Off to Vail!

We took a road trip to visit our friends, the Fenleys. Derek met John when they were in their 20s and have kept in touch ever since. They have been wanting some face time with each other for a long time. The Fenleys live in Denver but were spending the weekend at their vacation home in Vail. So we were off to Vail! 

It took us about 16 hours to get to our destination. We would have made it in 15 hours if we didn't hit rush hour and holiday traffic in the last stretch. The traffic was frustrating but the views were beautiful!

The kids did great in the car! Usually on our road trips, I sit in the back and I'm constantly handing out snacks, picking up things that fell on the ground or passing around different toys. I did things differently this time and it made the trip much easier and enjoyable for me... and for all of us. 

We borrowed DVDs from the library before we left and they watched a whole slew of them. It was a lot of screen time, but hey, we were on vacation and everyone was happy! Each child had his/her own backpack which included individual ziplock bags with snacks, toys they chose and a few new things I bought for them (i.e., coloring books, stickers, etc.). They were all pretty self-sufficient. Kyle needed some help but Makena was there to help him. 

We had an extra passenger in our car. Derek and I went back and forth on whether to bring the dog. Our friends said we could bring him, but we didn't know how Ryder would do on such a long car ride, how he'd adjust to the high altitude and if it would be really inconvenient to have him while on vacation. But we've only had our dog for less than four months and we didn't want to cause separation anxiety or distress to our pup if we left him at home. Finally, Derek made an executive decision and said we're bringing the dog! Ryder did great on the car ride. We took one of the car seats out and he sat in the area next to Karis. He slept most of the time and the altitude didn't seem to affect him as far as we could tell. 

We were happy when we finally got to Vail! It was beautiful! 

We spent most of our time in Vail Village where the Fenleys were members of one of the clubs. The Village had shops, restaurants, small play areas, etc. On our first full day, we went swimming and had lunch by the pool. The girls loved the waterfall and Kyle loved the separate kiddie pool where he could walk around and play with his toys. 

It was a nice relaxing first day!