National Park #5 (Black Canyon of the Gunnison)

Well, this was an unscheduled visit to a national park.  My friends from college, Mary, Erin & Carrie, and their families meet us somewhere every 4th of July (Fossil Rim, Rockport, Canyon Lake).  This year we decided to spend a week in Crested Butte.  It was amazing but also very near to two national parks so we incorporated some visits into our vacation.  The kids and I flew to Denver on Sunday the 24th then drove to CB in an awesome minivan.  The trip getting up there was amazingly perfect. 

Monday we drove over (west) to Lake Irwin and the kids fished and explored. 

That night we went to a concert at the city park/playground but Grant, Ryan and I had to leave early because Grant clawed Ryan's chest with his ungroomed finger nails.  About a month after letting our nanny go, I realized one thing she frequently did was trim Grant's finger nails!





Tuesday we drove north to Peanut Lake and went on a nature hike and tried to make boats out of leaves and sail them.  We strolled through town, bought toys and ice cream (with Rob & John Fulgham) , and played forever in the creek right next to the house.

That afternoon we had a marathon Skip Bo tournament with plenty of sangria involved.  The game was so long that we got both tipsy and hung over within the same game.

Wednesday we played at the city park playground and watched a bunch of kids in a daycamp shoot off rockets.  Then we drove to Gunnison and picked Nick up from the airport.  We ate sandwiches at Firebrandt's in Gunnison then headed back to the house.

Thursday the four of us drove to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park #5!!  The drive there was beautiful and the kids finally embraced the "I'm thinking of Something" game.  Ryan mastered it but Grant struggled a bit - Mom: Is it alive?  Grant: No....several questions later...Mom: Is it our hamster?  Grant: YES!

The canyon was awesome. We had a picnic lunch at the visitor center, played with a chipmunk, then drove through the park, stopping at some of the more beautiful lookout points.  Afterwards we drove down into the canyon and that was also spectacular.  Great park!

Chipmunk!



Friday was my favorite day of the trip.  We drove up to Mt. Crested Butte and rode the ski lift to the top of the mountain.  Then we started our hike to the summit.  Grant fell about 3/4 of the way up and decided he did not want to go any farther but Ryan was a trooper and was more determined than I've ever seen her.  She and I went to the top with Rob, Erin, Richard and David.  It was amazing!  Look at her on top of the world.  She was so proud of herself.

It was so amazing that I came down and Nick went up to see it.  Ryan was still coming down but when she saw Nick she turned around and summited again and this time, they saw a marmot!

Grant was very upset that he didn't do it but such is life.  We rode the lift back down and ate lunch.

Then the kids got to play putt-putt at a nice, covered course so the grownups just relaxed for a bit.  But the next adventure was the bungie/trampoline contraption that Grant was all over and that I finally got Ryan to try right before we headed back to the house.  Check this out!





After we got back to the house, it started to rain and we saw, literally the most unbelievable rainbow I have ever seen.  It almost made me cry.