Picnic

We stopped for our picnic lunch at the perfect spot. There was a dirt road you could drive down to get to a campground. There were quite a few cars parked in the dirt lot so we decided this was a good place for our picnic.

The area was so pretty the first thing I had to do was take some pictures. Then, while Brittany and Brian played Frisbee, William and I set up "camp". We got all the food out and started to eat. Luckily it was much warmer here than it had been at Independence Pass so lunch was very enjoyable. We had cheese, crackers, grapes, this really yummy southwest Gouda spread from Whole Foods, and chocolate covered sugar cookies. After lunch the kids ran across the bridge to the other side of the stream. When I finished I went over there with them and then Brian joined us and we headed up the trail. It was thickly wooded with a dirt path. The kids had a great time running ahead of us. After a while we headed back since we needed to clean up our picnic and head on to Aspen. Here are our pictures of our stop.

More Pictures, Just Because

Independence Pass

We started out about 8am on Sat. morning for a drive. After being without his baby since April, Brian was anxious to take the Mustang for a drive. And drive we did. About 15 minutes into the ride we saw a Ferrari in front of us. Brian caught up to him and it turns out there were about 20-30 Ferraris! We followed them for quite a while and they all turned off around Dillon. So much fo our radar detectors!

We turned off at Copper Mountain and headed towards Leadsville. The scenery was amazing and we were having a great time! The kids were even doing great and being nice to each other. BONUS! Sitting in the car for 7 hours with no TV or friends is a great form of torture!

We hit a little bit of rain right before we reached Twin Lakes. Luckily it was just a little bit. We stopped long enough to snap a couple pictures at Twin Lakes. It was beautiful. We also noticed the leaves starting to change.

We continued on to Independence Pass. At one point I remember saying to Brian- Is that a road we are going to have to drive on? It was literally on top of the mountain. Little did I know we'd soon be up there. After many twists and turns (this was the easy part!), up way too high with no shoulder we made it! We got our jackets on- it was FREEZING! and headed to see what we could without the wind blowing us off the mountain.

Its a good thing we brought our jackets. It was in the 80's at home, but it must have been around 30 up here!!! After that we got back in the car and headed for Aspen. Of course what goes up, must come down and that was true of us. The drive up to Independence was pretty intense, but it didn't even compare to the drive down. There were two or three areas were it went down to one lane, on a curve, with no shoulder to move onto. I was terrified. But the drive was worth it because we pulled over here

and had a great picnic lunch by the water and a quick hike. I'll continue this part of our journey tomorrow.

And this picture is just for you Brian! :)