Independence Day in the Mountains

For months, we had been looking forward to a family vacation in Yellowstone the first week in July. We had it all planned out: we'd drive up to Denver, fly from Denver to Jackson Hole, rent a van and drive from Jackson Hole to Yellowstone. We'd stay in Yellowstone for six days with my parents, then drive back to Jackson Hole and fly back to Denver. In Denver, we'd spend some time with Dale's family before driving back to Albuquerque. All in all, it was to be a ten day trip.

Our plans changed a few days before we were scheduled to leave, when Dale learned that he needed to travel for work near the end of our trip and needed to be back in Albuquerque by July 5th to prepare for his work travel. We considered trying to cut the Yellowstone vacation short, or have Dale return to Albuquerque on July 5th and the kids and I would follow our original vacation plans, but in the end we decided to curtail the trip significantly: we drove up to Colorado, spent three days in a condo in the mountains with some friends, spent one day with Dale's family in Loveland, and then drove back to Albuquerque. It was a shorter trip than we had planned, but we did have fun!

We had access to a local pool in Fraser and took the kids swimming one day. Fortunately we had three adults, because each of the kids required pretty constant adult supervision! (Dale is holding Estella, Charlotte is holding Cordelia, and Adelaida is sitting on the edge of the pool.)


We spent a lot of time with Dave and Brooke and their four wonderful kids, and Adelaida loved having big kids to play with! Here, Adelaida, Alexa, Anna, and Elise eat lunch together.


Estella (left) and Cordelia (right) soon found the end table and spent three days crawling onto the lowest shelf of the end table, sitting on it, and then crawling through to the other side. Hours of entertainment, literally!


My favorite memory of the trip happened on the deck one evening after dinner. Charlotte, Dale, and I were sitting on the deck, enjoying the view, and Adelaida was in and out of the house playing pretend tea party. She would come out onto the deck, tell us that our "breakfast will be ready in just a minute," disappear into the house to prepare food for us, then come back out and give us pretend food to eat -- not toy food, but imaginary food. She was bringing us some pretty interesting food combinations, like "macaroni with strawberries" and "bacon pancakes." I remember her asking Dale what he wanted to drink and he replied that he'd like some juice. She said, "you want juice? OK. I'll bring you some pickle juice." And one very memorable time, she stuck her head out the door and asked loudly "Can I get anyone some beer?" Dale replied with an enthusiastic yes, but was disappointed that Adelaida's beer was just as imaginary as the rest of her food!