Happy Anniversary! July 28, 2012

For our 22nd Anniversary, we spent a couple of nights at the Anniversary Inn in Estes Park where we spent our honeymoon!  It was a wonderful weekend.  We started with a round of golf at the Lake Estes Golf Course.  It was beautiful and we only hit a few balls into the river!  There was a mother elk on the course and we were warned to keep our distance from her since she had a baby and would likely charge us if we got too close.

Our lovely room in the treetops!  We love going to Estes Park and never grow tired of it.

We did some hiking and ate a picnic lunch in our car since it started pouring rain.  We discovered some of the best donuts we've ever eaten at the Donut Haus, recommended by Trip Advisor as the #1 place to eat in Estes Park.  Kind of weird, but seriously delicious donuts!

We celebrated our anniversary at the Twin Owls Restaurant.  It was highly recommended and very romantic and delicious as well.  It was a great weekend in the Rocky Mountains.

Moore Summer Fun!

For Christmas last year, Mike gave me tickets to Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney's Brothers of the Sun Concert at the Bronco's Stadium in Denver.  I had to wait 7 months to redeem my gift, but it was really worth it.  We had a great time!  Mike liked it and even knew a couple of the songs.

Our seats were up quite high, but we felt pretty close with these huge screens they have on both sides of the stage.  

The concert was right after the shootings at the Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado.  Tim came out and expressed his sympathy and sang a very touching song dedicated to those killed and affected by this horrible event.  It was a very hard time for Colorado residents and it was really kind and caring of him to do that.

Maybe I'm wrong, but not too many guys can pull off the all white look as well as Tim McGraw.  Am I right, girls??

Kenny came out after dark, so I wasn't really able to get any great pictures of him.  They both put on a fantastic show!

They ended the show by singing their new song, "Rockstar," together and then they sang "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy," and "Indian Outlaw" together.  It was so much fun!  Thank you, sweet husband, for a perfect Christmas present!

Princeton Hot Springs

This is one of my favorite views ever!  I love it so much!  It was on the way to Princeton Hot Springs.

We met some people at this pull-off who were from Kentucky and Florida and they said they loved Colorado so much that they would move here in a heartbeat.  They said they almost didn't come on their vacation because they had heard our state was on fire.  They were so glad they didn't cancel because clearly the fires (even though they were bad) hadn't ruined our state.

This was a pretty amazing place.  The river has all these little pockets of hot water where you just hang out and cook.

Princeton Hot Springs

It was a beautiful resort with several pools with varying temperatures.  

After a night of relaxing and a prime-rib dinner and a great night's sleep, we got up and took another dip in the pool.  This was our breakfast--smoothies, served to us poolside.  It was very fun to be pampered!

There were deer all around.  It was a beautiful way to end our wonderful vacation.  For not even leaving our own state, we had a fabulous time.

We headed home around noon and found this awesome roadside hotdog stand just outside of Bailey, Colorado.  It was super yummy and so much fun!  Thanks to Mike, Eric, and Hannah for helping make this a very fun and memorable trip!

Durango and Mesa Verde

We made it to Durango just in time for the Durango-Silverton train to arrive in town!

We checked into our hotel and then headed out to the Durango Bar D chuckwagon dinner and show.  It was really fun to be outdoors and be entertained by some good old-fashioned country singers.  

We got up in the morning and headed to Mesa Verde.  It was incredible.  We actually came here when Eric was 6 months old, but haven't been back since.  We had a couple of really great guides and besides it being really hot it was perfect.

We had to climb some really steep ladders and climb through some tunnels so it was very adventurous.

This tiny little hole in the bottom of this rock was the water source for this entire community.  They farmed on the tops of the cliffs and somehow climbed up and down from the tops back into these dwellings. Amazing!

Cute little cliff dwellers!

Mike climbing up!

View from above!

Back up on top. There were some terrible fires a few years ago.  It takes a long time to recover! Mesa Verde was very interesting and so worth the trip.

Hannah met this cute cowboy when we went exploring downtown Durango.

He was kind of shy and didn't say much!

Mike was exhausted so he opted to stay in the hotel while Eric, Hannah, and I went into town.  We got shaved ice at Cold Stone.  It was delicious.

Durango is a charming town.  We spent another night there and then we headed to our last destination, Princeton Hot Springs near Buena Vista, Colorado.

Zapata Falls

We left the Sand Dunes and headed a few miles away to Zapata Falls.  It was a long drive on a very rough, rocky road, but it was so worth it once we got to the falls.

It was really amazing!

On the road again!  After the falls, we headed to Durango!