Steamboat Springs: Fun with Cousins

We had a great time with Jonathan's brother Chad, his wife Rachel and their three kiddos for a week in Steamboat Springs. I'd go back again in a heartbeat. It was gorgeous weather, cooler than home. They have an amazing trail system which Jonathan enjoyed on his mountain bike and I enjoyed running.

 

We found a fun little park.

 

With a giant slide!

 

Swimming at our condo

 

Exploring the resort

Eating good food

So long Steamboat...hope to see you again soon!

Steamboat Springs: Day 5 Rabbit Ears Hike

Uncle Chad found a "family-friendly" 5 mile hike to these big rocks called Rabbit Ears.  That lone man walking was Jonathan...Ethan on his back and London on his shoulders.

Ethan was a rockstar, London was a wimp.

Addy (in yellow) with cousin Sami was awesome and hiked the whole way without any complaining.  It got really steep towards the end and all the kids did a great job!

 

 

Five hours round trip, but we did it! 

 

We were just a few minutes away from this cool sign, so I made the fam pose for a picture. 

 

Steamboat Springs: Day 4 Hot Springs Rec Center

We had a fun afternoon at the Steamboat Springs Rec Center.  It is fed from a hot spring, so all the pools are quite warm.  Addy, Sami, and Alex must have gone down these waterslides at least 20 times. 

London jumping off the crab slide.  Despite the lifeguard blowing her whistle at her the time before letting London know that she can only slide, that girl went right back and jumped.  Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

This is called a wibit.  It's kind of a fun version of a diving board.  In order to be able to go off the wibit, Addy had to swim the full length of the pool (25m) freestyle and not stop or touch the bottom.  She was awesome and did it with no problem at all.  Thus she received the token yellow wristband which allowed her to do such awesome tricks as shown here. 

Steamboat Springs: Day 3 Fish Creek Falls

We ventured out on a nice, easy, family-friendly hike to Fish Creek Falls

Ethan loved it and was, as usual, smiley and happy

These two were pretty much inseparable the entire trip

Steamboat Springs: Day 2 Yampa Park

On Sunday afternoon, we found this little gem tucked away by the river

It was gorgeous!

Strike a pose

Make a funny face

In the children's garden...these kids were obsessed with the maps

London wanted to know over and over again where we were on the map

Aunt Rachie showed London where she could put her feet in the water and London just kept going back and back again. 

Brothers

Cute cousins

Steamboat Springs: Day 2: Bear Sighting

So, we went to church in Steamboat Springs and after it was over one of the locals approached us and asked if we saw the bear up in the tree in the church parking lot.  Uh...no.  I thought he was kidding and trying to make a fool out of us visitors showing how gullible we are.  So we followed him out to the parking lot and sure enough...

 

The crowd gathered and after a little while, he climbed down the tree. 

 

A little while later, her cub climbed down the tree. 

 

Luckily there is a happy end to this story.  Everyone made it home alive despite their questionable judgement.  Yes, I too was taking pictures; however, I knew I could totally outrun that gray-haired gentlemen on the left-side of this picture.  :-)