Preston hired out for the railroad in Denver, Colorado and lived there for about a year as an 18 year old. Luckily, his Aunt Earlene, Uncle Dan & cousin Skye lived there as well so he spent time with them often. I went and visited him there a twice and thought Colorado was really pretty even in the snow (I'm not a fan of snow). We were talking with the kids one time and Aydon said, we've never been to Colorado and we realized we had never taken the kids there even though we've been there a couple of times (we even went o Durango when Aydon was a baby without him on a Youth Conference trip). We happened to be around Skye's family and mentioned we wanted to go to Colorado and they said you should come with us, Ben's family had a cabin there and we could stay there. We had made tentative plans for the 24th of July but those annual celebrations were cancelled and so Skye called and said they were making a trip up while it was free fishing weekend in June. We decided to join them and I'm so glad we did.
We left Thursday to stay with them in Los Lunas and head to Colorado on Friday. Aydon wants more interestate driving experience so he asked to drive and drove to Grants. I got to sit in the back with Presley. We had lunch in Grants and I jumped in the drivers seat so Preston took a nap on the boys new cuddle pillows that Zack & Drew had helped Granny sew for all the kids for the trip. They were a huge hit! The only complaint was it shows all the drool marks. lol
Aunt Earlene recently got an above the ground pool and the girls have been telling the boys about it while they video chat on Instagram or through texting and so they couldn't wait to get there and jump in with them. They swam until well after dark.
Presley went for a quick dip but wasn't a huge fan.
Preston had to jump in and try it out too. I actually started looking for above ground pools but due to the current circumstances everything is sold out or extremely over priced right now.
It was about another 4 hour drive from Los Lunas to their cabin. As we were driving up to the cabin we kept following along the Conejos river and I LOVE when a road follows a stream. I had no idea that this whole canyon was like that. It was beautiful.
This is the view from the back of the cabin looking at their little pond.
We went on a short walk over the new and old bridge there. This is Ben's dad's cabin. There were four bedrooms...one for each of the kids with their own bathroom and a huge open living room/kitchen/dining area. Then the porch wrapped around and even had a closed in porch option as well. Ben said his dad & 3 brothers all bought in on this land back int eh 70's and his dad bought this piece of land to build the cabin on around the time he was on his mission. Ben is currently working on putting in another bedroom, bath and bigger laundry room in a new metal building that houses four wheelers, mule & jeep they keep there.
A wider view of their property.
Presley loves stealing Preston's hat when she rides on his shoulders.
We had made new hoodies during our down time and were excited to finally get the opportunity to wear them, I was happy we finally had something for Presley to match with us too!
They were showing us how cold the Conejos River is. They warned the kids it is really swift and near freezing still.
Our 5 kids & their 5 girls sure make a big group. :) They all get along and have so much fun together too.
Skye shared a story of the first time Ben brought her up and rubbed stinging nettle on her. He did it to Preston to show him what it was like. Later in the trip a couple of the boys tried and then the kids were daring each other to do things or they'd rub this stuff on them too.
We had a small fire that night and had s'mores. It was so nice & relaxing.
Early Saturday morning (like 2am) I started hearing pouring rain. I knew it was a chance of rain Saturday but I was shocked that it rained all day until about 4pm. Ben said we should still ride up to Lake Platoro and hoped that as we got closer the rain would clear. It really didn't but it honestly did not bother us. We enjoy the rain because we don't get very much and it's a nice change. We also love when it rains in the woods.
Ben stopped at a little place he likes to throw a line in. He had us looking for worms under rocks and once we found worms we got a few bites.
Fishing in the rain...Aydon got one.
On the drive home it did start clearing up for a bit and I took the chance to take some pictures of the pretty hour ride back to the cabin from the lake.
We just hung out at the cabin and waited for the rain to stop. Once it finally did stop we decided to take a chance and go on the Waterfall Hike. They had told me about this when they invited us to go with them and I was really looking forward to it and OH MY GOODNESS, it was GORGEOUS! The waterfall ran along the hiking trail so you heard the rushing water the whole 1.3 mile hike up.
Presley slept the entire hike up.
My first glimpse of the waterfall.
Most of continued up to get a closer look at the falls, we told Ty to stay back and wait.
Notice the photobomber
When we left, they said they were going to take us a different way home to see different scenery. Oh my goodness! It was a gorgeous drive. There was a pull off to take pictures and I love it. This was the little valey we drove up to...you can even see the bald mountain in the back which was where we drove up to Lake Platoro on Saturday.
This was Echo Mountain in New Mexico...just a little site off the road that we took to take a potty break and stretch our legs.
I saw this shirt and wanted it so I made myself one and decided to make Skye one before our trip. We had to take a picture being twins.
Presley did NOT like the mist coming off the waterfall.
Ben sent Preston & I on a four wheeler ride and we saw an elk. Presley cracked us up. She kept YELLING, "STOP elk!" with her hands up.
We continued on and saw 2 deer and then saw this elk again on the way home.
The kids had so much fun playing games. The boys taught their girls how to play spoons.
Sunday morning after sacrament we all went fishing at Spectacle Lake which is maybe a mile down the road. 10 rods for about an hour and a half and we caught a ton of fish! I was the first to catch one and then everyone started catching them so I was trying to help put new bait on and didn't get to fish much. When I finally did throw a line back in I caught another one pretty quickly and after that I gave my pole to a kid that hadn't caught one yet.
Presley reeling one in off Bailey's pole...I think they caught 9 off that little Barbie pole. She has loved "fishing" at home and she reeled that one in but then had no desire to do it anymore.
Zack & Paisley moved to a different spot on the lake to fish.
Aydon moved and caught 3 in his spot.
We threw the ones we could back in but kept the ones that weren't going to live. Ben cooked the trout for us when we got back to New Mexico and it was sooo yummy!
Ben & Skye crammed most of the kids on this mule for the short ride to the lake.
Preston, Presley & I rode one four wheeler while Aydon drove the others.
We slept in one of Ben's sister's room with the older boys while the younger two slept in Ben's parents room across from us with a couple of the girls. It was such a pretty, peaceful place.
The rainstorm made our Yukon filthy so we stopped at a carwash before heading home.
Walking across the old bridge the first night.
Presley loved riding this horse at Aunt Earlene's and kept asking for a hat when she was on it.
