Colorado Was Cool - Literally!

We drove home from our unplanned Oceanside trip and washed our clothes and re-packed them for our planned trip to Colorado. Matt and Sarah were excited to fly on a plane. Our Grandpa Bill is retired from Delta, but we were traitors and flew Southwest. Sorry, Grandpa!

We stayed with our friends Nannette and Clay Jones in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Richard was at their house earlier in the month and told us that Colorado was such a fantastic place that we decided to take Matt and Sarah there. I know this is going to sound like bribery but it really isn't. Richard and I set precedent several years ago by taking Meagan and Allie on a trip to Rhode Island after they received their YW medallions. We saw the sights and visited with our friends Mike and Shelle Napier. Well, Matt earned his Eagle award from BSA two years ago and Sarah earned her YW medallion at least a year ago and we had been talking about a trip but just hadn't decided where we wanted to go. This seemed like the perfect opportunity!

I couldn't pass up this opportunity to tease Richard and Matt as they were patted down as they went through security.

One of the best parts of the airport is the "moving sidewalk." It was definitely a favorite with Matt and Sarah.

This looks a little more complicated than driving a car.

We landed in Denver and Nannette met us at the airport and took us to a place called Elitch Gardens. It is like a Six Flags amusement park. Richard and Matt had lots of fun riding all of the roller coasters.

Who would have thought? Elitch Gardens even had snow cones! Are any of you starting to see how much the Cluffs love snow cones? Only Paige is immune to their yumminess.

We even got to watch a funny sea lion show while we were there.

Richard and Matt had a good time playing pool in Clay and Nannette's basement.

Sarah found a fun second hand store called Plato's Closet that she enjoyed digging through.

We even saw the Statue of Liberty...at the goofy golf place in Colorado Springs.

Richard spent some time looking for a lost ball which was a welcome change from the two hole in ones that he started the game off with.

It started to rain while we were playing, but as the Jones Family always says, "If you don't like the weather in Colorado, wait 10 minutes and it will change." Sure enough, it did.

Sarah posing with a cute zebra.

This place is called Garden Of The Gods and boy, was it beautiful!

Here we are in Colorado at Garden of the Gods on July 30 wearing jackets and enjoying 53 degree weather. Colorado is definitely the place to visit in the summer.

We went white water rafting on the Arkansas River. Sarah and I both fell out once, but laughed our way back into the raft. I was a little nervous starting out, but we all agreed that this 8 hour day of rafting was the highlight of the trip. We would definitely recommend going white water rafting if you've never had the chance.

The Rest Of The Story...

I was in such a rush to post last time that I forgot to include some of our Oceanside adventures. This is the amazing condo that we stayed in while we were in Oceanside. I told you it was close to the beach.

The sand at the beach always feels sooooo good, but it sure does get everywhere. Oh well, I guess it's a small price to pay for having so much fun.

Sarah enjoyed relaxing on the beach until...

this happened. She got more than a little crispy. So did Allie, Paige and Kaylee. I know you are all thinking "what kind of a Mother lets that happen?" Well, in my defense, I wasn't even there at the time, we took sunblock on the trip it just wasn't applied and they are all over the age of 8 so they know right from wrong. The bad news is that I'm definitely not going to be nominated for Mother Of The Year again this year, but the good news is there's always 2010.

That evening we went to a street fair and looked at all kinds of interesting booths with things for sale. It was a lot of fun and would have been extremely fun if the pain of the sunburns wasn't already starting to kick in.

Kaylee found a place where they were giving pony rides for only $5. She hadn't been on a horse since 2006 when she was thrown from the horse that she was riding and broke her heel. She was excited to try again and definitely up for the challenge. Her only request was "don't tell Dad that I got on a horse again."

One of the best things about the outdoor fair was these monster snow cones that we found for sale. Luckily, Sarah was excited about having a snow cone. She was in some serious pain that night and she had already passed up Allie's offer to pay for a back massage at one booth and a photo with two, live, colorful parrots perched on each shoulder. That Allie, what a joker, she knew she would never have to pay for either of those things because Sarah didn't want anyone or anything touching her back.

Kaylee's favorite booth was the beanie baby booth and she spent quite a long time looking at all of the different stuffed animals that were for sale. This is Kaylee's idea of Heaven!

We MUST Be Family!

Guess what fam? We must be on the same wavelength because I was at the beach last weekend too! Acapulco is a big and beautiful city, check it out!

Here are just a few of the amazing people I got to hang out with last weekend. This is my host brother and sister. They are full of energy and always ready to play :)

We took this picture at a rest stop on our way back to Tehuacan. In the host family world, this is my uncle, cousin, and sister. They´re all so nice and fun to be around! I´m excited to come back to the United States soon and see you all again, but I´m sure going to miss a lot of people here too.

Spur Of The Moment Fun!

This is my oldest sister, Sharon. She called me on Tuesday night and asked me if I wanted to go to a condo in Oceanside, California and play on the beach for a couple of days. I asked her when and she said "tomorrow morning." Well, I know that a woman with 6 kids should have more sense than to run off at the last minute without a lot of planning and thinking, but that is exactly what we decided to do.

Sharon always knows how to have fun. I was born when she was a Freshman at BYU. That makes her in her early forties and me in my mid twenties. (ha ha) She has always made sure that I have had my share of fun since I was a little girl. She used to tell me when I was little that she would set her alarm on Friday night so that we could wake up early on Saturday mornings and watch cartoons together. And you know what? She really would! I have always believed in her and adored her and some things just don't change as you grow older. I am so lucky to have her for my sister.

Well, Oceanside was absolutely everything she said it would be. What a beautiful place!

This is Sharon and I taking a walk through one of the oceanfront neighborhoods in California and admiring the flowers.

This is me as the trip gets started, navigating our way to Oceanside. The kids know that I am not very good with directions, so they were a little worried, but thanks to my co-captain we made it to California safely.

Co-captain, Allie, reporting for duty. You can tell that she is the co-captain because she is wearing the co-captain hat. Lucky!

Here are the other participants in this adventure. Kaylee.....

Paige..............

And, we couldn't forget Sarah and Matt.

This is a beautiful tree that we admired while we were there. It looks like a bottle brush tree, but it is much nicer than any tree we have seen in Arizona.

Here is Kaylee and Paige posing beneath the pier.

We liked getting up in the morning and walking along the beach before very many other people arrived.

This is me and Matt walking and talking. I told him that the problem with the beach is that it is so relaxing that you just don't want to ever leave and accomplish all of the things that you need to do in life. It is a good thing that we don't live in California, because I would probably spend way too much time on the beach.

This is Matt, holding a crab that he found. More pictures of crabby later.

This is the beach house that Allie told Sarah that she could live in when she grows up because....

Allie picked the yellow one for herself. It is her favorite color and the front door was really cute and......

Allie said that the blue one had to be saved for Meagan because blue is her favorite color and she is the oldest sister and so that is why Sarah got dibs on the green house. Allie is very persuasive and so I am not sure that Sarah even realized that the "green one" was the only house left.

Allie posing with a fake fish she found on the beach.

Sarah, posing as Ariel in the Little Mermaid!

Sarah, thinking about what it would be like to live in California and be a beach bum. She figures this is what she would probably drive. That is, when she gets her permit.

Did I mention how excited Allie was about this trip? Well, in case you can't tell, she was thrilled to get out of the office and play for 3 days. She works in Queen Creek for a company that builds pools and copies blueprints. She didn't think she would be able to get anyone to cover for her, but she did! Like I said, she is very persuasive.

Matt spent a considerable amount of time building this amazing sand castle. Go, Matt!

Here is the crab that Matt found and thankfully, let go, before we left Oceanside.

It doesn't get better than this!

This is Allie and Paige trying to see how Meg manages to plug her nose with her upper lip when she swims so that she doesn't get water in her nose. They decided it was possible, but not really that becoming. Sorry, Meg, we are going to have to call it like we see it.

Sisters and friends. What could be better?