Hello All!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.
My sister, Nancy, got married on Saturday and I will be doing a recap about her wedding soon, but first I wanted to post about our trip to Colorado.
Since before we had children, the Mr. and I often discussed how important it was for us to make sure the kids were exposed to the world by traveling and experiencing it first hand. We decided to take a family vacation to Colorado because we knew that the weather would be amazing and my sister had a great source for great hotel deals. We stayed at the Sheraton Mountain Vista and Villas in Avon, Colorado about 10 minutes away from Vail. We absolutely loved staying there as our rooms had a kitchenette, a separate bedroom, and a washer and dryer! Talk about having everything you need!
We drove into Dallas the night before and stayed at the Sheraton McKinney (another great hotel) and flew out of Dallas at 8:30 in the morning, perfect for getting to Denver early enough and make the trip out to Vail with enough time to explore a bit before we went to our hotel in Avon. The flight there was quite the event as Ford was a little wiggle worm for the first half of the flight, then fell asleep! Sloane was great, of course! We rented a van, and let me tell you, I am about ready to buy one as it was awesome to have so much space and the ability to get the kids in and out so easily. My favorite part was that I could get in the very back seat (with room) and be able to feed/play with the twins easily.
We arrived in Vail around 2pm and grabbed some coffee before walking around to explore. We went so early in the summer season that there was really not many people there and everything was so quiet and peaceful. There were tons of cute restaurants and shopping boutiques, but the best part was the many places for the kids to explore in the rivers and parks. It is such a family friendly place, and we definitely appreciated being able to let the kids run around so they could get tired!
This was on the balcony of our hotel, we had an amazing view!
The first day we were so wiped out we just headed to the hotel to chill after we explored Vail for the afternoon and ordered takeout for dinner.
The 2nd day, we decided to explore Vail and maybe take a gondola ride up the mountain, unfortunately the gondola was closed until the following day so we decided to wait. We grabbed lunch at Sweet Basil (overlooking the river), which was fantastic, and thank goodness the kids behaved very well.
We headed to our hotel after lunch, then went and explored Avon a bit since there was a park close by. We took a short hike up the river and the kids loved running around.
We decided to grill some dinner after we put the kids to sleep since there was a grill available on our balcony, and it was delicious! We listened to music and enjoyed the view from our balcony for the night. We decided on grilled pork chops, shrimp, asparagus, and pineapple with some avocado on the side. Their Wal-Mart, by the way is like our fancy grocery stores in Mckinney, beautiful and not full of mutants!
The third day we decided to hike in Beaver Creek. We drove up to Beaver Creek Resort and walked up the 5 Senses Trail. It was short and since we didn't have proper equipment I just walked up the road while Zac hiked the trail, and it was so much fun! The road was very steep and I got a great workout in!
The kids enjoyed the scenery and after our hike we headed to the park. There was a beautiful park and the weather was perfect. We had lunch at Blue Moose Pizza. The kids were well behaved thank goodness! Again, a family friendly establishment which we appreciated!
We headed to our hotel and got ready for our one "fancy" dinner for the trip. We decided on Mountain Standard in Vail since it was also owned by the same chef as Sweet Basil, and it was amazing. The place was full, but the kids did ok. The Mr. gets a little bit more embarrassed when the kids act up than I do, but no one in the restaurant cared, in fact, everyone was very understanding and was complimenting us on how good the kids were (I begged to differ!). Dinner was so so delicious and healthy, I would definitely recommend.
This was the dish the Mr. ordered.
We strolled around Vail for a bit then headed to drive up the mountains across from 70. We got really high up and I snapped some incredible pics of Avon and Beaver Creek. We headed home for some down time and put the tired kids to sleep!
This was the view from outside out balcony
On our fourth and final day, we decided to pack up the kiddos and take the gondola up Vail Mountain.
The kids were amazed by the scenery and really enjoyed seeing the mountains, and a deer! We got half way up since the top was still filled with snow and had lunch in Mid-Vail. Most trails are paved so we were able to take a stroll/hike up the mountains for a bit and took some great pictures!
The kids ran around and if it was up to them we would have hiked the entire trail, but we had to head back to Denver to fly out :(
We drove out to Denver and stopped at Wahoo's tacos. They were sooooo good, I know there are several locations in Denver, but you have to check them out.
We returned our rental and flew back and got back to Ada at around midnight. It was a long trip but at least the Mr. and I got to sit next to each other on the plane!
We love visiting Colorado and hopefully will get to go back soon before the winter season starts again. I would like to offer travel tips on how to handle toddlers, but I really do believe that it is a crap shoot, I tried to download Wonder pets and get enough snacks, but I decided they are going to act how they want to no matter what I try to do to distract them!
Hope you all enjoyed reading about our trip!
Till next time,
~Mrs. S
