Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Our trip to Colorado!





We left for Colorado on Wed, June 29th.
Here we are near the end of our journey, everyone clearly getting BORED.

Don't I look just thrilled?

When we all arrived to Durango, we were HUNGRY! We found this restaurant...hmm, a little pricey for the quality. But still fun.

We stayed in a condo owned by a friend of uncle Ron. It was SO nice. The lady that lives there owned some cats, so I had a few issues with allergies.


The first night, we ALL had some bloating...after further investigation, apparently it was due to the change in elevation! It's like you'd walk up the steps and be completely winded. I even went for a jog a couple of times and man, it was ROUGH.
He we are, hanging at the condo!



Ammon watching some manly show with Dad!
Can't get cuter than this!

Lots of eating, of course!




We went to the adobe dwellings at Mesa Verde as one of our first adventures. I was surprised by the whole experience...it was fascinating! I would recommend it as a must-see for anyone going to Colorado! Apparently, many of the children as young as 2-3 years learned how to climb rocks by hand in order to get to and from their home in the cliffside. It was unreal. I could barely climb the ladder!

Hard to imagine people actually living here!!!

The gang in one of the 'kivas'

Wild child. I love him.





Ammon had been annoyed all day that his bottle wasn't the perfect temperature, so he wasn't drinking as well as he normally does. Apparently, your body actually needs MORE hydration at higher elevations because liquids evaporate more quickly. Long story short, that night as we were getting ready for bed, Ammon was fussy...VERY fussy. SO not like him. I fed him a bottle, rocked him, gave him his binky, tried EVERYTHING and he was screaming! We didn't know if he was constipated? Had gas? Nate finally gave him a blessing. Almost immediately after the blessing, he started heaving. I ran him into the bathroom and he threw up everything...from breakfast to dinner. Poor baby! I put him in the tub and he just put his head under the running water and finally relaxed. I dressed him and cuddled him and he went right to sleep. Poor sweet boy! I felt so bad for him! We decided he may have been dehydrated/overheated/over'elevated'. Thank goodness the next morning he seemed to be back to his happy self and drank apple juice. As the day progressed, he was able to hold down everything he tried!

We did a lot of sun-bathing, some swimming at the pool/hot tub, movie watching, game playing. Even nail painting!


Photos from the pool...can you tell Cami and Tierney were in charge of the camera? Silly girls!


On Saturday we went river-rafting. It was my very first time, and come to find out, uncle Ron had signed us up for the 'high adventure' trip...meaning wild and crazy! Needless to say, I was a little nervous! I felt like I did fairly well. A few practice 'strokes' and I had the hang of paddling.



The guides were a lot alike...mullets, beards, and chewing tobacco. But he was very nice and very experienced.

A few of the rapids were class 3, and we managed to keep our little boat afloat! Nate and I teamed up w Ron and Patti, and Cami, Ryan, Tierney, and Mark were in another boat. They brought water guns so a lot of horse play was going on (those crazy Bringhursts!). We had reached a point where the entire group (like 80 people) hung out waiting for everyone to get through the most difficult wave and our guide started shouting out orders for paddling. He had us paddle our boat upstream against this huge rapid, and we did like a bunch of idiots. Our boat went crazy and guess who ended up getting tossed overboard and sucked under the current? ME! The guide grabbed me and flung me back into the boat before I could even understand what just happened. When I got my nerves under control, we started paddling again, and all 80 people that had just watched the whole thing started clapping for me. HUMILIATING! I was smiling though, because I was really glad I didn't die! I was a little annoyed at the guide though! He said, "Hey, you guys paid for high adventure...you get high adventure!" Boo.

We went to Silverton on Sunday so we could go to sacrament meeting. When we got there, we realized we had our times mixed up, so we missed sacrament. But don't worry, we still went to Sunday school. There were about 10-15 people there including us. The building was very small, and there was only one room that functioned for all meetings. I had such a powerful feeling that even in the tiny town of Silverton, the church was still true!

Later on, we went on a little walk to scout lake. It was so pretty. HUGE lily pads everywhere.


Speaking of Silverton, it is awesome! It looks like an authentic cowboy town! We drove around for like an hour just looking at everything! There was an actual mine and an old school train that used coal and everything! I felt like I needed to get my hat and boots and cowboy up! I loved it!

 

We were in Silverton for the 4th of July celebrations. The parade was way fun! Everyone had mullets and there were dudes shooting off guns. A lot less advertising floats than Utah! The firefighters brought up the rear. They got their big hoses and just DRENCHED the crowd as they went by! At the end of the parade, the firefighters went down to the park and had a water fight.



He did NOT want her holding his hand!


There was so much to do and so many cute shops, we couldn't get to it all! Nate and the girls even did some sleuthing and got some precious stones.


We were fortunate enough to take the trainride from Silverton to Durango...a 3 1/2 hour long ride! Kaylee stayed behind with the cool kids. Brenna and Ammon fell right asleep. The scenery was amazing. There is no other way to describe it!

We went back to Silverton after dinner to catch the fireworks. All the locals had been telling us the entire trip that their fireworks are 2nd best in the nation...2nd only to Disneyland/world! So we had to see them. They were amazing, but I think there was just a little too much hype. You know, what was amazing about them was that it was in this valley where the mountains slope up on all sides, and the echo is incredible. It was such a different atmosphere, just being in the beautiful mountains. I loved every minute!

1 comment:

Cami Bringhurst said...

You got a lot of good pictures! I am going to be stealing some of them. Also the pool ones are GREAT!