Nakita Grinie

This might have been the most fun day of the trip, FYI;)

Sunday, October 27: Day 5

Truman woke up at 5:30 am this date. No. He said he was ready to wake up and seemed very chipper, but somehow I convinced him to let me lay on his air mattress with him for 'awhile'. He wasn't happy about this at first but he did eventually fall back asleep. The next thing I knew, it was light out. And 7:30 am. There is a God!

Cecelia woke at 6:45 am and hung out in GoGo and PoPo's room until Truman and I emerged from our slumber. Nate got up, too, so all of us headed downstairs where Michael was sleeping on the couch. He promptly went upstairs to find an empty bed and continued sleeping. Ha! Kids these days must think that 7:30 am is 'too early' or something.

We did our usual coffee, breakfast, and chatting and then everybody got dressed. The kids wanted to play with the battery powered car again and so I grabbed my nice camera and went out there. Luckily Michael and my dad also came outside because monitoring these two hooligans in any type of moving vehicle is a three person job. Nate eventually came out, too, because we were all having a blast out there. So yeah, four adults to two kids in a car is the best formula to avoid disaster.

So many pictures.















Truman's new favorite face for my camera


Mom and I were pumped to get our nails done this date but then it got pretty late in the morning, and Nate thought of an awesome plan for the day (since we were all wishy washy about what to do). He decided that Michael, Nate and myself should get charcoal and take the burger patties my mom was originally going to grill for dinner the night before (but didn't since the boys were gone until forever). The three of us were to drive up to Horse Tooth reservoir and find a little grilling area and get the meat started. Then my parents would bring the kids over once we got started and we could all have a BBQ picnic lunch together! Love. Totally worth putting the nail date off another day.

So the three of us got packed up and went to the store, then headed up to the foot hills. We found an awesome spot at South Bay Park. There was some initial difficulty getting the charcoal to work with the wind and we almost had my parents stop to get lighter fluid but it turned out fine. A beer, the perfect sunny (hot! 70 degree) day, and then juicy BBQ bison burgers? Yes. Even the kids had a ball after CC fell asleep on the way over, and we got to take lots of pictures. Therefore I was happy.





















After we stuffed ourselves to the brim, my parents headed back home with the kids. This is the part when I mention how grateful I am to have amazing babysitters like this all throughout our trip. My parents did encourage to do fun stuff without the kids because secretly they just wanted to spend time with their grands anyway. So there was really no guilt leaving Truman and Cecelia for adult only outings. Win win for everyone.

Michael, Nate, and I then drove a little further up the foothills to the same trails Nate and I did a few days prior. This time we wanted to take the route to Horse tooth Falls, though,  instead of going all the way up to the rock. This route had a lot of ups and downs and amazing scenery because of the nearby water. It was a lot shorter at just 1.3 miles to the end and only took us about 30 minutes to end at the waterfall. So pretty.



















We came back down to the car around 3, after arriving here around 1:30 or so. It was hot and busy on Horse Tooth this day but still totally worth it. All I kept thinking about was how many ridiculously perfect spots there were for family photos along the path. I even texted Andrea a picture of a spot that took my breath away. I can't get over how gorgeous the views are in the foothills. I know the actual mountains are even better and next time we may venture a little further away from Fort Collins for even crazier views.

There was a discussion about whether or not we had time to get a coffee from Old Town and we did not, but once we got back and I showered I REALLY wanted an iced coffee. Badly. Alas, we ran out of time because my mom had purchased tickets to Treatslyvania at a nearby Farm. Trick-or-Treating in Colorado! We needed to be there at 5:30 and it was already 4, so we skipped the Joe.

CC was already awake from her nap but we had to wake Truman and he was super grumpy, and was even saying, 'But I don't WANT to go trick-or-treating, I want to sleep!' Silly, silly child. We got both kids dressed, gave them a little snack and headed off to the farm.









It was totally packed when we got there around 5:15. Parking was nuts and the line to get in was inSANE. But we knew we wouldn't get skipped or anything once we stood in the line since our tickets did say 5:30. Of course, we didn't actually get in until 5:45 but it just seemed like everyone was running late. All of the little local businesses had made these really cute wooden 'doors', which were like smallish houses. They painted and decorated their doors and they were all lined up, about 20 feet apart from each other. The kids quickly realized that they could score a LOT of candy in a short time frame by walking to each door, instead of having to go to actual houses. Score one for a lot of candy in a little bit of time! There was also a short hay ride, some farm animals, and cute little Halloween displays all around. The kids loved it and CC was really into saying 'tank-ooo' after each door and demanded to hold the candy in her hand instead of having the people drop it into her bag. Super fun night and I'm so glad Michael and Mom came along.

























We were done with the trick-or-treating around 6:30 and both cars took the longer way back home to tour the city, but of course it was pitch black by then. We gave both kids one piece of candy in the back seat and they were in amazing moods (sugar high) the whole way home, singing and squealing back and forth with each other. It was this moment that I realized my kids were pretty fond of Colorado as a whole;)

We ate dinner when we got home, played and Cecelia didn't go down until 9:15 with such a fun/sugary evening. And Truman somehow went down at 10 but I felt like it was later, although they didn't have the typical sugar high CRASH that follows Halloween night;) Michael had to drive back to Colorado Springs once CC went down since he had class on Monday. The kids had so much fun with Uncle Mike and they are pumped to see him again for Christmas (when he and my parents fly out to see us!).

The adults worked on the puzzle and had a beer while discussing the fact that there HAD to be missing pieces to this blasted puzzle. In fact, everyone else went to bed but Nate and I because we were up looking under couches and inside toy boxes for a few pieces to the Oregon on our puzzle. Nate was seriously losing his mind over that state and the elusive pieces, but I just figured we needed to finish more of the puzzle first and they'd appear. Eventually we gave up for the night and went to bed, too, maybe around 11 or so. I think Nate dreamed about missing puzzle pieces that night;)