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Although I was scared about loosing my job, I was excited to have the whole week off to spend with my in-law's for their vacation in Colorado. However, 2 days before they arrived I had been offered some work from a guy at our church since his assistant decided to take 2.5 extra weeks Maternity Leave. Since we need money to survive I took on a new job, working almost 40 hours a week + hosting a full week's vacation with my family.

Tuesday - I worked all day, but Nick drove to the airport for the 4th time and picked up his parents in the afternoon. He showed them our apartment, took them to get checked in at their hotel, enjoyed the hot tub and ate lunch at the A&W/KFC. I got home from work at 6:30, made sure Nick had giving a proper tour of our apartment and then we went to Jack n' Grill for dinner!  Jack n' Grill is soo close to our apartment and has the biggest burgers ever. The restaurant has won so many awards and been featured on Man vs. Food and other TV shows.
Wednesday - Luckily today was July 4th so I didn't have to work!!! We got up early, Nick and I drove to their hotel to eat the Free continental breakfast and then we took off heading to our furthest destination of the week: Rocky Mountain National Park. The weather threatened us everyday all week, which is hard to complain about when we needed rain to put out the forest fires, but it's scary when you're limited to certain work-free days and only outdoor activities planned! However, mother nature spit on us only a few times that day, but never enough to ruin the day! We stopped for a picture at the Estes Park sign on the way into RMNP and once through those gates, it was only moments before we pulled over to see a herd of long-horned mountain sheep! My mom wanted so see some soo much, and these guys got to see them within moments of entering the park!  We stopped at most of the pull-offs for pictures sessions and climbed all over the mountains! At one pull off there was an Elk who thought he was a pedestrian and was walking the train up to the Mushroom Rocks... We got some great pictures with him.

This is on our way through Estes Park to Rocky Mountain National Park

One of the few pictures of me, since I was behind the camera most of the time!

Nick and Marilyn - On Top of the World!

Just the Girls!

Awww Aren't they cute?

Yep! They were that close to the Elk!

Yep! Us too!

A family Picture

At the Bottom of the Rock Slide at the Boulder Flatirons

Hunger was setting in, but we decided to wait til we got to the bottom of the mountain to eat, but upon reaching Estes Park, and it being the holiday - it was sooo full of people we drove right through and decided to eat in Boulder instead. Nick and I fought over which restaurant to eat at, comparing distance to where we were and where the Flatiron Hiking Trails were.. He won and we ate at Baker St. Pub again. That was the place we ate with my parents with the most amazing fish and chips. Directly following lunch/dinner we tried to hike the mountain but our tummy's were full and we were tired to begin with. We made it as far as the rock slide, and turned around - hoping to return later in the week. We went to the hotel, enjoyed the hot tub, watched the Macy's 4th of July show on TV and ate DQ ice cream!

I think we wore'd them out!

Thursday - I had to work in the afternoon only, so again we got an early start, and again eating breakfast at the hotel we took off towards Red Rocks. It was close by but still had some good hiking experiences and gorgeous views. It was high 90's that day and we were sooo hot! We stopped at Tipsy's and Subway on the way home then I headed off to work. The lucky 3 that didn't work laid by the pool and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon relaxing. Thursday night we planned to go out to dinner, but weren't quite hungry yet so we went for a walk on the trails between our apartment and the Seminary. We were excited so show them the school and the classrooms and the place that brought us out here to Colorado. It was late when we got back and we decided fast food was a better idea than sitting, ordering, waiting and then eating our food after 9pm. So we took them to the Retro DQ that is within walking distance from our apartment.

That rock isn't "that" big...

Red Rocks Amphitheatre

Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil

Nick at Denver Seminary's Library

Friday - I had to work all day, and Nick had class in the afternoon, but the 3 of them them spent the morning together shopping. They spoiled him and bought him a new pair of shoe's and a cool portable compressor thing that we can blow up the bike tires with, the car tires, and air mattresses with! Cool eh? Nick also took them to the mall to see the pet store with the puppies in it too! I don't know what else they did or where they ate... but when I got home from work, we took off right away to 16th Street in Downtown Denver. Destination: Cheesecake Factory! Success we got appetizer's, entrees and of course dessert! I got the 30th Anniversary Cheesecake this time! It was pouring rain when we left the restaurant and only had 1 umbrella with us, so that was a fun walk back to the car!

Saturday - I had to work in the morning again - scheduled til noon but got to leave about 11:10. We took off to Colorado Springs that afternoon, driving to the top of Pike's Peak. This time we smartened up and got a rental car to put all the stress of driving up a mountain on. It was threatening to rain again on us today, but we literally drove past where the fires had devastated to mountains and new the rain was needed. Again, we were lucky and the rain didn't bother us until we were down from Pike's Peak. At the top, though lightening was in the area and the power's that be informed us to stay in the building or in our cars. The view's we gorgeous and we appreciated seeing Pike's Peak from a different way than we did with my parents! 

At the Top of Pike's Peak

At the base of Pike's Peak Highway sits Garden of the God's. Therefore we drove right in seeing "Balanced Rock" first... then finding the gift shop that Nick and I had never been in! It is the coolest gift shop of any we've seen and we spend entirely too much time in there. When we were ready to head over to the other part of the Garden's it was pouring rain, even more so than my parents trip to the Gardens. We drove through looking for that perfect spot for a picture, and got out in the rain anyways. Our rental car had a Minnesota licence plate and this gentleman in the car behind us offered to take a picture for us "Minnesotans". We figured if in case it was contingent on that we'd better not tell him we were from Ohio/lived here.

Balanced Rock at Garden of the God's

At Garden of the God's

At Garden of the God's

We hit up the hot tub again, but this time Nick and I stayed the night in their 2nd queen sized bed!

Sunday - We went to church, then took off hoping to hike up and down the Flatirons before the rain hit again! This time the hike was so much easier. We had packed lunch meat sandwiches and ate them at the very top!! We saw a deer with antler's on the trip which was cool, but better than seeing the mountain lion that was in the area! We got some great pictures and were very proud of DadE for making it all the way to the top!  The hot tub was a must again that evening, but not before Nick's weekly game of Frisbee and some pizza for dinner first.  We joined Nick halfway through the rainy game of Frisbee in time to see the beautiful double rainbow over the church!!! We also got to see Nick wake board in a rain-made lake!

At the Top of the Rock slide that we stopped at the other day!

At the Top of the Flatiron

I was just Way UP There!

The Church with a Rainbow!

Nick - Wake Boarding at the Church

A Gorgeous Colorado Sunset

Monday  - I had to work all day again, and when I got home just the girls went out shopping! I was allowed to pick out whatever I wanted (within reason) of course. I got a super cute outfit that is totally stylish!  We got home to brat's grilled by the men! We also had yummy watermelon too.

The Last day of Vacation, tired, burnt and happy!

Tuesday - I didn't have to work until about 2:30 in the afternoon, so we got up early and went to their hotel for breakfast again. Then we worked on our photobook of the trip! Then we drove them to the airport and had to say goodbye... but we'll see them again soon because the wedding is coming up!


Did I mention that we survived on my new recipe for Frozen Home Made Iced Coffee's??