What We Did In Colorado

The day after we arrived in Colorado was a slow-paced day as we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive. My sister, who lives in Colorado, was returning from a trip to Ireland, and my Grandmother, Aunt, and Uncle from Washington were driving in. Except for my grandmother and Aunt and Uncle who drove, the rest of us were originally going to be staying at the same resort in two different condos. My sisters, cousins, and me with the kids in one, and my parents, my dad's brother and his wife, and my mom's brother in the other. When my sister got there a few hours ahead of us, she found out that the condo we were supposed to get was under construction, and so we were moved to a different place about a mile down the road. Not super convenient since I was relying on my parents to drive me and the kids around (they always had to come pick us up just to come over, and I couldn't just give my mom the baby monitor to watch them in the mornings so I could run.)

At the "young people" condo, I was in the master bedroom with the kids and my sister, Heather. It was pretty big, and had a king size bed, which was convenient since almost every night, all four of us ended up in the bed (plus my sister is pregnant, so really there were 5 of us!) The last three mornings, I got up and ran up and down part of the main road, and even saw a big bull elk right outside our condo on the last morning. The views of the snow capped mountains were amazing!

We threw Heather a surprise family baby shower on Friday evening, and part of it involved a game of guessing everyone's baby picture. Becky and I had printed everyone's pictures and strung them up around the room for people to guess who was who. It was fun hearing people's guesses, and my dad even mixed up my sisters' baby pictures. In true Perrault fashion, we feasted on spaghetti (our Christmas Eve tradition), and ate yummy cake for dessert.

On Saturday we drove around Rocky Mountain National Park and took in the beautiful views! We walked on a little trail completely covered in packed down snow to get some amazing views of the mountains and a lake. We drove up higher and higher to take it all in, and got to a point where snow was piled up on either side of the road. Afterwards, we drove to Boulder to wander around and grab dinner.

Sunday was my brother's college graduation at the basketball arena on the Colorado State campus in Fort Collins. Jonah was content until just after the ceremony began, so I ended up standing outside of the main part and attempted to keep a cranky toddler occupied. Every now and then we walked in, and at one point retrieved Noelle to keep her busy. Thankfully, I was able to peek in and watch my brother walk across the stage. We're all so proud of him, and we continued the celebration by going out to a late lunch with everyone. I could tell my grandma loved being there with all her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids, and even though Noelle and Jonah were not the best behaved on the trip, I'm so thankful to my parents for helping to get them out there!