Road Trip to Durango, CO.

Earlier this week, Hailey, Jamison, Berlin and I took to the road for what would be a weekend full of adventure. Of course, eight hours straight in the car with the kids is always an adventure. I drove. Hailey slept. James wigged out. And Berlin made up songs.



Once we turned off of I-25 and headed into the Colorado mountains, I was quickly reminded of why Colorado is so beautiful during this time of year.



After what seemed like a gazillion hours, we finally pulled into a small town called Pagosa Springs where a resort filled with natural hot springs beckoned us to spend the night.



After we had sufficiently soaked, it was back on the road to our final destination, Durango, CO. For those of you who don't know, Hailey's father, Keith, runs an outdoor outfitter there. They do raft trips, jeep tours, atv tours, and whatever else they can get people to pay for. Now, Keith is an interesting guy. For example, if you go visit Keith, you can expect to be put to work. I've shuttled paying passengers over summits, driven jeeps, handed out brochures and more. So, it was with little surprise we pulled up to see Keith's 85 year old mother from Idaho perched out front of the kiosk handing out brochures to people walking by. Somehow, we managed to avoid any major work-related duties this trip.

Perhaps one of the greatest parts of the trip was taking the ATVs way up into the mountains. I had Berlin with me and Hailey had James.



Hailey claimed she saw a bear. She got a little freaked out. Meanwhile Jamison kept saying, "I want the teddy bear!"



Now, a little more about this infamous Keith. He lives in what is called the "A-frame." Obviously, it is an A-frame structure. However, over the years, said structure has housed many a random employee, river guide, stray hitchhiker, etc. This weekend, it happened to house us. It goes without saying that I'm a bit of a neat freak and a little bit of a germaphobe. Incidentally I would be the first neat freak or germaphobe to stay in the A-frame. Now, I'm going to spare you the details as to why these accommodations weren't the most suitable for a person like me. Instead, I'll just show you a picture of a very old and very blue toilet. Last cleaned (accidentally) sometime in the mid 90s.

Finally, the time came for us to make the long drive back home. On the way, we discovered a hot air balloon festival.



Some balloon handlers found themselves struggling to maintain control of their collapsing balloon so Berlin quickly stepped in to lend a hand and tame the hot aired beast.

All in all, it was a super great weekend.