More Colorado Excitement

Yesterday we spent the day in Breckenridge. It's only like a 20 minute drive from where we're staying. We took a gondola (free!) up to Peak 8 where they have lots of kid activities to do. You can buy a pass and do the stuff all day long, or just buy passes a la carte- that's what we did. Chris & Avery decided to do the Alpine Slide. I really wanted to, but I had a bout with altitudeness yesterday (yes, that's a real word) and after taking the gondola up, I didn't think I'd make it up a ski lift too. Anywhooo...check out Chris & Avery behind the girl in the forefront.

Here we're taking the gondola back down. It was a pretty view. We didn't get to stay up high for long because it started storming. We paid for a bouncing thing for Avery and she did it for like 2 minutes- seriously. Oh well.


Here is another gondola passing us. We went over a fire truck soon after this and we were low enough that the firefighters waved at us. Griffin is actually falling asleep here.

After lunch at a really good pizza place in Breckenridge, we went to Country Boy Mines, an old gold mine. They have burros there (donkeys). Avery & Griffin got to pet them- they were very friendly. What was not friendly was the pit toilet.



Here is a snort that they have on the property. Avery loves the book "Are you my mother" about a bird looking for his mom. One of the maternal possibilities is a "snort" and here we witnessed a live one. It was very exciting.

Everyone had to wear a hard hat in the mine. We just walked in about 1/4 mile- we didn't have to go underground because we were already underground- like 1,500 feet. It was thundering a bit while we were in there and it was really, really weird sounding. Avery actually liked this a lot. The yellow sack thing is for ventilation if needed. There is a lot of water being pumped out of the mine right now because of the record snowfalls this year and all the rain they've been getting. It was under our feet- some in a pipe and some just trickling out.

After the mine tour we got to take a stab at panning for gold. Avery (in yellow) didn't have much luck. Chris was able to get a tiny piece though.

Can you see it? It's the tiny bread-crumb thing at the bottom left of the quarter. We'll put in the bank for the kids' college fund.


We got home in time for some storms to billow up. Chris had just said earlier in the day, "man, the storms never make it to us". Well he shouldn't have said that. The storms started out nice and rainy like this.
And then got all crazy like this. This is only one of 5,000 lightning strikes we saw within 30 minutes. It then rolled in to Dillon and it was totally crazy. We tried to catch so many of the strikes but were always a little too slow. Glad this one turned out. Reports said that Breckenridge had 2 inches in an hour. I overheard a lady in the common area this morning say it was the worst storm she's experienced in the 4 years that she's lived here. Impressive! Stay tuned to what other information I hear from eavesdropping on another lady tomorrow.

So, this morning we went on a hike. It was next to a creek and you can see what happens to creeks when it rains a whole lot. Don't worry parents- I zoomed in on this.

It was a really nice hike, although it wasn't the trail we thought it was. We ended up on the Straight Creek Trail, called that because it followed a creek that was pretty straight- that's my guess anyway. Avery spent most of the time picking wildflowers. Shhh...dont' tell the rangers.






It was a cool, brisk morning after a good rainfall, so there was a lot of evidence of runoff, but it was also very beautiful. Buffalo Mountain is in the picture below.

Stopping for a snack. We saw a mule deer and her fawn right after this.


And of course a little boulder climbing. Chris first, then Avery.

We went to a fun place for dinner, but I don't have pictures. They actually have a hamburger called the "Pregnant Elvis" that is topped with peanut butter, bacon and pickles. Chris was too afraid to try it. I had the Breck Mac which was their version of the Big Mac. I've actually never had a Big Mac so I felt like I had a rite of passage or something (even though it was a veggie burger).

Ok, until next time!