Colorado, Part 1

We left bright and early last Thursday morning on our driving trip to Colorado - ok, it was 8:30, but that's pretty early for me. First stop was an hour and a half out in Llano, so the little girls could visit their great-grandmother.

(click any picture to see bigger)

Then it was back in the car, stopping for lunch at a Burger King play-place for some exercise

and on to Las Vegas where the temperature topped a whopping 111 (didn't get a pic of that; 104 was bad enough though)

before we stopped for the night in the relatively cool - only 107 - St. George, Utah. The girls were thrilled that there was a pool for swimming.

I was thrilled that there was air conditioning!

I thought St. George was approx. halfway to Loveland, but I was very wrong. Thursday was a 9-hour car day but Friday saw us spending a whopping 12 hours in the car.

Thank heavens for the car DVD with dual screens that we purchased before leaving.

The girls enjoyed their movies and hubby and I enjoyed the peace and tranquility that only Disney on headphones can bring.

We also picked up a few toys along the way. Naia got a word-cross book and Leia fell in love with one of those little eraser boards with the attached drawing stylus.

She spent over an hour contentedly drawing, which is a looooooong time for an almost 3-year old. Best $1 we spent on the trip so far!

Saturday started our Colorado fun.

We spent the day at Rachel's house, letting the girls get reacquainted. Once it cooled off, we headed for the local Fair, admiring the 3rd place ribbon Rach got for jewelry, non-silver;

another 3rd for jewelry, silver;

and a bright blue first place ribbon in photography.

The boys stayed on the 'right' side of the fence while the little girls played in the petting zoo.

We played carnival games - Addison and Naia each won a horse at the balloon dart game and all 3 got a ball in another booth - and visited all the animals in the barns, enjoying the giant fans that were keeping the air moving and the flies at a minimum.

John bought each girl a headband - maybe so we could find them more easily in the pre-fireworks crowd? Didn't matter the reason, the girls were all thrilled.

Tomorrow - Colorado, Part 2, the tourist edition.