Friday, 12/11/09...last day in CB...trip home...

Katie & Derek planned to leave today to drive back to our house in order to get home by Saturday night and we were planning to stay the full week and leave tomorrow, but we decided just to go home with them...that way we'd get an extra day with them. We all packed up our stuff and cars this morning and straightened up the condo before checking out. Then we stopped at the park on the way out of town to let the kiddos play in the snow one last time. I put L's snow bib, jacket, hat & boots on, but she wandered off with Dave before I could get her gloves on. I put my stuff on but by the time I got out to them, L had fallen over in the snow, gotten her hands cold, and then cried for the next 20 or 30 minutes because her hands hurt so bad. Therefore, that was really the end of the park experience for us and Sara hadn't even gotten out there yet. Dave took L to the car while I stayed back and took some pics of Sara before we got in the cars to head home.

We made much better time on the way home than on the way there...I think because the girls didn't stop to pee as much. We did stop in Gunnison to grab lunch on the way out. I kept loosing Derek behind me on Monarch Pass because he was driving so slow. He said he was slipping every time he put his foot on the gas. We didn't have any problems but we have AWD and they have FWD. Anyhow, we got home just before dark and L actually slept for the last part of the drive. We were able to have dinner together and hang out before they left for home at 6am the next morning.

View between Crested Butte and Gunnison.








View from Monarch Pass.

Saturday, 12/5/09: Road trip w/Gs to Crested Butte...

This morning S woke up at 5am and wouldn't go back to sleep. I knew that as long as she was awake there was no way I was going to be able to sleep so I volunteered to take S down to the basement so D & K & D could get some much needed sleep for our drive today. S and I watched Toy Story 2 and played a little until 7:30am when L woke up and everyone else got up.

L taking a pic of me taking a pic of her.

We left for Crested Butte around 9:30am, stopping by McDonalds on the way out. It was supposed to take 4.5 hours to get there but we were guessing that we might need to add an hour to that for potty breaks for the girls...and we were right...we stopped a bunch of times, more than technically needed since S wouldn't pee when L did. We made it to Gunnison by 3pm and stopped by City Market on the way out of town.

We checked into our 3 bedroom condo that has a view of the ski runs and KK immediately started making dinner while we unpacked the cars. We were planning on going to the Parade of Lights in town but it was really cold and we were all (adults) tired so we stayed in and then put the kids to bed. We tried putting them in the same room and after almost 2 hours, they finally moved S to another room and D could sleep with S and K with L. We all talked for a couple hours and checked email before turning in for the night.

D making the girls laugh :) So cute!

Day 9: Saturday, 9/12/09: 17ish hour Drive home

We woke up at 4:45am and were on the road by 5:20am. I knew that it was 15 hours straight drive time and I didn’t know how many extra hours stopping for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all of Elodie’s pee stops would add. We drove through most of Wisconsin in the dark and some fog. I did make us stop at the Wisconsin River as the sun was rising to get some pictures. The last four hours or so (it started in NE) of the drive, it was raining and then dark and not that fun to drive in. We got home around 9pm so it ended up taking us a little under 17 hours.  And Elodie didn't have any accidents during the 17 hour drive!

Click here for a slideshow of PICTURES from our car trip home.

Day 2: Saturday, 9/5/09: Des Moines to Wisconsin Dells

Dave & I woke up on our own and started getting ready before Elodie woke up. We all then headed downstairs for the complimentary full serve breakfast. After that, we packed up the car and headed on out. I think we were on the road a little after 9am for our 5 hour and 20 minute drive to the Dells. We saw corn, corn, and more corn. Dave and I said we’d never seen so much corn in our lives. Corn in Nebaska; corn in Iowa; corn in Wisconsin. We stopped just before the Wisconsin border for lunch and another pit stop. Then we crossed over the Mississippi River…quite the site. We also stopped at a vista of the Frank Lloyd Wright house, Taliesin and across from the road to the house to take some pictures. We made it to the Wyndham Tamarask in the Wisconsin Dells before check-in time but luckily our room was already ready for us so we were able to move in. We were really impressed with how clean and new our unit looked, and we had a view of the lake on the property. The two downsides to the unit for me were having no internet in the unit and not having a king size bed in the master. We unpacked, took a trip to Walmart, ate dinner, and then headed out to walk around. We walked around the little lake and I tried unsuccessfully to get pictures of her. Elodie really liked watching the ducks and some people who were out on the paddleboats. Then we headed on over to check out the playground before going back to our unit for our bedtime routine.

At some point today, Elodie said, "go people."  Too funny!

Click here for a PICTURE slideshow of Day 2.

Day 1: Friday, 9/4/09: road trip from to CO to Des Moines

This morning we left around 7:20am for Des Moines. It’s about a 10 hour drive plus stops and there were many stops. After awhile, Elodie figured out that if she said “pee pee potty” that we’d pull over and she’d get out. I think we had at least three false alarm stops, but really I’d rather stop that have her pee in her car seat, even if I did have her sitting on a cloth diaper. She made it the 11 hours with no accidents!  We got in around dinner time. We checked into the Hilton Garden Inn (thank you Hilton points), got Arby’s take out, topped off the gas tank, and came back to the room to eat dinner while watching the tv show Glee. Then we all got ready for bed, put Elodie in her pack-n-play and turned out the lights. She started to cry immediately and not wanting to be bad neighbors in a hotel, I put her in bed with me (Dave & I each got a queen). She was quite the whole time she was in bed with me, but man, was she a wiggle worm. I finally put her back in her pack-n-play and after some more wiggling there, she fell asleep. And then we did.

Click here for a slideshow of the PHOTOS from Day 1.