First family ROADTRIP on Labor Day

Let me first state that I abhor road trips. Well, no – it’s just the hours of sitting in a car. Same with long flights. And Stake Conference (which I’m sitting in right now – the Saturday night adult session. Don’t judge me). So this adventure was for Brian. After reading Dr. Laura’s The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands (highly recommended – even if you think you don’t like Dr. Laura), I realized that one of the best ways to be a good wife and friend to your husband is to learn to speak their love language. Brian’s is QUALITY TIME – defined by him as vacations. So while I’d rather stay home and play, I put on a happy face ☺ and went along with this mini-vacation Brian planned.
On to the story:
Last Monday morning – Labor Day – we headed out early in an Enterprise rental car for STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colorado. It’s an adorable little ski-town about 180 miles east of Vernal, and about 300 miles NW of Denver (that’s a guesstimate).
Brianna was a fabulous little trooper during all this driving. I was so relieved – I thought it would be miserable to travel with a wiggly baby. In these pics she is playing with the parts from my new manual pump. I'm so happy to have one now - I can make bottles for her while in the car! The electric one that I use everyday sucks up expensive batteries too fast to use on the road. If that's a little T.M.I. for you... get over it.

She did get antsy on the way home though, and I had to start some serious distracting. Ever tried entertaining a short-attention-spanned baby for 2 hours? It’s exhausting. Books, songs, peekabo, snacks, and toys only last so long.
Once in Steamboat Springs, Brian followed my charge to stop at the first park we could find. Big mistake. The first park was Sulphur Park. We discovered why this town is called Steamboat Springs. As the story goes, the first settlers were astonished to find ponds of sulphur, constantly bubbling up making the sound of a STEAMBOAT (hence the name). Ever smelled surphur? Those ponds emitted THE NASTIEST SMELL EVER. Ever. EVER. Honestly, like an I’m-gonna-puke-and-die stench. So of course we had to stay long enough to take a couple pictures. I mean, how often do you discover the pinnacle of earthly stinkiness? This had to be documented.



Then we saw signs for an event going on – the annual STOCKDOG show and trial. I thought it would be too cowboy-redneckish to enjoy… and it was. But probably good for us to take in some small-town Colorado culture
We tried to get Brianna interested in the sheep and rams… no luck.

We had fun with some statues at the park.

Mom – you’ll appreciate this – I was delighted to discover a little health-food-farmer’s-market-type store there. Lots of yummy high-quality high-priced treats inside. Im like a kid in a candy store in those types of places. A compulsively frugal kid though – I only ended up buying a small bag of oat bran organic handmade pretzels. I really drooled over the bakery treats – jumbo apple spice whole grain cookies, sweet potato walnut muffins, carob brownies… but I resisted. I wish my mom was there. We would buy one of everything and share it. Much more fun than my anxious-to-get-outta-there husband. But Brian was a trooper and let me get my kicks. Then we moved on to the actual candy store in town, Fuzzywigs. It was pretty cool – like something right out of Willy Wonka and the Choc Factory. He bought a giant candy apple. He said he would save it til the next day. I informed him that if he didn’t eat it within an hour or so, I would likely get my sneaky little hands on it and devour the whole thing before we even got home.

My favorite part was definitely our hike up Fish Falls

It was gorgeous! And so refreshing to be outside in the perfect weather. Brianna enjoyed it so much – she was all smiles and very observative.

We found a tree that had all the roots on TOP of the ground. Very exciting. Couldn’t resist sitting on it: (I know – we’re too easily amused)

Brianna spotted a frog

We stopped at the Colorado Bagel Co store and bought a couple.

For just Brian and I, of course. We only tease Brianna with our treats. But seriously – I have to give a big NONrecommendation for that shop. The owner was SO rude! He was all pierced and tattooed, rolled his eyes impatiently when I was being indecisive, then made a snide comment about taking up his time on a puny order! Its not like there was even anyone else in the store (I wonder why). Boo for rude bagelman.

Overall, it was a great little excursion. Brian really went out of his way to thank me and tell me how much he enjoyed being with his “girls.”