wonderfully made

Saturday, December 1, 2018

travel diaries | colorado part one

Mark and I took an adults-only trip back in September to Vail, Colorado! We took off Tuesday morning after we dropped Beau off at school and flew straight to Denver. Of course, as we were walking through security at Love Field I got a call from Beau's school that Beau was 'so sad' and asking for mommy. Insert broken heart here. Luckily Nana was able to pick him up and soothe his sadness and we've just about recovered from the trauma! 

We landed in Denver and started the drive west to Vail, complete with a stop at Beau Jo's pizza in Idaho Springs. 


We got to our hotel just around dusk and ended up eating and playing pool at a small bar in Vail Village to finish off the day of travel. 

The next morning we walked along Gore Creek and into Lionshead Village, about a mile from our hotel. The weather was about 60ยบ and perfect!








At this point, Mark was itching to explore so we headed off to nowhere, with the intention to just see the area and the fall colors. We drove to a nearby small town and stumbled upon this cute bridge!


We went about 15 minutes down a 'nicely graveled road' until we realized our sad little Chevy Malibu wasn't cut out for the rough terrain. We took a tight u-turn and went back the way we came!






We found a cute little town that had been around much longer than Vail and enjoyed some snacks on a patio next to the creek. The restaurant we went to had been around since the 1800's! We also had to go into the cutest fly fishing shack ever. It was right next to the creek and we both loved it's quaintness!



We got back to the hotel with some down time so I enjoyed the cool temperatures with a book on our balcony overlooking the flowing and rocky Gore Creek. It was so peaceful!


That night, I suggested we try a German place for dinner. If you know me, you might describe me as picky and not super adventurous, but German food was something I decided I could handle and I hoped Mark would appreciate the gesture to step outside our normal food palate! 

The restaurant was called Almresi and was highly rated online. It ended up being one of the best meals/restaurants I'd ever been to!



We were greeted by a hostess in a full Dirndl dress with a strong German accent. The interior was completely transformed to feel like a quaint German cottage and it was amazingly well done! The lighting was low and homey. My pictures of the interior wouldn't do it justice, so I pulled these from their website. It was unreal!





Our waiter came over in full Lederhosen (made of reindeer leather, he told us!) and he had a very strong German accent as well! It turned out he was from Munich and was in the US for a 15 month work program. We chatted with him, he recommended some great items on the menu, and we enjoyed our fondue, beef, and spaetzle. It was soooooo good and I couldn't stop grinning and repeating "this is so cool!!!" hahaha for real. It was a great experience.


We headed back to the hotel full and happy! More of our trip coming up next!
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Monday, October 1, 2018

travel diaries | destin - the movie

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travel diaries | destin - part three

We were all itching to get to the beach on our last full day in Destin. We walked down and were greeted with the CALMEST water. This day just wasn't as windy as the rest so while it was the hottest day to sit on the beach (when otherwise it was quite pleasant), the water was still, crystal clear, and perfectly refreshing. 



It was what I would imagine some nice resort beaches in the Caribbean to look like!




The guys went full throttle into their best sand castle/beach pool yet. 


James giving Beau some constructive criticism... ;)










We were all SO PUMPED for such a great day!











We even busted out the baby float ($4 at Marshall's) and towed Davis around in the still water. He hadn't really gotten to just hang in the water until then!













We stretched the morning and after naps, some adult swim at the beach, and time on the balcony, we decided to forgo our plans for dinner about 45 minutes away and instead soaked up all the beautiful beach time we could. We ended up walking about a half mile down the beach for dinner on the patio at Pompano Joe's. 















We ended the night with headlamps and crab hunting. Most of us had no idea what we were in for, but it was so fun!!! 












We flew standby on Southwest for this trip which meant we were at the mercy of the crowds on flights. We ended up taking a 7am flight out of Pensacola, which was an hour drive from our hotel. Mark and I barely got any sleep since Beau ended up in our bed around 11pm after calling to us from the second floor. When our alarm went off at 3:45am to finish packing up, we found Beau's handiwork in the living room:


He must have had some fun by himself, in the dark, before waking us up! We are so glad he didn't get up to anything worse!

Davis and I tried to compensate on our first flight, en route to Nashville.



We had a bit of a layover in Nashville...


...another nap on another plane...


...and then we were home around 2:30pm on Friday. Beau caught up on his missed sleep on the way to the car!


We had an amazing, AMAZING time in Destin and we are so grateful to our friends for including us on this trip. Beau still thanks God in his prayers for letting us 'get on a plane and go to the beach' and we are hoping we can build on these memories year after year. Thanks for following along! 
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