Palmer/Priddy Vacation - Day 4

Monday started off with another delicious breakfast, devotionals and then off for some treasure hunting. We told the kids they could each find one treasure (souvenir) downtown at one of the stores.

Pagosa is a very small town, however, so they don't have tons of options to find treasures. But thanks to an antique store, the boys found some cheap cars and Kate found a super cute old suitcase to carry her drawings and stuff in.

Here are a few fun hats they found while shopping around.

After shopping we headed down to a park by the river for lunch
(the view of the hot springs from downtown)then played for a while with rocks and sandKale put on a monkey bar show for us all - he was very proud that he could go all the way across with no help.Mark's brother Chad then had to try. We were all proud that he made it all the way across without scrapping up his knees.After the park we headed to the Malt Shop for a treat and found another fun store, then headed home for naps....here is where Mark took his nap...
Then there was more Boccithen our dinner out. It was a nice night to eat outside and I think we were all pretty pleased with our food. Which is a good thing since there are so many of us to please.We came home and celebrated Julie and Jack's birthdays with this delicious chocolate eclair cake that is amazing! My sis-in-law, Alisha, made it and we devoured it!Birthday hugs! Jack is being squished in a hug by aunt Julie.We opened presents...(too much paparazzi!)...then played Tripoli after the kids went down for bed.It was a fun game but we were pretty tired by the end. I kept trying to lose and wouldn't you know I'd somehow win more money and keep it all going :) But we had fun and laughed a lot.

Tuesday morning we packed up and headed home. It was nice to be home before lunch so we could unpack and eat before the kids went down for naps again.

Another successful Palmer/Priddy vacation!

PS. Jack's 3rd birthday is today but I decided to blog about it tomorrow so I could finish up this train of thought before it got too far gone. My little man is growing up! More to come on that later!

Palmer/Priddy Vacation - Day 3

I said I could blog about this in 3 days -- I didn't say they were gonna be 3 consecutive days... :) What a week!

So, Sunday - Day 3 - we woke up to hot air balloons. Again, wasted beauty on my camera but you get the picture. We had a yummy breakfast, devotions, then we decided to go on a hike to Piedra Falls. The information we had gotten made it sound like it was right around the corner. It was actually an hours drive and then a short hike to the falls.But it was a gorgeous drive! It was cloudy that day but it just made it more beautiful and easier to photograph.

We waited for cows to cross on the ride up...
Alisha and her little shadow, Kate, on the hike.Kale decided to take a tootsie roll break in the middle of the road with Mike, prego Julie and Mark.The other kids joined him.Alisha, Doug, Margie and Chad.Our destination - Piedra Falls.Mark in front of the fallsWe played around in the water for a bit then hiked up the side of the mountain for lunch. The thought was that it was a great place for food but it turned out to be much more difficult than we had anticipated. Some of these are fake smiles....We were happier after lunch though, when we could go back down to the river and throw rocks.Good one with grandpa.For some reason Jack and I were dressed alike this daySweet smile! He did so good on this hike. We carried him a bit but overall he was awesome.Silly Kale and Uncle Chad playing with moss from the trees....ew!After naps the kids played around the yard and Mark and Chad played some ladderball.Cute little wet Jack feet.Chad and Alisha made spaghetti (big hit with the kids) then sat around the fire roasting the last of the marshmallows. Can you tell what we liked to do? Talk and eat!

Palmer/Priddy Vacation - Days 1 & 2

I'm thinking I can blog about our Palmer/Priddy Labor Day Vacation in 3 days. I've whittled down the photos from like 200 to just about 50 maybe. That's good news in case you were wondering....

Every Labor Day weekend for the past 6 years we have been meeting Mark's family for a long weekend getaway somewhere in Colorado. We have visited Glenwood Springs, Ouray, Durango (when Jack was born), Steamboat Springs and Estes Park. This year we met in Pagosa Springs (a short 45 minute trip for us).

My sister-in-law, Alisha (married to Mark's brother, Chad) does all the hard work finding us places to stay. We rent a big house and live together for 4 days. Talk about awesome reality show!

Survivor:In-laws.

I joke of course. We all have a great time together and I'm very thankful we can do this rather then try and live out of a hotel or a tent for 4 days. It's wonderful to be able to play games and chat while the kids are napping or are in bed for the night and hang out as family. I'm sure, though, that by the end of our time everyone is ready to go back to their homes for peace and quiet :)

{side note: For the past 5 vacations we have had the only children. We are uber excited to finally be able to say that there are 2 more little miracles cooking at this very moment! Both of my sisters-in-law are pregnant! Julie, Mark's sister, is due in December with a little boy and Alisha is due the end of January (we haven't heard if it's a boy or girl yet). Next year's P/P vacation is sure to be even more interesting! Woohoo!!!}

This year we stayed in this beautiful adobe house just outside of town. We were so close to the grocery store, restaurants, the hot springs and downtown. It was a great place.

The patio was gorgeous! Definitely a place we hung out often.

Chad, Margie, (Kale's legs) on one of the patios waiting for good s'more coals.

The first night we were there, Mark and I made green chili cheeseburgers for dinner then we roasted giant marshmallows for s'mores for dessert. It was a beautiful night and we sat outside catching up.

Alisha, Mike, Julie and Doug sitting around the firepit enjoying the view!

I know this isn't a good picture but the mountain range we got to look at from the living room and the patio was beautiful.

My camera definitely does not do it justice!

The kitchen was big and beautiful!

Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast (Mark's parents do breakfasts for all of us), had devotions then we headed to the hot springs. It was a nice, warm day - one of the nicest while we were there. The kids were so excited. We haven't taken them swimming much so this was especially fun. That and the fact that they had aunts and uncles and grandpa to take them around the pool.

He isn't crying, just making an I'm cold face.

Kale was swimming like a fish. He was learning how to float and spent most of the time we were there practicing. Kate got super brave and started jumping off the side. One time though she didn't get grandpa's attention because he was catching Kale and she jumped in and no one caught her. Scared her pretty good poor thing. But hopefully she learned a valuable lesson. Jack just liked being held. He also loved walking around the bench that went around half of the pool. He and I walked back and forth several times.

Kate and Daddy

The Palmer men

The kids "taking a shower"

We hung out at the hot springs for a few hours then went home for naps. After naps Doug and Margie, Mark andwent outside to play bocci. We played that a lot this weekend. It was great fun! We even considered extreme bocci as well as encouraged Margie to go pro...Kate, Doug, Mark, Jack and Margie

Here is Jack hiding from us as we were playing.

We had a fabulous dinner of pulled pork tacos, made by Mike and Julie, then the rest of us headed out for an evening walk.Alisha, Jack, Chad, Kate, Margie, Kale, Doug and Mark

The walk started off wonderfully but ended up crazy! We were almost home when we decided to take a short cut across a field. At first I was worried that Kate wouldn't like the feel of the weeds on her legs. I wasn't confident that she'd love the short cut.

About a minute into the short cut, however, Alisha, in her flip-flops, hit a cactus and the needle went through her shoe. Ouch! We helped her get it out and trucked on. Little did we know that we were walking through a land mine of cacti! Every one of us got attacked by a cactus! They were sharp, painful little buggers with a hook on the end that dug into our skin. Here's a great picture of one on my foot. This one wasn't in my skin but at one point I had 2 stuck in me. One on either pinky toe. I carried Jack, Mark carried Kale and grandpa carried Kate. We walked slowly and carefully but honestly they were so hard to see! We got home, sat out on the patio and picked needles out of our shoes! We also told stories of other cactus experiences....such bonding!