The Colorado Donkey

Rewind about 6 months ago... We were reading a book about Colorado that UJ & AC sent the kids for Christmas. In the book it talked about a donkey and that's what Hunter took away. On Christmas night sitting at Mom Mom and Pa's, Hunter said "I can't wait to see the donkey in Avacado!!"  We all started laughing hysterically and Hunter wasn't sure why. Anyway, all he could talk about the past 6 months was seeing a donkey. Luckily, a friend of UJ & AC worked on a ranch just south of Estes Park that had a donkey and we were going to get to show Hunter.

So Tuesday morning we backed the RV out of their house and we were headed into the mountains. Thanks for letting us plug into your house Jim & Cindy!!!

We left Johnstown and all headed towards Estes Park. Our first stop was...

Chris used to go here every time he came to visit so we had to check it out. The kids liked repeating the name of the store, oops!!

Our next stop was Sylvan Dale Range to see Clint the donkey. It couldn't have worked out better. Barb took us to see Clint and he was very happy he got some visitors. When we asked to see Clint, the wrangler said, "why?"  We had to explain Hunter's story to them and they thought it was pretty funny. 

Clint even talked to us when we walked away!  The wranglers thought the kids were pretty cute so they brought out 2 horses for them to ride. We hit a home run at the ranch. They were thrilled that they got to ride a horse and absolutely loved it. 

The kids are now wanting to ride horses all the time. Matt called his friend Jenny who has horses and told her we'd be coming for a visit. :)

More fun on Day 4

When we went to return one of the 4-wheelers to Jim's buddy, we stopped to check out his shop and we found a 1936 Bugatti and an Indy car that won the Indy 500 in 1927. Needless to say, Matt was shocked and very impressed. Jim's friend Sam is a world renound mechanic and specializes in Bugattis. He said the Bugatti was estimated at a value between 5 and 10 million dollars!!!

While we were at Storm Mountain, Aunt Cindy had fun with the kids and took them to JoAnn Fabrics to pick out their Halloween costumes for this year. We will see if they change their minds by October.  She also made us a delicious dinner of prime rib which was out of this world. Matt and Ed are inspired to make it again. 

After dinner, Mom Mom went and got some balloons for the kids to release. They both wrote a note on them for Uncle Toot and sent them off to the mountains!!  And that's the way they went...

We ended the night with some chocolate baked pudding and homemade ice cream... YUM!!

Storm Mountain Adventure

I didn't have the words today to express what I saw and I'm still not sure how to describe the day, but I'll do my best. Today was an unbelievable, amazing, wonderful, emotional, and scary day. Today was the day we took Uncle Toot to his final resting place and he is now in his "Forever Happy Place."  And here's how it went...

We gathered up the gang and headed into town to pick up the ATV's we had rented and picked up another at Jim's buddy's Sam's house. 

We started the drive toward the mountains and continued onto Storm Mountain Rd. which was scary enough for me. I realized at this point that it wasn't a good idea to sit in the back seat and was sick to my stomach. We were driving through a canyon and then turned into switchbacks. 

We finally made it to the place on the trail (they kept calling it a road, but it didn't look like one I had ever been on) to get the ATV's off the trailer. So far everything is going smoothly. 

We started up the trail hoping the gate up to the mountain would be unlocked. We were told with weather pending, it would open on June 15th. We got to the gate and it was locked. There was no way around it. Out of the blue, a man on a 4-wheeler came riding up behind us who lived up the mountain. He told us he wasn't allowed to let us past the gate since it was still locked. Matt explained our situation to the man and out of the goodness of his heart, he said he would make an exception and let us through. He would follow us up a ways and then let us back out on our way down. I know someone sent him there because there was no other way we would've made it to the top without him.

We took this picture about halfway up.

We rode about 5 miles past the gate to get to the top of Storm Mountain. What an amazing view it was. I know why Chris loved it so much but it was hard to believe he enjoyed the ride up and down. It was pretty darn scary and dangerous. Now I know why Matt has been stressing about it for the past 9 months. 

The weather was absolutely perfect for the ride up. We could see down to the valley which was gorgeous. The pictures can never show the true beauty of what we saw today. 

Jim had a plaque made to be set on the mountain. We found the perfect spot for it. 

We all had our moment to say a few words before spreading Chris' ashes. 

As you can see, the weather started coming in and we were literally in the clouds. It was like nothing we've ever experienced. It was almost as if Chris was telling us "thanks, your job is done now."  We all felt his presence in many ways...

Here's a few more pictures from our adventure. Thank you Chris for allowing me the opportunity to see such an amazing and breathtaking place in the world.  I will always wish you could've been there with all of us for experience of a lifetime. 

There's our friend Mike who was sent from God to let us complete our Storm Mountain mission:)

It was about a year and a half ago when Chris was first intubated. At this time, he told Matt that his wish was for his ashes to be spread on Storm Mountain. Matt was the only person he told this to, but we certainly didn't think it would happen this soon.  If anyone knows Matt, he is the best brother you could ever ask for and he will always fulfill his promises!!

Casa Bonita

When Matt and Chris were little, their grandparents used to take them to a restaurant close to Denver called Casa Bonita. It's now a historic landmark. As tradition, Jim and Cindy insisted we take the kids there and I'm sure glad we did.

 The kids thought it was pretty awesome. It's a huge building with a waterfall in the middle and girls actually dive off cliffs that are over 30' high. They couldn't keep their eyes off it. After we ate our dinner, we walked down to water and they got to talk to the divers. Caitlin even told the girl about how she dives in the pool at Mom Mom's. It was a blast!!!! 

Oh, and Pa even got them light up swords. Always a hit!!!

Caitlin riding "Gallop"

And Hunter found a donkey!!!

I forgot to mention that we stopped at Boot Barn on the way to dinner and both kids got new boots. Hunter had worn his out he loved them so much. Now he got some just like daddy. 

And we ended the night with another fantastic sunset over the mountains and a few sparklers. 

Even Baby Tina got to enjoy the sunset. This picture is just adorable!

And this little girl is pretty excited for a crafting day with Aunt Cindy tomorrow. She's got her new apron on that they made together. Cindy is the best crafter in Colorado!! :)

Day 3 - relaxing

The kids got up early so instead of waking everybody up, they got to watch a little bit of "Little Rascals."

Aunt Cindy made a huge breakfast for us, it was awesome. Caitlin has been buddying up with Uncle Jim and  they've been doing a lot of snuggling:)

Mom mom is a little bit jealous so she photo bombed them!  She's so silly!!!

We enjoyed the great view on the patio this morning and it was very relaxing. UJ & AC got Hunter a huge styrofoam airplane to fly so daddy put it together and they gave it a try. They they a nice big backyard which is perfect. Hunter has also been practicing his baseball. He's doing good except for a few flowers that he hit of Aunt Cindy's. Oops, sorry AC.  We also got in a little Rocky Mountain walk this morning. (That's what Pa kept calling it.). 

We're headed to Denver shortly for dinner and whatever else we find to do along the way...

We made it to Colorado

We are finally in Colorado. (Sometimes Hunter likes to call it avocado:). We pulled into Jim and Cindy's about 2:30pm and it was beautiful out.  Matt pulled the RV right up to the garage and we made ourselves at home. Ha!!

That's Jim giving us a wave!!

Their home is beautiful and I think they were pretty excited to see us too. I had to get a look at the view. This is what they see every day. It was a little hazy but still awesome. 

The boys had to go check something out.

Cindy made us a wonderful meal and then we did some relaxing. A storm came through so we just hung out. 

And I think Uncle Toot helped with this amazing sunset. We love you Tooty!!  I see why you loved it here so much. And the picture doesn't do it justice. 

The kids love it here so far. Everyone is having a great time. (Caitlin was busy doing crafts already with Aunt Cindy)