Colorado--Final Post!

The day before we left, the whole family got together and went to the ski resort in Winter Park and spent the day.  They had all kinds of fun activities for us to do--alpine slide, miniature golf, human maze, rock climbing, trampolines, etc.  We had a blast!!  Here are some of the highlights from the day:

The kids posing on the giant polar bear

Cute Cade!

Eric and Cade riding up the chairlift with Andrew

Gramps flying down the alpine slide--I hope I doing awesome things like that when I am 80!

Me doing a flip on the trampoline!!

View of the ski resort from the top of the mountain--Gorgeous!

Another gorgeous view!

Us up on top of the mountain

Ethan on the zipline

Kailey having a blast

Cade just hanging out!

Spiderman, I mean Ethan climbing the rock wall!

Playing miniature golf

4th of July in Colorado

After being overseas for the last 3 Fourth of July's, this was a great way to spend this one, especially before heading overseas again.  The little town we were staying in had a parade and it was so much fun.  It was so typical "small-town America"--I swear the whole town was in the parade and all the visitors were there lining the streets--we had a great time!!   Here are some highlights!

Some of the family staked out on our blanket

This made me laugh a little bit, I swear they had all the veterans dress up in their old military uniforms.  I guess since we are in the military I am use to seeing men in uniforms all the time!  I told Eric he should have put on his uniform and marched in the parade!

Lots of fun old time cars!

This line of fire trucks, police cars, ambulances went FOREVER!!

Again, tons of fun old-time cars!

Lots of fun floats

Tons of horse riders

Kids had a great time with their cousins

Patriotic Kailey--I am going to brag for a minute--I made this dress--it took me about an hour and cost me less than $3--SO easy and SO cute!!

Gymnasts

These guys were my favorites--it was some flying club--they were awesome!

 Again, we had a WONDERFUL 4th of July and it was so nice to spend it in America, especially since that probably won't happen again for at least 3 years!!  Even though I absolutely LOVE living overseas, I am so proud to be an American!!

Colorado--Part 1

After Utah we went to Colorado.  Eric's grandpa had recently had his 80th birthday and wanted to get his whole family together for a reunion.  We drove down to Winter Park, CO with Eric's parents and family to spend a week with them and aunts and uncles and cousins--we had a blast.  Winter Park, CO is a ski town and is up in the mountains--it was gorgeous.  We had so much fun hiking in the Rocky Mountains, spending time with family, we took Ethan and Kailey white-water rafting (which they LOVED), etc.  Here are some pictures of some of the hikes we went on.  Also, you will see us all in orange shirts--the front say Nelson Family Reunion and then on the back it has our name and a number which indicates what number we came into the family.  I thought it was such a great idea and it was so fun wherever we went, because we could always find each other!!

Family picture in Rocky Mountains--it was funny, we hiked to a waterfall called "Adam's Fall", but it turns out that Eric and I had hiked the same hike 7 years ago with my family when we all went backpacking!

The kids were very well-loved with all of their great-aunts and uncles around and Eric's cousins!!

Hiking--we took the kids  on another hike to a lake that was 5 miles roundtrip and actually a more difficult hike than we thought--a lot of rock-climbing and hills--they did fantastic, but we were grateful for all the adult helpers along!!

Eric and I--matching shirts!!

Gramps and Granny--Eric's grandparents who are so awesome!!  We had such a fun week thanks to them!!

Grandpa Nelson and I throwing Kailey up in the air.

Colorado was just GORGEOUS!!!

The hike we took the kids on to the lake had a lot of waterfalls leading up to it!!

We reached the lake!!  Eric's cousin was so funny and hiked the whole way carrying this huge watermelon.  So at the top we had watermelon, which tasted SOOOO good--we all had a lot because he didn't want to carry any back with him!

Cade and his little buddy, Cousin Rhea!

The kids and Rhea

So exciting--the hike is almost over!!

Kailey and Daddy on our hike

Gramps giving the boys a hug!!

Again, we just had the best time in Colorado.  Gramps rented a huge cabin and there ended up being like 28 of us that all stayed there together--it was so fun!  I'll blog more about the other fun things we did!

Utah Trip

Well, after St. Louis we flew to Utah to stay with Eric's parents for a week.  It was a VERY busy week, but we had a great time!!  We stayed very busy seeing family, shopping, seeing everything, etc.  Here are a couple of pictures highlighting our time:

Picnic up in the canyon with family--kids had a great time playing in the water!

We went and saw Great-Grandpa Tolman.

Me and Grandpa--it was so nice to see him.

Playing in the water on Temple Square

Temple Square--we went to the Church History Museum--they have a great new interactive exhibit for kids--so much fun!

Celebrating Kailey's birthday--we even found a princess castle pinata!

Grabbing all the candy from the pinata

Opening presents--Kailey is one very-loved little girl!!

Telling Uncle Mike thank-you for an awesome princess gift!

Modeling her new dress from Grandma!

We had such a fun time in Utah and it was so nice to see all our family.  We were sorry it was such a whirlwind trip!!