A Road Trip to Utah

About a month into our Colorado stay something sad but not totally unexpected happened.

Bobbert died.  He had been really sick for a month or so and the Friday before Mother's Day I made the hardest decision ever.  It was the right one for him even if it was really awful for me.  He'd been an amazing little love for us for nearly 14 years.  We still miss him like crazy.

The logical (and super grown up) thing to do when something like this happens is...to run away from home.  The kids and I had been talking about taking a trip to the desert anyway, but this just tossed me over the edge.  Or into the car.  We set out for Moab, UT.  I booked us a couple nights in a KOA cabin on the recommendation of a friend.  It was fantastic!

Thankfully, with homeschooling, we can travel in the off season and on weekdays so it was not terribly busy.  Or too hot.

First up:  Arches

Fisher was already 'so over' me taking pictures.

Three Sisters

Balancing Rock.  If you look very
closely you'll see a tiny blue speck at the bottom
and a tiny purple speck next to it.
My children.

Ahhhh sunshine...

Double Arch

There's actually a great story about getting this picture.  It's a bit difficult getting two kids up a very steep rock face with only one parent.  Shock!  Fisher took off and was WAY too close to every edge and drop (giving me a heart attack in the process) and then... Piper got stuck.  With me up higher than she was and unable to get around her to help her down.  This great guy, Will, climbed up and helped Piper down while I got myself and Fisher down.  He was really sweet and helpful and I'm so glad he was there that day!  The guy who took this picture got a bunch of hilarious shots of the whole thing.

Relaxing under a rock.

Our lovely KOA had a little mini golf course.  You bet we played!  More than once even.

Next stop:  Canyonlands

So. freakin'. gorgeous.

There was an arch here too!
Mesa Arch

With about a 1000 foot drop right behind it.
Good times.

Amazing.

We started the Junior Ranger program on this trip.  It was their only written schoolwork for the week.  Each National Park or Monument has an activity book to complete and you get these fantastic little badges.  They even got sworn in as Jr. Rangers.

I had never heard of it before, but we're hoping to continue traveling and working on the program.  I highly recommend it.  We put all of their programs and activity books into a big binder that we'll keep working on and see how many we can get to!  Road tripping with a goal!

We packed up our little cabin and said goodbye to Utah.  We'll be back!

Next stop:  Mesa Verde

We spent a couple of days in Cortez, CO.  We just stayed in a random Econolodge.  (I don't recommend it.)  We woke up bright and early to head for Mesa Verde.  I have wanted to go to Mesa Verde since I first moved to Colorado, but had never been before.  I was easily as excited as the kids.

We decided against taking an actual tour.  Most of those involved climbing up 60 ft. ladders, and let's face it, I learned my lesson at Arches.  Only when we are evenly numbered.

The Spruce Tree House

They just attached themselves to this random lady.
She was a really good sport about it.

Next up:  (What?  You're not done yet?)  Four Corners

I'm going to be perfectly honest here.  I'm glad we went because now I can say I did it, but I probably won't go again.  It just wasn't that great.  Plus, we were getting a little tired of life on the road.

But we did it!

We started towards home after that stopping to visit our favorite girls in Gunnison!  There was a sleepover.  There may or may not have been any actual sleeping.

Logan, Fisher, Piper, and Quinn

Everyone was awake and in a great mood the next day even on so little sleep.  We played until the weather took a turn and that was our sign to pack up and head home.

I'm so glad I followed that urge to run away.  It was good to leave, but it was hard to come back too.  More adventures to follow!

JKFP

A Colorado Hike

As most of you know, we took a trip to the U.S. for a few months back in April.  After a week or so recovering from jet lag in NC, the kids and I (plus our sweet Bobbert) drove back to Colorado.  The first thing we did in Colorado?  We took a hike.  (Well, after we went to Costco.)

The heart attack shot!

At the top

View of the Waldo Canyon burn scar from the top.

We were pretty desperate for big sky and sunshine.  I'm sure you remember how dark and depressing the winter had been.  I think you can still see some of that in these pictures.  It's amazing how much truth you can see in the eyes of a tiny person.  We did recover from that, but it took a lot of sunshine.

More summer (and road trip) fun to come!

JKFP

This Moment

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

On a ski lift in Austria!

Playing along with Soule Mama today.

The Hills Are Alive: Part 4

And then this happened...

The last morning of our vacation we checked out of the hotel and drove around for a bit.  We were going to check out the Ehrenberg castle ruins.  That's this place...

Taken from the road on a sunny day.

You may have also seen this picture I posted on facebook.

Taken from the road (with my iphone) in the rain.

Unfortunately, it was pouring rain.  We decided to take that as the universal sign for 'it's not fair for you have have any more fun that you already have.  Go home now.'  So that's what we decided to do.

We stopped for lunch and to stack some beer coasters.

It was when we decided to stop for coffee that the trouble started.  You see, our rental car had this going on.

Let me assure you that it's easy to think you're in reverse when you're not.

Let me also assure you that you cannot just back out of this one....

We were very entertaining for this sleepy little village.  

Johnny, on the left is an Austrian fire truck!

Don't worry, no Cunningham's were harmed in the making of this adventure.  Just our egos and our rental car.  And that fence.  It was hurt.

Ninja tow truck action.

Luckily for us, the owners had a great sense of humor about the whole thing.  We are paying to fix his fence, of course.  As a shout out, he owns The Ski Lounge in Berwang, Austria.  They specialize in "Active & Family Holidays" if you're in the market for one.  Tell him we sent ya!  ('Those crazy Americans that crashed through your fence,' that should do it.)

Seriously though, the moral of this story is to always get the extra insurance!  We actually didn't do that.  It ended up costing us about $500.  Not terrible, but not $50 either.  (The insurance was $50)  ALWAYS GET THE EXTRA INSURANCE!  You're welcome.

JKFP

The Hills Are Alive: Part 3

A day of castles.

When we woke up on Monday we had decided it would be our castle day.  It was warm and sunny so why not?  We drove back over to Germany to the town of Fussen.  It's a nice enough town.  It's a tourist destination.  Here's the reason why...

That's Neuschwanstein Castle.  It was commissioned by King Ludwig II.  Ludwig really liked his castles.  (We saw his "summer house" later in the afternoon.)

Across the valley from Neuschwanstein is Schloss Hohenschwangau.  It's actually where Ludwig spent most of his childhood and we spent a little time walking around the outside.

You can see how close Neuschwanstein is in this one.

It's pretty impressive even if we didn't go inside.  Here's the thing, there were eleventy billion people there. (I'm pretty good at taking pictures strategically so you don't see that.)  The roads were crammed with tourists.  Honestly, we hate people.  That many all in one place anyway.  We decided to bail on these lovely castles and try again in the fall.  After school has started. On a Tuesday.  Field trip!

The owner of our hotel had suggested Schloss Linderhof earlier in the morning saying it was much less crowded.  We should have listened to him to start with.  So we took off for Schloss Linderhof.

On the way we came across this...

Are you kidding me Austria??

Right out of the car Piper found this!

Trying to convince the butterfly.

Things were already looking up.

This was Ludwig II's small summer home.  A cottage really.  Ha ha ha.  We did take a tour of this one.  Unfortunately, you can't take pictures on tour.  It was really pretty.  Hopefully you like gold, chandeliers, and ornate-ness.  The grounds and fountains were beautiful.  And gold.  And ornate.

Our classy children....in the water.

The kids even made friends here.  We had a lot of fun with them.

Some extras!

I can't honestly remember if it was this day or the day before, but we hunted for snail shells one evening.  Then we used them and some flowers to decorate a special rock.

Piper was super into it!

Fixing up our rock.

Here are a few that I forgot to post in Part 1 & Part 2.

Wildflowers

Love this!  Not sure how I missed it before.

Come back for Part 4!  It's a doozy of life lesson!  No really.  Come back.

JKFP