Vail: Day 5

Our last day.  It went by so fast...we had so much fun and tried to soak up the weather as best we could.  Glenda and RP went on a morning bike ride and found this incredible spot, tucked away in the valley.  The Betty Ford Park.  Amazing.  There was a rock garden (pictured below) that you could walk through, with gorgeous flowers and plants every where you looked.  Then at the base there were picnic tables, large areas of grass to play and run around and a nice little playground for the kiddos.  If there's one thing that makes Knox happy it's being outside, so he was in heaven!

This picture just makes me so excited for Fall.  Love his little pinecone treasures.

Not sure when I turned all "nature girl," but I took about 900 pictures of these hummingbirds.  They were flying all around us, stopping to rest and eating the nectar out of the flowers.  So pretty!

Knox loved the playground.  Opposite him in this picture is another little boy on the see-saw.  Of course Stephen and I both took turns as well.  He loved it.

Swings are always a favorite.

And his new favorite:  the slide.  If there's a slide on the playground, you can bet we'll go up and down it about a million times.

We hated to leave the amazing Vail, but were glad to be home.  The locals kept saying the town was like a fairytale, and they are 100% correct.  So glad I got to spend some time there during the summer.  I highly recommend doing it if you get the chance!

Sneak Peek

I'm not good at surprises.  I'm not patient.  At all. 

My brother and his wife were pregnant with their third...under three.  They decided to wait to find out the sex.  Torture (for me).  They have two beautiful girls, and really wanted a little boy.

And he's here.  Finally!

Holt Andrew Kampen

8lbs, 3oz

20.5"

Cute as a button.

Some Vail tricks...

This is his favorite word now.

He loved the "pillow launch" with Aunt Kelly.

Vail: Day 4

Day 4 started much like the others...with a walk.  We headed over to Lionshead (about a 5 min walk) with Knox in the beloved backpack.  He seriously loved that thing.  He pointed at every car, truck and dog and kicked his feet when Stephen would bounce.  Once we arrived in Lionshead he gave Stephen a "high-5."  Guess he figured he had done a good job!

Once in Lionshead we took the gondola up to the top of the mountain.  During the summers, they have "Adventure Ridge," basically a lot of outdoor activities for the kiddos.  While Knox is still too young for all of it, he still enjoyed being a part of it all!

This is the best I could get of us.  He didn't love the gondola at first...

Then he realized he could beat up on Papa and it would be fun!

This view made it all worthwhile, though!  I think if we'd have come just a week or two later, the leaves would have turned and it would be even better!

One of the activities we partook in (because it was free, ha) was the slack rope.  Kelly and I (and Stephen joined in later) tried our hardest to master it.  We got pretty far on a couple (they were about 10-15 feet long suspended between poles), but can't really say we're pros.  Definitely harder than it seems.

Knox's fave?  The pony!

You had to be 3 to ride it.  Sad face.  He would have loved it!

We had lunch on the top of the mountain, and then Mimi and Papa took Knox while the "kids" went mountain biking.

I fell way more than I'd like to admit (some of the trails were HARD!), we laughed hysterically and had a great time! 

We headed home afterwards and got cleaned up for dinner.  The Vail Jazz festival was going on in Lionshead that night, so we grabbed a seat at the pizza joint (Blue Moose Pizza) adjacent to the action and enjoyed the music over dinner!

Doesn't he look so big here?  Sad.

He loved the blue moose, and the lights on his antlers.

After the jazz fest, we met up with my friend from home, Brent!  We've known each other since 6th grade, and he transferred to Baylor our Junior year (and was a Fiji with Stephen).  We were walking in Vail Village the day before and literally ran into him.  Thursdays happened to be his day off, so it worked out perfectly!

I stole this picture from his Facebook..so it's a bit blurry!

Brent is a chef at Sweet Basil, the "it" restaurant in Vail, so he knew someone at every place we went.  He even gave us a pub crawl to see all the hot spots in town...we had a blast!  Such a small world!

Vail: Day 3

We woke up Day 3 to perfect weather.  We decided to set out on a hike early, before Knox's morning nap.  Contrary to his expression in this photo, he LOVED the backpack.  He pointed at every tree, car and truck and entertained us the whole time.

We came home and the guys headed out to their golf adventure.  While the girls got ready to head out to Beaver Creek for lunch, Knox decided to play nine holes of his own in the house!

The weather in Beaver Creek was amazing.  I hadn't ever been without a lot of snow on the ground, and the city is absolutely gorgeous!  We had a great time, and a great lunch.

Of course Knox had to touch or hug every bronze statue, and if you've ever been to BC or Vail, you know there are HUNDREDS.  The funny thing about this one was the name of the gallery above it...Knox Galleries.  So fun!

They have a skating rink in the middle of the village that is covered up during the summer.  For some reason, though, there was a lump of snow behind one of the gates.  The first image captures Knox's reaction perfectly!

What is this???  Then he decided to try and kick it.  Typical.

We drove back to Vail Village to let Knox take a nap, and the "big kids" headed out for a drink on the patio.  We decided to have dinner in the village, and we got a tip that they had a huge pirate ship kids play center behind the Mexican restaurant in town.  The food was great, and Knox let out some steam before bed.  Too bad the pirate ship was for bigger kids...he went ahead and played on the dingy, though :) 

Knox loved chatting with his Papa through the "telephone," too!

We walked home, and put Knox to bed so we could have our annual "Spades" competition.

We won't discuss who won.

Vail: Day Two

Day two involved a drive to Leadville and a two-and-a-half hour train ride.  We were all pretty skeptical of the train ride (only because of naptimes) but it was great!  Knox loved the moving train and noises, and we loved the history and sites.  I didn't love the winding mountain drive there.  Ugh.

Before we left we got a family shot.

Knox's favorite thing to do is to "surprise" people by looking around a corner or door...apparantlly train windows are no different!

We boarded 30 minutes before we "took off."  Those of you with kids know that 30 minutes of idle time is torture.  So we let him run the aisles.  He was in heaven.

At one point on the ride, they stop and let you take pictures of Mt. Elbert, CO's highest peak (you'll see it further down).  We thought it would be a perfect time to take pictures.

As you can see he was less than impressed.  Until we pulled out Mimi's visor.  Apparantly he thinks it's hysterical.  So...full on family photos ensued.

Mimi and Papa

Aunt Kelly

The men

And one more of us!

 

And last but not least...Mt. Elbert (in the background).

Vail: Day One

We got to Vail on Sunday night.  We had a bit of a rough start (the plane was 50ft from the runway when we took off again--apparantly too much wind).  I was a bit panicked, but we were safe and sound, and in a summer paradise away from the heat of Dallas.   I mean...this is the view from our condo:

Monday afternoon, we hit up the Vail Village.  We wandered around and enjoyed the sunshine, and Knox loved all the doggies.  We stopped for every one of them.  The golden below was his favorite!

We found the brook running through the village, and Knox had to get close to feel the water.

He loved walking through the covered bridge over the water.  I love this picture of he and Aunt Kelly!

After all of our hard work walking around, we obviously had to get some Marble Slab.  Knox loved the freedom to eat his own vanilla scoop.

He's not only partial to dogs.  He also loves bears.  My parents have a stuffed bear at their house (Baylor) and he always gives him a hug.  The Vail bear was no different.  He got some lovin'.

Once we got home, Knox rode on his scooter...

and enjoyed happy hour with the guys on the patio!

 

We went back into town for dinner at the german restaurant (and enjoyed an amazing schnitzel), and before we could get home Knox had to touch all the bronze statues he ran into.  His favorite was the one with running water and a dog.  He's "doing what a dog says" right now...panting!

We got to bed early so we could head to Leadville the next day.