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We’re home!  We got home Monday night and are so happy to be home (except for the horrible heat).  The trip was a definite success - quite an adventure and not without it's challenges but we're already romantizing our time away from home. 

We spent the last few days of our trip last week driving through Colorado and in the Denver area visiting wonderful friends.  Heading from Salt Lake City we spent one night in Steamboat Springs – what a great little town.  Beautiful mountains, lots and lots of hike and bike trails, green everywhere, small town feel, lots of people out exercising, and great hot springs.  We spent a few hours at the Old Town Hot Springs which has like 5 different pools fed from one hot spring, at varying degrees of temperature ranging from 85 to 103.  Very nicely done with waterfalls and a rock climbing wall above the water that Joe had fun trying to get up.  It was heavenly.  But we were forced to get back in our car and keep driving.

That evening we drove over the 12,183 foot pass in Rocky Mountain Natl Park on the highest continuously paved road in the U.S.  The oxygen masks deployed in the truck at 12,000 feet, an option we didn’t realize had been included in our vehicle. J Very awe inspiring being so high up and surrounded by mountains but I don’t like heights so I of course was nervous for part of the drive.  You get into the alpine where no trees can grow which is very interesting to see.



Later that night we camped at a great campground in the park called Aspen Glen.  It was the best night of the trip for star gazing – unbelievable view of the stars.  Just wanted to sit there forever staring up at the sky next to the fire but of course a little girl had to be put to bed.  Joe even saw a shooting star and some possible alien spaceships J.  We got to spend some time playing in the falls by the campsite before heading on to spend the day in Boulder.  Another very cool town I think I could enjoy living in except for the winters. They have this great pedestrian mall full of people, splash fountains, book stores, coffee shops, shade, lots of benches, people playing music and doing magic tricks.  I hope our new town center at Mueller can have something similar.  Western Colorado is just breathtaking and of course the weather in the summer is fantastic – in the 70s.  And then we hit Denver and got to spend a couple days with my wonderful friends Terrie and MJ and their kids who are about the same age as Zoey - Cadence, Karson and Stephen.  It was soooo much fun seeing them and so sad to have to leave so soon.   Just hanging out talking, going to the park, watching the kids play, eating good food – that’s the life.

But boy, when we got on the road for home we made a beeline.  We thought we’d take three days but we just kept on driving and made it in two– the pull of home is amazing when you’ve been gone so long.  It was exciting to leave on our roadtrip but even more exciting to come home I think.  Now we're just unpacking, going through two months of mail, catching up with everyone and settling back into regular life.  Till our next adventure that is.