Colorado for the 4th

This year we got out of AZ for the 4th and it was so great! I think we'll head north from now on! I love, love, love the 4th (I attribute that to growing up outside of D.C.) and I was really missing being able to lay out and watch the fireworks. It had probably been like 5-6 years since I'd been able to do that. We headed up to little Cortez, Colorado and got to see a bunch of Trent's family. We loved being able to stay with Trent's aunt and uncle, Tracy (Tanis's sister) and Wayne. Added bonus, their granddaughter, Keara, who is 3 like Aiden, was in town as well, and she and Aiden really hit if off :)

It was a quick trip for sure. We left early Friday morning, the 3rd, and headed back Sunday afternoon, the 5th.

It's always an adventure traveling in our little car with the 2 kids. It's really fun when one of us has to crawl back there and cram between the two car seats ;) We are officially looking into getting a van!

We made it into Colorado about 3:30 in the afternoon. I wasn't feeling great, just a bad headache, so I was really grateful I could lay down for an hour or two before we headed off to Trent's uncle Kenny and aunt Tammy's for dinner. Their son Steven, daughter-in-law Brittney, and granddaughter, Parker (who is about Aiden's age), were in from the Phoenix area as well. We had the most delicious dinner - Wayne made homemade lasagna! We spent most of our time outside and there was such a nice breeze. It was kind of funny because all of us from AZ ended up putting hoodies on! Aiden, Keara, and Parker were so cute playing together, but I was so caught up in watching the kids and chit chatting (and recovering from the trip ;)) that I didn't get any pictures that night :(

Saturday, the 4th, we had a nice, easy-going day. Trent's grandparents live right next door to his aunt Tracy, but they have huge lots, so they have a golf cart to go between the two houses. Trent's grandpa, Gary, came with the golf cart and invited the kids to hop on and check out their garden. I went along for the ride :)

Such a beautiful big yard!

Great grandpa let the kids pick and eat their strawberries right off the vine!

Aiden and Keara couldn't get enough! They ate every strawberry they could find :)

They were also in heaven trying to find ladybugs. Aiden would've been happy to do this the whole time!

They kept asking us all to help them find them.

While Aiden would've been happy hunting for ladybugs all day, Janie would've probably been happy hanging out in this pink Cozy Coupe :)

So cute!

Once Janie woke up from her nap, we headed out with Gary to see all of his farmland. And Aiden got to ride in a tractor with him!

Driving it out of the storage garage.

It's a little hard to see Aiden, but he was so happy :)

And Janie kept waving at him :)

Old rusty car. This would've been a great place to come for family pictures or something ;)

He even got to scoop up some dirt and dump it :)

He had a toy tractor with him ;)

Janie just kept waving!  Cute, cute girl!

Waiting for the boys to come back around ;)

I guess this is the old truck that Trent learned how to drive in when he was like 10..ha.

I was so amazed seeing all of Gary and the family's farmland. I could really see that he was/is a very hard worker.

I couldn't get enough of the clouds in the sky!  So, so pretty!

It's hard to see, but a deer was running through some of the crops.

It was so fun to just be with Gary and have him tell us all about his farming and stories from growing up and what not.

Gary stopped so that Aiden could see his horses.

Great grandpa and Janie :)

He went off to check on something for a minute.

We took that time to have the lunch we packed.

Aiden was thrilled when we found a ladybug! It's on his sleeve here.

We headed back and laid low. The kids loved playing with Gary and Joan's tractors :)

I love that Janie was even playing with them :)

Great grandma helping Janie get her shoes back on :)

Trent went out back to play a game of horseshoes with his grandpa. Aiden gave it a whirl as well ;)

I just really love their 4th of July outfits :)

Keara was so kind to push Janie around some. That way she'd get a turn next ;)

I loved dinner that evening. It was pretty traditional 4th of July - hot dogs/bratwursts and grilled corn-on-the-cob. So good!

4th of July family photo :)

So that evening it got pretty stormy (you can see the clouds in our pic) and we were having a hard time deciding whether we wanted to go to the Rec Center to see fireworks or just try to see them from the house. But I had been so excited to lay out and watch fireworks, as I mentioned earlier, so we braved it, and I'm so glad we did!! It stopped raining and it wasn't even as chilly as we thought it would be. I had forgotten to bring any pants on the trip for me, so I was still in my shorts, and I was just fine with a sweater on and a blanket over us. It actually was so refreshing!

It was almost Janie's bedtime. You can tell she was getting tired.

The fireworks were awesome. And I had forgotten what it's like to lay out under them. I was a little nervous at first!! It feels like they're going to fall on you! The kids did so great! I was a little worried how Janie would react, but she didn't seem bothered at all! And Aiden just covered his ears the whole time..haha.

I really wanted a photo with all of us laying on the blanket, but this is all I got. It's a funny picture, but I love it!

We probably made it back to Tracy's about 10:15 and the kids completely zonked :)

Sunday, we got up and got packed. We weren't in a huge rush to get home so we had a nice pancake breakfast with everyone and hung out.

Trent took the kids back to his grandparents' to check for any new strawberries :)

Aiden and Keara spent the morning playing on the golf cart and Janie just kind of hung out among the flowers. You'd almost miss her in this picture!

We visited for a little while and once we noticed Janie was getting sleepy, we decided that would be a good time to start our drive. So we headed out about 11:30. It was hard to get back in the car! We would've loved to stay longer.

We had to bribe Aiden with a gumball to get him to pee at a gas station..haha.

We ran into some holiday traffic on the way home :/ The kids were so patient though. I had to get a shot of Janie's feeties :)

We had such a such a wonderful trip, albeit short, and we can't wait to go again! A huge thank you to Tracy and Wayne for letting us stay and making us feel so welcome! I didn't even get a picture with either of them. They're not big picture people, so I didn't want to be the one to coax them into taking one. Next time for sure though!!