Colorado Trip

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Jake and I went on a little trip! My maternal grandparents live in Loveland, Colorado. My grandfather doesn't travel any more for health reasons. This meant he was unable to attend our wedding and hadn't met Jake. My mom LOVES the fourth of July in Colorado. So we made plans that they (Mom, Dad, and Laura) would drive west from Nebraska and Jake and I would head east from Provo and we would all meet in Colorado!

Whenever my family is driving I-80 through Wyoming, we always stop in Little America outside of Cheyenne. It's usually at a time when we need to refill the gas tank and they have 50 cent ice cream cones!

I decided to introduce Jake to this little tradition!

YUM!! Twistie Cones!!

Most of the time we were there, we just hung around at my grandma's house. I don't have too many pictures from that.

There was one day when Dad drove Laura, Jake, and I into Denver and around some places... including to Casa Bonita! The funnest Mexican restaurant EVER!!

The whole restaurant is designed to look like you are in a Mexican village near the jungle! There's a haunted cave, Mariachi bands that wander among the tables, a mine, a giant waterfall with cliff divers.... it's fantastic!

So excited! The food is good, but you DEFINITELY go for the environment!

Well... the environment and their sopapillas!

They're little bits of fry bread that puff up hollow in the center!

And they're served warm with honey.

My favorite way to eat them is....

1. Rip off a corner or a side of them.

2. Drizzle honey into their hollow insides.

3. Move it around a bit so the honey spreads out through the whole thing.

4. Dig in!!

YUM!! We had about 3-4 orders of these! They're the best!

They also have a bunch of little merchants and goofy little gift shops. We found these ENORMOUS "diamond" rings in one. So Jake "gave" one to me.

It was tough with the lightning, but here's Jake and I in front of the waterfall/diving pool.

We stopped for a photo op at the fountain outside!

After we were all full, we drove over to Boulder. Dad wanted to find the apartments we used to live in there and some other landscapes from my EARLY childhood.

We also drove up the mountain to NCAR - The National Center for Atmospheric Research - where my dad worked while we lived there.

The hills behind the building are GORGEOUS and Dad used to take me hiking there when I was VERY small!

This is what I used to call the "Bench Rock" when I was little.

So, of course, we needed pictures sitting on it like a bench!

It was a fun weekend to be able to get away from things and see family. We really enjoyed the trip.

And, of course... we stopped for more ice cream on the way home!

Although the ice cream wasn't our only stop...

We also stopped to buy some fireworks in Wyoming... which we came to find out later may have been of questionable legality in Utah.... Whoops!

Sneaking back across the border with our "loot"...