Jen's Journal: First Family Vacation: Colorado 2010

Friday, May 28 Kevin, Nolan, and I left for our first family vacation with Nolan....our destination..Colorado! My brother Jon is currently living in Denver and Kevin's sister Lori and her husband live in Steamboat springs (about 2 1/2-3 hours north of Denver). We flew into Denver on Friday evening around 6:30 Denver time. Jon picked us up from the airport and drove us to his girlfriend Rachael's house (where we all stayed). They prepared a wonderful meal of fish tacos and then it was off to bed. On Saturday morning we all piled into Jon's car and we drove up to Steamboat, arriving at Lori and Evan's house around 10:30 am. It was wonderful to see them (haven't seen them since Nolan was born) and to see their house for the first time. Kevin's dad also made the trip out to Steamboat and so we got to spend a few days with him as well. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Steamboat and of course our only complaint is that we weren't able to stay longer. Besides spending time relaxing at the house we also went on several bike rides around town, visited many yummy restaurants/bars, shopped, and went to the hot springs. It only took about 2 days for Nolan to make the switch to Colorado time and he napped better in Colorado than he has for us EVER at home! He took at least two naps each day lasting 1 1/2 to 2 hours each time (usually we are lucky to get him to take 1 hour naps at home 20-45 minutes average...). On Tuesday afternoon we left Steamboat and headed back to Denver where we stayed until the end of our trip on Thursday. While in Denver we had the opportunity to have dinner with my cousin Brenda (haven't seen her since the Gingrich family reunion in 2004) and to visit with our friends Dana and Brian who moved out to Colorado last summer. We also made a trip to red rocks and visited the Denver zoo (Nolan's first trip to any zoo). Again our only complaint is that we didn't have more time. It was a much needed vacation and we are already talking about when we might be able to go back. Nolan did awesome flying so Kevin and i would like to take advantage of flying while he can still fly for free! Wonder where we will go next?

Here are just a few pictures from our trip. There are soooooooooo many great pictures capturing the wonderful time that we had, but it would take too long to post them...so if you are interested in seeing more you will just have to come visit us! Enjoy!

Visiting Red Rocks (kevin was particularly excited about being here because DMB has played here and he would love to come to a concert here....i would too!)