Today we went up into the mountains to Breckenridge with some friends. It was a beautiful day up there – the temperature was just slightly cool and perfect for playing outdoors. It would have been nice to see more sun, however, as it was overcast for most of the day. But better the day we had than overly hot with the sun beating down on us.
We took off from our house around 8:20am and we were in Breckenridge by shortly before 10:00am. It’s amazing how such a short drive can get you so high up into the mountains. The kids didn’t think it was a short drive, though. They were asking the whole time if they could watch something on their tablets – almost made me lose my mind.
Our first hiking stop was the Breckenridge Troll which was a really neat piece of art made out of recycled wood.
Then we just hiked around some trails in the area. The kids did great and even Norah tried hiking a bit. She went back and forth between wanting to walk, wanting to be carried, wanting to be carried by Mom, wanting to be carried by Dad, wanting to ride in the backpack, etc. But considering it was coming on her nap time and she wasn’t going to be napping anytime soon, she did just great.
After our hike, we rode the Breckenridge gondola up to the ski resort. The kids were excited at first and then terrified when it stopped shortly after we got on and left us dangling by a cable many feet off the ground. It stopped two more times before we reached the top, and Jack and Margaret wanted to either jump out or get out before we had reached our destination. It turns out they do that when someone is in a wheelchair or is having difficulty with a baby stroller, but we didn’t know that at the time. I, trying to lighten the mood, blamed it on our friend Mr. Kirk. He and his family were only two cars behind us and is he, being very, very tall, naturally must have caused some disruption. (Side story – when our kids want to express just how tall something is, they compare it to Mr. Kirk. He’s a unit of measure around our house. “Dad, how many Mr. Kirks is that?”)
At the ski resort, we got lunch. We paid $100 for what was in no way more than $25 worth of food, but such is it at an expensive resort where you’re kind of captive if you didn’t bring your own food. Shortly after lunch there was a warning that a storm might be rolling in which would cause the gondola to stop operating, so we went right back down. The storm never materialized.
It was a great day with family and friends and I’m counting this as an early Father’s day outing. A day with the family is my favorite kind of day.
