Colorado Trip September 2011

In mid September we took Brayden on his first family vacation!  There were many firsts for Brayden during this trip.  We were a little anxious about how he would do on the plane ride.  We had not purchased an extra ticket for Brayden but luckily the flight going there and coming home were not full so we were able to have a seat for his car seat.  I nursed him on the way up and on the way down to help him with his ears and the pressure and he did great!  He slept most of the way and did not seem to notice any difference when the plane was taking off or landing.  We did not realize quite how lucky we were and how easy of a baby Brayden was until we saw the poor baby in the row right in front of us.  He was just a couple of weeks younger than Brayden and literally cried probably 90% of the flight.  I felt even more sorry for his poor mom who walked up and down the aisle shushing him! 

Excited for the flight!

After getting in to Denver and dropping our things off at Uncle Keiths apartment we headed to Coors Field for Braydens first baseball game.  The Rockies were playing the Reds and the air was nice and cool, we were all excited to be there.  I attempted to nurse Brayden at the game under a cover, not happening!  Brayden was much more interested in what was going on around us.  We thought that Brayden was just going to fall asleep in his car seat like he always has in the past but apparently the excitement was just way too much for him and he stayed up for the WHOLE game!  We realized quickly that we were going to have to be flexible with Braydens schedule for the next week-not easy  to do at first!!! 

After leaving Denver we drove to Canon City, Colorado to the Royal Gorge.  We walked out on to the suspension bridge that hangs 956 feet high over the canyon.  It was super windy up there but had some pretty spectacular views. Next we took an incline railway train ride down to the bottom of the gorge down to the river. 




Brayden on train, clinging to daddy



On the train, headed back up!

At the bottom by the river

Next we drove up to Colorado Springs to where we were staying at the Broadmoor hotel.  We had an awesome little cottage on the 18th hole of the golf course where the views were just stunning.  To say that this place was nice would be an understatement!  We all had to agree that this was the prettiest hotel we had ever stayed at!  It had a great living area in between the rooms where we could all hang out and we could lay Brayden on the ground to play.  The best part (in my opinion) was the outdoor space.  Our patio had comfy furniture to relax on and we spent alot of our time out here enjoying the beautiful Colorado weather.  We would spend the mornings outside in robes with our coffee and evenings with a cup of wine.  We were only supposed to stay for two nights but ended up staying three because we loved it here so much!!!  While in Colorado Springs, the guys played two rounds of golf, we went to an awesome zoo, checked out the USA olympic training center, and some of us went up to visit Pikes Peak.  We had all planned on going up to the peak and loaded up to go one day.  Debbie and I had both researched the safety of taking a baby up and everything that we read said it was safe to take babies over 4 months.  Since Brayden was almost 5 months at the time we thought he should be okay.  We drove up to the gate and the attendant asked how old Brayden was.  After telling him, he proceeded to tell us to be sure to watch Brayden's coloring as he may pass out and would not "come to" on his own!  The thought of having to reccessitate my baby boy made me want to cry and Brian and I decided to stay at the bottom of the mountain.  We got dropped off in this cute little city called Manitu Falls where we walked around, ate lunch, and went to the park while we waited on Eddie, Debbie, and Christi to go up to Pikes Peak.  Apparently it was a pretty scary and long drive and everyone was glad that we chose not to bring Brayden along.

Got lots of QT with Aunt Christi...even though she still hasn't changed a diaper!!!!:)

And Uncle Keithy... yes he has changed a diaper!

I love this one!  Happy baby!!

Stopped at the Air Force Academy on the way for Brayden to eat and for a little sight seeing

Snuggling with Papa in the morning

Enjoying our coffee and the crisp Fall air :)

Brayden's first time on a swing!  This is about as excited as he looked the whole time....

After leaving Colorado Springs we started our Colorado road trip.  This road trip included lots and lots of pretty scenery, a little bit of snow, and finding out where the Starbucks was in every town!  The first day we headed up to Breckenridge and hit some pretty big rain/slushy snow.  We stayed one night in Breck and then headed on because the weather didn't allow us to do very much.  From there we drove through Vail and up to Steamboat Springs.  The weather eased up a little and we were able to get out and walk along the river some.  It was beautiful and the air was so crisp and cool.  On this trip we wore Brayden alot in out new ERGO baby carrier and Brayden fell asleep while Brian was wearing him, it was so sweet!  From Steamboat we drove back to Denver to spend our last night with Uncle Keithy and his girlfriend Emily.  We got to  spend the afternoon in Washington Park walking and taking turns riding Keiths bike! This park is so huge and cool, it had us all wishing we lived in Denver or that they had better parks in SA!

I love his face here :)

We had such an AMAZING trip and I think that it was really good for my hard working husband and sister in law Christi to get away from work for a couple of days, they deserve it!!  We hated to leave but it felt great getting home and back to our own beds and getting our poor baby out of his car seat!!!  We are so appreciative to Brian's parents for taking us on this trip, it was great to get to spend so much time with them and for Brayden to see his Grandparents so much!

Thanks Grandma and Papa!!

One of my favorite of many photo ops