Here's the story of our trip to Colorado.
We spent the 4th of July in the cities with Mike's family. Mike had a great time combining little fireworks from Target to make them more dramatic. Amazingly, he didn't get hurt. He really shouldn't press his luck, should he??
On the 5th, we headed out of town and got as far as Sterling, CO. We slept the night in the car at a rest stop (I don't recommend this).
Once the sun rose and it was sauna-like inside the car (read: 5:45am), we headed out to the Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado. Here are the Dunes:
That photo was taken from our campsite which looked like this- Dunes on one side, mountains on the other:
As you can imagine, we were pretty exhausted after not sleeping much the night before and then driving 6+ hours to the Dunes. Unfortunately, it was 85 degrees upon arrival and so napping in the tent wasn't an option. So, we chilled under the tree and had a couple beers until dinner time. After dinner the bugs came out with a vengeance. We tolerated it long enough to watch the sun set:
At dusk, Mikey decided to put the rain fly on the tent. Meanwhile I complained about the bugs...
By 9:30pm we were ready to hit the hay. It was a good thing we got a head start on our sleep because the night got very interesting. I was a smidge freaked out by the abundance of "beware of bears" signage and pre-cautions (bear safe containers at all 80 campsites and lots of signs about food waste, no washing hands at campsites, etc). My anxiety was exacerbated by the fact that I spilled some beer on Mike's sleeping bag and was afraid a bear was going to welcome himself in. Mike insisted we'd be "just fine" and so I worried myself to sleep. Our sleep was short lived as 45-50 mph winds kicked up for the night. The rain fly was flapping against the tent all night long. It was as if someone was clapping their hands inside the tent all.night.long!
Mikey got up to go to the bathroom once and the lack of weight in the tent on one side caused the tent to start lifting and so he had to re-pound the tent stakes in before coming back inside. He also told me there were 3 deer/elk munching on the foliage right outside our tent. Eek! I stayed inside-nearly peed my pants- but stayed inside until dawn.
In the morning I thought I'd be funny and ask Mike if I was still his favorite person to camp with? Ha!
The next day we drove 8 hours through gorgeous mountains and quaint little towns all throughout Colorado.
Here is the headwaters of the Rio Grande:
We just had a great day of driving and taking in all the scenery. We eventually settled into our second campsite of the trip outside of Redstone:
This was by far my favorite night of camping. We made mac & cheese with the camp stove and also built a fire to grill some brats. It was dusk by the time dinner came to fruition and so it was very rustic and cozy eating dinner by the fire with a head lamp! Loved it! We just spent the evening relaxing by the fire (and I got to wash my hands at the camp site:) The other reason this was my favorite camp site is because it had shower facilities!! Mikey took the first shower and said it was lovely but that he hoped I didn't mind ice cold showers. Being the northern MN girl that I am, I thought I could handle the cold. Well, he was totally yanking my chain because it was actually hot and steamy. Died and gone to heaven??
30 minutes later I exited a new woman- refreshed, smiling and ready for the next adventure.
Day 3 consisted of more driving, exploring and pizza. We drove north in an attempt to make our drive on Day 4 be a short one.
We drove up to this:
We were pretty much at the elevation where the trees stop growing on mountains:
It was beautiful!
They even had 4 toilets at the top of the pass! It's a popular place where people can park their cars to stretch their legs and snap some photos.
Mike captured this great shot:
What was suppose to be a short day of driving turned into a long one because we discovered that most of the campsites in the Leadville area were full! We had hoped to set up camp earlier in the day so that we could go for a hike. Alas, we ended up driving 60 miles south of Leadville to find a campsite. So, as we passed back through Leadville we decided to get dinner and were desperately craving some wood fired pizza. Luckily for us, the town of Leadville has free wi-fi. So, I pulled out the laptop to see if such a thing existed in Leadville and sure enough, we found High Mountain Pies. It was some of the best pizza we're ever eaten. The cook told us the pizzas are cooked in a 700 degree oven. Our pizza had a nice crispy crust with homemade italian sausage, pineapple, onion & mushrooms. The place had a weird vibe (loud sludge rock with tons of hippies and a few ladies with boisterous personalities working) but they sure know how to do pizza! We had ordered a Greek salad to start things off but they forgot about it so the two of us pretty much polished off a 14" pizza! To make up for the salad mistake, they sent us off with one of their signature brownies. I'm super bummed I didn't get any photos of the place, the people or the food. If you ever pass through Leadville, be sure to call ahead and get take-out. You won't regret it and you'll enjoy the atmosphere. Good memories!
We ended up finding a place to camp on Monarch Mountain. We found an open campsite by the headwaters of the Arkansas River. We had a relaxing night sitting by a fire and sipping a few beers. The campsite was at an elevation of at least 10,000 feet so Mike advised me to wear my socks to bed. And man, was he right! It got down to 38 degrees that night. I slept in my hooded sweatshirt (with my hood on), sweat pants, socks and had the sleeping bag over my head. I was never warm all night. I kept squirming all night to keep the blood flowing. Needless to say, we didn't sleep well. The icing on the cake was being woken up by the sound of dueling chainsaws cutting down wood in the campground at.... 7:50AM!! I actually made a couple movies about the whole thing. It was rather absurd. I am not a happy camper on little sleep while being freezing cold and listening to chainsaws at 7:50am. We got the heck out of there as fast as we could.
Days 4 & 5 were spent in Keystone for a family reunion. My mom's siblings (7 total) and most of their kids & grandkids came out for a reunion. Mike and I fell in love with the Keystone area! The condos were lovely, modern, comfortable & convenient and there is so much to do no matter the season. Keystone seems like a nice ski resort and it is 15 miles from Breckenridge. So, lots of skiing to do in the area. We also loved that the Keystone area is nicely built with cute shops and restaurants but it doesn't have the snobbery that Vail & Aspen do. It's a good fit for us!
We took a gondola ride up the mountain with my fam:
The view from the ski hill:
There was a bar/restaurant with live music playing on the patio while we scoped things out.
We had a great time catching up with people we haven't seen in years.
Day 5: We finally managed to get our for a hike. The altitude really affected my breathing on the uphills. Walking on steep hills in Duluth pales in comparison to walking even a moderate incline in the mountains! The threat of rain approached on our hike:
So, we hopped in the car once again to explore the mountains around Keystone. We came across a crazy bike race taking place. They actually bike up and down the passes of 3 mountains en route a 120 mile bike ride in one day! It's pure craziness!
Here they are at the peak of the pass putting layers on:
because it was 48 degrees at the peak!!
I couldn't believe it! We followed these guys down the entire pass. They were cruising as fast as traffic was moving (30-40mph):
At the end of our last night in Keystone the gang gathered around the bonfire to tell stories and of course, make s'mores!
I really missed having my sister Sarah at the bonfire. There were lots of stories being told of all the cousins running around our grandparent's house during the holidays. There is pretty much a 20 year span where there was a new cousin born each year and so we always had lots of friends to play with.
We left Colorado on Sunday morning at 7am and arrived back to Minneapolis at Midnight. It was quite the haul but worth it to sleep well.
We had a fantastic week together and were reminded of how important it is to get away and have some fun more often! We've both got the travel bug...
and this:
You see, last Tuesday was July 20th. It would have been my sister Sarah's 27th birthday. Grief has a way of creeping up on me sometimes and for some reason, I felt more sadness around her birthday this year than any other. I think it's because I'm thinking more about what could have been. I imagine that at this point in her life, she would have been married and possibly had children. After being at our family reunion in Colorado and seeing all the relatives with their spouses and children, I felt very sad and robbed of experiencing some of that joy. The joy of joking around with her, the joy of seeing her in love with her husband, the joy of Mike and I having a couple our age to hang out with, and the joy of being loved so deeply. I know Sarah wanted to have children some day. When she went to Guatemala in high school, she brought back adorable dresses for a little girl she hoped to have someday! And I'm sad that I'll never get to see her be the awesome mother I know she would have been. 
Nellie ordered pizza for some late night chow and the ice cream sandwiches were the perfect dessert on a warm summer night.
I also made some Mandy healthified pizzas:
One of my favorite pizzas is Margarita pizza so this hit the spot. It's just a flour tortilla (80 calories) with pesto spread on it then topped with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and cracked pepper! I baked it at 500 degrees on the pizza stone for about 10 minutes. 
