The Foster's: Epic Vacation = Epic Post

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Epic Vacation = Epic Post

Get ready, it's a looong post! In fact this might be the longest post of all time! But we were gone for a month! That is a seriously long time. I can't believe everything we fit in. It really was so much fun, except that we had to be away from Drew for 2 1/2 weeks.

We had Ty and Dana and their kids for a night, which was so fun to have them all to ourselves!

The next day we caravaned down to Tulsa, to stay with Adam and Laura for the night.

We met them for dinner at the Blue Whale. It was awesome! Such an Oklahoma place:) Adam and Laura brought us a delicious bbq dinner.

We had a fun night hanging out with everyone. After the kids went down Laura made us some delicious dessert. And I can't forget the cinnamon rolls the next morning!

The next day we drove to Albuquerque, and stayed at a hotel with a pool! We also had pizza at a park.

The girls were already tired at this point...

Lunch break!


The next day we made it to Iron Spings! It's this cute little mountain town with about fifty cabins. It's hard to describe. Drew's family has been going there for many many years. It's seriously magical. This was my favorite reunion so far! And I have loved them all. We had just the Foster reunion for the first part of the week, and the Carson reunion the rest of the time. Things not pictured but that I want to remember are, Drew and I playing tennis (I have decided I want to get into tennis when we move to GJ), runs with my sisters-in-law and with Drew, a big time gully washer, and lots of game nights. There is no order to the pictures, sorry... Here's the famous Humpty Dumpty! Pretty much a painted rock, that we "hike" to every year.

One of the nights we had a huge downpour, so we all huddled under the pavillion. It ended up being one of the most fun nights! Here's Jeff rockin out!

My sister-in-law Liz taught yoga a couple of mornings.

There always has to be basketball! They were all so sore after the first day, but they all wanted to play again the next day.

With aunt Megan.

Hangin with the Rustands.

We had a couple ping pong tournaments. I lost to Adam (let's just say he only won because of crazy Iron Springs rules) and then I lost to Drew in the big tourny, It was a little heated. If you don't know this about me, I LOVE ping pong, and get pretty intense.

I seriously barely saw my children. They were constantly with their cousins. Yes, even Blakely.

We had a rockin dance party.

Chubby Bunny. So gross!

Service project! Lacey was super helpful;)

unlucky with the egg!

Here are the Rustands..... and Mel

Bunko!

They were CONSTANTLY in the dirt!

I had several mornings all to myself. The girls went to playschool (one of the cousins was in charge) in the mornings, and while Blakely napped I got to sit out on the deck with perfect weather and read. It was heavenly.

The Iron Springs Store is always a hot spot. They have lots of candy for real cheap:) We had a running tab all week. They don't make any money, just enough to stay open. That's how awesome Iron Springs is.

She didn't want me to take a picture of how dirty she was. But it had to be done!

The champ! Of both tournaments! I'm trying to be happy for him...

Mel broke her arm at playschool. They said she fell off the monkey bars. I was sooo surprised because she's not a risk taker. She doesn't even like to go high on the swings! But she saw her cousins doing it, so she thought she would give it a try! Plus those monkey bars are ridiculously high! We just used a sling until we got back to Denver, since it was too swollen to cast anyway.

Story telling.

Rock climbing. Iron Springs is known for climbing the rocks. There are lots.... and lots of stories of climbing there. Some parts are pretty freaky.

We made it to Top Rock!

Grandma Maggie!

Zip Line at the Rustand Cabin.

Drew and some other adults took the girls to Flat Rock. I am glad I didn't go with them. I would have been too nervous! It doesn't look like it, but it is hard.

We went down to Phoenix and saw Drew's Grandma Helen. She turned 97 shorty after this. She was doing pretty good for being 97. Right after we all visited her, she really went down hill and passed away last week. She was ready. What a good woman! She will be missed. I am so grateful the girls got to meet her.

Then we headed over to Drew's Aunt and Uncles house to eat pizza and swim in their pool. It was only like 200 degrees in Phoenix!!!

The Foster Championship!

Blakely, Grandma Maggie, and cousin Tori.

Lacey was sooo tired!

The Carson Championship!

Balloon Toss!

The Rustands did face paint for the girls.

We celebrated Tori's first birthday and Ellie's third birthday!

Ladies lunch! Ask me about the waitress. It's a good story.

We had to add a couple new leaves to our family.

We liked to put her in her roller on the tennis courts. It really worked out!

We then parted ways with Drew, as he flew back to Saint Louis, and we drove to Denver.

The cast! Pink with a purple stripe. She never complained about it!

The girls loved playing with the toys at my parents house! We spent most of our time in the backyard.

I got to meet up with Kim, Andrea, Lori and Jandi at the Cheesecake Factory. I also got to go see Andrea's baby a few days after she was born. So cute!

We had one night that we stayed up extra late with my sister's family. They were wild!

We loved checking out the parks. Blakely could swing all day.

I got to meet Kim and Jandi at the zoo. I definitely pushed the girls to their limits that day! Melt down city on the way to the car!

We headed up to Tiny Town. Such a fun place.

Obviously no one wanted a picture here....

I got to meet my sister for some frozen yogurt.

I was pretty excited to have Drew back! The single mom thing is rough!

We played at the Ranch House a lot. It was so fun going to all the places I went to as a kid.

Put her in some grass and she's happy.

We got to go to the Woolf house for dinner and celebrate Emily's birthday! We walked out to this. At least they took their clothes off this time. Even though there wasn't any water in it!

Birthday girl!

My friend Lori and her kids came over one day. Check out Isabelle and Mel's matching shorts! Not planned. That night we headed over to Emily's to have a slumber party so we could watch The Bachelorette together. It's been a dream of ours for a while:)

Just rollin around in the grass.

We got to spend time with my high school friend Jennifer and her cute kids.

We also met up with Melissa and her kids at Chick Fila.

My cousin Brian and his wife Lauren came up with their cute daughter Abby. We hung out and had lunch.

Top left: I didn't pose them like this. I just walked outside and they were like this. So cute. Cousin love. Also, my old neighbors drove over to Littleton to see us. It was fun visiting with them. Emily and I got to have a special date at Cafe Rio and then of course we got some froyo. And the bottom right is a cute pic of my dad and Blakely at the park:)

Since we were running a race on Abby and Lacey's birthday, we celebrated a few days earlier. Don't worry they had no idea:) They woke up and had birthday pancakes.

We then headed over the the Littleton Museum. Which was mostly a bust since it was too hot! But they loved sitting under a tree and eating:)

That night we had a birthday party at my parents house. They decorated it so cute. I decided this is how I want to do birthday parties from now on. Show up, enjoy, and leave:) I was staying and my in-laws.

The party was a hit. They requested pizza, hot dogs, and cake. They got some really great presents too. They are especially obsessed with their princess jammies, and baby accessories.

The pinata was very cute. The little kids were pretty gentle. (except for Stella, that girl is serious!!). Luckily we had some older kids there to break it open.

Our last pic before I left:(

The next day Mel got her cast off so we celebrated by going to the pool! Megan and Josh came too!

That night we went to a dinner with Drew's new partners. Abby and Lacey had to be in the pic:)

The next morning we met up with the rest of our van for the Ragnar! The Ragnar Relay is a 200 mile relay race. Each person runs three times, and each leg is a different length. This one is from Copper to Aspen. It is the hardest Ragnar. It was stinkin hard, beatiful, and totally worth it!