We continued our trek across Colorado being sure to stop off at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It was the first day of school for the kids back home so it was a bit of a sad morning for us. But here is our first day of school photo!

For the second half of our week in Colorado, we stayed with our dear friends in Ridgway. Barthold and Benj met many moons ago through work.

Cat and I met when we all brought our families on a work trip to Ireland (Felicity was 5, Harry was 2, Koen was 10, and Finn was 9). We hit it off immediately and also spent a week in Disney World together that next year.

Can you believe we haven’t seen them in person since then?! Facebook keeps us connected though the kids have grown up a LOT in 7 years! On our first night we arrived to a beautiful dinner on the back deck over looking the mountains. (How lucky are we to have all these friends with mountainside houses?!?) Here is Harry on that same deck with the eggs he collected from the chickens for breakfast!

We spent the next morning off roading over the Dallas Divide, playing around with Finn’s drone (you might have spotted our Lion King reenactment on Facebook?) and picnicking with a view!

We spent the afternoon checking out Telluride, riding the gondola, and caffeinating ourselves, of course!

(Sidenote: The kids we’ve hung out with in Colorado are SO independent. They bike or use public transportation everywhere WITHOUT their parents. They mountain hop to ski and go to really innovative schools where they can specialize in a sport or start college early. Some really neat stuff going on here. Heck, they learn how to drive before they even get their licenses! They just seem like they are well prepared for the world. We really enjoyed our time with Finn though we didn’t see Koen but for a minute.)

As you saw in the previous post, we hit the Ouray Hot Springs at night. It was the perfect temperature and nice relaxing way to end the busy day.

The next day we made the trek down the Million Dollar Highway to Durango for Whitewater Rafting! This ranks right up there with snorkeling as a favorite activity for me!

It was both the kids’ first time. As you know, Harry loved it. Felicity pretended she didn’t but at the end of the night she whispered, “Don’t tell anyone but I had fun today!” Tweens, yo.

But the best part of our visit for me was just sitting out on the back deck at night star gazing with friends. Jupiter, the Big Dipper, and the most visible Milky Way we’d ever seen were just amazing. Thank you, Barthold, Cat (and Finn, too!) for spoiling us with your hospitality, hot showers, comfy beds, and fabulous friendship! Come visit us soon! We love you!