le Chateau, we went up to Mackinac Island with Grandpa and Grandma for a little R&R.  We stayed in Mackinaw City, like we did 5 years ago when Austin was born. I've decided, since this was our third time going up there (only second time on the island) that it is one of my most favorite places to visit. It's just so relaxing and beautiful! It's not very often you get to go across a ferry to an island!

The ferry ride was chilly this year and very buggy, since the bugs were thrown off schedule from our long winter, but the kids managed well and luckily, once we got to the island, the bugs magically disappeared! The weather warmed up with the sun shining down on us. My mom wanted to ride bikes around the island. We were able to bring up bikes for everyone, though Jason and I opted to rent beach cruisers (his with a basket, mine with a car seat for Erik), instead of bringing our road racers. Erik was unsure at first of the helmet and seat, but warmed up to them. Austin, just having learned to ride without training wheels a few weeks before, needed a running start each time we took off and made a crash landing every time we stopped, but he loved it! He's the reason we circled the whole 9 miles on the perimeter of the island instead of riding through a few streets and calling it good. He took off and I tried to get him to turn left into town, but he just kept going to the right (which was easier and safer at the moment) so we were on the road around the island.

It was perfect! We could ride 'til we saw a nice view of the lake or a good sandy beach to play on, or we were hungry, then we stopped and explored. Karissa did well too. I don't think her training wheels clanging along the whole way were the easiest, but she hung in there! Victoria was in heaven, as were the rest of the older riders. Lake Huron is so big, you think you're looking at the ocean!

(These two pictures got connected and I can't disconnect them! Here's out hotel water park).

Our balcony

Austin's always first to jump in!

Enjoying the docks

Ferry ride to the island

The start of our biking adventure

Our one hill

Arch Rock

A side hike

Water bug

Nothing like ice cream on Mackinac Island!

Grandpa Jim loves lighthouses!

You can see the Mackinac Bridge going to the Upper Peninsula in the background.