Breckenridge Fun!

What's more fun on a Sunday morning than packing up the cars and tromping up to the mountains for a day of hiking, picnics, and some time in town? With the Kramers visit coming to a close, we figured it was a perfect activity.  First stop ~ Spruce Creek Trail, just south of town. We read the following about this trail before the hike ~ "Kids will enjoy exploring a private cabin located near the settlement ruins that is available for use as a storm shelter." Little did we know that after we saw Mayflower Lake and Continental Falls, we would indeed need this shelter... QUICKLY! A typical mountain thunderstorm announced its arrival with claps of thunder and rain that went from a light drizzle to a heavy downpour is just seconds. Garret said it was like God was turning a switch from low, to medium, to high. We trudged back down to the mining cabin and shared the small space with about 20 other hikers. The storm only lasted about 10 minutes and then we were on our way back down. 

All 11 of us at the waterfall

L to R ~ Anneke, Jakob, Owen, Garret, and Drew

Ryan and Drew

Stacy

Stephanie, Drew, Stacy, and Meg

Garret and Drew

What a view!

The lower part of the falls

Garret, Jake, and Owen in the cabin during the storm

Anneke Jewel

The boys...

Matt and Steph

Owen, Garret, and Jake at the waterfall

Following our hike, we drove south to Hoosier Pass for a picnic lunch. The sun came out, the kids all ran around a huge grassy hill, and we enjoyed the views and peaceful lunch!

Off to town ~ Since we didn't really have enough action yet, we headed for Breckenridge and took the Gondola up to Peak 8 for the alpine slide.

We managed to all ride the slide before the skies opened up for the second time and closed everything down, even the gondola back down! Once back in town via the local bus, we headed for the Breck Brewery where we found the Taggart family of 7 plus a friend peacefully (ha) dining. Thanks, Taggarts for the happy hour beer and grabbing a table for our crew. We crashed their dinner, enjoyed sharing stories of our adventures, waited out the I-70 traffic, and had some good food. With tired kids, full tummies, and fun memories racing through our minds, we headed home to dream up the next adventure. 

Nels and Faith's Wedding - June 25, 2011

If you know the Olson family, you know that we are always ready for a celebration! We don't take birthdays lightly, we treasure Christmas and Thanksgiving get togethers, and we cherish the opportunity to witness two people say their vows and declare their love for one another. Last year, many of us were together celebrating Sig's 60th in Cape Cod when Uncle Tom and Aunt Bonnie got a surprise phone call from Nels telling them he had just proposed to Faith. Fast Forward one year and we were all gathered in Santa Fe for the beautiful ceremony and reception. Set at Hyde Memorial State Park Lodge in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the location was perfect for this calm, nature loving, couple. 

Wedding Venue

Wedding flowers

Quick Adams Picture before the ceremony 

Umpa Tom and Nana Kris

Bonnie and Kari preparing to walk down the aisle

Uncle Tom aka 'Zebelzouber' to Garret and Owen

Tommy - what can you say... we love this picture!

Proud parents!

Kari and Nels

Faith - looking elegant and beautiful!

Faith and Nels wrote their own vows and made us all a little teary 

Meg wore Gramma Rosemary's turquoise cross and cuff bracelet - we missed you dearly, Gramma, and thought about you on this perfect day!

Toast time - Nels and Faith thanking everyone while using Tom and Bonnie's wedding glasses

Raising a glass to Grampa Tom - WE LOVE YOU!!!

Mischievous Owen

Kris, Megan, and Sig

Owen and Faith's niece, Rhiannon - double trouble

Garret wondering why those "young kids" would run around like that!

Meg watched a YouTube video on long hair updos and gave it a go...

What a perfect day! Thank you Nels and Faith. 

Sláinte

Adventures in Albuquerque

Garret, Owen and  Meg drove down to Albuquerque on June 20th. With the car packed to the brim with snacks, movies, DS games, chargers, pillows, blankets, etc. we pulled out of the driveway and let the voice of "Amy," our GPS navigator, guide us south. We stayed with Umpa Tom for the first part of the week. He has a fabulous pool at his place that the boys love. Nana was staying there too and Uncle Buddy was over for visits, so the boys were thrilled to see some favorite faces!  I think they were in the pool two different times in the first 3 hours we were there. We managed to cram a lot into our week long visit. While I'm getting better about taking the camera with me on our adventures, I have some work to do on actually taking the pictures!

Grampa's pool - his apartment deck is the one on the right at the top of the picture. (I borrowed this picture from the apartment website - so I can't change the size)

On Tuesday we went to the Isotopes baseball game. Meg, Garret, Brendan (Buddy), Umpa Tom, Kari, and John braved the heat and the late night. Nana Kris and Owen had a date night with a Scooby Doo Movie and some Mac and Cheese. We joined Autumn and her two oldest, Thomas and Lauren. While the kids don't get to see each other too often, they jumped right back in to things to talk about and had a blast sitting right next to the 'Topes dugout. 

On Thursday, we picked Brendan up at the airport and headed over to the Albuquerque Aquarium. The McCarthy's met us there are we began our exciting adventure of feeding the various fish thanks to Kari and John. We just missed "Mermaid Kari" diving in the tank, but we enjoyed our VIP tour!

We headed over to our old neighborhood on Thursday afternoon to swim and spend some time with the Rainwaters. Oh how we miss our spontaneous gatherings with these great friends! The boys jumped right in the pool and along with Claire stayed in the water the rest of the day while we enjoyed some fresh Sangria and our treasured chats. We ordered Gardunos for dinner and ate, drank, and visited until the kids turned to prunes at about 9:00!

Friday it was time to pack up, say goodbye to friends and head up to Santa Fe for the wedding. Nels and Faith planned and organized an amazing weekend and we were looking forward to sharing their day with them. A wedding blog post will follow...