Breckenridge, Colorado Family Vacation Day 3

Day three seemed to fly by! We spent most of the day hanging around the house with Roman so that Liz and D could go skiing. Roman has had a really rough time here, particularly at night. While at home he sleeps through the night, here he wakes about every 20-30 minutes crying. Poor guy!

Weeks before we make any trip, I can count on Mark to research our destination. For at least three weeks leading up to this trip Mark researched things to do with kids, things that we must do when we visit. He even checked the Main Street Live Cam several times a day! One suggested activity from many sources was that we must try the crepes! So, D and Liz met us on Main Street after they were finished skiing to try out some crepes!

On our way to the crepe stand, Abi said she got to cross one more thing off of her bucket list: pet a horse pulling a carriage. Just to note, these horse were HUGE!

 

 The menu had so many selections! You could choose anything from pepperoni pizza to a smores crepe! Mark had a butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar, I had nutella, Austin had cheesecake, and Abi had a smores crepe.

 The kid-o's watching their crepes being made.

 

After we had our crepes, we all headed back to the house to start dinner. It was mine and Georgiet's turn to cook for the group. I made potato soup with all the fixings and Georgiet made a Filipino dish called Chicken Adobo...it was delicious!

The rest of the evening we played games again. Again, many laughs were had! Day four has more activities on the schedule, I can't wait to share them!

Breckenridge, Colorado Family Vacation Day 2

Day 2 started off a little rough for me. First, the lack of sleep the night before in my sauna, I mean, my room put me a little on the cranky side. Nevertheless, I hopped out of bed looking forward to the eventful day we planned. Once the majority of the house was awake, Javier made breakfast. Again, this is one of my favorite parts of any vacation or family gatherings I've ever been a part of, meals together.

the kids' table

 

While waiting for all of the boring adults to get ready to leave for the day, the kids headed outside to play in the snow.

 

 

Austin working on his pitching with a snowball!

 

On our way down to the down, and I mean that literally, as we had to drive down a winding road, we stopped at a touristy spot to snap pictures overlooking Breckenridge. The view was breathtaking once again. I could have sat there and just looked for a good portion of the afternoon!

 My beautiful girl!

 

 And my handsome boy!

 

 

 The Brewers 2013

 

 All the kids, some showing off their snowballs!

 

 Liz, Georgiet, Taunya, and me

 

Aaron, DeAndre, Javier, and Mark

 





For this day of the vacation we all planned to rent some sleds and head to a local park, Carter Park, to sled. This was a budget friendly event that everyone in the family could enjoy. To rent the sleds was only $5 per sled for an entire day. We rented four between the four families, and took turns using them. Carter Park was also very budget friendly because it was free! We spent at least three hours there!

Zay and Austin coming down the slope

 



 Javier and Lyla!

 

 Abi and Sebastian

 

 Liz, Mark, Georgiet, and Aaron

 

 

 Mark, right before he ate it!!!

 

 Austin and Remington after a successful slide down!

 

 I made one trip...and I survived!

 

 

 The kids took turns sledding with Lyla. This was on their way up the hill.

 And this was their crash on the way down!

 

The view from the top of the hill

 

So, I left something out of day one. While walking back to the house from just a little bit down the street, we saw a fox. A real life, eating, breathing fox! Well, most of us saw the fox. Abi, my lover of all animals, did not. She missed it. She was very disappointed and told Mark she was sad because seeing a fox is "on her bucket list"! Once it was gone, it was gone! At Carter Park she got to cross "seeing a fox" off of her bucket list! As we were climbing up the hill, a very fast fox ran across the property fenced off just above the top of the hill!

 

Our friend, the fox

 

Once we had worn ourselves out sledding, we headed to Main Street for some coffee and/or hot cocoa. Parking was a little tough to find just because we were uncertain of where we could park without being towed. Once parked, the rest of our visit to Main street was by foot. On a map we picked up earlier in the day, we located Columbine Café and headed that way. The service was great! The young lady working behind the counter was super friendly and patient as our large party ordered . I had a coffee called "Moosetracks" that was super tasty! It had two shots of espresso, one pump of mocha, and two pumps of marshmallow! The kids both had hot chocolate. There was just enough room in the tiny shop to seat all of us!

They clear the sidewalks with a mini snowplow!

 

 Walking Main Street

 







Lyla, Zay, Austin, and Cameron warming up!

 



 

We finished our drinks and started our journey of walking from shop to shop. We quickly learned that Breckenridge is not a nightlife city like Houston! Most of the shops were closed around 6pm or soon to be closed! So we visited one or two stores and then decided we return the next day while all the shops were open, and just make our way to dinner. On Main Street they have several restaurants, but we landed at Bubba Gumps. Not exactly a Breckenridge original, but still a cute little establishment! I had never had their food before; so, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I ordered the 'Jenny's Catch in Lobster Butter Sauce', It was delicious! Our waiter, Matt, did a great job. Especially with such a large group split evenly with rambunctious children!

Around a fire pit in the center of one of the shopping areas

 



 



 Outside one of the art shops

 

Lyla dancing after she finished her food

 

We ended the night with putting the kids to bed and then playing games. Many more great memories were made here. We played Balderdash, my favorite game, and then another game that has yet to be named.  There were many laughs and even some tears! Mark laughed so hard he was crying on the floor! I'm looking forward to see what day three holds in store for us!

Breckenridge, Colorado Family Vacation 2013 Day 0

   We left Houston around 4:30pm Friday afternoon to begin the long, long, LONG drive to Breckenridge, Colorado. By we, I mean our immediate Brewer family (Mark, me, Austin, and Abi) and the Blanco family (Javier, Taunya, Cameron, Remington, and Lyla). To help make as few trips on the trip as possible and save a buck, I made a grocery store run to stock up on snacks. I packed a small ice cooler full of drinks (water, Gatorade...and of course, Diet Dr Pepper!) and put it directly behind the kids' seat so that they would have easy access. We were loaded down with clothing for a full 8 days plus snow gear! Speaking of snow gear, I found great deals on practically brand new items at my local thrift store. I was quite pleased with my findings! I purchased Austin and Abi each 2 sets of snow suits (pants/jump suit and jackets) online in the spring thinking I was getting a great deal because it was at the end of the season! I paid about $40 each for them. I'm from Houston, Texas...we get hot weather...that's pretty much it! What do I know about purchasing snow gear?! So, once I found the full racks of used snow suits at the thrift store I was bummed! There was a way larger selection of kids' items than there was for adults. I was able to find three adult jackets, jump suits, and two pairs of winter water proofed gloves. They also had several pairs of snow boots, but none in the sizes we needed. The most expensive item was one of the jump suits at $8 whole dollars!! So, if you need to make a trip to a snowy place, I highly recommend checking out your local thrift store before paying the ridiculous prices anywhere else!

 Once we were on the road, we did our best not to stop until we got to Fort Worth. That was the smoothest stretch of the trip. Texas is big. It is hard to realize how big until you have to travel across it!! We finally had to stop around 12:30am to at a rest stop to rest.





Both of the kids couldn't get comfortable in the back seat; so, Austin crawled up and made a bed on top of the luggage!

 



We slept until 2:30am and then headed out again. About the time we hit Wichita Falls, the roads began to get really icy. I suppose it wasn't helpful that a nasty storm was in the process of blowing through. So, we had to slow down dramatically.  Not fun when your trip supposed to take close to 17 hours without stops! There was one road that we drove down that was two lanes, in the middle of nowhere, and covered in ice. A scene that made us all pray that we did not have any car trouble!
At the fist sight of real snow, we made a stop for the kids to make snowballs!

First sight of snow!

 Snow on the ground makes for two very happy kid-o's

 



We finally made it to New Mexico before we all came to a mutual agreement that breakfast must take place outside of the vehicles! We found a Denny's...ok, Denny's was really all they had...

Lyla, caught making a face at me!

 

Snowballs outside of Denny's!

 

Excited to get there already, hit the road. Just beyond the small town of Raton, New Mexico our breath was taken away by this:

 

 





Pictures don't do it justice!

 

 

From this point on, the fastest we probably drove was at least 20 miles under the speed limit! Once we were deep into Colorado, we were driving slow enough for me to snap some awesome pictures of the scenery.

 

 

My favorite memory from driving down these twisty, turning roads is Austin's and Abi's reaction to the scenery. Both of them kept gasping about "how beautiful this is!" They could barely contain their excitement of snow! I love that!

 

I thought they couldn't get anymore excited. But as we got closer to Breckenridge, the backdrop revealed even more allure than before.

 

 

We arrived in Breckenridge, finally, around 2:30pm Saturday! It is stunning. It looks as if a picture came alive out of a travel brochure.

 









We pulled up to the house that we rented for the week, and again the awe continued! The house is so amazing, it even has a proper name: The Lodge at Snowy Point! It has 5 master bedrooms inside the main house, 4 of which have a fire place in the room. It also has a kids' bunk room, which has been handy with the group of boys. It also has a separate cottage connected to the garage that has been helpful as well! There are two game areas, a media room, two giant dining tables, and two sitting areas. The kitchen is my dream kitchen!! Other than having a fireplace in the kitchen, it also has TWO dishwashers, a bread warmer, THREE ovens, eight burners on the cook top, and three sinks! Who needs that many amenities in their kitchen you ask? Anyone that has ever cooked for a large group of people! The room that Mark and I are staying in has a balcony, a sitting area around the fireplace, and a king size bed. The connecting bathroom has a claw foot tub, a walk-in shower that has six shower heads, and several windows over looking the delightful neighborhood.

The Lodge at Snowy Point

 

The Brew-Tines (DeAndre, Elizabeth, and Roman) and the Brewers (Aaron, Georgiet, Zay, and Bastian) arrived just minutes behind us. They flew from Houston to Denver and then rented a car to drive the rest of the way. We toured the house and unpacked, ushering in the effects of the altitude changes. Walking from one end of the house to the other required a break in the middle. I, myself, felt short of breath and a bit dizzy. The one remedy we discovered through a little research is to make sure you stay hydrated. Drinking a lot of water has made a difference.  I retired very early in the evening. I was exhausted!