Colorado

I know we are already in the middle of the first quarter of school and I have yet to blog about our Colorado trip... But here we go. 

This summer we took our annual trip to Colorado to see my family. It was even more special this year because my sister Donna was getting married. Even better, Lucas and Macie were going to be part of her wedding as the ring bearer and flower girl. Planning for this trip began in the Spring. It all began with convincing Macie to wear her flower girl dress which was not an easy feat. She would run from me and say "I'm not a princess!" Lucas wasn't so sure about his outfit either, but was more willing to wear it. 

The other part of the planning came with do we travel by plane or car. Financially it made better sense to travel by car since we would now have to pay for 4 tickets. So we made the push to ride for 14 hours straight through. I made sure we had plenty of snacks, lots of entertainment and a little travel bingo game for Lucas to play! The travel bingo was a hit. He enjoyed finding all sorts of things along the way and then marking them off on his bingo card. The whole way there the kids were wonderful. We rated them at a 9.5 for Lucas and a 9 for Macie. Lucas got a 9.5 because of a little incident at a restaurant in a town in N.M. Let's just say we will not be returning to that restaurant do to a little Stinky Pete action. Macie got a 9 because she had a few moments in the car where she wanted nothing to do with traveling anymore, but those moments only lasted for a little bit! Thank goodness!

At the beginning of the trip!

Happy camper!

14 hours later and she is out!

14 hours later and he is still awake!

The first day we just hung out around the house with the family. Enjoying time with each other and recovering from the car ride. It was so nice to be home in Colorado. I truly love it there!

The following day we decided to start some of our adventures. We went to the Denver Aquarium. I have never been and it was very cute! The kids really enjoyed checking out all of the sea life. Macie was super excited when she spotted "Dory" in one of the fish tanks. She started squealing and laughing with excitement. It was pretty cute! They had a great time exploring with their Aunt Shawna, Grandma and Grandpa Fildes, and us of course. I love taking them to new things. Mostly because I love seeing the looks on their faces!

Playing peek-a-boo with Daddy in one of the aquariums. 

Macie giggling because she spotted Dory.
She was looking for Dory the whole time.

Definitely not a trip to an aquarium if you don't spot a few sharks.
Definitely not my favorite. Definitely freak me out!

I may or may not have scarred my child (Lucas) for life when it comes to tigers.
I JOKINGLY told him the tiger loves to eat blue eyed boys.
He didn't really get the joke and wanted out ASAP!
My bad!

After the aquarium we were headed to one of Matt's favorite restaurants in Colorado, The White Fence Farm. He is a fan of the corn fritters and fried chicken. Also, we knew the kids would enjoy it because they have a little playground and a petting zoo. We played on the playground while we waited for the entire crew to arrive. The crew includes: Grandma and Grandpa Fildes, Aunt Shawna and Uncle Dan, Aunt Donna, Uncle Aaron, Rylie, Piper, Matt and Sarah. Then add in our 4 and we were up to 14 people for a fried chicken feast.

Macie playing peek-a-boo with a little boy on the playground. 

Lucas hard at work digging!

Lucas and Uncle Dan climbing the treehouse ropes.
Lucas is in it for the climbing... Uncle Dan is in it to check out the engineering piece.
Either way Lucas has fun with Uncle Dan! 

The following day we did our traditional crawdad fishing trip. This year Lucas was totally into catching the crawdads and had a blast doing it. Macie enjoyed it, but would become frustrated when she wouldn't catch one right away. She is not as patient as her big brother. I love this tradition because it is such great memories and family fun time! I love the long lasting memories that Lucas and Macie will have spending time with his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. If you thought we had a lot of people at dinner the night before, we added 6 more people to the crawdad fishing adventure. Uncle Dan's parents and sister joined us along with her husband and two children. So we had 20 people crawdad fishing. Fun!

Lucas and Grandma Fildes catching some crawdads.

I love this picture of Lucas with his Grandpa Fildes.
Too cute!

Matt trying to teach Macie a lesson in patience.
They would count to 5 and then Macie would pull the stick out of the water to see if she caught a crawdad.

Lucas showing off his crawdads.
You can tell he is so proud of himself!

And of course the traditional crawdad race back to the water. 

Macie playing with her future cousin in law.

Another thing we do when we go to Colorado is to celebrate Father's Day with my dad. His favorite thing is going to breakfast with his girls. He always says he just wants to spend time with his girls and that is gift enough. So we treat him to breakfast! He truly deserves more than breakfast for all of the things he does for us, but I do think he really enjoys just being with us and the grandchildren.

Grandpa with all of his grandchildren: Lucas, Macie, Rylie, Piper, Sarah and Matt. 

My dad with his girls!

Another new tradition that I hope we continue is the food truck round up at a cute little part of town. Yummy food, fun activities and good music. The kids had a great time and we really enjoyed the variety of food choices. 

Lucas' favorite part of the food truck round up was the water ball. He really wanted to be in an inflatable ball that rolls around in the water. At first Grandma Fildes was all for it and even paid for him to do it. Then when it got closer to Lucas' time, Grandma Fildes started to panic. What if they couldn't unzip it, when if they couldn't get him out of it before all of the air was release, what if, what if... But he loved it and had a blast the whole time! Grandma Fildes survived it!

Look at the smile on his face! He had so much fun!

The day before the wedding, we took a little family trip to the mountains to my favorite spot, Estes Park. I just love the cute downtown and walking through the shops. Definitely a little different when taking two children with you. Your cruising through the shops is limited because they want to touch everything or want everything. So we only went in a few shops. Of course, we had to stop in my favorite taffy shop to get my filling of taffy. And we treated the kids to some ice cream. After going through a few shops, we took them miniature golfing.

Macie always got a hole in one...
Because she would just put the ball in the hole!

Lucas really worked on his putting skills!
He takes his game very seriously!

That evening was the rehearsal dinner and rehearsal. Let's just say after the rehearsal we were really working with Macie on what she was supposed to do the following day. A little practice and a little prayer and a lot of bribing were in place to make sure Macie followed through! The rehearsal dinner was wonderful! My mom and dad hosted the event and it was so cute and perfectly done! Very special night!

From L to R: Rylie, Donna, Shawna, me and Piper!
Love those girls!

Then it was time for the Big Event! Wedding day! It was a very special day from start to end! We took Rylie to get her ears re-pierced, then we got our hair done, I did Macie's hair which took a little while with a few breaks to curl, braid and recurl. Then we enjoyed some yummy champagne and snacks and then we all got ready! I couldn't wait to get Lucas and Macie in their outfits. I knew they would be adorable, but didn't realize how adorable until they were in their clothes!

One of my favorite moments.
Makes me think back to when he was a baby and then fast forward to him getting ready for his future wedding day!

Seriously... How cute are they!

My gorgeous nieces!

Love these kids!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Lucas!
Picture perfect!

My little princess!

Remember how I said we were super worried if Macie would take her job seriously... She did great! She walked down the aisle with her cousin Sarah perfectly! Lucas did his job like a trooper. He was so proud of himself! The wedding was beautiful and perfect! Truly a very special day!

Donna with her girls!
Donna was a beautiful bride!

Sisters!

So happy for her and Aaron!

The entire family: my mom, Piper, Rylie, Dan, Shawna, Donna, Aaron, my dad, little Matt, Matt, Sarah, Macie, me and Lucas.
All 14 of us! 

Our last day in Colorado was the 4th of July. My parents were so sweet and got baseball tickets for Matt, Lucas and me. We didn't take Macie because there were fireworks after the game and she is not a fan of them... Yet. I will get her to love them if it is the last thing I do! The 4th of July is my favorite holiday because I am a fireworks freak! I admit I might have a problem, but I love setting them off and I love watching them!

Definitely a little firecracker!

He is one too!

Lucas was so excited to go to a real baseball game to watch the big boys play! He had so much fun and we had a great time with Lucas. He is at a great age right now because he really gets special events and enjoys every moment of them!

Lucas in front of Coors Field.

Even better is that Aunt Shawna and Uncle Dan were at the game. 

This is them making a sad face since we would be leaving the next day!

Silly!

Then it was time for the fireworks! Lucas really enjoyed it until the grand finale. The grand finale was so spectacular with so many fireworks going off that it made the stadium shake. It freaked him out a little bit. He was not a fan of the stadium shaking! He didn't cry, but he did want to be held!

Beautiful!

Then sadly it was time to go back to Arizona. It is always hard to leave and I think it gets harder every time. We are truly thankful for all of the fun we had and the time we got to spend with my family. Until next time Colorado... Until next time!

Lucas and Macie making a sad face about leaving. 

Thanks for the great memories!