B&B 2014: Wyoming and Colorado

The kids were loaded in the car and excited to leave Sunday afternoon.  We met up with Grandma and Grandpa near the intersection of I-80 and I-84, then headed to Rawlins, Wyoming.  We stayed at the Oak Tree Inn and ate breakfast at the adjoining Penny's Diner.  After a few meltdowns about who was riding in which car and how to properly wear your seat belt, we were on the road.

As we headed through several small towns in southern Wyoming, we noticed how full the rivers (I think mostly parts of the Platte River) were.  One town had even started sandbagging the shores.  

We saw lots of Pronghorns and James educated us on the difference between Pronghorns and Antelope.  We also saw a few prairie dogs and lots of cows. As we got closer to our next destination, Rocky Mountain National Park, the snowy mountains got closer and closer.

We stopped in Granby, Colorado for gas before heading into Rocky Mountain National Park.  Molly had another meltdown because she needed to go to the bathroom and the gas station we were at only offered port-o-potties.  We ventured to the restaurant next door and though their sign said, "bathrooms for customers only," we asked nicely and they let Molly use theirs.

Rocky Mountain National Park is cool!  We saw a moose and a bunch of elk.  We traveled to extremely high altitudes to what seemed like the top of the world.  You can see how high the snow was still packed on the side of the road.  (The park had only been opened for 2 weeks when we were there and it was only 40 degrees at the top.)

As you get closer to the top, it felt like the road was going to just take you off into the sky.

Once we made it to the top of the world, we headed back down to our stop for the night.  Mary and LaRon let us stay at the World Mark time share in Estes Park, Colorado.  It was really nice.  The kids went swimming, then we found a local grocery store and barbecued hot dogs for dinner.  

Binggeli & Binggeli Adventure 2014

For our first week of summer vacation, we decided to go on a multi-state adventure. Grandma and Grandpa Binggeli were our traveling partners. We started on a Sunday afternoon after church. We drove through Wyoming then the beautiful mountains of northern Colorado. We sliced through the rest of that state from north to south along I-25, staying for a couple of days to visit Amber, Colton, and new baby Joesy in Colorado springs. Next we entered the "Land of Enchantment," New Mexico (which maybe should be called "land of weird weather" since we drove through a crazy hail storm, torrential rain, and mega dust and wind.) We visited Albuquerque for a couple of days and then headed back north towards Utah, arriving home on the following Sunday night.

We ate some good food. We saw some cool things. We drove about 1800 miles.  We visited 2 military bases. We had a lot of fun visiting and spending time with family.

Molly and Jack were good sometimes and other times not. Our car was tested and survived. Compared to our usual sleeping habits, nights were fine (Jack slept all night every night but one). Grandma and Grandpa weren't totally sick of us by the end (or at least they didn't let on). And, our "Frozen" viewing was kept to a minimum.

Overall, it was a great trip!