Centennial State.

This past week my in-laws took the entire family on vacation to Colorado.

It was incredible.

Look at this:

I honesty could not believe how gorgeous Colorado is. 

The instant I got there, I was in love. 

I probably told DJ 1,000 times that we seriously need to move there.

I'm not big on scenic pictures, personally I prefer pictures with people in them, 

but driving through the Rocky Mountains, I couldn't help myself. 

It's so pretty, I could cry.

MONDAY

We drove ALL DAY LONG.

In my last entry, I mentioned something about staying up until 4:00 in the morning to finish packing. 

Well, 3 hours later, we were up and moving, getting ready to hit the road.

Basically, I rolled out of bed and into the front seat of the Suburban.

Speaking of the Suburban, we had quite the time with the rental car company.

Kristi and Doug originally rented us a little minivan for the vacation.

When we get to the dealership, this "minivan" was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. 

It honestly looked like a refrigerator box on wheels.

I kid you not.

I wish I would have taken a picture of it.

So we go and pick up the refrigerator/box/car, and as we are driving away, 

we realize that the passenger seat door was missing its buttons (to roll down the window, unlock the doors).

We decided that that was going to be too much of a hassle, 

and since we were paying for the rental, we should get one with all its parts.

So we returned to the dealership, who's name begins with an H and ends with an ERTZ,

and they were so kind and gracious and offered us an upgrade. 

They give us a WAY nice, normal-looking van that was much roomier and did I mention that it looked normal?

While it was inconvenient to have to return the first car, we were happy with their service and impressed by how they handled the situation. Also, we were glad that we weren't going to have to embarrass ourselves by driving a refrigerator.

DJ and I are driving away in this seriously cool Swagger Wagon and all of a sudden the air conditioning cuts out. 

Again, I kid you not.

The stupid car is broken.

SO.

We return AGAIN to the dealership and needless to say, the staff at Hertz can't even believe that they are seeing us again. 

We weren't exactly thrilled to see them either.

This time around they gave us another upgrade, a 2013 Suburban.

They also knocked off the price that they charge for gas when returning the vehicle.

I think DJ told me that Doug and Kristi only spent about $120 on the rental for the entire week.

WOW.

Moral of the story, when you're renting a car, drive away, break things, return, and get an upgrade.

Just kidding.

We drove all day on Monday, and we arrived in Durango around 8:30.

DJ's parents booked us a room at this little inn in Durango and they and the rest of the family stayed in a family member's condo in a place called Pagosa Springs, about an hour away from Durango (there wasn't enough room for everybody in the condo, that's why DJ and I ended up in a hotel - but we were ok with that).

TUESDAY

Tuesday was kind of a free day for us.

Maegan was getting into town at 3:00PM and up until then, DJ and I were invited to do whatever we pleased.

We relaxed, ate some lunch at an adorable little cafe in downtown Durango.

We rented a couple of cruisers from a rinky-dink little bike shop and rode them along the river. 

It was a gorgeous day, but towards the end of the ride, it got pretty hot and I was about ready to abandon bike and jump in the river.

Looks inviting, right?

After DJ's family picked Maegan up from the airport, we all met up at the Durango Silverton Railroad Station and explored a little museum about the Railroad and it's history.
I am not usually one for museums, but this one was really cool.
It was a giant warehouse-looking building that had giant steam engines and ancient cars inside.
It was super cool!
After that little adventure, we ate dinner and took it easy for the rest of the night.

WEDNESDAY
Wednesday was seriously the coolest day.
We got to ride a legitimate steam engine train!

Check out that bad boy.

The train ride lasted 3 1/2 hours and ran from Durango to Silverton.
In the process the train had to climb close to 3,000 feet up to the top of the mountains where Silverton is nestled.
The train was SO COOL.
Doug and Kristi reserved us seats that were in an open-window car. So there was a top, but no windows.
I'm so glad they picked that car instead of an closed one, because the scenery was incredible.

The train ran primarily along the Animas River.

We were close to the water the whole time.

I was extremely excited about this, because as an Arizona native, I have rarely seen running water.

Ridiculous, I know.

This was the view as we neared a 200-ft-high bridge that the train used to cross the river.

The only downside to being in an open-window car was that the steam from the engine contained a lot of ash and soot. By the time we made it to Silverton, we were all covered in little black spots and each of us had gotten a piece of two of soot in our eyes, which hurt like crazy.

Silverton was the coolest little town I have ever seen. 

It is located in a little "dip" at the top of a bunch of mountains. 

Apparently, a long time ago, the mountains had all been connected as a volcano and Silverton sat in what would have been the cauldron.

I always knew my husband was a planes-trains-and-automobiles type of guy, but that was proven even more when we got to the awesome town of Silverton and all DJ wanted to do was stand and look at the train.

Looks like a kid on Christmas, doesn't he?

Seriously, all he wanted to do was examine the train.

The train actually ran by our hotel room every morning, and sure enough, DJ was out there laying pennies on the tracks and waving at the passengers as they chugged by. So fun!

THURSDAY

Initially, I was not that interested in Thursday's activity.

However, after we got to our destination, I was ecstatic.

See those old buildings in the side of that mountain?

Ya I got to go in there!

We went and toured some Puebloan ruins at Mesa Verde.

SERIOUSLY SO COOL.

 We had to hike down about a million stairs and a few ladders to get to the ruins, but they were absolutely incredible. It was wild to think that people actually used to live here!

This is the view looking straight up into one of the towers.
Everything you see there was built hundreds of years ago!

This little hole is called a Kiva, and this is where the Pueblo people resided. Underground, in a circular hole. 

 We actually had the opportunity to go into one of these, but it was rather dark inside and I wasn't able to get a good picture.

Flipping amazing. I'm so glad we went!

FRIDAY
Friday might have been my favorite day of the entire vacation.
Look what we did:

YAYAY!
I have been riding horses for my entire life (thanks grandpa) and have been many times.
Besides Kristi, this was everyone else's first time riding!

We found this little place about halfway between Durango and Pagosa Springs that took tourists on trail rides.
We had the funniest guides, one of them was hittin on me the whole time, we all got a laugh out of that!

Blurry picture, but this is me and my trusty steed, Bob.

He was a stubborn butt.

He listened very well at the beginning of the ride, but about half way through, we started disagreeing.

So I sort of let him do his own thang.

DJ kept trying to pass Bob and I because he was being a poo head, and every time DJ's horse would begin to pass Bob, Bob would automatically (meaning I did not instruct him to) start trotting and he made sure that DJ's horse DID NOT pass him in the lineup.

We got a kick out of that.

This is DJ and his lovely horse named Poco.

She was a dear, I liked her more than I liked Bob.

The gang before the ride.

The gang and our silly guides after the ride.

It was an absolute BLAST getting to see the amazing sites up in the Rocky Mountains on horseback.

This ride may have even convinced DJ to buy me a horse someday...who knows!

The rest of the day was spent driving through the mountains of Colorado.

We stopped in Ouray, which is a little old mining town.

We also stopped in Telluride, which was a glitsy, old-fashioned-looking town nestled in a valley way high in the mountains.

There was this crazy waterfall, and as we got closer we realized that there is also a house up there!

NO FREAKING WAY!

Look how high that is!

Incredible.

Here are some more scenes from our drive.

Absolutely breathtaking.

I miss it.

SATURDAY

Like Monday, Saturday was a day full of driving. 

Which sucked.

But we did make a few stops on the way home.

First we stopped at the Four Corners monument!

It was pretty cool being in four places at once.

Actually it didn't feel much different from being in one place at once.

But still cool!

This is a kiss big enough for four states!

We also stopped in Bluff, Utah and visited a little pioneer monument. 

The Church has this really cool set up of a little pioneer settlement made by the pioneers who crossed Hole in the Rock. We even found out that we were related to one of the families who came through!

We spent the rest of the day driving, and weird things started happening.

Like this.

Courtney made herself a boyfriend in the back of the Suburban...

And DJ shoved M&M's into his mouth until they started going down his throat.

But we made it home safely, and I'd have to say that this trip was one of the best trips of my life!

Thanks Doug and Kristi!