telluride 2014

telluriiiiiide!  man, i love that place.  this is becoming sort of a bi-annual (biennial?) tradition for us to visit in the summer.  crazy to think that our first trip was 4 years ago when we were much younger and kid-free and the last time we went avery was just 6 months old!  traveling with a toddler/two year old drama queen is never easy but it was still really, really nice to get away.  i love this place so much and have been mildly obsessed with it since college when i listened to tim mcgraw's set this circus down album pretty much nonstop.  if we ever win the lottery you can bet we'd be buying a place here.  funnily enough the kids pediatrician is also slightly obsessed with this place and every time they have an appointment we have a conversation about just how awesome it is.    

our drive out was actually pretty horrible.  we took the 'back way' and completely forgot that the pro cycling tour was going on.  they closed one of the roads that we needed to take and we had to make a four hour detour that turned a 6 hour trip into a 12 hour trip.  the kids actually did amazing until maybe the last 2 hours when ellie was just over her car seat.  really couldn't blame her since i was pretty over it, too.  we didn't get there until around 9:30 on wednesday night and after we found our place and unpacked everything we just tried to get the kids to bed.  they both had a hard time that night.  avery climbed into bed with charlie who was sleeping in a room with her and ellie was flopping all over the place in our bed.  when we woke up the next morning we walked to find breakfast and let the kids sleep a bit as we walked around.
  

we usually stay in mountain village (charlie's favorite) when we come and this was the first time that we stayed in telluride.  i actually really liked being right in town but charlie said that he really missed taking the gondola into town even though we rode it a bunch while we were there.  after breakfast we rode the gondola into mountain village and walked through a bunch of shops since charlie was on the hunt for some ski deals.

avery throwing a giant fit for some unknown reason.

avery loved the gondola ride and we did it again that night and each day after that.  after the gondola ride we went back to our condo to try and get the kids to nap but they were doing construction right outside our building and we ended up moving to a different house where it was a bit quieter.  the nice thing was that the house was actually much nicer than the condo we were in.  one sort of funny thing about it was that it was a really tall and narrow house (4+ stories) and avery kept getting confused about where everything was.  and another bonus was that there was cable in the house which meant that charlie and i binged watched hgtv after the kids went to bed.  i really miss that channel. 

we ate out for every meal when we were there but we usually just ended up eating breakfast and then a late lunch/early dinner and then giving avery a snack before bed.  the kids actually did pretty well at the restaurants, which is something they're often pretty hit or miss with.  the one meal that was pretty awful was on saturday i took them to breakfast alone and avery was just not into having proper restaurant behavior or really proper anything behavior but we survived and left and then i walked around with ellie in the ergo and avery in the stroller until they both fell asleep.







i love this place so much that even just a morning walk is so amazing.  the san miguel river runs through town and there's a really nice path that runs along it and we walked there a few times and then took avery to the playground at the end.  charlie and i always talk about how awesome it must be for kids to grow up there since there are so many amazing outdoor activities that are literally right in your backyard.  the playground was pretty awesome too, avery really liked it although we had to book it home pretty quickly because it started to rain. 

charlie got some new skis one of the days that we were here and then exchanged them a few hours later.  i think he's pretty excited about our steamboat trip this december now that he has new, 'fast' skis.











on our last say here we ended up doing the bridal veils hike that we've done every year in the past.  i was actually not at all in the mood to be hiking since i thought the kids would probably freak at some point (they did) but i am so glad that we did it.  the waterfall is the tallest free falling waterfall in colorado and not a terrible hike.  it's a decent climb but pretty short, which was good since both kids were ready to get out for a bit.  on the way down they were not into the hike at all.  i think we were all hungry and tired and just ready to eat something.  it was 3 pm at this point and we hadn't eaten lunch.  so we made it down as quickly as possible and then headed to brown dog (one of our favorites) for pizza and beer.



on sunday we ate breakfast, checked out of our place, rode the gondola one last time, and then finally headed back home.  the kids did pretty well in the car but we were all really happy to be home.  i know ellie was so excited to be out of her carseat and she spent the hour after we got home before bed crawling around the house as if she was trying to remember everything.

until next time, telluride!  i know charlie really, really wants to make a winter trip here at some point but i see no point in doing that until the kids are old enough to ski and not whine about the cold.  also, i cannot even imagine how expensive it would be to plan a winter trip here.  summer is still pretty popular because of all of the festivals that they have going on but not nearly as popular/expensive as the winter time.  it's really the funniest down because it doesn't look like anything crazy.  it's tiny, there are no stop lights, no chains or big box stores, etc. and the houses are pretty modest and some are really, really tiny and yet they're over a million dollars and really, usually several million dollars.  it's also not easy to get here.  even if you fly you can't really fly direct (unless you're one of the super wealthy) and obviously driving from anywhere is a huge pain.  so it's sort of funny that the little town is as expensive and popular as it is.  i have heard that the skiing is amazing but obviously we've never done that.  anyway.  i totally get the charm but probably will not be buying a second home here during this lifetime.  that's okay.  we'll just visit when we can and take lots of pictures while we're there.

telluride v.2

charlie and i knew that we were going to try and get away for a few days the week of july 4.  we figured we'd take advantage of the holiday in the middle of the week and  take some time off without missing an entire week of work.  we debated about where to go as this would be avery's first trip and i was a little worried about how she would do in the car for an extended period of time.  charlie was pushing for telluride and i couldn't come up with a better alternative.  it was a long drive, 6.5 hours, but we both loved it there and knew it would be easy to get around with the baby and the dogs.

yes, henry is staring at the wall.

we made reservations at the same place we stayed at a few years ago, which is actually in mountain village, a town just up the mountain from telluride.  we knew the place was nice and dog friendly and there's a free gondola that connects mountain village to telluride so we didn't have to drive anywhere once we got there. we actually got a pretty decent deal on a room and then got upgraded from a 1 bedroom to a 2 bedroom when we got there since they had overbooked the 1 bedrooms.  

where we stayed.  i miss that view already.

henry loved the spiral stairs.


he also loved the view from the balcony.

we left late on saturday after charlie drove his mom to the airport.  avery did pretty well in the car.  we stopped once for me to feed her and get some gas and this was about the same time as her normal, before bed feeding.  she screamed for about a hour after that before passing out and sleeping the rest of the way there.  

random side note:  we were talking with some people in telluride and they asked how she did on the drive out.  when i said 'pretty good, she only cried for about an hour' they said "you know you're a parent when you consider an hour of crying 'pretty good'".

we got there at about 11 pm on saturday, which was probably harder for us than avery.  and she didn't sleep well at all that night.  i think the long car ride combined with being up in the middle of the night once we got to the hotel was hard for her.  she spent most of that night in our bed and was completely up for the day at 6 am, which was not that fun.  we dragged ourselves out of bed and took the gondola down from mountain village to telluride and went to the butcher and baker for breakfast.  it's amazing, local, organic food and we got a spot outside so the dogs could sit with us and beg for food.

we went back to the hotel and avery and i took a three hour nap, which was much needed.  of course i could happily nap every day unlike my baby.  that night we went to brown dog pizza, another favorite from our last trip.  

yes my baby is sitting on the table.  she was helping me decide what to order.

luckily avery slept much better that night.  our plan was to hike bridal veil falls the next day.  i blogged about that hike two years ago here.  we picked it again because it's a pretty easy hike, close to town, and really pretty.  this was avery's first hike in a backpack.  i thought she would love it because she's in the ergo all the time and happily stays there for hours and easily falls asleep.  she didn't like the backpack nearly as much.  i think it was a lot more bumpy then the ergo is, impossible for her to sleep in because there's nowhere for her to rest her head, and not as snuggly.  

the falls are in the distance.

anyway, she did fine for most of the hike although we did take her out a few times just to give her a break and even walked a bit, just carrying her.  that is quite a workout.  a backpack on your back, a baby in your arms, and two dogs trying to pull you in opposite directions.  

all of us at the bottom of the falls (a little more than halfway there)

we hiked up to the house at the top of the falls and then turned around to come down.  at this point avery was completely done.  she was super tired but couldn't sleep and no amount of singing 'the wheels on the bus' was going to keep her happy.  it was also looking like rain and the clouds were moving in pretty quickly.  we took her out of the backpack and she fell asleep almost instantly in my arms as we walked/ran down the mountain as fast as we could.  when were about halfway there a guy driving a tour jeep (the trail was also a 4x4 road apparently) asked us if we wanted a ride saying he couldn't let the baby get wet.  we gratefully accepted, not many people will pick up 2 people, a baby, and 2 large dogs and got down the mountain just as it started to rain.  overall i consider it a successful trip and we passed quite a few people who said that their kids didn't do so well in the backpack as infants but did much better once they got older.  

about halfway there. taking a break from the backpack.

me and my girl.

after the hike we went back to mountain village, grabbed some lunch from the market and ate in our hotel.  that night we went back to telluride and got some ice cream from the sweet life.  they have homemade ice cream that changes daily.  it was delicious.

the next day was our last full day.  our plan was to walk around telluride a bit and then check out a free concert later that day.  we had breakfast at baked in telluride, a spot that i had really wanted to try the last time we were here but it had burned down and wasn't rebuilt.  this time it was back and quite good. we ate breakfast outside on their porch, looking at the mountains.  i've had worse mornings.  :)


coffee, donuts, and a pretty decent view.

after breakfast we walked the neighborhood a bit and then walked on the path that runs along the san miguel river, which runs through town.  the path was shaded, which was really nice and we saw a few people tubing down the river.

i tried a back carry for the first time and avery fell right asleep.

we headed back to mountain village when it started to rain.  relaxed for a bit and then headed down to the concert.  we didn't stay too long but headed back to the hotel to take avery to the pool and get some dinner.

i had to cover avery with a tshirt since i didn't have anything else.  it was pretty fun running from one gondola to the other when the rain was pouring down.  

it cleared up for the concert and we had a fun time just hanging out.


she loves the pool.

we were leaving on the fourth but were planning on checking out of the hotel and then taking the gondola into telluride to watch the annual parade.  when we got to the gondola the line was so long (over an hour wait) that we decided just to grab some breakfast and head home instead.

we had such a great time with just our little family and i'm sure we'll be back again.  it's a pretty small place but there's so much to do and see.  and obviously we were pretty happy just eating and walking around.  avery did great the whole trip and was in a fabulous mood the whole time.  i think a lot of that had to do with the fact that she was being held or in the ergo24/7 and slept about a foot from me at night, when she didn't wiggle her way into our bed.  it was my favorite way to spend my time, too: hanging out with my two favorite people and the dogs.  life doesn't get much better than that.


san juans on the way home.  

a break.

this past week was so wonderful.  charlie and i took last week off of work and headed out to telluride for a few days and then my parents came out and spent the rest of the week with us.  they just left today which means that for the past 2 weeks we've either had family visiting or been on vacation.  and it has been amazing.  i love having family visit because obviously we miss them and it's so nice to spend some time with people we mostly talk on the phone with these days.  but i also love that they get time with avery because skype and facetime are amazing but just not quite the same as snuggling 15 pounds of chunky love.  

telluride was great.  charlie and i were way overdue for a vacation and we had such a great time wondering around town,  eating amazing food, and of course the 360 degree view of the mountains never gets old.  

and it's so nice to spend time with family.  first, with charlie's mom who came out the week before and flew back the day we left for telluride and then with my parents who actually flew in when we were in telluride.  it's always a little sad coming back from vacation but having family there to greet us made me look forward to the trip back home.  

today was back to reality but i can't complain much as we had such a great break from it all and reality ispretty darn good, too.  

and the rest of the telluride pictures ...

no joke we took like 400 pictures in 4 days.

i'll spare you 375 of them.

here's a few of the random ones that i could turn into several more posts. but i won't.

we went hiking again on sunday.

we did the judd wiebe trail from town and then wandered into mount sneffels wilderness area for a few hours.

our original plan was to hike mt. sneffels (a 14er) but the most recent trip report for it was for a few days before we were there. the mountain had recently gotten about 30 inches of snow and some guys did a pretty technical climb up and backcountry skied down.

since we have none of that gear (and because i'm scared of avalanches) we decided to stay below 11,000 feet.

the aspens were trying hard to grow some leaves.

dogs are awesome.

sweet mountains.

us.

1.5 million switchbacks.

note to self: make sure to eat breakfast when hiking for 6 hours. especially when dinner the night before consists of chocolate covered strawberries and champagne.

haha ... this picture makes me laugh.

the dogs were so hot that any time they found snow they immediately laid down in it.

about 2 seconds after this picture was taken dunkin went sliding down the snow pile.

"dinner"

one very sleepy puppy napping in front of the fire.