Breckenridge!

Michael and I spent the past week in Breckenridge, Colorado with his family and we are in love! We can not wait till our life moves us there. We do not know when that will be, but we know at some point in our lives we will live in this beautiful state!

Our week was packed of fun things!! We got to Colorado on a Saturday and spent the day just in awe of the mountains and cool weather. On Sunday we went to church outside on a hill with a river running through the background. Afterwards we went to a great farmers market in Vail that his sister loves to go to. It was huge! I had never been to a farmers market with this many vendors with so many neat things. After walking up and down the isles and eating some yummy food we went on a "little" hike to a waterfall that Julie had gone to before.

The Church we went to on Sunday..beautiful!

Waterfall we hiked to.

On Monday we rented bikes and rode downhill 14 miles from Vail to Frisco. It was beautiful! Also it was super fast! We decided to keep our bikes and ride the 10 miles from Frisco to Breckenridge UPHILL! This was super tough but great! Michael, his brother, his sister, and myself made it in a little less than an hour. We were very proud of ourselves as we biked uphill the whole way. We then spent the rest of the day making dinner, sitting in the hot tub, and playing games.

Before the 14 mile downhill ride

On Tuesday we got up early and the four of us and Michael's dad rode the 10  miles back to Frisco to return our bikes. Luckily it was mostly downhill so it went much faster! We then fished a little bit till we went to this great local bakery and cafe for lunch! We decided to drive to this rural town that we were told about when we were dropped off at Vail Pass the day before. It was about 8 miles off the road down a bumpy, unpaved, small road. When we got there the town was so small, we saw one restaurant, one school, a few houses, and a town hall/fire house, and one motel. Luckily there was a different way out that was much easier as we went about 10 mph the way there as it was very off roading to get there. We went past this amazing bridge that terrified Michael's mom. We then stopped to fish some more and had no luck!

Town Hall/Fire House

Beautiful Bridge

On Wednesday we drove to these two lakes on a mountain 11,000 feet up. They were beautiful! Michael and his brother wandered inside a mine but did not have a flashlight so they could not go back that far. The one thing I wanted to do as soon as we got to Colorado was touch snow and we finally had our chance. Michael's brother, sister, and myself rock climbed basically to get to snow! On our way up we met three mountain goats, a mom and her two babies. We got many pictures and we were off to get to the snow. We made it, played a bit, and then wrote things in the snow. As we were taking pictures the mountain goats wandered into our pictures! After that we spent the day trying to fish, still no luck. Later in the evening we wandered around town a bit and took the gondola up to the top of the mountain before going back to make a yummy dinner.

The two lakes we went to (picture is from our hike on Thursday)

Mountain Goats

Gig 'Em

On Thursday the four of us got up early and hiked Quandary Peak, the 14th tallest mountain in Colorado!! It was amazing! We actually saw this peak the day before when we were visiting the lakes and decided this was the hike we were going to do. It was the most difficult thing I have done in a while, but completely worth it! Sadly I got a blister about 1 mile in on my right foot but it was not going to stop me. The hike was 3.3 miles each way basically straight up. There was about a 4,000 foot elevation change which for those of you who have not been this high or basically anything above sea level, there is much less air at higher levels. That was what made this so difficult. Our bodies were not sore, we just could not get as much air as we were needing. But we pushed on and made it to the top! We ate lunch at the top and then walked straight down the mountain. Before we started down though we were greeted by two mountain goats at 14,265 feet up! Who knew they would want to go that high, but they do! It was very difficult coming down as we were trekking down this steep incline. On our way down a bug storm blew in and we got snowed on! It was August 11th and it was SNOWING!! When we got down the mountain Michael's parents picked us up and we headed back to the house. We all were tired so we relaxed before we went into town to have a yummy dinner at this amazing Italian place in Breckenridge.

Before we started

About a mile and a half up (note the rocks)

Looks intimidating! The rocks from the above pictures are what we walked up the entire way up the mountain

Look at that incline!! This picture does not do it justice!

We made it!!!

The view

Another

Mountain Goats at 14,265 feet!

On Friday the four of us rented kayaks and spent a little over 2 hours fishing and kayaking on Lake Dillon. Only Michael and his brother got lucky fishing during the trip. We ate a delicious lunch at the marina and tried fishing at another place and still no luck.

On Saturday we loaded up the car and drove to Denver to catch our flight back to Houston. It was depressing as we landed to know it was 100* here and 70* in Breckenridge. 

Fishing just was not happening for us on this trip, but that is how it goes I guess. Maybe we were just fishing at the wrong time of day. We had a few catches but nothing like that last time we were there.

One of the few fish that was caught on the trip

Our trip was so much fun and I wish I could hit the rewind button and start over and do it again this week, but sadly that is not the case.

We had a wonderful trip with so many great memories! I am so glad we were able to go on another great trip with Michael's family! Thank you for everything! I love you all!