Colorado

At the beginning of June Mat and I went to Colorado to celebrate our anniversary.  My parents were willing to give up a few days to come watch Levi at our house :), so Mat and I were able to enjoy a long weekend away by ourselves!

When we got there on Friday we spent some time driving around the city and did a little shopping in a neat shopping center in downtown Denver.  

If you know Mat at all, you know he is a fan of state geography and trivia.  We can't visit a capital city without actually going to the capitol building.  :)  While we were there they were having a state quilting contest.  There were about 400 quilts hanging throughout the building.  They were beautiful, and we enjoyed getting to see all of the different designs.

We also went to one of the flagship REI stores.  The building used to have furnaces that burned coal to power Denver's streetcar system.  We've also been to a flagship store in Seattle.  Even though these stores are in the heart of the cities, REI has managed to create a beautiful setting to enjoy.

Saturday we spent the day in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was beautiful, and we decided that if we were to do this trip again, we'd make this our destination and take a day trip into Denver.  We spent the morning in Estes Park.  We shopped and ate at this cute restaurant called DeLeo's Deli.  The owner was there working the register and greeted everyone happily.  He loved talking to people and finding out where everyone was from.

After lunch we drove into the national park.  It was absolutely beautiful and the perfect day for spending time outside.  Our first stop was a hike around Bear Lake.  We knew it would be cooler up in the mountains, but we were not expecting all of the snow!  There were huge snow drifts and about 5 feet or so of snow piled up on the trails in some spots around the lake.  The edges of the lake were even slushy and still melting.  We enjoyed our hike and the cooler weather!  (Just a little bit different from the weather we're experiencing here at home!)

After Bear Lake, we drove up and made stops at a few picture perfect spots as we headed up to the top of Trail Ridge Road.  We drove up to almost 12,000 feet.  There was even more snow up here- the drifts stood taller than the buildings.

Another typical spot for a Kelso vacation is the baseball stadium.  Mat is working hard to visit all 30 baseball stadiums, and Coors Field was number 18.  We enjoyed our afternoon at the ballpark and marking another stadium off the list.

Mat and I loved having a few days to ourselves, but we were both so excited to see our little guy!