A Family Visit

There's a saying here in Colorado that we have 9 months of winter and 3 months of relatives. It's not far from the truth!! Michael's mom, step-dad, sister, niece, and nephew all came to visit us for a week! We had a wonderful time showing them around and letting them fall in love with Colorado. :)

Here's Grandma Sara with all her grandkids...

Heather just adores little Maddox... and he adores her as well! He would walk through the house calling, "Hefver! Hefver!"

Conner was frequently found riding this little bike out on the driveway while the bigger kids were riding 4-wheelers. Maybe next time he will be big enough to ride something motorized.

Here's Sara enjoying herself on the new swing that Michael built:

And here's Nick and Sheri just sitting here falling in love with Colorado. Look closely at Nick's face... surely you can see his excitement.

No? Okay, well maybe you can see it in THIS shot...

Hmmmmm, maybe not. But he did the zip line more than once, so he must've enjoyed it. The man rarely smiles! Let's try this one:

Ahhhhh! There's a smile!

As well he should be since he spent every spare moment up there building that treehouse with Michael! He even worked on it while Michael was down in Denver working! We finally found Nick's passion... and come to find out, he's just a big kid himself!

We celebrated Sheri's birthday while they were here, and due to a mistake on the part of the bakery, we ended up with THREE birthday cakes. Too bad we didn't invite the neighbors to help us eat it all!

And to work off all that cake, we took them on a hike over at 3 Sisters and made it up to the Brother's Lookout... breathtaking!!

We took a day trip over to Fairplay to visit the historic town of South Park, and then on up to Breckenridge to visit a real gold mine. This photo was taken about 1,100 feet into the mine. I tried not to think of the amount of earth above my head.

After the tour, we got to pan for gold!

Even Maddox got into that part! ...and when I say "into", I really mean INto. By the time he gave up his gold panning efforts, his lower extremities were quite saturated. :) No gold was found, but they all had fun trying.

And finally, Sheri and I took the kids on a horseback ride through the White Ranch Open Space park... I've never ridden a horse in more beautiful place!

While we rode, Grandma Sara stayed at the stables with Maddox and helped him ride a pony named Pudding! He had a blast. (Sara, I need to get those photos from you).

We ALL had a blast! Can't wait to do it again!
Michele